Curated by Chance

Episode 86: Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile Prompts: Brick, 9399, Poison Guess who's back? Back again. Well, it's not Slim Shady, but Neal did have frosted tips early on in his high school career! Neal finished his latest book under a TIGHT deadline and is happy to be back. He thanks Lauren for holding down the podcast with solo and guest episodes, and thanks the listeners for their patience. He even shares an anecdote about writer brain and how it led to making a BIG mistake in the book, but thankfully he fixed it later. In honor of his return, Neal goes first and gives Lauren a much deserved break by talking about the story behind Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison," one of the most famous examples of New Jack Swing. The discussion ranges from the origin of the song, the original group that birthed BBD, and the famous group that BBD helped form! Plus, the most famous use of this song on television and the videogame that stole it! Then, Lauren takes the mic and talks about the danger behind beautiful colors and how poisonous colors have a place in fashion and color history. From sea snails to expensive garments worn by royalty to colors literally causing illness and death! On this week's episode, you get creativity under pressure, the evolution of art through experimentation, how innovation have often come with unintended consequences, and the cultural ripple effect of one song. Next Week's Prompts: Orange, 1940, Linguist Please consider supporting us on Patreon! ⁠www.patreon.com/curatedbychance⁠ Follow the show and its creators on Instagram: The Show: @curatedbychance Lauren: @paisleylo Neal: @nealefischer E-mail us: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now! Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 85: Steve is Camp Blind This week’s prompts: Stripe, 97, Green In the last episode without Neal (who finished his book) Lauren, relaxed on the couch, invites a very special guest: her husband, Dr. Stephen Polly. Together they provide an intimate, deep dive conversation into Steve's favorite movie of all-time, The Fifth Element. This episode, Lauren highlights Steve's total camp blindness, Steve talks about Moonstruck totally breaking him, and they both comment on how Luc Besson's candy-colored sci-fi spectacle feels lived in. But before they talk about Chris Tucker's unhinged but beautiful performance, Bruce Willis acting his ass off in plastic, and Milla Jovovich's star-making performance (in a made-up language) Lauren and Steve delightfully take us behind the curtain to when they met, a story that starts with bar trivia, bonding over documentaries, and ends up with being married with a kid. Plus, we get to hear from the designer of our very own algorithm, Chance, talking about the deeply unnecessary but very appreciated physics calculations. Why? When you have an expert on the show, you get the expert analysis! Next week’s prompts: Brick, 9399, Poison Please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Follow the show and its creators on Instagram: The Show: @curatedbychance Lauren: @paisleylo Neal: @nealefischer E-mail us: [email protected] Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now! Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 84: Scrolls, Shrines, and Spring Break Delusion This week’s prompts: 458, Salmon, Sleep Lauren is back solo again — slightly overbooked, a little raspy, and fully in the thick of spring-semester chaos — with an episode that moves from museum donor events and teaching highs and lows to ancient Japan, Buddhist scrolls, and the enduring power of visual storytelling. After a little life update from the MAG, the classroom, and the general circus of adjunct-professor existence, Lauren takes the prompts in a different direction and dives into Japanese art before 1333. Using a single extraordinary hanging scroll — The Death of the Historical Buddha — as a starting point, she explores Buddhist imagery, grief, animism, shrine rebuilding, narrative scrolls, and the long visual history behind everything from manga to robot dogs. Along the way, she unpacks the spiritual and aesthetic traditions that shaped early Japanese art: the solemn beauty of Buddhist nirvana paintings, the Shinto reverence for objects and ritual, the rebuilding of the Ise Shrine every 20 years, the gendered distinction between “masculine” and “feminine” art forms in the Heian period, and the lively, sketchy animal scrolls that feel like proto-manga centuries before manga existed. It’s a wide-ranging, deeply visual episode about how art, ritual, storytelling, and national identity evolve — and how some of the most ancient forms still feel startlingly modern. PLUS:🖼️ A gorgeous Buddhist hanging scroll full of grief, gold, and symbolism⛩️ Why Japan rebuilds one of its most sacred shrines again and again🧵 Broken needles, animism, and the spiritual life of everyday objects📖 The Tale of Genji and the rise of “feminine” narrative art🐸 Frolicking frogs, monkeys, and rabbits as the ancient ancestors of manga Next week’s prompts: Stripe, 97, Green Please support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Check Out Lauren’s Substack:👉 https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ Follow the show and its creators on Instagram:🎧 The Show – @curatedbychance🎨 Lauren – @paisleylo🎬 Neal – @nealefischer 📧 E-mail us: [email protected] Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now!Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 83: Sick Voice This week’s prompts: Teal, Leg, 1960 Lauren is flying solo again and opens with a few updates from the past couple of weeks of guest episodes, a quick peek into the strange and wonderful conversations that happen at academic faculty parties, and a heartfelt shout-out to listener Dan for a timely and encouraging email. There’s also a little housekeeping about Patreon, reviews, and how much the show appreciates its listeners sticking with them during this busy stretch. From there, Lauren dives into the life and work of Wilfredo Lam, one of the most fascinating — and often overlooked — artists of the 20th century. Born in Cuba to a Chinese immigrant father and an Afro-Cuban mother, Lam described himself as “a mulatto of many worlds.” His art reflects that hybrid identity, blending Afro-Caribbean spirituality, Chinese visual traditions, and European modernism into something entirely his own. Lauren traces Lam’s path from studying art in Havana and Madrid to joining the surrealist circles of Paris, where Picasso, Matisse, and André Breton became part of his artistic orbit. Despite those connections, Lam remained somewhat outside the traditional modernist canon — in part because his work centered Afro-Cuban culture and identity in ways that European audiences often overlooked. The episode focuses on Lam’s most famous painting, The Jungle (1942–43) — a dense, eerie landscape of hybrid human-animal-plant figures emerging from sugarcane. Beneath its surreal imagery lies a powerful commentary on colonialism, tourism, and the exploitation of Afro-Cuban labor in Cuba’s sugar industry. PLUS:🎨 Lam’s friendships with Picasso and the Paris surrealists🌿 Hybrid figures inspired by Santería and Afro-Caribbean spirituality🌍 How tourism and colonial economics shaped Cuban culture🖼️ Why The Jungle remains a modernist masterpiece hiding in plain sight Join us on Patreon to support the show and its creators: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Next week’s prompts: 458, Salmon, Sleep Check Out Lauren’s Substack:👉 https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ Follow the show and its creators on Instagram:🎧 The Show – @curatedbychance🎨 Lauren – @paisleylo🎬 Neal – @nealefischer 📧 E-mail us: [email protected] Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now!Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 82: Princely Magnificence This Week's Prompts: 1600, Divine, Royal Purple With Neal out (we miss you, sir), Lauren brings in a guest co-host whose name is… suspiciously close. Enter Dr. Nile Blunt — museum professional, early modern historian, maximalist icon, and longtime friend — for an episode that begins at Wegmans and ends with a beheading. Nile takes us deep into the life of Charles I of England, the famously ill-fated monarch who quite literally lost his head — but before that? Built one of the most astonishing art collections Europe had ever seen. From fake-beard diplomacy missions in Madrid to being absolutely gobsmacked by the Spanish Habsburg art hoard, we follow young Prince Charles as he travels incognito to woo a Spanish princess… and instead falls in love with something else entirely: power expressed through art. After witnessing Philip IV’s jaw-dropping collection (Titian, Raphael, Caravaggio, Bosch — the greatest hits of Western painting), Charles returns to England determined to build something even grander. And he does. Lauren and Nile unpack how Charles’ obsession with collecting wasn’t just aesthetic — it was political. In the Caroline era, “good taste” equaled moral authority. Magnificence wasn’t just décor; it was divine-right propaganda. Surround yourself with beauty, and people might believe your soul is beautiful too — and maybe that you deserve to rule. Spoiler: Parliament disagreed. Along the way, the two explore:• Why Charles River and the Carolinas are named after this doomed art bro• The concept of princely magnificence (and why it mattered)• How collecting art became a political loyalty test• Fake beards, royal cringe, and the world’s most dramatic failed proposal• Why London briefly became the Vatican–Louvre–Prado of the 17th century It’s a story about power, ego, aesthetics, absolutism, and what happens when you mistake artistic discernment for political wisdom. Plus: maximalism solidarity, pandemic friendships, and whether fake-beard diplomacy should make a cinematic comeback. Next Week's Prompts: Teal, Leg, 1960 Check Out Lauren’s Substack:https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ Follow the show and its creators on Instagram:The Show – @curatedbychanceLauren – @paisleyloNeal – @nealefischer E-mail us: [email protected] Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now!Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices