Stories, Poems & Music - The Creative Process

This episode explores whether Earth is experiencing a termination event, discussing abrupt climate phases, methane spikes, and historical ice core data.

This episode features an interview with poet Maya Salameh about her award-winning collection 'How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave,' exploring the intersection of technology, poetry, and diaspora experiences.

This episode features an interview with author Jim Shepard, discussing how literature expands empathy and curiosity, with a reading from his novel Project X about alienated teenagers planning a school shooting.

Adam Moss discusses his book exploring creativity through artifacts like drafts and scribbles, aiming to reveal artists' minds and create a unique book design.

Writer and philosopher Patrick Healy discusses how childhood experiences with language, memory, and writing shape personal identity and creativity.

Actress Sharon Lawrence discusses the essence of acting as transformation rather than performance, drawing on techniques from great teachers and her experience playing Sylvia opposite Sipowitz on NYPD Blue.

Artists and creators discuss how intuition, personal experiences, and creative mediums like music and television shape their artistic processes and emotional connections.

This episode explores the emotional and sensory connection to Earth through interviews with artists and scientists, focusing on nature's beauty, hidden intelligence, and the empathy needed for conservation.

This episode explores how the arts, particularly literature and storytelling, help us understand the world by extending empathetic imagination and allowing us to experience diverse human lives and historical dilemmas.

A writer discusses how poetry allows for exploration of human complexity through sensory experiences, breath, and mystery rather than definitive solutions.

This episode features highlights from an interview with showrunners Howard Gordon and Daniel Pearl discussing the creative process behind Netflix's The Beast in Me, focusing on the pilot's atmospheric directing and production design.

This episode features Neil Gaiman reading his poem 'A Writer's Prayer,' which explores the challenges of balancing productivity and perfection in writing while emphasizing bravery, wisdom, and truth in creative expression.

Paul Lynch discusses his Booker Prize-winning novel Prophet Song and his concept of 'cosmic fiction' that explores the human condition through both grand cosmic perspectives and intimate details.

This episode features an interview with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson about her book 'Theory of Water', exploring indigenous perspectives on water, world-making, and the connections between her writing and music.

This episode features an interview with Booker Prize-winning author Paul Lynch discussing storytelling, his creative process, and his dystopian novel Prophet Song.

This episode examines how monuments like Mount Rushmore, created by a Klansman on sacred Native American land, reflect and perpetuate America's history of white supremacy and colonialism.

This episode features highlights from an interview with Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka, focusing on his novel about a dead war photographer navigating a strange afterlife.

Siri Hustvedt reflects on her late husband Paul Auster's burial wishes, their transformative relationship, and how quantum physics metaphors illuminate human connections in her memoir 'Ghost Stories'.

Author and filmmaker Etgar Keret discusses how storytelling provides hope and connection during crises, drawing from his family's survival experiences and his own political struggles.

Novelist Megan Abbott discusses how family dynamics and childhood experiences fundamentally shape her writing about intense relationships and female friendships.

This episode explores how second-wave feminism politicized personal issues like domestic violence and reproductive labor, while discussing women's agency, creativity, and gender embodiment through artists' perspectives.

This episode explores how musician Plume uses music to connect with animals in sanctuaries and farms, examining the emotional and intuitive bonds formed through shared sound and presence.

Writer and musician Eiren Caffall discusses how storytelling about our interconnected relationship with water and the planet can help us navigate complex emotions like grief and fear while addressing environmental challenges.

This episode features an interview with Emmy-nominated producer and playwright Laura Eason about her creative journey from Chicago theater to television, focusing on her work on the series Three Women and themes of female desire and intimacy.

Julian Lennon discusses his journey in photography, focusing on how editing his retrospective book taught him to tell powerful stories with fewer images, drawing parallels to his music career and emphasizing the subjective nature of artistic expression.

Author Jay Parini discusses his memoir 'Borges and Me' about how meeting writer Jorge Luis Borges helped him cope with depression after his friend's death in the Vietnam War, and the book's film adaptation.

Julie Andrews discusses discovering Mary Poppins' secret personality through costume design, while another speaker explores how extreme trauma shaped their mother's unique artistic perspective.

A scientist recounts a terrifying yet awe-inspiring encounter where a humpback whale protected her from a tiger shark, illustrating interspecies altruism and prompting reflection on human relationships with nature.

This episode explores personal connections to nature through farming experiences and scientific research on bees, highlighting lessons humans can learn about living in harmony with the planet.

Emmy-nominated writer Laura Eason discusses her journey from Chicago theater to television writing, emphasizing how her playwriting experience prepared her for adaptation work and her commitment to mentoring aspiring industry professionals.

This episode features an interview with Professor Rob Verchick, a leading climate change scholar and author, discussing his book 'The Octopus in the Parking Garage' and exploring climate resilience through a vivid story about walrus hunting in Alaska.

This episode explores how personal relationships shape activism, critiques liberalism's failures in addressing social and ecological crises, and advocates for transformative approaches to capitalism and justice.

This episode explores how various art forms like music, literature, and visual art help people find meaning, connect with others, and understand different perspectives on life.

This episode features highlights from an interview with author Viet Thanh Nguyen discussing U.S.

This episode explores how Palestinian poetry reveals the human impact of genocide despite institutional silencing, featuring discussions with scholars Huda Fakhreddine and Anthony Alessandrini.

This episode explores the complexities of climate change, focusing on fossil fuel subsidies, methane's role in Earth's history, and the transition to clean energy.

Author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses how his experiences as an 'other' in America shaped his writing, the use of humor and satire to confront tragedy in his novels, and the challenge of finding humor in current U.S.

Peter Weller discusses his fascination with Renaissance figure Leon Battista Alberti, challenging common perceptions and highlighting Alberti's influential book on painting.

This episode features an interview with novelist Leila Lalami about her new novel The Dream Hotel, which explores a dystopian world where the state uses sleep-enhancing devices and algorithms to detain people based on their dreams as potential crime predictors.

Katie Kitamura discusses how she uses structure and form in her new novel 'Audition' to create tension and explore themes of agency and passivity through unnamed female protagonists.

Writer and activist A.L.

David Farrier discusses his book 'Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils', exploring what material traces humanity will leave for future generations and advocating for a balanced perspective that combines wonder with honest assessment of our environmental impact.

Award-winning poet Sonnet L'Abbé discusses their book 'Sonnet's Shakespeare', which creatively reinterprets Shakespeare's sonnets through overwriting techniques, as they read and explain Poem 18 from the collection.

Award-winning poet and filmmaker Max Stossel discusses the complexities of artistic identity and shares a performance piece addressing how society perceives creative professions.

This episode features an excerpt from Madeleine Watts' novel 'The Inland Sea', describing a sweltering Australian summer and the narrator's transition from academic life to adulthood.

This episode features an excerpt from an interview with author T.C.

This episode explores how writers use memory, language, and unconscious processes to create collaborative narratives with readers, with examples from Irish linguistic influences.

Jake Ferguson discusses his 25-year journey blending music with political activism, exploring how his album Architecture of Oppression reflects community work and collaborations with fellow activists to address stereotypes and oppression.

The speaker reflects on the importance of mentorship in the arts, sharing personal experiences with figures like Stephen Sondheim, Robert Wilson, and Paul Schrader, and advises young artists to learn from masters rather than going it alone.