Right On That Brink: An Interview and Conversation with Alex Hodgkinson at ODR

This is a very special episode. After more than a year of recording remotely, we had the opportunity to record onsite and in-person. And what a place to launch our first in-person recording in such a long time. ODR Studios sits in the heart of the Ironbound and is a gorgeous place. It is a curated 4,500 square foot industrial loft about a five minute walk from Penn Station that offers a wide array of studio services for filming, photography, and audio production. It also has a 5,000 square foot workshop below the studio space. ODR has been the setting for music videos, documentaries, fashion shorts, and a whole host of other productions. Alex Hodgkinson is the founder of ODR Studios and joins the podcast to talk about what he loves about the space, how he manages it, and his story.

Guest:

Alex Hodgkinson—Alex is the founder of ODR Studios. He has also played rugby professionally for the Sacramento Express. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.

Background & Articles:

  • ODR Studios Webpage: here

  • Kulture Klub Article on Alex: here

  • Dua Lipa/Mark Ronson Music Video filmed on site: here

  • So Far Sounds Webpage: here

  • “Framing Britney Spears” Documentary: here

Quote:

“Toward the end of his life, Roth would walk (very slowly) from his Upper West Side apartment to the Museum of Natural History and back, stopping on almost every bench along the way—including the bench on the museum grounds near a pink pillar listing American winners of the Nobel Prize. ‘It’s actually quite ugly, isn’t it?’ a friend observed one day. ‘Yes.',’ Roth replied, ‘and it’s getting uglier by the year.’ ‘Why did they put it there anyway?’ Roth laughed: ‘To aggravate me.’“ Blake Bailey, Philip Roth: A Biography