As an early Facebook shareholder, L.A. artist David Choe is now wealthy enough to do whatever he wants. From the sound of it, that’ll be raunchy podcasting.

Last month, he debuted a weekly 90-minute program, which he records with a friend, adult film star Asa Akira. Recorded in a space adjacent to his art studio in downtown Los Angeles, there have been four episodes so far of the stream-of-consciousness, not-safe-for-work program, “DVDASA,” or “David and Asa.”

The show engages, among other things, both hosts’ work product. It is explicit enough to avoid being advertiser friendly. But Choe, 36, whose shares were worth about $200 million at the time of Facebook’s IPO, has no apparent commercial motivation.

Choe, who wisely chose to be paid in stock rather than cash for the graffiti-inspired murals he painted on Facebook’s offices in 2005, said through his publicist that the podcast is an extension of his art, which more typically takes the shape of murals, graffiti or paintings. He called the podcast “group therapy” and a “forum for brutal, honest and self-destructive conversation.”

He’d like to book some of the celebrities who’ve come through his studio recently, such as TV personality and chef Anthony Bourdain and Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA. He hopes they are undeterred by the at-times raunchy content.

“The thing I’ve learned in this life is you don’t know if you don’t ask,” Choe said on his podcast. “We’ll put that energy out into the universe.”
– Jonathan Polakoff