BIG TABLE with J.C. Gabel is a podcast about books and conversation. It’s an exploration of art and culture by means of interviews with authors across multiple genres, conducted and curated by writer, editor, historian, and publisher J.C. Gabel, with a small cast of talented contributors, former colleagues, and friends.
A co-production between Hat & Beard, Dublab, and Gold-Diggers in Los Angeles, BIG TABLE is dedicated to the interviewing style and enduring memory of Studs Terkel, the Chicago oral historian, actor, activist, TV pioneer, and long-time radio host and author. You can learn more about Studs’ work here.
BIG TABLE is the first digital initiative of Invisible Republic, a nonprofit arts organization working in coordination with Future Roots, Inc.
J.C. Gabel HOST + PRODUCER
J.C. Gabel began his career in publishing at the age of 19. In the mid-’90s, he handmade the first issue of a ’zine called Stop Smiling, “The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes” as it came to be known. Published regularly for the next 15 years, and modeled on “the glory days of magazine publishing”—1960s Esquire, early Rolling Stone, vintage Playboy, the National Lampoon, et cetera—Stop Smiling eventually developed into a full-color glossy with timeless themes, original stories, and interviews you couldn’t read anywhere else.
Since 2000, Gabel has contributed features, criticism, profiles, and interviews to the Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Bookforum, The Paris Review, LA Times, NY Times, and Wallpaper.
In 2012, Gabel moved from his hometown Chicago to Los Angeles to complete work on books for Chronicle and Taschen.
As Editorial Director and Publisher of Hat & Beard Press since 2016, Gabel has edited and published over 50 books.
In 2020, Gabel founded Invisible Republic, a nonprofit arts organization, which he co-heads with Executive Director, old friend, and long-time musician, Michael Guarrine, who resides in Chicago. The Big Table podcast is the first digital initiative of Invisible Republic.
Matteah Baim EDITING + SOUND DESIGN
Matteah Baim has released four studio albums, crafting compositions, performances, and production with artists such as ANOHNI, Devendra Banhart, Maxim Moston, members of MGMT, the NY Philharmonic, and The Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem. Tours with artists, including Perfume Genius, Lower Dens, and ANOHNI, have taken her across the globe. Baim has also worked to create composition, sound design, and audio editing for podcasts, TV/ film soundtracks, as well as for a variety of multimedia projects and installations. She lives and works in New York. matteahbaim.com
Jacob Floyd Ross AUDIO ENGINEER
Jacob Floyd Ross began his sound and music career at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago over 25 years ago. His sound design for film has been featured in many festivals, including Sundance, Cannes, Berlinale, and Rotterdam. Ross has had the privilege of working with distinguished visual and audio artists, such as Deborah Stratman, Califone, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Tirtza Even, and Mucca Pazza. He continues to contribute to a wide variety of projects including film, live sound, music production, tour managing, podcast production, and audio art.
Ross spent years touring with his previous band Low Skies and has extensive knowledge of the national indie music community. He recently opened Beltline Sound, his own mixing studio, in Los Angeles and continues to perform and tour as Crumpler.
Big Table cover art by John Zabawa