Bad at Sports Episode 972: Jeanette Andrews

Artist and magician Jeanette Andrews joins Duncan and Jesse at the Elmhurst Art Museum, the very place where, as a teenager, she began imagining how magic could become contemporary art. Nearly twenty years later, that ambition has become an exhibition.

The conversation travels from Victorian parlor magic and vaudeville to the psychology of surprise, Alan Turing, and Andrews's Taken by Artificial Surprise, which asks audiences to distinguish between human-created magic and illusions developed with machine learning. Along the way: why knowing how a trick works can ruin the experience, whether magic is really for adults, and a research process involving enough handwritten notes to make an apartment resemble a conspiracy theorist's headquarters.

****Update: The HCL Benefit is November 10th, 2026

Photo: Michael George

Name Drop List:

Duncan MacKenzie - kurasmackenzie.com

Jesse Malmed - uwm.edu/arts/directory/malmed-jesse/

Jeanette Andrews - jeanetteandrewsstudio.com

Bad at Sports - badatsports.com

Lumpen Radio - lumpenradio.com

Elmhurst Art Museum - elmhurstartmuseum.org

McCormick House - elmhurstartmuseum.org/architecture