Modern Creativity | Creating Space for Being and Doing – by Kathy Känzig

In this episode, I sit down with Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, co-authors of the New York Times bestseller Your Brain on Art.

This conversation has been a long time coming, and honestly, it feels like a reward for a journey that started back in 2022 when I first began having these conversations out loud. What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why Neuroaesthetics is best understood as "Creative Health" — a pillar of wellbeing just like exercise, nutrition, and sleep, not a luxury or a talent reserved for a few.
• Why we are feeling beings who learned to think, rather than thinking beings who learned to feel
• How Susan and Ivy's collaborative process mirrors weaving — bringing together science and design
• Why humans are physiologically wired to be both makers and receivers of art
• How our thoughts act like magnetic particles within one shared field — and what that means for the world we're collectively creating.

About the Guests

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she studies how our brains and bodies transform when we engage with the arts. She is also the creator of the Impact Thinking model and co-director of the NeuroArts Blueprint project with the Aspen Institute.

Ivy Ross is the Vice President of Design for Hardware at Google, leading the design language behind Google's hardware products. Before her work in tech, she built a career as an acclaimed jewelry designer, with pieces held in the permanent collections of museums including the Smithsonian and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Together, Susan and Ivy wrote Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, making the case, backed by real science, for why the arts aren't a luxury, but a biological necessity.

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Join us for our next 3-hour Reflection & Direction Workshop on Resistance — August 29th in Berlin. A guided space to pause, reflect, and find your next direction. Spots are limited.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.

In this episode I sit down with Lukas Feireiss, a true "Wundertüte" filled with exciting stories and perspectives. We explore the beautiful intersection of healing and the arts. Growing up with a medical doctor father and a gallerist mother, Lukas experienced these two worlds not as separate, but as seamlessly co-present. Today, he dedicates his work to building bridges between medicine and art, recognizing them as complementary ways to understand and engage with the world.

We dive into his work with the Charité on the "Healing Arts" dialogue series and measurable health benefits of both active and passive engagement with the arts.  We also discuss navigating vulnerability in a society that often disciplines male emotion, and how practices as seemingly opposite as Reiki and martial arts both ultimately teach us the profound power of presence and soft power.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why creativity can be seen simply as a structural principle of life , rooted in growth and evolution.

• How to uncover your own "creative DNA" and recognize your inherent structural forces.

• Why you don't need to intellectually "understand" art ; it is primarily about resonance and presence.

• The power of giving yourself a "date with art" by sitting with a painting and observing your physical sensations.

• How healing is not about returning to a previous status quo , but about evolving and growing after a disruption.

About the Guest Lukas Feireiss works as a curator, coach, and bridge-builder between transdisciplinary arts and medicine. Through his coaching practice, Cura vision, he acts as a co-navigator to help people reveal their inherent creative strengths and design their external expressions. Find him on Instagram.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.

In this special episode, I share a live session recorded at the Art & Mindfulness Night Academy at Fotografiska Berlin from the 26th of February 2026.

In this talk, I guide the audience through an embodied art practice exploring how artworks can become a training ground for meaning-making, presence, and inner dialogue.

Rather than analyzing art intellectually, the practice invites us to slow down and notice what happens within us when we open up to an artwork. Through three layers — feeling, body, and message — we explore how perception, sensation, and reflection interact.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Chris Heimann, a theatre director, educator, and former leader of the improvisation curriculum at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. For nearly two decades, Chris has guided actors, leaders, and teams to cultivate presence, spontaneity, and embodied awareness — using improvisation as a pathway into deeper human connection and creative agency.

Together, we explore what it means to work with what you’ve got, how play shapes our creativity, and why presence is perhaps the most powerful skill we have in a world that constantly pulls us away from the current moment.

The conversation moves from childhood impulses to leadership, from somatic intelligence to curiosity, and from friction to flow. Chris and I reflect on improvisation as a form of research — a way to understand ourselves, each other, and the stories we co-create.

• How creative play can lead us to greater awareness

• Why presence is a leadership skill

• The promise of any given moment

• Why improvisation begins with “working with what you’ve got”

• Somatic intelligence and speaking through the body

• Navigating uncertainty: the art of letting go

• How “yes, and…” can shift collaboration and leadership

• The difference between performing and researching through play

• Simple practices to cultivate presence in everyday life

About Chris

Dr. Chris Heimann led the improvisation curriculum at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for 19 years, teaching actors including Cynthia Erivo, Taron Egerton, Amy Lou Wood, and Marisa Abela. He is a two-time Fringe First Award–winning theatre director, and has spent 20 years coaching leaders and teams on communication, collaboration, creativity, and leadership. Chris is now based in Berlin, where he works through his company Spacecraft, helping individuals and organizations cultivate presence, awareness, and creative leadership.

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🎟 Whoops – already in the past: Reflection & Direction Workshop

If you’re in Berlin, join me at the start of January for a 3-hour Reflection & Direction Workshop guided by Transformation Designer Daniele Lauriola and Creative Health Facilitator Kathy Känzig. We’ll look back at 2025 and create a personal orientation for the year ahead.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.

In this episode, I am joined by Caitlin Krause, a globally recognized experience designer, author, and educator whose work bridges technology, storytelling, and emotional intelligence. Together, we explore what Digital Wellbeing truly means in a world designed to distract — and how we can cultivate presence, imagination, and care in our digital lives.

The conversation moves from mindfulness to AI, from wonder to design, and from play to purpose. Caitlin and I reflect on creativity as a form of connection — not just to others, but to ourselves and the living systems around us. In this episode, we talk about:

• What creativity means in an age of automation

• How to design for Digital Wellbeing

• Why wonder and imagination are vital for human connection

• Lessons from Caitlin’s teaching at Stanford and University of Oregon

• The role of awe and embodiment in technology design

• The difference between using technology and being used by it

• Simple practices to bring more reflection and intentionality into your day

  
  

About Caitlin

Caitlin Krause is the founder of MindWise, an interactive studio and consultancy focused on wellbeing, leadership, and design. She teaches Digital Wellbeing, AI & XR at Stanford University and the University of Oregon, and advises organizations including TED, Google, Meta, and the U.S. State Department. Her latest book, Digital Wellbeing: Empowering Connection with Wonder and Imagination in the Age of AI, invites us to reimagine our relationship with technology through the lens of presence and play.

Connect with Caitlin

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🎟 Creative Health Event

If you’re in Berlin, join me on November 27th, 2025 for Creative Health: The Science of Awe and Neuroaesthetics — an embodied event co-hosted with EDGE Neuroscience & Art Collective and Curator Lukas Feireiss.

Grab your ticket here.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart. ✨

In this episode, I sit down with Katina Bajaj, clinical psychologist, co-founder of Daydreamers, and the leading voice in the emerging field of Creative Health. Katina’s pioneering work bridges psychology, neuroscience, and the art of living creatively — asking a powerful question: What if creativity was the missing pillar of our well-being?

Katina and I met serendipitously at Human+Tech Week in San Francisco, and I remember feeling an immediate spark — as if I had found someone speaking a language I’d been quietly learning myself. For years, I’ve been exploring how creativity can become a path to connection, and vitality — and then I met Katina, who has built an entire scientific framework around exactly that.

For years, wellness has focused on the mind and body — yet often overlooked our innate human capacity to imagine, make, and express. Katina’s work reframes creativity not as a luxury for artists, but as an essential practice for everyone seeking meaning, resilience, and connection in a rapidly changing world. Together, Katina and I explore:

• What Creative Health really means — and why it’s a core part of human flourishing.

• Why friction and discomfort are vital ingredients for creative growth.

• The relationship between AI, attention, and human creativity.

• How moments of awe, stillness, and wonder restore our sense of vitality.

• Practical ways to start cultivating your creativity muscle in everyday life.

This episode is a beautiful reminder that creativity is not about perfection or output — it’s about presence, curiosity, and being fully alive.

Connect with Katina Bajaj:

Daydreamers

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If this conversation resonated with you, follow Modern Creativity and leave a short review — it truly helps me keep sharing dialogues and inspiring guests like Katina with you.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.

In dieser Folge ist alles ein bisschen anders: Diesmal übernimmt Lisa Jikeli die Rolle der Host und fragt mich über die Emotion Awe, ein Gefühl zwischen Staunen, Ehrfurcht und Verbundenheit, und meine Reise ins Esalen Institute in Kalifornien aus.

In Esalen habe ich an einem Workshop mit Dacher Keltner (UC Berkeley, Greater Good Science Center) teilgenommen. Wir sprechen darüber, wie Awe unser Wohlbefinden, unsere Kreativität und unsere Beziehungen beeinflusst – und warum Staunen ein wichtiger Teil von emotionaler und kreativer Gesundheit ist. Themen der Folge:

• Was die Emotion Awe bedeutet
• Warum Dankbarkeit, Liebe und Natur Zugänge zu diesem Zustand sind
• Wie wir Awe im Alltag kultivieren können – auch im Arbeitskontext
• Welche Rolle Gemeinschaft und geteilte Erfahrungen dabei spielen

🎟️ Future of Work Salon on Awe – 28. Oktober 2025, Co-Creation Loft Berlin 🎟️

Erwähnt in dieser Episode:

• The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder – Dacher Keltner

• Radical Transformation – Lisa Jaspers, Naomi Ryland & Zoraida Velásquez Reverón

• How We Feel App

• Esalen Institute, Big Sur (CA)

• Ep. 43 mit Lisa und Anja über The Good Change Facilitator

• Ep. 4 mit Lisa über die Anfänge ihrer Coaching-Praxis

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Danke, dass du hier bist. 

In this episode I sit down with behavioral scientist Yana Nakhimova, the creator of the Body Mind Method™. Yana’s pioneering work bridges neuroscience, somatics, and behavioral change to explore a question with big implications: What if movement could rewire the brain?

For decades, behavioral science tried to change the mind through thought, while fitness focused only on the body. Yana’s approach shows how precise, playful movements can open the “neuroplastic window,” helping us build emotional resilience, adaptability, and creativity.

Together, Kathy and Yana dive into:

• How tension blocks creativity — and why relaxation is the gateway to play and flow.

• Simple movement practices you can use anywhere to reset your nervous system.Why agency through the body is more sustainable than relying on apps, pills, or willpower.

• The paradigm shift from seeing movement as fitness to seeing it as a system for flourishing.
  

  This episode is both deeply practical and inspiring — a reminder that our bodies are our greatest technology, especially in an age where AI often steals the spotlight.

Connect with Yana Nakhimova:

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💡 Read the Forbes article about Yana's work

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart. – Kathy

In this nourishing conversation, I’m joined by my dear friend and Jivamukti yoga teacher Rebecca Munro to explore the world of Tarot—not as a fortune-telling gimmick, but as a beautiful mirror into our subconscious and a playful, intuitive tool for self-discovery.

Rebecca shares her personal journey: from creative childhood to losing touch with that spark in early adulthood, and then finding her way back—through yoga, through Tarot, and through embracing her own “weirdness.” We talk about breaking the stigma around spiritual practices, using Tarot for self-inquiry, and learning to trust your intuition as a guiding force. You’ll hear about:

• The origins of Tarot and how it evolved from a card game to a spiritual tool

• Tarot as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind

• Why embracing your weirdness might just be your superpower

• Practical tips if you’re curious (or skeptical) about starting with Tarot

Rebecca’s wisdom flows far beyond the cards—into grounding practices, holding space for others, and finding a creative life that feels true to you.

Whether you’re Tarot-curious, spiritually skeptical, or already in love with the cards, this episode will leave you feeling inspired, empowered, and maybe ready to pull a card yourself.

Connect with Rebecca Munro:

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.

In this episode, I’m joined by Neelama Eyres, Program Director at Stanford University, CCARE (The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education).

We met through the online course Cultivate a Compassionate Heart, and I was immediately touched by Neelama’s grounded presence and deep wisdom. This conversation is an invitation to explore the connection between creativity and compassion, and how both are essential in today’s world — especially in times of personal or collective challenge. 

We speak about the science of compassion, everyday practices for self-kindness, and how meeting our own suffering can unlock strength, authenticity, and creative power. Find out:

• Why compassion is a creative force
• The difference between empathy and compassion (and why it matters)
• The power of common humanity in divided times
• Small practices to meet yourself with more care in everyday life
• Why perfectionism is not your friend :)
• And why compassion is a "forever practice" — not a one-time fix

Find out more about Neelama’s work:

Stanford CCARE

Cultivate a Compassionate Heart

Resources mentioned:

Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything Dr. James Doty

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

World Compassion Report by the Muhammad Ali Foundation

Take a Moment to Support the Podcast:

If you enjoyed this conversation, follow Modern Creativity and leave a short review. It’s a small gesture that truly helps me keep sharing soulful stories and thoughtful guests like Neelama with you.

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Thank you for being here. Stay open, stay kind, and keep creating from the heart.