Field of Streams

Inspired by musician Tom Verlaine's book sale - he's rumored to have amassed 50,000 books at the time of his passing - today I talk about how the books we read play a role in our lives. Raised by literature, built from books - what do the books on your shelves say about you?

Watch the behind the scenes video to this episode (where I talk about the sale and dig into what my own books say about me) https://www.jumpinthestream.com/behind-the-streams-raised-by/

This is an audio reading of the post "Raised by Literature" originally published on September 25, 2023. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/literature/

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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 

Are you managing your work/life balance? How are you protecting your personal life and projects from being dominated by work-a-holism or the expectation of an always-on-duty employee? Today I talk about the concept of a "mortsafe" but instead of it being to stop bodysnatchers, it's to stop work from stealing time from your life.

Here the article on ACTUAL mortsafes that inspired this piece of my writing that I'm reading to you today.

This is an audio reading of the post "DIY Life Hack: Build Your Own Mortsafe", originally published on June 13, 2022. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/mortsafe/

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 

Is it wrong to love a robot? What about if that robot is a vacuum cleaner? And should you name it executor to your will? In this episode - written in the style of an Agony Aunt letter - I pose this very question about my iRobot Roomba named Reggie. 

Watch Behind the Streams and Themes of this episode:
https://www.jumpinthestream.com/behind-the-streams-ep-37-robot/

This is an audio reading of the post "I am in love with a robot" originally published on January 1, 2024. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/robotlove/

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 you need to quit to be successful? And by quit, I don't mean forever. More like taking a break from the pursuit to regather your stones before charging back in. Inspired by Molly Shannon talking about how she quit for a year due to rejection just getting too much, before coming back and ending up where she is today. She talks about it on an episode of Fly on the Wall with David Spade and Dana Carvey. (David says he also quit for a while when coming up, leading to this quote: “To succeed, you have to be a quitter”

You can listen to the Molly Shannon episode here (but listen to mine first, yeah.)

This is an audio reading of the post "Is this the audition and did I pass?" originally published on June 20, 2022. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/audition/

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 

Inspired by the cutup technique, this episode is exactly what it says on the tin: Pure Nonsense. There is a Behind the Scenes companion video to this episode which digs into the inspiration, William S. Burroughs, David Bowie, and the beauty of the cut up technique. You can watch that here:
https://www.jumpinthestream.com/behind-the-streams-pure-nonsense/

This is an audio reading of the post "Pure Nonsense" originally published on January 22, 2024. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/nonsense/

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 

Nothing makes me angrier than a mattress in the wild. And by that, I mean one someone has dumped down the side of a pristine mountain road because they're too cheap to take it to the dump. It's a perfect metaphor for drafts or early iterations of your work. They are FILLED with mattresses aka bad ideas, not quite right thoughts, and ugly executions of your ideas. Worse still, you can throw one of your bad "mattress" ideas into the work of others and really stink up the joint. In today's episode, I talk in my usual riddles but this time about mattresses and how to recognize when you have one in your work.

This is an audio reading of the post "Are you a mattress in the wild?" originally published on June 6, 2022. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/mattress/

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 

What do you want to do before you die? What about all the things you know you will never do? That's what this is about. It's a reverse bucket list of sorts. All the things I know I will never do - some of which I know I should work on.

Go behind the scenes of this piece of creative writing and watch the companion video here: https://www.jumpinthestream.com/behind-the-streams-bucket/

This is an audio reading of the post "Kicking the Idea of the Bucket" originally published on January 8, 2024. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/bucket/

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 

Scientists recently discovered that rats may have imaginations. Now I'm wondering what they're imagining. Is world domination on their mind? With this discovery, rats have been forced to reveal their plans for global domination. The representative rat, Vernor, will no proceed to hip you to their plans via this address, which I will read to you now.

News story about the rat imagination research. 
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/nov/02/rats-may-have-power-imagination-research

Go behind the scenes of this piece of creative writing and watch the companion video here
https://www.jumpinthestream.com/behind-the-streams-rat/

This is an audio reading of the post "Welcome to the Rat-ture" originally published on November 6, 2023. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link.
https://www.jumpinthestream.com/rat/

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 

Written around Mother's Day in 2023, this episode digs into the who, what, where when, and why of Mother. What does the word Mother mean to you? Take a listen. Happy Mother's Day, everyone, and to all those with complicated relationships or missing their mother today, go easy on yourself. 

Watch the Behind the Scenes video and review supplementary material that goes with this episode at this link:
https://janeenmccrae.substack.com/p/behind-the-streams-mother

This is an audio reading of the post "O Mother, Where Art Thou?" originally published on May 15, 2023. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link.
https://www.jumpinthestream.com/oh-mother-where-art-thou/

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 

Part poetry slam, part Mad Magazine Fold In, today's episode is kinda out there in terms of trying to make a high-falutin' concept work. It works much better as a visual piece than audio, and you can go see what it look like (and watch the video I mentioned where I break it down) at the link below.

CORRECTION FOR AUDIO: I state that I wrote this is May 2022 in the intro, shortly after Mad Magazine Fold In inventor and illustrator, Al Jaffee, passed, but it was actually May 2023. I just mispoke. 

Watch me talking about the inspirations and themes of this episode on Behind the Streams video, here: https://www.jumpinthestream.com/behind-the-streams-fold-em/

I prefer the folded in version of the poem, how about you? Shorter. Punchier. Better.

This is an audio reading of the post "You gotta know when to fold 'em" originally published on May 1, 2023. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link.
https://www.jumpinthestream.com/you-gotta-know-when-to-fold-em/

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