Arts journalist Makeda Easter had issues with a lot of art-related journalism, so she created her own publication: The Art Rebellion, where she focuses coverage on artists without public relations teams, those working outside of New York and Los Angeles, and those creating activist art.

Easter is also vocal about one of her goals: making people understand how essential artists are in our society.

“Artists need to be paid more. We need to respect them as workers, not just as people who make pretty things,” Easter said. “They work. Their work is valuable. They should be paid as such.”

In this episode, Easter explains how her arts coverage exists in the world of “activist journalism.” She also talks about her ambitious project to document how much money artists are making across the country (spoiler: the struggle is real).