Books & Writers · The Creative Process: Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Non-fiction Writers & Journalists Talk

The Creative Process
  • 5.0 (89)
  • Books
  • Updated Daily

Books & Writing episodes of the popular The Creative Process podcast. To listen to ALL arts & creativity episodes of “The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society”, you’ll find our main podcast on Apple: tinyurl.com/thecreativepod, Spotify: tinyurl.com/thecreativespotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Exploring the fascinating minds of creative people. Conversations with writers, artists & creative thinkers across the Arts & STEM. We discuss their life, work & artistic practice. Winners of Pulitzer, Oscar, Emmy, Tony, leaders & public figures share real experiences & offer valuable insights. Notable guests include: Neil Gaiman, Roxane Gay, George Pelecanos, George Saunders, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jericho Brown, Joyce Carol Oates, Hilary Mantel, Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, Siri Hustvedt, Jeffrey Sachs, Jeffrey Rosen (National Constitution Center), Tom Perrotta, Ioannis Trohopoulos (UNESCO World Book Capital), Ana Castillo, David Tomas Martinez, Rebecca Walker, Isabel Allende, Ian Buruma, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ada Limon, John d’Agata, Rick Moody, Paul Auster, Robert Olen Butler, Yiyun Li, Rob Nixon, Tobias Wolff, Yann Martel, Junot Díaz, Edna O’Brien, Eimear McBride, Jung Chang, Jane Smiley, Marge Piercy, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sara Paretsky, Carmen Maria Machado, Neil Patrick Harris, Jay McInerney, Etgar Keret, DBC Pierre, Adam Alter, Janet Burroway, Geoff Dyer, Jenny Bhatt, Hala Alyan, E.J. Koh, Jeannie Vanasco, Lan Samantha Chang (Iowa Writers Workshop), Alice Fulton, Alice Notley, McKenzie Funk, Emma Walton Hamilton, Krys Lee, Douglas Kennedy, Sam Lipsyte, Charles Baxter, Azby Brown, G. Samantha Rosenthal, Ashley Dawson, Douglas Wolk, Suzanne Simard, Seth Siegel, Richard Wolff, Todd Miller, Giulio Boccaletti, Amy Aniobi, among others. The interviews are hosted by founder and creative educator Mia Funk with the participation of students, universities, and collaborators from around the world. These conversations are also part of our traveling exhibition.
 www.creativeprocess.info For The Creative Process podcasts from Seasons 1 & 2, visit: tinyurl.com/creativepod or creativeprocess.info/interviews-page-1, which has our complete directory of interviews, transcripts, artworks, and details about ways to get involved.

  1. Humans as Storytelling Animals: Poets, Novelists & Musicians on the Power of Writing

    6d ago

    Humans as Storytelling Animals: Poets, Novelists & Musicians on the Power of Writing

    Why do we write? Is it to capture a memory before it vanishes or to build a bridge between the person we are and the stories we've been told? In this episode of The Creative Process, we explore the practice of writing as an awakening and tool for discovery with a group of celebrated poets, novelists, musicians and thinkers. We hear from neuroscientist, dancer and author Julia Christensen on how literature inspires transformative aesthetic experiences. Award-winning poet and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan discusses navigating displacement through narrative, while bestselling author Andre Dubus III reflects on the honest labor of the writer and the willingness to fail. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown shares how the sounds of American vernacular guide his work and Fmr. US Poet Laureate Ada Limón discusses holding hope within frightening thoughts about the future of our planet. NYT Bestseller Aimee Nezhukumatathil speaks on tenderness towards the natural world and naturalist Sy Montgomery shares how animals have been her greatest teachers. The conversation expands with poet Max Stossel on finding humanity in conflict, Tiokasin Ghosthorse on the ancient energy of the earth and Julian Lennon on art as a collective human endeavor. Finally, composer Erland Cooper takes us to the landscape of his youth, where the sound of the sea informed his creative voice.  To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    17 min
  2. Listening to the Living World: Ami Vitale, Yann Martel, Carl Safina, David George Haskell & Others on Climate Change & The Rights of Nature

    Apr 22

    Listening to the Living World: Ami Vitale, Yann Martel, Carl Safina, David George Haskell & Others on Climate Change & The Rights of Nature

    Today, we hear from writers Yann Martel, Carl Safina and David George Haskell on the practice of listening to the living world. Tom Chi discusses the dangerous volatility of a one-degree shift. Clayton Aldern explores how climate change alters brain health and behavior, while Ami Vitale,Osprey Orielle Lake and Martín Von Hildebrand remind us of the kinship we share with nature. Fred Pearce discusses 40 years as a journalist reporting on climate from around the world, while Richard Black of the environmental think tank Ember and Paula Pinho, European Commission’s Chief Spokesperson, talk about policy, hope and the radical empathy required to protect the planet for future generations. (0:00) Clayton Page Aldern – Finding awe and beauty in the world (0:40) David George Haskell – On consequences of humans tuning out the sounds of the living world (2:11) Yann Martel – How animals ask us to step out of our humanity (3:12) Carl Safina – The interior lives of non-human animals (5:08) Ami Vitale – Environmental collapse and human conflict (6:37) Martín von Hildebrand – Indigenous views of nature (8:00) Richard Black – Transition to clean energy vs. massive fossil fuel subsidies (10:01) Tom Chi – Climate destabilization (11:07) Paula Pinho – Europe’s vision for energy independence (14:04) Osprey Orielle Lake – Māori concept of "I am the river and the river is me” (16:08) Bill Hare – On limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees (17:19) Fred Pearce – Finding hope in nature’s resilience To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod @creativeprocesspodcast

    20 min
  3. How Flowers Made Our World: DAVID GEORGE HASKELL on Deep Time, Plant Intelligence & Listening to the Living World

    Apr 18

    How Flowers Made Our World: DAVID GEORGE HASKELL on Deep Time, Plant Intelligence & Listening to the Living World

    What if the defining revolution of Earth's history wasn't led by animals or humans, but by flowers? Are we truly individuals, or are our bodies and minds just walking ecosystems? Our guest today is David George Haskell, a biologist who has spent much of his life training himself to see the universal within the infinitesimally small. He's famously sat for a year in a single square meter of Tennessee's forest, a mandala experience that revealed the deep history of the world through a single fallen leaf. He's a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his books The Forest Unseen and Sounds Wild and Broken, and he received the John Burroughs Medal for The Songs of Trees. His work often focuses on what he calls the unwaged labor of the natural world, the complex biological communities that sustain our planet without a monetary ledger. And his latest book is How Flowers Made Our World. In it, he argues that we are essentially grass apes dependent on the ancient innovations of flowering plants for two-thirds of our daily calories. (0:00) How Flowers Made Our World The incredible ancient history of flowers on Earth (4:56) Contemplating the Small Expanding our world by restricting our gaze (14:30) The Illusion of Individuality Why atomism is false and interconnectedness is the foundation of life (26:08) We Are Grass Apes The evolutionary origins of humans and our dietary dependence on grass (33:32) Memories of His Childhood in Paris & Wild Orchids (38:55) The Networked Intelligence of Forests How trees communicate and share resources beneath the soil (44:00) The Earth in Full Song Tracing the sonic history of our planet (51:08) The Practice of Listening Why tuning in to the natural world is crucial for our survival (1:01:21) Silence Without Expectation Sitting with nature without demanding progress or enlightenment (1:11:01) Transforming Ourselves Why personal change matters in the fight for the climate (1:15:20) Escaping the Screen Finding real human-to-human connection away from technology (1:16:16) The True Cost of AI The devastating impact of data centers on our fossil fuel consumption (1:23:18) A Sensory Legacy for the Future What we must preserve for the generations not yet born Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    1h 26m
  4. Listening to the Living World: Biologist DAVID GEORGE HASKELL on Flowers, Forests & Songs of Nature - Highlights

    Apr 18

    Listening to the Living World: Biologist DAVID GEORGE HASKELL on Flowers, Forests & Songs of Nature - Highlights

    Step into the deep time of the forest floor, where a single fallen leaf contains the history of the world, and invisible fungal networks hum with ancient conversations. Biologist and acclaimed author David George Haskell reveals a staggering truth: we are completely dependent on the botanical world, and our belief in strict human individuality is a biological illusion. Haskell has spent much of his life training himself to see the universal within the infinitesimally small. He's famously sat for a year in a single square meter of Tennessee's forest, a mandala experience that revealed the deep history of the world through a single fallen leaf. He's a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his books The Forest Unseen and Sounds Wild and Broken, and he received the John Burroughs Medal for The Songs of Trees. His work often focuses on what he calls the unwaged labor of the natural world, the complex biological communities that sustain our planet without a monetary ledger. And his latest book is How Flowers Made Our World. In it, he argues that we are essentially grass apes dependent on the ancient innovations of flowering plants for two-thirds of our daily calories. (0:00) How Flowers Made Our World (1:33) Networked Connection is the Foundation of Life (2:00) Contemplating the Small (4:07) Consciousness, Intelligence & Memory in the More-Than-Human-World (4:18) We Are Grass Apes (5:41) Memories of His Childhood in Paris & Wild Orchids (6:34) The Networked Intelligence of Forests (7:45) The Earth in Full Song (8:46) The Practice of Listening (10:11) Escaping the Screen: Real Connections in the Classroom (11:35) The True Cost of AI (12:11) Transforming Ourselves (14:23) Silence Without Expectation (15:32) A Sensory Legacy for the Future Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    18 min
  5. Why Do We Listen to the Talkers More Than the Builders Saving the Planet? - Physicist, Designer, Investor TOM CHI - Highlights

    Apr 18

    Why Do We Listen to the Talkers More Than the Builders Saving the Planet? - Physicist, Designer, Investor TOM CHI - Highlights

    Why does our economy treat environmental destruction as an inevitable side effect rather than a massive design flaw? How can shifting our focus from polarizing "talkers" to practical "builders" literally save the planet? We are repeatedly told that the climate crisis is too vast and volatile to solve, but what if the true obstacle is simply bad design? Tom Chi is a physicist, designer, inventor, and investor whose work has shaped everything from Google Glass and rapid prototyping at Google X to some of the most ambitious climate technologies being built today. He’s now the founding partner of At One Ventures, where he invests in deep-tech companies focused on a bold goal: a world where humanity is a net positive to nature. Tom’s new book, Climate Capital: Investing in the Tools for a Regenerative Future, reframes economics itself—not as a fixed law, but as a design discipline that can be reimagined to align with the physical realities of our planet. Drawing on science, systems thinking, and lessons from nature, the book offers a grounded, practical framework for moving beyond both climate doom and empty optimism—and toward real, regenerative solutions. Today’s conversation is about what Tom calls the 4Cs: Capital, Compassion, Climate, and Community—but also about agency, responsibility, and what becomes possible when we stop treating the future as something that happens to us and start designing it deliberately. 0:00) Build Integrity: Choosing Builders Over Talkers Why prioritizing those who physically create solutions over those who merely debate them is essential for systemic change (1:21) Overcoming Powerlessness Through Creativity, Critical Thinking, Community Compassion Utilizing a specific framework of portable skills to move from climate anxiety into meaningful, iterative action (2:22) Capital Misallocation: Taxing What We Want to See A critique of current tax structures that burden labor while under-taxing capital and failing to serve societal needs (3:47) The Volatility Gap: Why Average Temperatures Mislead Understanding why increasing climate volatility—rather than just average temperature rise—is the true driver of human distress (6:19) Economics As Design: Redesigning The Global Engine Moving beyond "physics envy" in economics to treat the global market as a discipline that can be redesigned for better outcomes (9:11) Depth Over Breadth: Reforming Education Through Experience (13:30) Local Resilience: How Cities Can Lead The Transformation Practical, block-by-block strategies for urban adaptation, from expanding tree canopies to improving household efficiency (16:33) AI and Robotics in Agriculture (19:12) Human-Centric AI: Flipping The Priority Of Automation (20:18) Thinking In Pictures: A Language Beyond Words Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    22 min
  6. Climate Capital with TOM CHI - Google X Co-founder, Founding Partner At One Ventures

    Apr 18

    Climate Capital with TOM CHI - Google X Co-founder, Founding Partner At One Ventures

    “In the book I spend a bunch of time basically teaching skills and teaching frameworks of thinking. Not to indoctrinate, it's not a framework like an ideology where you need to believe exactly these things. This is a lot more about how does one use their minds effectively to solve problems that have been solved before. Of course, I work on things that have to do with investment and climate and the future of the economy and automation. The main things I'm trying to teach in the book are skills around creativity, critical thinking, community compassion and frameworks around how to go and use that on problems that should be relatively portable to a bunch of problems that are meaningful to you. The way that education needs to change is that people need to actively be working on things that truly matter to them so that over time they end up being able to go make that difference.” Tom Chi is a physicist, designer, inventor, and investor whose work has shaped everything from Google Glass and rapid prototyping at Google X to some of the most ambitious climate technologies being built today. He’s now the founding partner of At One Ventures, where he invests in deep-tech companies focused on a bold goal: a world where humanity is a net positive to nature. Tom’s new book, Climate Capital: Investing in the Tools for a Regenerative Future, reframes economics itself—not as a fixed law, but as a design discipline that can be reimagined to align with the physical realities of our planet. Drawing on science, systems thinking, and lessons from nature, the book offers a grounded, practical framework for moving beyond both climate doom and empty optimism—and toward real, regenerative solutions. Today’s conversation is about what Tom calls the 4Cs: Capital, Compassion, Climate, and Community—but also about agency, responsibility, and what becomes possible when we stop treating the future as something that happens to us and start designing it deliberately. (0:00) Overcoming Powerlessness through Creativity, Critical Thinking, Community Compassion Why broad hopelessness about the future is a purposeful tactic to maintain the status quo. (7:16) How average temperature metrics fail to communicate the true danger of extreme climate volatility. (11:54) Economics as Design (17:11) Multi-disciplinary Learning Centered on Real-World Impact (26:12) Local Resilience (31:15) Tax & Capital Misallocation (36:52) Build Integrity (45:32) AI and Robotics in Agriculture (51:08) The First Honeybee Vaccine (56:11) The Entropy Curve of Pollution (1:15:31) Human-Centric AI Flipping the priority of automation to serve the collective good rather than enriching a select few (1:20:59) Thinking in Pictures How learning to communicate and problem-solve without language fueled a career in deep tech invention Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    1h 27m

  7. Mar 14

    The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life with HELEN WHYBROW

    Have we forgotten how to truly participate in the natural world? What can the ancient practice of shepherding teach us about ecological healing? How does physical labor connect us to the land, memory and belonging? In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu speaks with Helen Whybrow about her book, The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life. Besides being a detailed account of the day to day, season by season life on her farm, where she and her family raise sheep, build a broad community, and maintain Knoll Farm, a center for activists, writers, artists and others to share ideas on how to promote healthier and more just ways of living together and in the environment, The Salt Stones is at base about the ways we are losing a sense of belonging, not only with others and with other forms of life on this planet, but also with the cycles of existence, of life and of death. Whybrow shows time and again that it is mostly a matter of developing ways of seeing and noticing what is all around us, and learning about and respecting the ways that generations of people and non-human animals have existed together in sustainable and mutually-dependent ways. Helen Whybrow is a writer, editor and organic farmer whose book about shepherding, land and belonging, The Salt Stones, was longlisted for the National Book Award and chosen as a New Yorker Best Book of 2025. Her other titles include Dead Reckoning (W. W. Norton, 2001) and A Man Apart (Chelsea Green, 2015). She has a master’s in journalism and has taught writing at Middlebury College and the Breadloaf Environmental Writer’s Conference. She and her family farm and steward a refuge for land justice at Knoll Farm in Fayston, Vermont. (0:00) The Salt Stones (2:50) A Lifelong Love of Land and Language (6:50) The Cord: A Story of Lambing and Life (13:40) Literary Influences and Jean Giono (18:15) The Erased Work of Nature (20:30) Radical Intimacy and Participation (23:45) Measuring Diminishment and Listening to Nature (25:15) Lita the Ewe and Complex Ecosystems (29:17) Kulning: The Lost Art of Herding Songs (32:15) Embodied Memory and Physical Labor (37:45) The True Meaning of Belonging (43:30) Radical Hospitality at Noel Farm (46:15) Closing Thoughts on Kinship  Episode Websitewww.palumbo-liu.comhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place

    50 min
  8. Game Over: Metrics, Big Data & Why We Need to Stop Keeping Score w/ C. THI NGUYEN - Highlights

    Mar 13

    Game Over: Metrics, Big Data & Why We Need to Stop Keeping Score w/ C. THI NGUYEN - Highlights

    "To be in the process of making things, to be in the process of talking to people about what things mean. The creative process is actually, I think, the most meaningful part of life, but it's very hard to measure. When we get shoved towards a world that demands easy measurables, it's very hard to optimize away from the creative process and optimize towards things that are more static." On this episode of The Creative Process, philosopher C. Thi Nguyen joins us to discuss his new book, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game. He unpacks the profound concept of "value capture"—the moment we stop caring about the rich, subtle experiences of life and start obsessing over simplified, external metrics like grades, likes, and screen time. Beyond the trap of quantification, C. Thi Nguyen explores the liberating power of games and art. We discuss how true play requires us to step lightly between different rule sets, the difference between art and craft, and how reclaiming our creative process might just be the ultimate meaning of life. (0:00) THE TRAP OF VALUE CAPTURE How external metrics and scoring systems hijack our personal values and creativity (7:09) THE LOGIC OF QUANTIFICATION Why simple numbers travel well but strip away vital human context, from screen time to grades (11:58) THE MAGIC CIRCLE OF PLAY Understanding the difference between a gamified life and the true, disattached beauty of struggle (14:57) ART, CRAFT, AND METRICS Why taking the hard way leads to genuine creative expression, and how to spot value-laden systems (19:34) THE POLITICS OF MEASUREMENT Questioning the assumption that complex human traits, like IQ or consciousness, can be quantified on a single scale (21:31) THE SPIRIT OF PLAY Using constraints to boost collaborative storytelling and learning to step lightly between different rule worlds Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

See All (299)

Trailer

Hosts & Guests

5
out of 5
89 Ratings

About

Books & Writing episodes of the popular The Creative Process podcast. To listen to ALL arts & creativity episodes of “The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society”, you’ll find our main podcast on Apple: tinyurl.com/thecreativepod, Spotify: tinyurl.com/thecreativespotify, or wherever you get your podcasts! Exploring the fascinating minds of creative people. Conversations with writers, artists & creative thinkers across the Arts & STEM. We discuss their life, work & artistic practice. Winners of Pulitzer, Oscar, Emmy, Tony, leaders & public figures share real experiences & offer valuable insights. Notable guests include: Neil Gaiman, Roxane Gay, George Pelecanos, George Saunders, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jericho Brown, Joyce Carol Oates, Hilary Mantel, Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, Siri Hustvedt, Jeffrey Sachs, Jeffrey Rosen (National Constitution Center), Tom Perrotta, Ioannis Trohopoulos (UNESCO World Book Capital), Ana Castillo, David Tomas Martinez, Rebecca Walker, Isabel Allende, Ian Buruma, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ada Limon, John d’Agata, Rick Moody, Paul Auster, Robert Olen Butler, Yiyun Li, Rob Nixon, Tobias Wolff, Yann Martel, Junot Díaz, Edna O’Brien, Eimear McBride, Jung Chang, Jane Smiley, Marge Piercy, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sara Paretsky, Carmen Maria Machado, Neil Patrick Harris, Jay McInerney, Etgar Keret, DBC Pierre, Adam Alter, Janet Burroway, Geoff Dyer, Jenny Bhatt, Hala Alyan, E.J. Koh, Jeannie Vanasco, Lan Samantha Chang (Iowa Writers Workshop), Alice Fulton, Alice Notley, McKenzie Funk, Emma Walton Hamilton, Krys Lee, Douglas Kennedy, Sam Lipsyte, Charles Baxter, Azby Brown, G. Samantha Rosenthal, Ashley Dawson, Douglas Wolk, Suzanne Simard, Seth Siegel, Richard Wolff, Todd Miller, Giulio Boccaletti, Amy Aniobi, among others. The interviews are hosted by founder and creative educator Mia Funk with the participation of students, universities, and collaborators from around the world. These conversations are also part of our traveling exhibition.
 www.creativeprocess.info For The Creative Process podcasts from Seasons 1 & 2, visit: tinyurl.com/creativepod or creativeprocess.info/interviews-page-1, which has our complete directory of interviews, transcripts, artworks, and details about ways to get involved.

Information

More From The Creative Process

You Might Also Like