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The Creative Process
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Exploring the fascinating minds of creative people. Conversations with writers, artists and creative thinkers across the Arts and STEM. We discuss their life, work and artistic practice. Winners of Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Pulitzer, Nobel Prize, leaders and public figures share real experiences and offer valuable insights. Notable guests and participating museums and organizations include: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Neil Patrick Harris, Smithsonian, Roxane Gay, Musée Picasso, EARTHDAY-ORG, Neil Gaiman, UNESCO, Joyce Carol Oates, Mark Seliger, Acropolis Museum, Hilary Mantel, Songwriters Hall of Fame, George Saunders, The New Museum, Lemony Snicket, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Galleries, Joe Mantegna, PETA, Greenpeace, EPA, Morgan Library and Museum, and many 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.

  1. Chasing Hope: Writers, Environmentalists, Spiritual Leaders & Artists Share their Stories

    6D AGO

    Chasing Hope: Writers, Environmentalists, Spiritual Leaders & Artists Share their Stories

    We are living through a moment of collision where it seems like the systems we built are turning against us, and the future feels unwritten. But is this the end, or is it the start of a new beginning? In this latest anthology, we explore the discipline of hope with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof, The Dalai Lama, and a diverse group of global visionaries. This episode argues that while cynicism is an act of surrender, hope is a rigorous discipline of the mind. From how the arts can help us engage with deeper meanings described by composer Max Richter to the regenerative wisdom of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, our guests explore how biology, philosophy, and journalism intersect to combat despair. In this episode, we explore: The Pinch Point: Why the next few decades will determine if society regenerates or collapses. Wired to Heal: How nature’s biological imperative is resilience, not destruction. The Reporter’s Armor: The emotional toll of witnessing trauma and how to maintain "undefeated despair". Intergenerational Wisdom: How we pass knowledge and values to the next generation. Featuring Explorer Bertrand Piccard (Founder, Solar Impulse Foundation), The Dalai Lama, Environmentalist Paul Hawken, Doc Filmmaker Rebecca Tickell (Kiss the Ground), Exec. Director, Pritzker Architecture Prize Manuela Luca-Dazio, and David Palumbo-Liu (Speaking Out of Place Podcast). To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    15 min
  2. The Wisdom of Nature: Artists & Scientists on The Beauty & Fragility of Our Planet

    JAN 9

    The Wisdom of Nature: Artists & Scientists on The Beauty & Fragility of Our Planet

    In this special edition, we hear from our guests from across the arts and sciences. From composers and poets to forest ecologists and climate envoys, they tell the story of our planet. Moving beyond the data of destruction, we explore the intelligence of nature, the ethics of what we eat, and the empathy required to save our future. MAX RICHTER, Composer, Sleep, The Blue Notebooks CARL SAFINA, Author, Becoming Wild ADA LIMÓN, 24th US Poet Laureate CYNTHIA DANIELS, Grammy Award-winning Sound Eng. SUZANNE SIMARD, Finding the Mother Tree JOELLE GERGIS, Lead Author, IPCC 6th Assessment Rpt NOAH WILSON-RICH, CEO, Best Bees Company INGRID NEWKIRK, PETA Founder BERTRAND PICCARD, Solar Impulse Foundation DAVID FARRIER, Author, Footprints KATHLEEN ROGERS, Pres, Earth Day Network ODED GALOR, Unified Growth Theory PETER SINGER, Philosopher GEOFF MULGAN, Another World Is Possible CLAIRE POTTER, Welcome to the Circular Economy CHRIS FUNK, Dir. Climate Hazards Car. JENNIFER MORGAN, Special Envoy, International Climate Action To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website

    18 min
  3. The Musician Who Sings to Animals - PLUMES on Trust & Cross-Species Communication - Highlights

    12/31/2025

    The Musician Who Sings to Animals - PLUMES on Trust & Cross-Species Communication - Highlights

    On Music, Trust and Connection with the Animal World “Mostly I’ll play in a minor key, something sad, which I think can work for an animal because they can sense the sadness, and they try to reassure me and comfort me. I chose love songs because I'm convinced they are very intuitive and they can sense what I am trying to say to them, and profess my love in a way. I think there's always a way to connect, and if you're being cautious and don't threaten the animals, something beautiful can happen.” Musician Plumes takes his guitar to the world's most unlikely concert halls—farms, sanctuaries, and wild habitats. A passionate advocate for veganism and animal welfare, we discuss what animals hear, how trust forms, and what music can reveal when it enters a world not made for humans alone. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    12 min
  4. Animals & The Healing Power of Music with Musician PLUMES

    12/31/2025

    Animals & The Healing Power of Music with Musician PLUMES

    How is music a pathway to understanding animals? Musician Plumes‍ takes his guitar to the world's most unlikely concert halls—farms, sanctuaries, and wild habitats. A passionate advocate for veganism and animal welfare, we discuss what animals hear, how trust forms, and what music can reveal when it enters a world not made for humans alone. “Mostly I’ll play in a minor key, something sad, which I think can work for an animal because they can sense the sadness, and they try to reassure me and comfort me. I chose love songs because I'm convinced they are very intuitive and they can sense what I am trying to say to them, and profess my love in a way. I think there's always a way to connect, and if you're being cautious and don't threaten the animals, something beautiful can happen.” Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    41 min
  5. Speaking Out of Place - DAVID PALUMBO-LIU on Reclaiming Our Political Voices - Highlights

    12/27/2025

    Speaking Out of Place - DAVID PALUMBO-LIU on Reclaiming Our Political Voices - Highlights

    On the urgent need to reclaim our political voices, the forces that silence dissent, and how art and poetry are crucial tools for survival Our guest today is an activist scholar who believes the classroom is inseparable from the public square. David Palumbo-Liu is the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University and a founding faculty member of Stanford’s Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. But his work has long reached beyond the academy. Through his book, Speaking Out of Place: Getting Our Political Voices Back, and his podcast of the same name, he insists that the great global crises of our time—from escalating wars and democratic failures to environmental collapse—are fundamentally crises of value and voice. “There is a dispute about what the American Dream is or how it would play out in different circumstances. The American dream has essentially been narrowed into a white Christian nationalist notion of things so that everything that falls outside what they imagine that to be is not only undesirable, but should be the subject of extermination, deportation, and detention. I am heartened by the fact that more of our 'better angels' are emerging with a more capacious and expansive notion of what the American dream could be.” Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    12 min
  6. Reclaiming the American Dream with DAVID PALUMBO-LIU – Stanford Professor, Author & Host, Speaking Out of Place

    12/20/2025

    Reclaiming the American Dream with DAVID PALUMBO-LIU – Stanford Professor, Author & Host, Speaking Out of Place

    On the urgent need to reclaim our political voices, the forces that silence dissent, and how art and poetry are crucial tools for survival “There is a dispute about what the American Dream is or how it would play out in different circumstances. The American dream has essentially been narrowed into a white Christian nationalist notion of things so that everything that falls outside what they imagine that to be is not only undesirable, but should be the subject of extermination, deportation, and detention. I am heartened by the fact that more of our 'better angels' are emerging with a more capacious and expansive notion of what the American dream could be.” Our guest today is an activist scholar who believes the classroom is inseparable from the public square. David Palumbo-Liu is the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University and a founding faculty member of Stanford’s Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. But his work has long reached beyond the academy. Through his book, Speaking Out of Place: Getting Our Political Voices Back, and his podcast of the same name, he insists that the great global crises of our time—from escalating wars and democratic failures to environmental collapse—are fundamentally crises of value and voice. His recent work has put him on the front lines of campus activism, challenging institutions, resigning his membership from the MLA, a move that highlights the ethical cost of speaking truth to power. We’ll talk about what he calls the "carceral logic" of the modern university, why art and poetry are crucial tools for survival in times of war, and what he tells his students about preparing for a future defined by uncertainty. His perspective is rooted in literature, but his urgency is all about the world we live in now. We will discuss the forces that silence dissent, the "imperial logic" of AI, and what it means to be a moral, active citizen when the systems we rely on are failing. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    1h 7m
  7. The Writer's Voice: Novelists, Poets, Memoirists & Editors Share Their Stories

    12/12/2025

    The Writer's Voice: Novelists, Poets, Memoirists & Editors Share Their Stories

    How do writers develop their voice, showing us what is important in life? ADA LIMÓN (24th U.S. Poet Laureate, Startlement, The Carrying) explains that her poetry begins with a bodily sensation or curiosity, not an idea. She values the space and breath poetry offers for unknowing and mystery, finding solace in the making and the mess, not in answers. She discusses being free on the page to be her whole, authentic, complicated self. JAY PARINI (Author, Filmmaker, Borges and Me) calls poetry the prince of literary arts—language refined to its apex of memorability. He recounts how his road trip with Borges around Scotland restored him from depression and anxiety following the Vietnam War death of his friend. JERICHO BROWN (Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet, The Tradition, How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill) discusses the rhythm of black vernacular and capturing "symphonic complexity of black life". He shares how he’s found a way not to think about personal risk as he’s writing. ADAM MOSS (Fmr. Editor, New York Magazine; Author, The Work of Art) relates David Simon’s concept of the bounce, in which creativity gains momentum as it is passed between people. VIET THANH NGUYEN (Pulitzer Prize-winning Author, The Sympathizer; To Save and to Destroy) discusses his path to expansive solidarity and capacious grief and how it works against the state's power to divide and conquer. He emphasizes that literature is crucial because authoritarian regimes abuse language; a commitment to the beauty of language is a commitment to truth, and fear is often an indicator of a truth that needs to be spoken. To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    14 min
  8. Writers on Memory, Language & the Power of the Unconscious

    12/12/2025

    Writers on Memory, Language & the Power of the Unconscious

    How can we use negative spaces in fiction to engage with readers’ imaginations? How are memory and trauma passed onto us through language? How do we become more than the stories we tell ourselves? KATIE KITAMURA (Author, Audition) emphasizes that a book is created in collaboration with the reader and how negative spaces in the narrative allow for reader interpretation. PAUL LYNCH (Booker Prize-winning Novelist, Prophet Song) on the richness of the English language in Ireland, shaped by the overlay of English onto Irish. DANIEL PEARLE (Screenwriter The Beast in Me) on how audiences are fascinated by characters with an unfettered, uncensored ID who act without consequences. HALA ALYAN (I’ll Tell You When I’m Home: A Memoir) describes her work as an excavation of the darkest hours and intergenerational trauma, which has endured repeated exile. T.C. BOYLE shares that the creative process involves a magic in reaching for the unconscious and the surprise of the creative process. He emphasizes that art and nature are our salvations, over money. ADAM ALTER (Anatomy of a Breakthrough) discusses the axioms of creativity, noting that being around more people is generally beneficial for creativity by providing diversity of opinion. SHEHAN KARUNATILAKA (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida) explains his decision to write in the second person as a way of exploring the spiritual dimension of the internal voice. DANIEL HANDLER A.K.A LEMONY SNICKET (A Series of Unfortunate Events) argues that his books for children and adults are not fundamentally different and says everyone's childhood is full of powerful emotions which shape us. ADA LIMÓN (24th U.S. Poet Laureate, Startlement) talks about her responsibility as a writer to honor her ancestors who had to sublimate their creative spirit for safety and belonging. To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod :@creativeprocesspodcast

    12 min
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Exploring the fascinating minds of creative people. Conversations with writers, artists and creative thinkers across the Arts and STEM. We discuss their life, work and artistic practice. Winners of Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Pulitzer, Nobel Prize, leaders and public figures share real experiences and offer valuable insights. Notable guests and participating museums and organizations include: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Neil Patrick Harris, Smithsonian, Roxane Gay, Musée Picasso, EARTHDAY-ORG, Neil Gaiman, UNESCO, Joyce Carol Oates, Mark Seliger, Acropolis Museum, Hilary Mantel, Songwriters Hall of Fame, George Saunders, The New Museum, Lemony Snicket, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Galleries, Joe Mantegna, PETA, Greenpeace, EPA, Morgan Library and Museum, and many 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.

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