“Replace judgement with curiosity”

I found a new podcast to love. It’s called Dissect, it’s two seasons in, and each season is a study/exploration of one album. The first was devoted to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, and the second to Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

It’s a mix of music criticism, cultural commentary, and music theory; with back story on the artists, a breakdown of samples/beats/chords from the songs, and interpretation of the lyrics.

The host and creator of the show is Cole Cuchna and his delivery is the perfect balance, for me at least. He doesn’t assume the listener has any knowledge of music theory, so he takes the time to explain it all, but moves through his lessons on interpolation and major/minor chords with a kind of deftness (and ‘listen-don’t-tell’ style) that is not dumbed down

It meets my very nerdy desire to immerse myself into something, and fully wallow in it. The episodes are thoughtfully paced; a lot happens but in a very measured way. In this era, with a deluge of new and old music, it’s so nice to delve thoroughly into one standout album for an entire season.

In one of the early episodes of Season 2, Chuchna discusses Kanye’s divisiveness and gives a kind of disclaimer/welcome. Let’s “replace judgement with curiosity,” he suggests. Which I think is a fitting motto for his podcast, and for life. Let’s take the time to understand fully, to sit with something for a while, before reaching a conclusion — or maybe never reaching a conclusion.