Follow Your Curiosity: You didn’t lose your creative spark. You were taught to leave it behind.

Today’s guest, Nick Morrison, is a guitarist, teacher, author, and composer whose work you’ve probably heard in productions from Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Sony, MTV, ABC, NBC, HGTV, and HBO. Nick talks with me about how musicians can make money making music beyond performing and teaching and how writing music for TV and movie productions works. We also talk about why structure and limitation enhance our creativity, how the time he spent in Japan influenced his creative process, and more.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when structure or limitations made being creative easier for you.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in music!

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

Every so often, do something the old-fashioned way. I'll tell you why (and how I came to this discovery) in this short episode.

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon!

My guest today is Kate Powers, a lifelong theatre kid who became an off-Broadway and regional theatre director. Her list of credits is long, but I wanted to talk to Kate about the unusual home she’s found for her work: maximum security prisons. Kate is the founding artistic director of the Redeeming Time Project, which uses Shakespeare to effect positive change for the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated. She has been a facilitator with Rehabilitation Through the Arts (www.rta-arts.org) at Sing Sing Correctional Facility since 2009. 

Kate tells me how she discovered this work, how she runs her program, and the transformative effect of combining Shakespeare—famous for his depictions of all facets of human nature—with a prison population. I’m not gonna lie to you—I had goosebumps for most of this interview, and I think you might, too. If you do, I hope you’ll consider donating to help these programs transform lives—you’ll find a list of links in the show notes.

Please leave a review of the show, and in it, tell us about a time when theater transformed a part of your life.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in theatre!

Join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

"Push through resistance" is absolutely terrible advice. Why? I'll tell you in this short episode.

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon!

My guest this week, Stacey Smith? was one of my first guests in 2019, when we talked about the creative side of mathematics, and particularly about mathematical models of disease outbreaks—and the occasional zombie apocalypse. We also talked about how Doctor Who influenced her decision to become a mathematician in the first place. I asked Stacey to come back and talk about her own personal gender transition, both in terms of how that’s influenced her own work and what it’s taught her, and also to give us an update on how her mathematical work came into play when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

I think you’ll be surprised by a lot of what she has to say, and also find her outlook quite hopeful across the board. And you might just find yourself interested in at least one of her new books. I’d like to dedicate this episode to my friend, writing mentor, and fellow Doctor Who fan Rachel Pollack, a transgender pioneer whose long battle with cancer just ended on April 7th, but whose influence will be felt for generations to come.

You can hear our first conversation here.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when you were courageously true to yourself.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in writing and publishing!

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

Our culture tells us we should be obsessed(!) with the thing we're meant to do, which can lead to judgment on our part—of our kids, our friends, and ourselves. There are lots of reasons not to be obsessed, and better ways to deal with them than judgment. I'll tell you more in this short episode. 

If you suspect you're multi-passionate, I highly recommend the work of Barbara Sher ("Refuse to Choose") and Margaret Lobenstine ("The Renaissance Soul"). Thanks to Walt Whitman by way of Ted Lasso for this episode's title!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon!

My guest this week, Patrick Lombardi, was born and raised in New Jersey, where he still lives and writes for a variety of local and national sites like BestofNJ.com, NJ.com, and BuzzFeed. He’s collection of humorous stories and essays, Junk Sale, came out in 2018. He’s also the creator of DevourNJ.com, which highlights independent food businesses in New Jersey, and the companion New Jersey Food Truck Cookbook, which was just released in February.

Patrick talks to me about how he decided to focus on his writing, the challenges of writing humor, including judging feedback for humorous prose, and why it’s so important to engage in your art, whatever it might be. We also talk about his decision to start a website for local food, and how he manages all this on top of a day job and family life with an almost-brand-new baby. 

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when you've stuck with something you love.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in writing and publishing!

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

It's easy to think we don't need to get to our creative work now. It's also wrong. I'll tell you why in this short episode.

The episode I mention about being ready is Pep Talk #5: Ready.

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon!

Novelist Michael McLaughlin trained as a doctor for more than a decade before deciding that medicine wasn’t where he wanted to be after all. He moved back into his first love—fiction writing—in stages, moving to medical communications before deciding it was time to write full-time. Michael tells me how and why he made that shift, including how he wrote his first book, on career change, before jumping into the world of long fiction. We also talk about how he draws on his medical background and combines plotting and writing by the seat of his pants to get the best results in his work. 

Please leave a review and in it, tell us what helps you believe in yourself.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in writing and publishing!

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

We often believe that the best way to do good work—of any kind—is to do it well. Seems obvious, right? What if I told you the opposite is often true? I explain in this short episode.

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon!