What if your favorite celebrities sat down for a talk… and none of it ever happened?
Jonas Hollerup Helle is the artist behind THE TALK — a viral video series where he constructs fictional interviews using archival footage from The Charlie Rose Show.
Maybe you've seen one of his videos. There’s the one with Kanye and Elon. Will Smith and Chris Rock. Cher and David Lynch.
They’re strange, a little awkward, and very convincing.
In this episode, we talk about what really goes into making those videos, where the idea came from, and what it means to create something that feels unreal and believable at the same time. We also get into how early YouTube culture shaped Jonas’ creative approach, the unexpected pressure that comes with going wildly viral, and why he's not too bothered when people assume his work was generated by AI.
We recorded this in front of a live audience at HUSET in Copenhagen in April 2025 — my first time doing an interview on stage. The mic setup didn’t work quite the way I’d hoped, I forgot to hit record at the beginning, and you can hear me laughing in the background more than I’d like.
But the room was lively, and the conversation landed somewhere honest — so I’m sharing it here.
We pick things up right after the part I forgot to record.
I hope you'll give this a listen.
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During our conversation, Jonas was showing stuff on a screen that you obviously can't see while listening to this podcast. Some of it isn't available online, but some of it is.
Here are the links so you can follow along:
THE TALK – Ed Sheeran & David Byrne
THE TALK – David Lynch & Cher
THE TALK – Kanye West & Elon Musk
THE TALK – Will Smith & Chris Rock
THE TALK – Werner Herzog & Mike Tyson
Jonas also referenced Christian Marclay’s “The Clock”, a 24-hour video installation that works like a clock, made from thousands of movie and TV clips showing different times of day. When it was exhibited, the video was synced to real time, so whatever time it actually was, that's what you'd see on screen.
Here’s a nice feature on the artwork by the Walker Art Center.
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Curious Neighbours is a new platform and community for creatives in the Nordics — one that values personal stories as essential to deepening our appreciation of what it means to create.
This podcast is hosted and produced by Gus Guerrero.
Executive Producer, Katrine Garcia Madsbjerg.
Visuals by Louis Montes.
Music by Psyche, courtesy of Four Flies Records.
Special thanks to Jonas Hollerup Helle.
Also, thank you to our friends at HUSET for hosting us, to Union for kindly letting me record in their studio, and to everyone who came to see the show — we really appreciate your support, and it was wonderful to hear you laughing in all the right places.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and consider leaving a review. Your comments can help others discover this show, plus, as a new podcast, we would really love the feedback.
Finally, go ahead and follow us on Instagram @curiousneighbours. What do you have to lose?
We’ll be back with another episode soon, thank you for listening
In 2014, artist Katie Paterson set out to create a living artwork that would unfold over the course of a century. She called it Future Library. The project began with the planting of 1,000 trees in a forest just outside Oslo, Norway. From there, the plan was this: each year, for the next hundred years, an author would be invited to contribute a secret manuscript. These works would then be locked away, sealed and unread, until 2114, when they’ll finally be published as a collection —printed on paper made from those very same trees planted at the start.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of this extraordinary project, I revisit highlights from a 2018 conversation with Anne Beate Hovind, curator of Future Library and Chairwoman of the Future Library Trust. You’ll also hear from Katie Paterson herself in a recent interview I recorded in April 2024.
In our conversation, we discuss the origins of Future Library, the lost art of keeping a secret, and the challenges of selecting a title meant to stand the test of time. Katie also offers some insight into the design process behind the Silent Room—the dedicated space on the top floor of Oslo’s Deichman Library, where the manuscripts are kept— and reflects on what it has been like to guide Future Library through its first decade, offering a glimpse into her hopes for the project as it continues to grow, both literally and metaphorically, into a lasting legacy that will inspire generations to come.
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So far, a remarkable lineup of authors have contributed to Future Library, each with a unique manuscript destined to remain sealed until 2114. The titles include:
2014 – Margaret Atwood, Scribbler Moon
2015 – David Mitchell, From Me Flows What You Call Time
2016 – Sjón, As My Brow Brushes On The Tunics Of Angels or The Drop Tower, the Roller Coaster, the Whirling Cups and other Instruments of Worship from the Post-Industrial Age
2017 – Elif Shafak, The Last Taboo
2018 – Han Kang, Dear Son, My Beloved
2019 – Karl Ove Knausgård, Blind Book
2020 – Ocean Vuong, King Philip
2021 – Tsitsi Dangarembga, Narini and Her Donkey
2022 – Judith Schalansky, Fluff and Splinters: A Chronicle
2023 – Valeria Luiselli, The Force of Resonance
2024 – Tommy Orange (manuscript handover due in 2025)
Discover more about Future Library at futurelibrary.no
Curious about Katie’s book, A Place That Exists Only in Moonlight? Visit her website for more details.
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Curious Neighbours is an uncommon collection of stories from the Nordics, captured with the kind of special curiosity only outsiders have the fortune of knowing.
The podcast is hosted and produced by Gus Guerrero.
Executive Producer, Katrine Garcia Madsbjerg.
Visuals by Louis Montes.
Music by Psyche, courtesy of Four Flies Records.
Special thanks to Anne Beate Hovind and Katie Paterson.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and consider leaving a review. Your comments can help others discover this show, plus as a new podcast, we would really love the feedback.
We’ll be back with another episode soon.
Thank you for listening.
What does it truly mean to 'come home' to oneself?
In this minisode, I follow up on a story that lingered with me long after I first heard about it.
Eva, a young woman of Inuk heritage, recently became the first person to get a full chin tattoo in Greenland in over two centuries.
What led Eva to make that bold choice, and what does this particular tattoo mean to her?
What we discovered was a deeply personal journey of identity and belonging, revealing the unexpected paths we sometimes take to find ourselves anew.
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Curious Neighbours is an uncommon collection of stories from the Nordics, captured with the kind of special curiosity only outsiders have the fortune of knowing.
This podcast is hosted and produced by Gus Guerrero
Our Executive Producer is Katrine Garcia Madsbjerg
Visuals by Louis Montes.
Music by Psyche, courtesy of Four Flies Records.
Special thanks to Eva Nielsen.
Follow us on Instagram, and please consider leaving a review. Your comments can help others discover this show, and as a new podcast, we would really love the feedback so please let us know.
We’ll be back with another episode soon. Thank you for listening.
In this episode, I reconnect with Greenlandic tattooer and researcher, Maya Sialuk Jacobsen. We talk, among other things, about the challenges of writing for The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology and The Anthropology of Body Modification (phew!) and her experience doing the first full chin tattoo on an Greenlandic Inuk woman in Greenland in 250 years.
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Maya Sialuk Jacobsen is a tattooist and independent researcher from Greenland, living between Svendborg and Nuuk.
In 2010, Maya established the groundbreaking "Inuit Tattoo Traditions" project, devoted to preserving and honouring the rich cultural heritage of Inuit tattooing across Greenland, Canada, and Alaska.
Through collaborations with institutions like the Anchorage Museum and Nunatta Katersugaasivia (Greenland National Museum), Maya has trained several women from Inuit communities in the art and significance of traditional Inuit tattooing.
Beyond that, Maya actively engages in scholarly discourse and advocates for policy changes, particularly focusing on Denmark's regulations regarding facial tattoos and championing the affirmation of cultural identity through tattooing.
With a research journey spanning well beyond a decade, Maya is dedicated to meticulously documenting and contextualizing Inuit tattoo patterns, shedding light on their profound cultural meanings and weaving them into the fabric of Inuit life and tradition.
For more information on Maya’s research, please see below:
Examining the physical signatures of pre-electric tattooing tools and techniques.
The Vessel Magazine - Issue 7
Transforming Bodies. Inuit Tattoo Traditions And The Complexities Of A Revival
In this episode, I catch up with the Norwegian visual artist Jan Hakon Erichsen and talk about the time he nearly crossed the thin line between destruction and self-destruction.
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Jan Hakon Erichsen is a Norwegian artist, whose work explores themes of fear, anger and frustration. His creations are a mix of different media, but he's best known for his DIY aesthetic, using found objects as his main source of work material.
After graduating from the National Academy of Arts in Oslo in 2004, Jan went on to exhibit his work in galleries and art festivals all around the world. In 2019, his viral two-minute compilation of balloon popping videos earned him a nomination for a Shorty Award in 2020 in the category of "Best in Weird".
These days, Jan keeps himself busy making short destruction videos, which he posts regularly on his Instagram account. In each video, he carefully crafts a scene, only to destroy it in a matter of seconds.
Things we refer to in this episode:
Jan Erichsen: “Lights Out” installation (2006)
Jan attempts to destroy a spaghetti beard with a bungee rope
Jan breaks the news of the accident to his followers
A brief update from the hospital
Ellen Sandseter’s “Six Categories of Risky Play”
Ellen Sandseter’s PhD thesis: “Scary funny – A qualitative study of risky play among preschool children”
“Acquired Taste” exhibition, Hos Arne, Oslo. Dec 7, 2023 – Jan 7, 2024
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Credits:
Curious Neighbours is hosted and produced by Gus Guerrero.
Executive producer, Katrine Garcia Madsbjerg.
Visuals by Louis Montes.
Music by Psyche, courtesy of Four Flies Records.
Special thanks to Jan Hakon Erichsen. You can follow him on Instagram, check out his YouTube channel or you visit his website.
Follow us on Instagram, and if you enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it with a friend or leaving a review.
Thank you for listening.
Since 2018, Gus Guerrero has been interviewing hundreds of creators from all over the Nordics to get a sense of how everyday life in this frosty corner of the world might have influenced their character, their thinking, and the way they approach their creative work.
Now, years later, Gus is reconnecting with some of his curious guests for a conversation about their work and to reflect on the paths their lives have taken since they first chatted.
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Curious Neighbours is hosted and produced by Gus Guerrero.
Executive producer, Katrine Garcia Madsbjerg.
Visuals by Louis Montes.
Music by Psyché, courtesy of Four Flies Records.
If you enjoy the show, please consider following us on Instagram @curiousneighbours or leaving a review.
Thank you for listening.