The Science of Creativity

We're going to leave the podcast studio and travel to Yale University for the 2025 creativity research conference! This episode has six interviews with leading-edge creativity researchers and the next episode has five more. There were over two hundred researchers at Yale, from around the world, including Japan, India, Europe, and South America. This is the official American Psychological Association creativity research conference. In this episode, you'll hear about research that is SO NEW that it hasn't even been published yet. Top creativity researchers attend this conference each year so that they can find out about the latest research findings, and now you can hear about it, too. This episode takes you to the conference room floor. Listen to this episode and the next one, because there is too much great research for just one episode! Dr. Sawyer invited six researchers to tell us about their latest research findings, and there are five more in the next episode.

Chapters

1:49 Conference welcome from Roni Reiter-Palmon

2:49 Kristin Lamb: Imagination and Creativity

9:40 Ahmad Rahimi: Using Large Language Models to Assess Student Creativity with Games

13:43 Interlude

14:41 Shoshi Kesari: Improv Theater with Adults

20:34 Denis Dumas: Children and the balance between originality and appropriateness

31:15 Michael Mumford: Creativity research from the 1970s to today

42:11 Outro

43:19 Closer

Resources

Conference web site

Conference detailed schedule of presentations

Music by license from SoundStripe:

• "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ
• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

Dr. Leidy Klotz is a professor at the University of Virginia, and the author of the book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. In this episode, we talk about how his research contributes to our understanding of how to approach and solve problems and how to change and innovate. This is an insightful conversation between two psychologists who really love to study how people think and act! Dr. Klotz's research is about so much more than creativity, but his research is linked to a lot of creativity topics, including editing during the process, architectural design, and education. Please take a look at Dr. Leidy Klotz's book, which is called Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, and visit his web site at leidyklotz.com.

Music by license from SoundStripe:

• "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ
• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

Dr. Amy Climer is a thought leader in creativity and innovation. She argues that creativity emerges from a deliberate process. Creativity can be learned, practiced, and repeated. Researchers have discovered a lot about how to teach this effectively, and this is the theme of her new book, Deliberate Creative Teams. In Dr. Climer's view, creativity is an intentional, structured process. For over 20 years, she's been facilitating creativity workshops with teams and organizations. She helps companies learn how to foster an innovative culture through her company Climer Consulting. She's the developer of the Deliberate CreativeⓇ Team Scale and the ClimerⓇ Cards, both powerful tools for enhancing team creativity.

For more information:

Amy's company: Climer Consulting

Amy's book: Deliberate Creative Teams

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

Dr. Yoed Kenett studies the types of thinking and knowledge that support creativity. His research helps us understand the core mental processes of creativity, including associative thinking and question formulation. In this episode, we talk about the practical implications of his research and we show how that research can be used to enhance your creativity. He's done research at the Hebrew University at Jerusalem; Bar-Ilan University; Brown University; and the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2020, he's been a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences at The Technion: Israel Institute of Technology.

How can leaders foster creativity in their teams? How can you inspire people to reach their potential? Today's guest, Dr. Adam Galinsky, has spent decades studying these questions, doing research in social psychology, leadership, and organizational behavior. His latest book, Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others, gives research-based advice for how to increase motivation, creativity, and collaboration. These are important skills for leaders but also for everyone in their daily lives. Adam is also the co-author of Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both.

Adam Galinsky is a professor at Columbia Business School.

For more information:

Adam's web site

Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others

Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

Dr. Robert Sternberg, a professor of psychology at Cornell University, is one of the best-known psychologists in the United States. He's done groundbreaking research on the most important issues in psychology, including scientific studies of wisdom, love, hate, leadership, and of course, creativity. Dr. Sternberg is known for reforming college admissions requirements to include measures of creativity, which he did while a dean at both Tufts University and at Oklahoma State University. He's published literally thousands of books and scientific articles and his research has been cited by other scholars over 250,000 times. Dr. Sternberg's research represents the best that we have in The Science of Creativity.

For more information:

Robert J. Sternberg, 2007. Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized.

Robert J. Sternberg, 2002. Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity.

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

Dr. Anna Abraham is a neuroscientist, a leading creativity researcher, and a professor at the University of Georgia. In addition to her cutting-edge research, Professor Abraham is the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, a research and outreach center at the University of Georgia. Dr. Abraham is doing cutting-edge research in some of the most important aspects of the human experience. She's studied creativity, imagination, the reality-fiction distinction, and mental time travel. In this episode, we talk about her new book, The Creative Brain: Myths and Truths. The book helps us understand what science tells us about controversial topics. For example, is creativity connected to mental illness, psychedelic drugs, or autism? Listen to our interview to find out.

For more information:

Professor Anna Abraham's web site

Her book The Creative Brain: Myths and Truths

The Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at the University of Georgia

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

John Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator. His latest book is a graphic novel called The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. In this episode, John and I talk about his new book and about his own creative process. John's work has appeared in numerous publications, such as Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, Time Magazine, National Geographic, among many others. His images also appeared in advertising campaigns for ESPN/ABC, AT&T, Pfizer, and Target.

I interviewed John about his creative process for my 2025 book Learning to See: Inside the World's Leading Art and Design Schools.

John is the Kenneth E. Hudson Professor of Art and the founding Chair of the MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture program at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

For more information:

John Hendrix Illustration: www.johnhendrix.com

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis & J. R. R. Tolkien

Sawyer's new book Learning to See will be published in April, 2025.

Music by license from Soundstripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal"

by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

The perfect podcast for the Christmas season! This is a special Christmas episode of The Science of Creativity. Many of the traditions that we love—gift-giving, Santa Claus, kissing under the mistletoe—were invented across the generations, and are always evolving. This special holiday episode gives you the creation story of the secular, non-religious traditions that we celebrate at Christmas. The collective creation of these Christmas traditions is what I call social innovation, a kind of collective creativity where everyone plays a role. Five hundred years ago, Christmas was a wild party, where young men got drunk and roamed in packs around town. Children didn't start getting gifts until about 200 years ago. In the late 1800s, the Santa Claus myth was invented, along with the elves and the sleigh and the workshop at the North Pole. It started two thousand years ago, in Ancient Rome, it picked up steam in the 1800s, and we're still creating new Christmas traditions today.

Chapters

0:00 Teaser

1:11 Introduction to the Special Episode

2:12 Tradition and Invention

5:28 Wassailing

12:23 Toys

16:06 Santa Claus

21:25 The War on Christmas

25:24 The Holiday for Everyone

27:54 Closer

28:44 Outro

Music by License from Soundstripe:

• "Blues for Oliver" by Cast of Characters
• "Silent Night" by Cast of Characters
• "O Christmas Tree" by O Christmas Tree Jazz Trio
• "Just Walkin'" by Ryan Saranich
• "Uptown Lovers" by AFTERNOONZ

Notes

The Pagan Origins of Christmas: Saturnalia, Yule, and Other Pre-Christian Traditions | History Cooperative

Wikipedia entries: "The war on Christmas" and "Wassailing" and "Syncretism"

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

Kit White is the author of the international best-selling book 101 Things To Learn In Art School, which is based on his experience as a professor of art for 21 years at the Pratt Institute in New York. Many of the original drawings from the book are in the collection of the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, George Washington University. He's had more than 25 solo exhibitions of his artworks in galleries and museums. His artworks are in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and many others. He's frequently featured in magazines, newspapers, and television, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Nation. In addition to Pratt, he's taught at Vanderbilt, McGill, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection. His work is the subject of a monograph by Carter Ratcliff, Line Into Form.

For more information:

101 Things To Learn In Art School

www.kitwhiteart.com

Music by license from SoundStripe:

• "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ
• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer