In the third episode of Cold Take, Urgent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader is joined again by longtime friend Colton Crews for a loose, skeptical conversation about art, public records, censorship and propaganda.

The episode opens with a New York reading room filled with printed copies of the Epstein files — a project Adam and Colton discuss as part archive, part political provocation and part art installation.

From there, they turn to Tim Makepeace’s NASA-inspired museum show in Washington, D.C., and the question of what happens when artists are given access to federal science programs.

The conversation then moves to a Long Island student who reached a $125,000 settlement after her pro-Palestinian parking-space artwork was painted over by school officials. Adam and Colton use the case to talk about how small acts of censorship can become much larger stories once institutions try to make them disappear.

They also revisit Urgent Matter’s reporting on the canceled Marka27 exhibition at the University of North Texas, where public records showed administrators worried about political “barking from Austin” before the show was called off.

The episode closes with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Art and War” exhibition, which features American anti-war works by artists including Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist as Iranian cultural institutions use art in wartime messaging.

Cold Take is a weekly podcast from Urgent Matter built around direct, lightly edited conversations about the art world’s biggest stories, stripped of artspeak and institutional PR language.

For more document-driven reporting behind these headlines, visit urgentmatter.press.

In the second episode of Cold Take, Urent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader once again records from the front seat of his car while his kids sleep, joined by longtime friend Colton Crews for a loose, skeptical breakdown of the week’s art news.

The episode opens at the Venice Biennale, where geopolitical tensions and cultural backlash continue to collide. After Iran’s withdrawal from this year’s exhibition and ongoing criticism surrounding the participation of Russia and Israel, Adam and Colton discuss the broader question of whether anyone outside the art world actually understands—or even cares about—the biennale system at all.

From there, they turn to Detroit, where an artist is suing the city after officials demolished part of his museum complex, allegedly destroying 33 murals in the process.

The episode also digs into the resignation of longtime Bard College president Leon Botstein following the release of an independent report examining his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Other topics include bizarre language used in a Justice Department filing tied to the White House East Wing lawsuit, and new developments in the alleged murder-for-hire plot surrounding the killing of dealer Brent Sikkema. The episode closes with a story from Las Vegas about sculptures allegedly stolen from a community arts studio serving children.

Cold Take is a weekly podcast from Urgent Matter built around direct, lightly edited conversations about the art world’s biggest stories, stripped of artspeak and institutional PR language.

For more document-driven reporting behind these headlines, visit urgentmatter.press.

In the debut episode of Cold Take, Urgent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader records from the front seat of his car while his kids are asleep, joined by his longtime friend Colton Crews for a raw, lightly edited breakdown of the week’s art news.

Framed as an “everyman” perspective, Texas-based Colton—an outsider to the New York art world—reacts in real time as Adam walks through the headlines.

The conversation starts in Italy, where a tourist was arrested after climbing a 500-year-old statue on a pre-wedding dare, sparking questions about cultural heritage, enforcement, and what actually counts as “damage.”

From there, they turn to Taiwan, where a prominent artist’s rape conviction has led to the rescinding of a national arts award—raising questions about merit, punishment, and whether institutions can separate the work from the person.

The episode also takes on a “museum that doesn’t exist” opening an exhibition in Tribeca, a razor-thin museum union vote in Connecticut, and the ongoing wave of protest actions inside cultural institutions.

This episode launches a weekly series that trades artspeak for direct, sometimes skeptical, takes on the art world’s biggest stories.

For the full, document-driven reporting behind these headlines, visit www.urgentmatter.press.