WHYY street art podcast host reflects on first season, looks ahead to the future

The sounds of shaking spray paint cans can be heard in the opening for the trailer of WHYY’s podcast, “Art Outside.” Audio snippets from interviews with Philadelphia-based street artists featured in the five-episode first season — all of which are available now — are laid over host Conrad Benner’s voiceover introduction.

“Why do we create on the walls around us?” Benner says in the trailer. “From French cave paintings created some 17,000 years ago to political graffiti on the streets of Pompeii, humanity has always longed to make art for everyone to see. Whether commissioned or not, the art we share is essential to who we are.”

With the “Art Outside” podcast, Benner has spotlighted the work of five street artists — ​​

Kid Hazo, El Toro, Symone Salib, Nilé Livingston and Busta — through each episode to share why art is “essential to who we are.” Benner spent two hours interviewing each artist at WHYY’s studios and then another hour on site as they created a piece of art in a public space. Benner and a team of producers then truncate those three hours into an episode spanning about 15-20 minutes.

“We live in a city full of public art,” Benner said of Philadelphia. “We have something like 4,000-plus murals around the city, countless works of street art, stickers, graffiti — it’s all around us. And there’s so many conversations and thoughts to be had about it.”

Benner noted how Philadelphia’s accolades for street art date back to the 1950s. In 1959, Philadelphia introduced the Percent for Art Ordinance, which requires new construction or major renovation projects to include site-specific public art in the amount of up to 1% of the total budget. Philadelphia was the first city in the country to introduce such a model and it has been replicated in cities across the country. Furthermore, the city is seen as the birthplace of modern-day graffiti when the artist known as Cornbread began spray painting his name on walls in the 1960s.

Benner is the founder and editor of StreetsDept.com, a blog showcasing street art in Philadelphia. He founded the blog in January 2011 and then expanded it into the audio space with the “Streets Dept Podcast”, where he interviewed street artists as well as politicians, small business owners and other creative thinkers. The latter project has been on pause since last year but Benner still continues to podcast through WHYY. Representatives from the public radio station reached out to Benner when they had a spot open for a local podcast. From there, Benner came up with a pitch for the podcast and he and a team at WHYY started producing and recording episodes in summer 2023.

One thing Benner said he was intentional about pitching was the inclusion of LGBTQ+ artists. He said “queer voices are a big part of this podcast.” This includes his own voice.

“I’m queer. I’m gay, [and live] here in Philadelphia,” Benner said. “And there are so many queer, LGBTQ+ artists who are creating in the public space and it would be a lie if I said I didn’t curate this podcast to include many of those voices. So in this first season, two of our five guests are from the LGBTQ+ community.”

Those LGBTQ+ guests Benner is referring to are Livingston and Salib. Livingston created “Finally on 13th,” a Gayborhood mural — located on 13th Street, between Pine and Spruce Streets — highlighting Black and Brown LGBTQ+ Philadelphia Ballroom icons. Salib is a street artist and muralist who partnered with SKITTLES to design their limited edition 2023 Pride packs. 

Benner, who is 38-years-old, said he recalls a time when the media had very little to no queer representation. He recalled seeing gay characters here and there in the background of TV shows as well as times when he secretly pulled issues of Out Magazine from inconspicuous bags in his bedroom while in high school. Benner said the current climate is noticeably different for LGBTQ+ people.

“As a queer person in this world, and as a queer curator of not only public art, but of this podcast, I find it really refreshing and interesting to be able to be so open and out and celebratory when it comes to our public space,” he said. “And a lot of queer artists feel that way, too.”

Looking ahead, Benner said he hopes “Art Outside” gets picked up for a second season. He said he would be “so grateful to keep doing this with WHYY. The team there is incredible.”

“I want to hear what [listeners] say [about the podcast],” Benner said. “And then I want to work with the team to build a really good second season that would maybe go in places that this season didn’t go quite yet, go in places that maybe are unexpected.” 

Benner’s other ambitions include having more guests and continuing to spotlight the work of artists.

“There’s so many stories to tell in this world, and I just want to keep telling them.”

All episodes of “Art Outside” are available now on whyy.org and various podcasting platforms.