Field of Streams

Slow down. Don't get mad. There are things you can control and things you can't and you can't escape time. Lemme explain what I mean.

This is an audio reading of the post "The time it takes is the time it takes" from April 9, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/time

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About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

You are what you make. Listen in to ten minutes of me reframing what failure and success look like for me going forward, then launch into a spirited reading of my new mantra. If you want to skip straight to that, hit 11 mins and 18 seconds and GO! 

I mention a Greg Proops pep talk quote. Here is a picture of it on my corkboard: https://www.instagram.com/p/DP20nIcjqG2/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

The Patti Smith interview on WTF with Marc Maron is here. She tells the story about William Burroughs at around 1 hour 9 mins: https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1167-patti-smith

This is an audio reading of the post "I am not a brand. I am a body of work." from October 10, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/not-a-brand/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

Today I read a piece of my writing triggered by Justin Hawkins, frontman of The Darkness, describing a certain type of drummer as a "shed builder." I take that term and give it a positive spin in relation to creativity and what it takes to be an artist. One's heart must hammer on. One must keep building the shed and banging in the nails. Blessed are the shed builders! 

This is an audio reading of the post "If your heart beats like a hammer, find a nail" from February 20, 2023. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/if-your-heart-beats-like-a-hammer

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

Komodo dragons have an 'iron' coating on their teeth, protecting them and keeping 'em sharp. In today's episode, I make a connection between the idea of the damage negative emotions have on us and how we must eat them to learn how to digest and build a sort of emotional enamel against them. You'll see... take a listen!

The story on Komodo dragon teeth that I mention in the intro is here: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/25/komodo-dragons-teeth-are-so-metal.html

This is an audio reading of the post "The Taste of Yuk: An Incomplete Oral History" from April 25, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/the-taste-of-yuk-an-incomplete-oral/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

In a time of doomscrolling and constant distraction via the rectangles in our hands and the insanity of the churning of content butter it is ever more important to step away. In this episode, I urge you to take a hike, actual or in the imagined worlds of others. 

This is an audio reading of the post "Take a hike" from May 12, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/hike/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

On a warm night in Santa Cruz, California, I entered the Quarry Amphitheater at UCSC to watch one of my favorite bands, Primus, play as part of the “Onward and Upward” tour, 2025. It got me to thinking about a moment in time, 30 years ago, when a song about a beaver helped me realize it’s ok if you don’t feel like you fit. Join me as I read to you a personal essay about the things that influence us, music as medicine, and the wonderful weirdness of Primus.

Find a slew of Primus related links and some hilarious pictures of me in my 20s at the post. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/primus/

This is an audio reading of that post “Prime time in the prime of Primus”, published online on August 22, 2025. 

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

Do the things that hurt us shape us? Should we try to forget or rewrite the hurt found in our personal histories so that it doesn’t continue to hurt us all our lives? What can we learn from our scars? And is the "book of hurt" one of the most important emotional guide books (metaphorical) to our lives?

The story that inspired it all, about the bowdlerizing of Roald Dahl books. https://popula.com/2023/02/20/roald-dahl-sensitivity-and-copyright/

This is an audio reading of the post "The Book of Hurt, Now Available at Your Local Library" from February 27, 2023. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/the-book-of-hurt-now-available-at/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

Can we be taught how to connect with art, be it a painting, music, writing, or whatever? Let’s talk about it. 

LA Story “looking at art” scene: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsN40iv5nzg

This is an audio reading of the post "Hello, you have reached the Plug and Play Hotline" from March 6, 2023. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/hello-you-have-reached-the-plug-and/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

Every day is a new day. An opportunity to hit the reset button on ourselves and be different than we were the day before. Let's talk about it!

Bonus link: The cherries scene I mention from "The Witches of Eastwick." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdyFtK-HmNs

This is an audio reading of the post "Resurrect Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself" from March 23, 2023. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/resurrect-yourself/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here 

When things aren't sticking - when you're not breaking through - it can be tempting to try what others are doing. No! Don't be same same. Be you you. That's the real disruption. 

This is an audio reading of the post "Appetite for Disruption" from December 2022. Additional inspirations can be found at that link.  https://www.jumpinthestream.com/disrupt/

Support the show

About Field of Streams
This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.'

Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here