Makers & Mystics

Ours is a fast-paced digital world where technology has become such a personalized part of our daily lives, it’s hard to imagine who we are without it.

Social media, augmented reality, and AI-driven personalization each contribute to the formation of a digital identity which impacts the way we connect with others and how we present ourselves online.

We’ve grown accustomed to how our smartphones and smartwatches intertwine physical and digital experiences. We’ve become accustomed to the ways technology influences the way we perceive ourselves and others but what happens when these technologies progress toward a seeming agency of their own? Or what about when our likeness is replicable in a virtual rendering or when the creative works we make are easily emulated by AI?

For many artists, these capabilities bring up real concerns about intellectual property and the ethics of what constitutes our identity.

Joining us for this discussion today is someone whose creative work intersects the worlds of art, technology and the future in ways that offer a positive look into the influence of emerging technologies on the artist’s life.

Sam Rad is a lifelong student of humanity, storyteller, performer, and musician. She was trained in anthropology, theatre, and movement/embodiment at New York University, British American Drama Academy at Oxford University, and Lee Strasberg Institute in NYC. She started her career as a theater director -- before founding 4 technology companies.

Today, Sam Rad is considered a futurist, one who looks into emerging technologies and helps us understand the coming impacts these tools will have on our lives. She is a published author and highly sought after motivational speaker who merges spirit and science through consciousness, connection, and creativity.

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How we show up in the world often takes on a wide variety of expressions. Our public and private lives reflect the many roles we play in society and the varying facets of personality traits we form to cope with different situations.

From parent to co-worker, artist or spiritual practitioner, from a social media persona to a dinner guest with friends, even bygone roles remaining with us from childhood, our sense of identity moves through a myriad of shapes and forms.

But what happens when these different aspects of our lives no longer communicate? Or when we are expected to abide by a former version of ourselves that no longer reflects our current view of the world?

Joining me for this conversation is licensed mental health therapist, Jay Stringer. Jay’s academic background includes a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the renowned Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. As well as he has received specialized training under Dr. Dan Allender while serving as a Senior Fellow at the Allender Center.

As we approach our final episodes on this seasons theme of art and identity, I think you’ll find Jay’s perspective to be both rewarding and challenging.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment with Jay at Patreon.com/makersamdmystics

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This Artist’s roundtable discussion was recorded live at Loom creative arts event in Spruce Pines, NC. The conversation centers on the importance of building creative community, the embodiment of the creative process and what it means to be an artist of faith amidst a culture in crisis.

Joining us for this discussion is long time friend of the podcast, author/illustrator Vesper Stamper, photographer and founder of JHS pedals Josh Scott, conversation host Corey Frey and myself, Stephen Roach.

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This year I’ve had the opportunity to participate in several creative arts gatherings including Loom, Hope Words writer’s conference and here recently, the Guild in Raleigh NC.

The talk I gave at the Guild is a call to take a look at the mindsets we are cultivating in our lives and a reminder that what we feed is what will grow.  Are we feeding a mindset of abundance or one of scarcity? Is our inner framework one of hope or one of negative anticipation?

I wanted to share this live talk with you as an encouragement to consider how the mindsets we keep determine the quality of art we make and the lives we live.

- Stephen

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At one time, religious identity and the Christian narrative formed the social imaginary of our western world.

To be a part of a local church or to identify with some aspect of the values of traditional faith was an assumed part of American life.

But today, autonomy, self-fulfillment and individual expression seem to have taken the forefront of how a generation defines themselves and lives out the search for meaning and deeper purpose.

My guest today is novelist and prolific writer, Tara Isabella Burton.

Tara Isabella Burton is the author of the novels Social Creature, The World Cannot Give, and the forthcoming Here in Avalon (S&S, January 2024), and the nonfiction Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World and Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians.

She has written on religion and culture for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and more. She received her doctorate in Theology from Oxford in 2017, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center.

In our conversation, Tara shares about how modern society has not so much abandoned it’s yearning for transcendence in favor of a secular world view but has rather simply re-mixed the grand narrative to fit the values of expressive individualism.

Tara also shares about fiction as a catalyst of embodying truth and how fandom, religious affiliation and art play into the shaping of identity.

You can pre-order Tara’s upcoming novel here.

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Hugo Ball was a German sound poet, theatrical performer and mystic. He and his partner Emmy Hennings were the original catalysts of the infamous Dadaist art movement which they started in Zurich, Switzerland around 1916.

What may be surprising to learn is that Hugo Ball was a Catholic and his bizarre forms of art were deeply informed by his theology.

Joining me for this episode is visual artist, writer and art critic Jonathan Anderson. Jonathan writes about Hugo in his book, Modern Art & the Life of A Culture.

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What do we make of the world we have been given? How do we bring order from chaos, beauty from ashes and flourishing from what is formless and void? Echoing the words first spoken by the Great Artist in the Genesis narrative, we, too, have been invited to bring forth, to give birth, to call life into being.

At this year‘s The Breath & the Clay creative arts gathering, we are extending this invitation to you. Come. Participate in the unfolding of your creative inheritance.

As artists and creators, we are called upon to be the architects of hope for our generation and for the generations to come. Lend your voice to the transformation, and liberate the creative spark.

Let there be.

Each year since 2014, The Breath and the Clay has gathered in Winston Salem, North Carolina for a 3-day experience curated to inspire, challenge and transform your creative and spiritual journey. The event consists of live performances, keynote talks, an immersive art gallery and instructional workshops.

Whether you are a working artist, a curious observer, a newfound experimentalist or a lifelong explorer, this interactive environment will liberate the creative spark within you and set you on a course of creative discovery.

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Tasha Jun is a Korean American melancholy dreamer, wife, and mom, who grew up in a multicultural and biracial home. She’s spent her life navigating the space between worlds: American and Korean, faith and doubt, family devotion and fierce independence. As a Korean American, she wandered between seemingly opposing worlds, struggling to find a voice to speak and a firm place for her feet to land.

In today’s episode, as we continue our exploration of art and identity, Tasha talks with me about her journey from self-rejection to self-acceptance and how writing her memoir Tell Me The Dream Again served as a means of integrating the multi-faceted parts of her identity.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy a deeper dive into this topic with Tasha on our Patreon.

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After accidentally fixing a broken guitar pedal in 2007, Joshua Heath Scott’s natural curiosity pulled him into the rabbit hole of electrical engineering and circuit design-- from this experience, his company, JHS Pedals was born. 

Today, JHS pedals has become one of the most influential pedal companies in the world, preferred by recording artists such as Beck, John Mayer, Madison Cunningham and many others.

Josh’s YouTube series, The JHS Show, has garnered millions of views from audiences spanning the globe and often expands into documentaries on musical technology, invention and music history. 

Aside from his guitar-related work, Josh is an accomplished published photographer who focuses on photographic essays of Midwestern America. 

Much like his pedal company, Josh tells us he accidentally fell in love with photography, riding his bicycle throughout Kansas farmlands and documenting what he saw.

In today’s episode, recorded live at the Loom creative arts event, Josh talks about the curiosity that drives his creative work as well as ‘the adjacent possible,’ a term describing creative and innovative possibilities that grow as they are explored. 

Following our theme of art and identity, Josh shares about finding reflections of ourselves in others and in the way we see the world around us.

Patrons of the podcast can enjoy an additional interview segment with Josh at patreon.com/makersandmystics

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Qais Essar is a contemporary Afghan composer, instrumentalist, and producer who channels his melodic designs through the rabab, a 2,500 year old instrument from Afghanistan. He has toured extensively, sharing his new genre of music nationally and internationally. He has contributed original music to feature film and television also, composing for 2021’s Oscar-nominated film, Three Songs for Benazir. In 2017, Qais was recruited by director Nora Twomey to compose an original song for her Oscar-nominated film, The Breadwinner (produced by Angelina Jolie). He earned a Canadian Screen Award for “Best Original Song” for his piece, The Crown Sleeps.

In this episode, Qais shares his deep connections to this ancient instrument and how the rebab has become an extension of his own voice.

Following our theme of Art & Identity, this conversation offers a beautiful perspective on how culture, tradition and innovation shape the people we become.

Hear Qais Essar’s latest release “My Whole Heart.”

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Stephen’s Songs of Water music

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