Substance Abuse: Recent Episodes
Chloe Aftel
Substance Abuse is a new podcast exploring identity, love and desire through the lens of art-making. At the heart of every conversation is host Chloe Aftel’s own inquiry into how living life as “other”, as someone who has never quite fit in, influences a creative person’s need to self-express and how that can be the ultimate act of freedom. Join host Chloe Aftel as she profiles notable artists and individuals who challenge the cultural status quo and embrace less than ordinary ways of living. Listen for interviews with the novelist George Saunders, costume designer and director Heidi Bivens, actor Titus Welliver, musician Cate Le Bon and many more.The episode artwork for Substance Abuse was created by artist and longtime collaborator Deanna Staffo, whose paintings and illustrations are imbued with a singular rawness evoking the imperfections of being human.
Author, teacher, and expert herbalist Rosemary Gladstone joins host Chloe Aftel for a long-awaited interview about her career and fundamental understanding of nature’s healing properties. The pair explores how modern medicine got to where it is today, the misconceptions people may have regarding herbalism, and the divide between Western medicine and herbalism. Rosemary discusses the importance of native traditions and how it’s never too late to explore a connection with nature.
Highlights:
- Rosemary’s early education from her grandmother, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide;
- Her definition of what it means to be an herbalist and the difference between clinical herbalists and community herbalists;
- Rosemary’s perspective on furthering the connection between traditional indigenous knowledge and modern herbalism practices.
About:
Rosemary Gladstar is a renowned herbalist, author, and teacher, widely recognized for her contributions to the modern herbalism movement. With over 40 years of experience in the field, she has played a pivotal role in reviving interest in plant medicine and herbal traditions. Gladstar is the founder of the California School of Herbal Studies and has written numerous influential books, including Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health and The Science and Art of Herbalism. Her work emphasizes the healing power of herbs, sustainability, and the integration of herbal wisdom into daily life.
Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America.
Support The Other Pod on Patreon for episode extras and The Other Questions lightning round!
Follow Chloe on Instagram @chloeaftel to stay up to date on new work.
Find all episodes of The Other Pod here.
Indie artist and songwriter K. Flay celebrates the release of her new EP I’m Making Friends With Silence through an honest and philosophical conversation with host Chloe Aftel on The Other Pod. K. Flay (Kristine Flaherty), reflects on her start in the music industry while in school at Stanford, the influence of her psychology and sociology studies, and her musical and personal evolution from early records like Life as a Dog to now. She speaks on the importance of trust and reliability above all else and the transformative nature of her queer awakening.
Highlights
- K. Flay’s coming to terms with losing hearing in one ear and processing that loss through music;
- Her songwriting and creative process: developing lyrics, melody, and chorus and drawing inspiration from rap and hip-hop;
- Reflections on key songs like "Punisher," "Mean It," and "Are You Serious?"
- The importance of self-trust in life and in art.
K. Flay (born Kristine Flaherty) is a singer, songwriter, and rapper known for blending elements of indie rock, electronic, and hip-hop into her unique sound. K. Flay's breakthrough came with her debut full-length album, Life as a Dog (2014), and she later achieved critical success with her 2017 album, Every Where Is Some Where, which earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song with the hit "Blood in the Cut." Her most recent full-length studio album MONO came out in 2023, and her newest release, Making Friends With The Silence, reworks some of her past songs into new sounds.
Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America.
Support The Other Pod on Patreon for episode extras and The Other Questions lightning round!
Follow Chloe on Instagram @chloeaftel to stay up to date on new work.
Find all episodes of The Other Pod here.
Theater and TV actor Aya Cash joins host Chloe Aftel to discuss her past and present projects and reflect on an acting career that has been 20 years in the making. She talks about having artist parents, growing up in the Bay Area, and what that taught her about not compromising on a creative vision. She also highlights the importance of instinct in acting, her thoughts on the collaborative nature of filmmaking, and the impact of good writing.
Highlights
- How she understands and embodies evil characters, from Gretchen Cutler on You’re The Worst, to playing a nazi as a Jewish woman on The Boys (plus additional fan theories on Stormfront);
- Her background in Shakespeare and passion for live theater;
- Aya's experience with celebrity and managing fame, and the privileges of not looking like her characters.
Aya Cash is an American actress known for her wide range of characters in film and television. Born in San Francisco, she has gained widespread recognition for her role as Gretchen in the critically acclaimed series You're the Worst. Cash has also appeared in notable projects like The Boys and This Is Us. With a strong background in theater, she has showcased her talent across various genres, earning praise for her comedic timing and dramatic depth. You can watch Aya in the 2024 HBO series The Franchise, streaming now.
Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America.
Support The Other Pod on Patreon for episode extras and The Other Questions lightning round!
Follow Chloe on Instagram @chloeaftel to stay up to date on new work.
Find all episodes of The Other Pod here.
Jeff Lemire has had a pretty unique career. Through his graphic novel works like Sweet Tooth (now a Netflix original), Black Hammer, Gideon Falls, Essex County, and more, Jeff creates new worlds with distinct styles while representing a myriad of identities and human experiences.
In this month's episode of The Other Pod, Jeff gets candid with host Chloe Aftel about his career, from making up stories as a child in rural Ontario, to writing Essex County during the day while working night shifts as a cook in Toronto, to now expanding his creative world into film and television with international acclaim. He shares about the process of having his work translated from art to live action in Sweet Tooth and creating the miniseries Essex County. Coming of age is a strong theme throughout his work, and the pair discuss the ways Jeff's own coming of age continues to be reflected in his work as he navigates recent parenthood in works like "Underwater Welder."
Highlights:
- Jeff's process for world-building and creating relatable, multi-faceted characters
- Writing for DC and Marvel comics and having two careers
- Jeff's artistic influences
Special content from the Lightening Round is available through Patreon!
Keep up with Jeff on Instagram and with his Substack newsletter, available here.
About the host: Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America.
Support The Other Pod on Patreon for episode extras and The Other Questions lightning round!
Follow Chloe on Instagram @chloeaftel to stay up to date on new work.
Find all episodes of The Other Pod here.
Author Rachel Kushner and host/visual artist Chloe Aftel first met after the success of Rachel’s first novel and have worked collaboratively ever since. Now, the pair reunite for the latest episode of The Other Pod to discuss her new novel, Creation Lake, and dive into everything creative process and ideation. They discuss the way their artistic processes align and differ across mediums, the journey to capture shifting perspectives, and the kinetic, alive energy that comes with creating.
Highlights:
- Rachel reflects on the tricky balance and ultimate catharsis of writing first-person characters whose thoughts and judgments are antithetical to her own;
- How a writing exercise with her husband led to a crucial breakthrough in the story structure of Creation Lake;
- The lessons she’s learned in this career regarding ego, self-perception, dissociation, and staying monkish when it comes to praise;
- Rachel’s unique, instinctual connection to her characters and crafting story.
Rachel Kushner is an author long-listed for the Booker Prize, responsible for the widely loved novels Telex from Cuba, The Flamethrowers, and The Mars Room. Her latest novel, Creation Lake, releases September 4, 2024. You can keep up with Rachel on her website and find all her written work here.
Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue & more. Chloe has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on Covid’s impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in the Covid wards of the West Coast’s hardest hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Her first book, “Outside and In Between,” is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across America.
Support The Other Pod on Patreon for episode extras and The Other Questions lightning round!
Follow Chloe on Instagram @chloeaftel to stay up to date on new work.
Find all episodes of The Other Pod here.
Serene Khader calls everything into question, including basic precepts and conventions we assume as part of our daily life.
What if the things we take for granted or not necessarily true and what if there were other ways to understand what the possibilities of our life are?
Serene begins to address these questions in this podcast and to contemplate how we can think outside of the constraints into which we are born. And it’s that imagination that is so exciting and compelling and hopeful.
Rapsody has been making her own kind of music for a long time and I always wondered how so got to so that. There’s no sexualized pictures of her, no battles, no beef, no number one club hits, just her music done her way and she keeps doing it. It seemed to me like she was living the dream and indeed, she is. In talking to her, it’s clear that a lot goes into getting the ability to create this kind of work, and much of that is saying “no, thank you.”
I don't know how else to say it: Kathleen Hanna is one in a million. Her early work with Bikini Kill and forcing people to hear what she wanted to say to her melodic Le Tigre work that hid messages in dance beats to her current work raising money for girls to get educated in Togo.
I first photographed her many years ago and I have been continually grateful when our paths cross.
J. Harrison Ghee is a superlative. Uncompromising, intentional, and utterly open, I was curious what talking with them would be like, how they understood the roles they took on, what it meant to exist in the space in between as a performer and the freedom that might offer.
Having just come off a Tony win, after playing key roles in Some Like It Hot, Mrs. Doubtfire & Chicago, they are at a zenith in their career and I cannot wait to see how they continue to redefine how we see, understand & expand ourselves.
Catherine Coleman Flowers seems to good to be true.
She had many opportunities all her life, from jobs to education to strong family support: she could have done anything.
She made her life's work fighting for people literally living in feces. This is a not a choice many make. Moreover, it is not something anyone had success doing. Decades later, she has saved many people from prison, from serious health issues, from fear and degradation, from a life of suffering.
While she has been wildly successful at actually creating change, being the advocate people, especially poor people, have fighting for them to be able live in humane conditions, she beat all the odds in doing so.
Her work is now a matter of national policy and governmental strategy, moreover she helps the rest of us imagine what we can do.
Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein started Sleater-Kinney in the '90s that spoke about all the feelings in a way I'd never heard before. No one played like them, no one wailed like them, no one took rape and shame and lust and fear and made it sometime I could sing along to. They are unconventional, fearless and their synergy, love and fury is always moving.
With their latest album, they are exploring new sonic territory through their singular understanding of music and the world. Never being afraid to take a chance, it's a joy to hear what they create and which stories they are telling as their lives evolve.
What I love so much about Linda Martín Alcoff's work is that she is very much an academic, but one who allows the social conventions and beliefs of a time to inform her understanding of the morality, meaning and importance of people and their actions. Her works move in between complicated topics, addressing rape, racism, systemic injustice and colonialization, all the while, she considers how the past informs that present and how the future can actually evolve from these embers.
Trae Crowder was born in the south and his youth was spent watching his home town die. What ensued was a rare awakening wherein he understood not just his potential but also how to use humor as a form of critique and forceful humanity due to the suffering that most of us endure day after day, even if we choose to ignore it or use political theater to obfuscate and validate our more base inclinations.
Michael Render, Killer Mike, is one of my most favorite people I've photographed. In case you're in unaware, he's one half of the rap group Run The Jewels and he just put out his first solo album in a decade, Michael.
He's someone whose taken the challenges of life and somehow spun them into being the best version of himself. What you see and hear is what you get; his view of the world is uniquely his own and he is unapologetic about his beliefs.
He's a deeply sexual, smart, unconventional man who seems to believe we all have the capacity to be better, and when we fail in doing so, that we try again.
Alicia Garza is a unique person. After the worldwide movement that was Black Lives Matter, she could have done anything, and indeed she did, but that anything was
Xaviera Hollander was the biggest madame in the 1970s, eventually being deported after a police raid. What's remarkable about her is how she understands sex and money, love and business, sex with a man and sex with a woman and what roles desire and loneliness play in our lives.
Talking to her now, in her 80s, she has a breadth of experience and understanding that is pretty remarkable. Her ability to talk, not only frankly, but with her own nuanced point of view, about sex, all the bodily holes and what they can and cannot do, queer identity and a lot more, is fascinating and humbling.
I met Kevin Smith on a photo shoot when he was willing to speak publicly about his mental health struggles. It was a delicate shoot, as I wasn't sure how he'd feel coming out of it. He was somber but wonderful; vulnerable, hilarious, and utterly genuine.
What struck me most about him was his honesty, and it changed the way I looked back on his work. I began to see it as something much deeper, heartfelt, and complicated.
Kevin Smith is a true auteur, someone who only makes the movies he wants to, the way he thinks best, cast with those he feels embody the roles and is willing to work outside the system in doing so.
What would it be like to live with and studying orangutans for over 50 years in Borneo? I have always wondered, so it was a wonderful thing to get to spend a lot of time with Biruté Mary Galdikas.
Anna Frebel is an award-winning astronomer and professor of physics at MIT; her specialty is the universe's oldest stars and how they tell us about creation. What always struck me about Anna was her deep love for deep space exploration, but what I didn't realize until our talk was how her field looks not only at celestial bodies, but also understands this world in which we live.
Heidi is a one in a million stylist. She has an incredible ability to bring characters to life through clothes like no one else. She has done the costumes on Spring Breakers, Beach Bum, Euphoria & Inland Empire as well as campaigns for Chanel, etc. She has spent years working on how to put people together in a unique visual way and she talks with host Chloe Aftel about the evolution to directing now.
George Saunders has won a lot of awards for his writing. He writes unlike anyone else, and came to writing later in his life, publishing his first book of short stories at 38. Since then, his career has exploded. In this episode, he talks with host Chloe Aftel about