In this special episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Kayvon Tehranian (CEO and co-founder of Foundation and Rodeo) and Sebastian Sanchez (formerly Christie's Manager of Digital Art Sales, now independent advisor and curator) about the structural challenges of the digital art market following the 2021 NFT boom.

They discuss Foundation's recent sale to Blackdove and how Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rodeo have had to dissolve departments or shut down entirely because growth models built on crypto speculation proved unsustainable. The conversation explores where growth actually stalled and why none of the business models worked. Tehranian and Sanchez discuss what their organizations achieved, what can endure, and the need to rebuild from scratch.

In the end, this conversation moves into the lofty topics of digital art becoming independent of volatile crypto cycles, moving into physical displays, and developing self-sufficient institutions built through slow, intentional work by committed participants.

Chapters 📖

00:01:40 - Are These Isolated Incidents or Symptoms?

00:09:52 - The Business Model Problem

00:14:13 - Crypto Speculation vs. Art Collecting

00:19:13 - Why Are Auction Houses Pulling Away?

00:25:45 - The Role of Institutions

00:30:56 - Anti-Establishment Energy and What Endures

00:36:00 - The Physical Display Problem

00:38:40 - What Will Endure: Rooted Practices

00:43:55 - How Close Was It to Being Sustainable?

00:48:02 - Leaner Models and the Future

In this special podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random’s editor in chief) speaks with artist and filmmaker Lawrence Lek about NOX Pavilion at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami, an immersive installation centered on a self-driving car in a “therapy” program for malfunctioning AIs.

They unpack Lek’s long-running NOX universe: a speculative rehab center where care can slide into control, and where machine interiority is treated as a technical defect. The conversation moves from the politics of nonhuman rights and legal gray zones (“it depends”) to Lek’s recurring fascination with autonomous creative agency and what it would mean for an AI to make art as a choice that conflicts with its intended function.

In the second half, Lek and Bauman widen the lens to world-building: why a world isn’t one thing but multiple entry points, how ideas like Umwelt and worldview shape what any intelligence can perceive, and why Lek increasingly thinks of his simulations as “superficial models”—interfaces to reality rather than claims to foundational truth.

Monday’s Le Random Editorial: "Embodying AI at NeurIPS 2025: Creative AI Track" by Luba Elliott

and "Ian Cheng on Composing with Systems" by Peter Bauman

Chapters: 📖

00:00:03 — Intro + Monday editorial highlights (NeurIPS / Luba Elliott)

07:06:06 — From ecology to AI: nonhuman agency, rights, and “mature” discourse

13:39:01 — Repairing AI interiority: Enigma’s “Revery” and malfunction-as-psychology

19:58:05 — Legal personhood + Empty Rider: blame, responsibility, and the “it depends” machine

27:35:09 — The crash test dummy: guide character, onboarding, and corporate voice

32:11:06 — The empathy transition: why people resist empathizing with machines (for now)

38:25:00 — Narratives vs “living code”: simulation stories and instantiated lifeforms

44:21:06 — What counts as a world? Umwelt, worldview, and multiple entry points

53:23:08 — Where immersive worlds may head: metaverse hangover, AI’s role, and formats shifting

01:00:50 — Outro + goodbye

In this end-of-year episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random’s Editor-in-Chief) is joined by thefunnyguys (Le Random CEO) and Collection Lead Conrad House to look back on 2025: its biggest storylines, their favorites of the year and what they’re watching in 2026.

They unpack a defining tension of the year: as crypto-native attention and prices stayed weak, institutional and traditional-art adoption of digital art kept accelerating. The conversation moves through platform and ecosystem shifts (VVV’s rise, Verse as gallery infrastructure, Art Blocks nearing the end of AB 500, Fxhash’s next chapter). Next is a discussion of “worlds”—protocol stacks getting richer, more modular, and increasingly entangled with AI, physical spaces and simulation.

They close with Le Random highlights (including Raster and a more nimble publishing rhythm), personal favorites of the year, and a forward look at Node Foundation in Palo Alto, Canyon in New York, Colección Solo in Madrid, and Zero 10’s next iteration in Hong Kong.

Mentioned:

1. "Ian Goodfellow on Inventing GANs"
2. "THE PEOPLE ARE IN THE COMPUTER—PART I" on Alec Radford (most popular piece of 2025)
3. "The Ultraintelligent Machine and Gaberbocchus Common Room" by Jasia Reichardt and Our 100th article
4. "Drifella III: Room for Complexity" - 4,000+ word deep dive on Evil Biscuit's classic
5. "Parker Ito and Evil Biscuit on Possessed Spirits"
6. "Standout Artwork of 2025"

Chapters 📖:

00:00 Intro + agenda

01:29 Big takeaway: digital art’s institutionalization

04:23 NFTs fade in crypto, rise in trad art (two camps)

07:12 Capitulation vs institutional growth (NFT categories)

09:53 Macro check: S&P vs ETH/BTC/XTZ

13:30 What brings collectors back? (liquidity + catalysts)

23:08 Fairs & infra: Art Basel, minting tech, new spaces

26:00 Platforms reposition: Art Blocks + fxhash

30:08 “Worlds” as the frame (protocol stacks + world models)

42:07 AI art maturity: from hype to diffusion

44:23 Le Random focus: Raster + collecting strategy

49:30 Q4 editorial shift: Friday pods + agility

50:45 Favorites of 2025: kickoff

50:56 Favorite group shows

58:56 Favorite releases: Claude/Gemini/Marble → vibe coding

1:07:54 Favorite solo works

1:17:46 Favorite artist picks

1:27:23 Looking ahead to 2026

1:38:11 Outro