Dadwell & Co.

Chris Rudd is an activist, educator, and design leader. Built on his commitment to community organizing, social equity work, systems change, and youth development, Chris founded ChiByDesign, a Black-owned and people-of-color-led design firm in Chicago. In addition to leading ChiByDesign, Chris is also an Instructor and Lead of Community-led Design for the Chicago Design Lab at the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design, where his work focuses on developing the co-design practice and the anti-racist design field. Chris is a former Stanford Institute of Design (d.school) Civic Innovation fellow and a current Chicago Urban League IMPACT fellow. Chris is dad to three daughters: ages 15, 6 and 3. In this episode, Chris talks about how his strong socio-political views were forged in an interacial household with activist parents and the countless ways this world view manifests in his children's lives and his own anti-racism work. Chris shares some larger-than-life stories about his father and the wor

Since devising his own independent photography curriculum in high school, Johan Bävman's passion for image making led him to the Nordic School of Photography, a coveted spot on the Moment Agency roster, and a full-time staff position in editorial photography with Sydsvenskan, one of Sweden's largest newspapers. Now 100% independent, Johan splits his time between client assignments, personal projects and gallery work. When he needs a needed break from photography and family life, Johan restores vintage motorcycles at Odd Luck Garage, a collaboration with 13 other fathers. Johan is dad to two sons: ages 8 & 4. In this episode, Johan talks about the myriad roles photography's played in his life and career: as a connection to his grandfather, an invitation to embed himself in other cultures, a narrative device for storytelling, and as solution for his dyslexia—allowing him to express himself without the burden of the written word. Johan also talks at length about Swedish Dads, a collection of photographs he

An 8-minute special episode on COVID-19. Antonio offers ideas, hope, and perspective for how parents can change their state, shift their thinking, and care for their families, communities and themselves.

Justin Roberts is truly one of the "all-stars" of the indie family music scene. For nearly 20 years, the three-time Grammy Nominee has been creating the soundtrack to families' lives—helping kids navigate the joys and sorrows of growing up while allowing parents to remember their own childhoods. Along with his band, The Not Ready for Naptime Players, Justin has traveled the globe, from Hong Kong to New York, and Miami to Seattle. His songs are the kind of get-stuck-in-your-head pop nuggets that more draw more comparisons to Elvis Costello, Fountains of Wayne, and Paul Simon than any simple nursery rhymes, prompting USA Today to call him "hands-down the best songwriter in the genre." In addition to his recordings, Justin is also the author of two acclaimed picture books: The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade and The Great Henry Hopendower. Justin is dad to his 1½-year-old son. In this episode, Justin talks about becoming a happy, proud (but utterly exhausted) father at 50 and how he found magic in even th

A quick 10-minute recap of episodes 13–18 of Dadwell's third season. Antonio summarizes each episode with commentary and key takeaways.

Tim Lapetino is a writer, geek culture historian, and award-winning graphic designer. In his 20-year career, Tim's consistently been drawn to design and the way it impacts our popular culture. He's obsessed with exploring and understanding the creative process and loves telling the stories of unheralded creative people who work beyond the spotlight. His best-selling design history book, Art of Atari, has sold more than 60,000 copies and been published in English, French, German and Spanish. Tim is also the editor of Undisputed Street Fighter, a retrospective on the popular video game franchise and co-author of the design inspiration book Damn Good: Top Designers Discuss Their All-Time Favorite Projects. His work has been published in more than a dozen books and journals, including the LogoLounge series and industry classic Designing Brand Identity. Tim's written for HOW magazine, Geek Monthly, Retro Gamer, and other publications. Tim is dad to his 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. In this episod

Matt Woodburn is co-founder and CEO of ESP Presents, where he manages event production, technical and creative direction, as well as brand activation for the company and its new venue space, Exchange312. Matt is a serial entrepreneur, event producer, connector and (self-described) social concierge, whose personal interests directly reflect his professional endeavors. Matt is dad to his daughters: ages 8 and 9. In this episode, Matt talks about riding the waves of his father's entrepreneurial pursuits and how inspiring (and intimidating) it was to witness his parents' constant hustle. He explains how a childhood in sunny SoCal—full of thrash metal, BMX and skateboarding—exposed him to Hollywood's behind-the-scenes trades and eventually led to film school in Chicago. We talk about how he lucked out and launched a hip hop recording studio in his early 20s and went on to parlay those experiences and connections into countless ventures in film, music, video and special events. And we talk at length about what i

Jeffrey Brown is the Eisner Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Darth Vader and Son, the Jedi Academy middle grade series, and numerous other graphic novels for both adults and kids. Most recently, Jeffrey's been hard at work on the middle grade Lucy & Andy Neanderthal series, the picture book My Teacher Is A Robot, and a new Star Wars book, Rey and Pals. Jeffrey has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he also occasionally teaches making comics. His artwork has been exhibited in New York, LA, Paris, and Chicago. Jeffrey is dad to his two sons: ages 13 and 6. In this episode, Jeffrey talks about the ways his late father's work as a minister—while deeply religious—was also creative, curious, and underscored by life-long learning. We discuss his transition from tourist shop handicraft, to fine art painting, how things eventually came full-circle back to his childhood love of comics and writing. He shares the surprise of his firstborn, the confidence he found in

Jared and I met in the advertising design school at the Atlanta College of Art almost 25 years ago. Today he runs Question Mark to Period, a marketing and design agency in Atlanta. He’s a larger-than-life personality, a globetrotting storyteller, a Taekwon-Do black belt and a Sunday school teacher. He's released five independent hip hop albums, founded a creative collective of renown black curators a decade before influencers took over social media, and launched a wildly successful luxury bag company. (He also got me to run my very first marathon.) Jared is dad to his a 8-year-old daughter and 4½-year-old son. In this episode, Jared talks about his father’s military discipline, attention to detail, and struggles with alcohol (a primary reason why he, himself, doesn't drink). We talk about how he attended the prestigious Pratt Institute at age 6 and how this exposure—and growing up with siblings a decade older than him—shaped his gregarious, competitive personality. He explains why the world needs fewer rapp

Named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," Brad Bischoff is an award-winning director whose work has been screened in major film festivals, staff-picked on The Atlantic, Vimeo, Short of the Week, and YouTube. He is an alumni of the Telluride Film Festival student symposium (‘07) and Columbia College Chicago (‘09) and just wrapped on what is to be his debut feature film, The Grasshopper. Brad is dad to his a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. In this episode, Brad talks about the myriad odd jobs he's held to make ends meet and make movies happen—from working at a skatepark, to packaging incontinence briefs, to transcribing detective's interviews at 100 words per minute. We talk about his remarkable success (and tenacity) as an independent filmmaker and how much his life feels like scenes from a John Hughes script. He also opens up about the sacrifices he's made for his films and the tolls they've taken on his health, his family, and his marriage. As you might imagine, Brad is

Jesse Hora is an illustrator, muralist, designer and partner at MAKE & Co., a small but mighty husband-and-wife studio specializing in branding, creative direction, graphic design and mural design. He and designer, Abigail Wynne focus on making beautiful and insightful work for premium and authentic brands. If you've spent anytime in a cool Chicago spot, there's a good chance, you've enjoyed a MAKE & Co. mural. Jesse is dad to his 3-year-old daughter and 3-month-old son. In this episode, Jesse recounts how his father's custom paint shop and motorcycle restoration work proved to him art and craft could feed a family of ten. We talk about the supernatural power infants have to melt hearts, soften the toughest of men, and bringing estranged family closer together. And we talk about why it took over two years for him to make the case to his wife that they were ready to launch their own studio. Jesse also shares how bi-monthly drinks with a few trusted dads might be all the parenting therapy any of us n

A personal reflection on Season Two from the show's founder and host, Antonio García.

Max Wastler is Senior Director of Brand & Reputation for Maritz, the company that effectively created the incentives industry. From the gold watch, to travel and loyalty programs, Maritz focuses on the science and art of people and potential. Prior to his work at Maritz, Max was the founder of Rivver Co., a branding and marketing consultancy based in St. Louis, Missouri where he contributed ideas, designs, photography, products, strategy and writing for a client roster that included Basil Hayden's Bourbon, Gitman Bros., J. Crew, Lands' End, Patagonia, and Ralph Lauren. His work has been recognized by publications including Condé Nast Traveler, Dwell, Esquire, GQ, Men's Health, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Max is step-dad to his two daughters: ages 11 and 8. In this episode, Max and I talk about the roadtrip moment when his hero father became a mortal man in his eyes. Max shares the three moronic moments (his words, not mine) that changed the course of his career and life forever. He

Michael Kiser is an innovation strategist in the world of beer and craft beverage. His studio and editorial outlet, Good Beer Hunting, is both the leading voice and instigator in the beer world—analyzing the market, pushing the story, and launching new brands. Michael was named one of Imbibe Magazine's "75 People & Places To Watch" in 2015. He has an MFA in poetry from the School of the Art Institute and lives in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, a city he's called home for 16 years, but still dearly misses the mountains and rivers of central Pennsylvania. Michael is dad to his two sons: ages 5 and 3. In this episode, Michael and I talk about all the places a young man searches for father figures. We talk about the dangers of static thinking as an entrepreneur and how sometimes you have to force yourself to learn the hard things that don't come naturally. He explains how he channels shame and negative self-talk into powerful motivators and what happens when the anguish of entrepreneurship eclipse

John Jennings is a Professor of Media & Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. His work centers around intersectional narratives regarding identity politics and popular media. John is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art and co-founder/organizer of The Schomburg Center's Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. He is co-founder/organizer of the MLK NorCal's Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco and also SOL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo at Ohio State University. If all that wasn't plenty, John is a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. John's current projects include the art collection Black Kirby: In Search of the Motherboxx Connection, the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), the supernatural crime noir story Blue Hand Mojo, and the New York Times best-selling graphic

Charlie Smith is my best friend. We've known each other for almost a quarter century. And our lives have run in an uncanny parallel ever since we met. Additionally (and in no particular order) Charlie is a director, designer and educator. Charlie works in innovation consulting, combining motion design and video with human-centered methodologies to capture, interpret, and curate qualitative design research into concise, empathy-driven, human stories that change hearts and minds. Charlie also teaches Video Storytelling at the IIT Institute of Design, where he helps students sharpen their narrative video skills, shape audience-focused stories, and explore storyboarding, camera and production workflows. Little known detail: Charlie is a closet sneakerhead. He got into the hobby as a way of intentionally doing something fun for himself after settling into fatherhood. As a designer, he's interested in the sneakers from fashion and product design standpoint, but what he's more intrigued with is the psychology a

Matt is a DJ, musician and entrepreneur. As a DJ, Matt's played all over the world—from Miami to Milan—and performed twice at Lollapalooza. As a musician, he's helped record numerous records with bands Written in the Sand, INNKEEPERS, The 1900s, and P1XEL & The Silver Sphinx. And as an entrepreneur and business owner, he and friend, Emilio Abadia (aka E-Six), co-founded Crossfader King and helped countless young DJs get their start. Today, Matt continues to move dance floors at his Chicago residencies, as well as entertaining the masses at corporate and private parties. Last year alone, he worked with the likes of The Waldorf Astoria, Major League Soccer, The Chicago Blackhawks, Gucci, Moët... and the list goes on and on. Matt is dad to his 3½ year old daughter. In this episode, Matt details his journey from basement bands to dive bar DJ to nightlife entrepreneur; he shares how and why music makes him more empathic and emotionally-connected to his daughter; why he only plays house and disco at home; a

George co-founded Greater Good Studio with his wife and partner, Sara, and a commitment to advancing equity with design. Before that, he spent seven years at global innovation firm, IDEO, and was, for a brief time, the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. Since founding Greater Good, George has worked across complex social issues such as criminal justice, civic engagement, public education, public health and youth development. George is also a frequent speaker, workshop facilitator, and an Adjunct Full Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. George is dad to an 8-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 4-month-old. This is a big episode. We cover a lot of ground and some pretty heavy, emotional stuff. George talks about his personal struggle with extrinsic motivation and the lasting effects guilt, shame and expectations can have on children (and in some instances generations to come). He explains how he and his wife and co-founder implement family systems to handle househ

A quick 20-minute recap of the first six episodes of Dadwell's inaugural season. Antonio summarizes each episode with commentary and key takeaways.

Edwin Lee is Design Lead at WeWork Labs. For over a decade, Edwin has worked alongside strategists, user researchers, and fellow designers to help companies develop new products ideas and place people at the center of the design process. He co-founded Ghost Lab—an independent design studio combining design thinking and design craft—to prototype early-stage product designs and brand identity systems. He currently works at WeWork Labs—the We Company’s global innovation platform. WeWork Labs provides opportunities for early-stage startups and forward-thinking enterprise companies to connect with fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, and provides access to education resources and programming needed to scale their business. Edwin is dad to his 5-month-old son. In this episode, Edwin wades through the fog and “firsts” of early fatherhood. Blurry-eyed and sleep deprived, Edwin explains how he and his wife share the demands (and the doting) in these early days; the importance of paternity leave for perspective a