Artist Brittney Leanne Williams joins Chrystal Genesis to talk about her evocative figurative work, where architecture, landscape, and color blur together, and the body opens into a space of transcendence, memory, revelation, suffering and the mystical. Based in Los Angeles and born in Pasadena, Brittney has steadily built a reputation as one of today’s most exciting, thoughtful figurative painters. In this wide-ranging conversation, they discuss how Brittney explores spirituality and how she uses the color red as a signal for the Black experience. They trace the evolution of her practice, from portals and prayer to layered storytelling that engages with presence, absence and witnessing. Along the way, they reflect on her early years in Pasadena, her formative time in Chicago, and how nature, along with her personal and cultural history, informs her work. Together, they dig into the creative process, the role of mystery in painting and the questions Brittney is currently asking herself in the studio. This episode is an engaging and intimate look into the mind of an artist shaping contemporary figurative painting with spiritual depth, color and narrative complexity.

Writer, DJ, lecturer and creative provocateur Elijah joins Chrystal Genesis to talk about his new book Close The App, Make The Ting: Transformative Prompts For The Modern Artist. In this wide-ranging conversation, they chat about how his Yellow Squares project has grown from Instagram prompts into a global project of installations, lectures, billboards, and collaborations. They dig into his early story in London’s independent music and art scenes, co-founding influential grime label Butterz, his thoughts on his Jamaican heritage, and the complex beauty of Black British identity. Together, they chat about creative sustainability, echo chambers, and how embracing friction and feedback can power visionary work. This episode is a fabulous dive into ideas built to push culture forward.

UK Singer, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray joins Chrystal Genesis to talk about her new album, Weirdo, an ambitious, deeply personal project written, performed, produced, mixed, and arranged entirely by Emma-Jean in her South London flat. In this episode, they discuss how grief, neurodivergence, and resilience shaped the record, which blends elements of jazz, funk, soul, grunge, and pop. They explore her early path into musicianship, how isolation and creativity came together in the making of Weirdo, and why embracing your weirdness can create a powerful sense of self. The conversation touches on vulnerability, community, and finding your home in music, with tracks from Weirdo, out now via Brownswood Recordings and Parlophone Records, featured throughout.

Musician and artist Goya Gumbani joins Chrystal Genesis in New York’s East Village ahead of his live show to talk sound, style, Miles Davis, and his new album, Warlord of the Weejuns. In this episode, the Brooklyn-born, South London-based artist reflects on the cultural influences behind his dreamy, laid-back record, where the storytelling of New York hip-hop meets London’s jazz edge. Recorded just after soundcheck, their conversation glides through fashion, food trucks, friendship, and family, with Warlord of the Weejuns, out via Ghostly International, threaded throughout. The album features contributions from Fatima, Yaya Bey, Joe Armon-Jones, and more, and is a meditation on self-expression, Black cultural lineage, and the quiet power of doing things your way.

Marie Mitchell joins Chrystal Genesis at home in Harlem for a cooking lesson and conversation, sharing recipes drawn from her debut cookbook, KIN: Caribbean Recipes for the Modern Kitchen. In this episode, Marie teaches Chrystal how to finally master a classic Caribbean staple while sharing stories, memories, and the legacy behind the food. As the daughter of Jamaican-born parents, Marie’s approach to cooking is about bringing people together through flavor, history and conversation. Her debut book KIN goes far beyond the usual jerk chicken with rice and peas, weaving together more than 80 recipes from saltfish fritters and aubergine curry to dumplings, pineapple punch and provisions, alongside essays and reflections that trace cultural connections across histories, geographies and generations. Over the stove and around the table, Chrystal and Marie explore the many layers of Caribbean cuisine, from the role of intuitive cooking to the importance of honoring the past while making space for the future. KIN marks the beginning of a longer journey, spotlighting the dishes, subtleties and often-overlooked stories that shape Caribbean food.

Stance visits London to explore the Tate Gallery show The 80s: Photographing Britain with campaigner Marc Thompson. The exhibition examines how photographers used the camera to respond to the seismic social, political, and economic shifts of the era, including the rise of Thatcherism, race uprisings, and the AIDS epidemic. It highlights photography as a vital tool for social representation, cultural celebration, and artistic experimentation, spanning landscapes, self-portraiture, and social documentary during this pivotal and highly creative period. Marc Thompson, a Brixton-born cultural leader and prominent British campaigner with over three decades of experience in HIV activism and education, joins Chrystal for a tour of Tate Britain. Together, they engage with the works of photographers such as Ajamu X and Rotimi Fani-Kayode, discussing the legacy of Black queer voices in shaping modern Britain, the cultural significance of Brixton as a hub for activism, creativity and nightclubs, and the ongoing fight for healthcare equity faced by marginalized communities today.