The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity

Happy 2025, Everyone! To kick off the new year, we encourage you to consider your creative intentions and aspirations for the next 12 months. We focus on three main areas, including your creative practice, process, and products. Creative practice encompasses your creative routines and daily habits, while the creative process includes how you go about making work and bringing your ideas to life. Finally, creative products are the finished works that you may wish to release, publish, perform and otherwise share with the world. Focusing on these three areas helps to clarify not only your yearly creative goals, but also how and when you’ll go about accomplishing them. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we suggest you take some time at the beginning of the year to jot down your creative intentions in a journal or create a vision board that you can return to for inspiration throughout the year.. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 20: The Syncreate Model of Play, Plan & Produce, Episode 41: Creative Practice, Process, and Product, Episode 69: Reflecting on the Year.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Book

Charlotte Gullick’s Website

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

Austin Writing Coach

Melinda Joy Music Website

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, as we approach the new year, we discuss the benefits of taking time to reflect on our creative lives over the last year. It’s helpful to review the events of the year and projects we’ve engaged with, including highlights and accomplishments, as well as how we might want to approach things differently in the coming year. It’s a great way to consider where we’ve been creatively, how far we’ve come, and where we want to go next. Then we can begin to set our creative intentions for the year ahead (which we’ll discuss in Episode 71). This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to take some time to reflect on your creative life (and your life more generally) in 2024 and write down your reflections in a notebook or journal. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 41: Creative Practice, Process, and Product, Episode 59: How Creativity Opens Doors, and Episode 67: Moving Through the World with a Creative Eye.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Book

Charlotte Gullick’s Website

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

Austin Writing Coach

Melinda Joy Music Website

This episode explores the theme of wonder as it relates to art and science in the Islamic world, as well as the role of museum curator. Dr. Ladan Akbarnia is Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the San Diego Museum of Art and a Commissioner of Arts and Culture for San Diego County. She conceived and curated the current exhibition Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World. Previously, she served as Curator of Islamic Collections at the British Museum from 2010-2019, Executive Director at the Iran Heritage Foundation in London, and Associate Curator of Islamic Art at the Brooklyn Museum. She holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Art and Architecture from Harvard University. Our conversation includes an overview of the exhibition, Dr. Akbarnia’s process for curating it, including many collaborations with other institutions and contemporary artists, and her role as curator more broadly. 

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to get out to your local museum (or online collection), and view some art to see what it inspires for your own creative process. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 48: Can You Learn Creativity? with Creative Director Chris McKenna, Episode 52: Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston, and Episode 56: Asking the Questions with Stereophonic Cast Member Chris Stack.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

SDMA Wonders of Creation Exhibition Overview

Wonders of Creation Gallery Tour on YouTube 

Dr. Ladan Akbarnia on LinkedIn

Book: Wonders of Creation

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we discuss what it means to move through the world with a creative eye, to be a creative traveler, as it were, and how this approach can help us stay connected to our creativity in every moment. It can also help us find the humor, the beauty, and the story in everyday situations, including the good, the bad, the ugly, and the bizarre, like when we got shaken down in the bayous of Louisiana while rescuing Melinda’s mom and her cat after a hurricane. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to try something new, like going to a new place, even if it's in your home community, even if it's a place you pass by every single day, but just stop and linger and take the time to pay attention and notice what arises. Then create something based on the experience. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 22: Creative Play, Episode 51: Curiosity & Exploration, and Episode 65: Creative Flow.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. Please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Book

Charlotte Gullick’s Website

Book: Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway

Book: Deepening Fiction by Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

Austin Writing Coach

As creatives, and as humans more broadly, we can find ourselves holding habitual tension and pain in our bodies by virtue of our work, whether it be playing a musical instrument, performing physical labor, or simply sitting at a desk all day. Jennifer Roig-Francoli, a violinist and coach specializing in the Primal Alexander Technique, helps people rediscover ease and joy through body awareness. We discuss her personal and spiritual journey from professional concert violinist to coach and teacher, and she leads listeners through a guided body awareness practice using the Primal Alexander Technique developed by her partner, Mio Morales. 

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to practice the body awareness technique introduced in this episode, and to watch some of Jennifer’s YouTube videos to learn more. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 2: Embodiment and Creativity with Thais Bicalho Silva, Episode 4: Stewarding Change with Reem Khashou, and Episode 62: The Neuroscience of Creativity with Dr. Indre Viskontas. 

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

Jennifer’s Website - The Art of Freedom

Jennifer’s YouTube Channel

Book - Make Great Music with Ease, by Jennifer Roig-Francoli

The Alexander Technique

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, Charlotte interviews Melinda about her creative habits and daily practices, including meditation and journaling. Melinda is a musician, writer, and photographer, as well as a leadership and creativity coach, and a professor of creativity, innovation, and leadership. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to exercise your creativity every single day in whatever ways you can. Even 5 minutes per day can improve your creative flow and sense of creative identity. . 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 51: Curiosity & Exploration, Episode 59: Creativity Opens Doors, and Episode 63: The Writing Life with Charlotte Gullick.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Book

Charlotte Gullick’s Website

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

Austin Writing Coach

Melinda Joy Music Website

Synesthesia is defined as a blending or mixing of the senses. It can take many forms, such as tasting colors, seeing visuals when hearing music, and s on. It’s said to be experienced by only about 3% of people, but it is highly correlated with creativity. 

Zoe Martell and Archie Frink are both psychology Ph.D. students at Saybrook University, where Melinda teaches, as well as talented artists. They both also experience synesthesia. Zoe is a painter and budding musician. She holds master's degrees in an clinical psychology and the history and theory of art, as well as an MFA in painting. She has taught psychology at the college level for many years. 

Archie holds an MBA, and he's an author, a consciousness researcher, a clinically trained practitioner of integrative health, and a photographer focusing on extreme environments. Our conversation focuses on the experience of synesthesia, and how it relates to consciousness and creativity. 

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to pay close attention to your sensory experience and how you experience the world, either through observing your moment-to-moment sensory experience, or through meditation, and see how it informs your creative practice. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 3: Creative Polymathy with Musician, Photographer, and Podcaster Michael Walker, Episode 52: Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston, and Episode 54: Creativity as a Spiritual Endeavor with Musician and Author Peter Himmelman. 

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review!

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

Psychology Today Article on Synesthesia

YouTube Video: What Is It Like To Have Synesthesia?

Archie Frink on LinkedIn

Henri Bergson

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, Melinda interviews Charlotte about her writing life, creative practices, and how creativity has made her a better person. Charlotte is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as a professor, Program Manager at Vassar College, and former Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to adopt a daily accountability practice, whether using an app or in a more analog form to support a regular creative practice. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 41: Creative Practice, Process, and Product, Episode 49: Creativity in Challenging Times, and Episode 57: Accountability Partnerships.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Book

Charlotte Gullick’s Website

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

Austin Writing Coach

Melinda Joy Music Website

Dr. Indre Viskontas is a woman of many talents: an opera singer and director, a neuroscientist, a professor, host of the Inquiring Minds podcast (and several others), and the current president of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity. She bridges the worlds of music, performance, neuroscience, and education, sharing her academic insights with the wider world through public speaking, including a TED Talk, her book, titled How Music Can Make You Better, and her podcasts. Our conversation explores Indre’s current research, as well as her own creative process, how she’s teaching her own kids about creativity, and more.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, if you’re feeling stuck, whether it’s a creative project or business presentation, try introducing a plot twist. This is a narrative and storytelling device where instead of telling a story chronologically, you introduce a “but” or “therefore” to create interest or suspense, thus keeping your audience more engaged. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 9: Music and Psychology: "The Pocket" Experience with Dr. Jeff Mims, Episode 25: Creativity, Neuroscience, and Psychedelics with Bradley Cooke, PhD, and Episode 48: Can You Learn Creativity? with Creative Director Chris McKenna

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

Dr. Indre Viskontas’ Website

Inquiring Minds Podcast

Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity

YouTube Video Clip: “But” & “Therefore” with Matt Stone & Trey Parker

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we explore how isolation and solitude can show up in our creative process, how to distinguish between the two, and how to work with both. When we feel isolated, it’s important to reach out and connect with our communities. But sometimes we need to cultivate solitude in order to dig deep into our creative work. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, includes insights and prompts from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to be strategic about solitude. Perhaps plan a retreat or just some concentrated alone time to focus on your current idea or project. 

Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 31: The Power of Collaboration, Episode 37: Giving Back to the Community, Episode 35: Navigating the Creative Wilderness, and Episode 49: Creativity in Challenging Times.

At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes.

Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at [email protected]. 

Episode-specific hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Book

Charlotte Gullick’s Website

Show / permanent hyperlinks: 

The Syncreate Podcast

Syncreate Website

Syncreate Instagram

Syncreate Facebook

Syncreate LinkedIn

Syncreate YouTube

Melinda Rothouse Website

Austin Writing Coach

Melinda Joy Music Website