In the 4th episode of our Super Traits series, Kelly sits down with her favorite writer George Saunders—author of 12 books including Lincoln in the Bardo and his latest novel Vigil—to explore creativity as a practice of staying open. They talk about how precise language changes the way we receive the world, why specificity lowers reactivity, and what it means that neurologically speaking, we're always writing and revising. George reflects on empathy as a gateway to creativity, why foreclosure is death to the creative process, and the dream of repair—which might be the whole job of fiction. He also shares why he never decides what his books mean before he writes them and why he considers constraints to be essential.

This episode was made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. To learn more, visit www.templeton.org.

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