Our guest is Nika Simovich Fisher, a writer, designer, and educator based in New York City. A tenure-track Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Parsons School of Design, Nika directs the AAS program and researches how design shapes what people believe — politically, spiritually, culturally, and about themselves. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, WIRED, Fast Company, and AIGA Eye on Design, and she is the founder of Labud, a design studio working across fashion, publishing, and technology.

In this episode, Nika speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her journey from publishing fiction on Neopets as a child to studying journalism at Columbia and building a practice that lives at the intersection of writing, design, and education. She shares how her research brings overlooked histories of the internet into contemporary conversations about technology, and why she believes the way things look is never just aesthetic — it's always political, always cultural, always telling you something about power.

The conversation explores the early web as a space of genuine self-expression, what gets lost when platforms replace personal homepages, and how vernacular design — from MySpace customization to Trump's political merchandise — reveals more about culture than polished professional work ever could. Nika also speaks candidly about her daily writing practice, her Serbian immigrant identity, and the studio name that connects everything.

Music by the band Eighties Slang.

Our guest is Christian Solorzano, founder of the Chicago Graphic Design Club and host of Underscore podcast.

In this milestone 100th episode, the roles reverse as Rick Valicenti interviews Christian about his journey from discovering design through a Sony computer at age 11 to building Chicago's design community infrastructure. Christian shares the origin story of the Chicago Graphic Design Club—born from frustration when established organizations went silent during the pandemic—and how it evolved into Underscore podcast, Faculty, and recently, his studio Opal.

The conversation explores Christian's philosophy of building without permission, prioritizing relationships over metrics, and trusting the process even when he doesn't know where it's going. He discusses his approach to deep research with a light touch, the creative collaborations and why he measures success by text messages from listeners rather than download numbers.

Christian reflects on what the podcast has taught him—how facilitating 99 conversations has enabled him to see himself in others and given him permission to be more himself. He shares his view of creativity as humanity's breath, an act of resistance against forces that push us away from making meaning, and why Chicago's flat hierarchy and generous design community continues to inspire his work.

Our guest is Rod Hunting, a Chicago-based designer and artist who creates intricate compositions built entirely from floppy discs.

In this episode, Rod speaks with host Christian Solorzano about his creative process—the hours spent in Illustrator moving shapes, testing ideas, and exploring what happens when you try different approaches. He shares insights about cultivating deep focus, learning to accept that not every experiment leads somewhere, and the liberation that comes from making work on your own terms.

Rod discusses his evolution as an artist, from studying skateboarding tricks as a kid to developing patience through repetitive practice. He talks about the discipline required to sit with a piece of work, step back as both artist and critic, and determine when something is truly finished.

The conversation explores the balance between personal creative practice and client work, the role of taste in shaping what we make, and the importance of finding contentment in simple moments. Rod shares his journey through art school for animation, his appreciation for Chicago's creative community where artists support artists, and a moment of overwhelming gratitude that reminded him why he does this work.