Roundabout: Creative Chaos

Tammy Coron

A podcast about creativity, technology, and the people who make things. Each episode features conversations with scientists, game designers, software developers, authors, artists, and other creative professionals about their work, the decisions behind it, and the problems they solve.

  1. 6d ago

    150. Dr. Anna Abraham

    Dr. Anna Abraham, psychologist, neuroscientist, and author of The Creative Brain, joins Tammy Coron to talk about what the science of creativity shows and where popular ideas about it go wrong. Anna holds the E. Paul Torrance Professorship at the University of Georgia and directs the Torrance Center for Creativity. Her research spans creativity, imagination, and the reality-fiction distinction, and she has written two books: The Neuroscience of Creativity and The Creative Brain. She also edited the Cambridge Handbook of Imagination. In this conversation, they work through Anna's definition of creativity (novel, surprising, and satisfying) and why the creator's experience and the recipient's experience need to be kept separate. They also discuss the myths examined in The Creative Brain: the right-brain hypothesis, the link between creativity and mental illness, the effects psychedelics and alcohol have on creative output, and why Anna has reversed course on generative AI. She argues that outsourcing expression to these tools erodes the cognitive and emotional skills that creative confidence depends on. They get into how incubation works (the Poincaré model of preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification), the difference between imagination and creativity, and what Anna thinks is the evolutionary root of human creative drive. Mentioned in this episode: The Creative Brain (Anna Abraham)The Neuroscience of Creativity (Anna Abraham)Cambridge Handbook of Imagination (edited by Anna Abraham)Torrance Center for Creativity, University of Georgia Follow Dr. Anna Abraham: - Website Listen wherever you get podcasts.

    150. Dr. Anna Abraham

  2. Jul 7

    149. Ken & Roberta Williams (Sierra On-Line)

    Ken and Roberta Williams, the co-founders of Sierra On-Line and creators of some of the most influential adventure games ever made, join host Tammy Coron for a wide-ranging conversation recorded while the two are sailing toward the Northwest Passage aboard their boat. Roberta designed groundbreaking games including Mystery House, the King's Quest series, Colonel's Bequest, and Phantasmagoria. Ken built the technology and business that transformed those ideas into Sierra On-Line, one of the defining game companies of the 1980s and '90s. Their latest project is a 3D reimagining of Colossal Cave—the text adventure that first inspired Roberta to make games. The conversation explores Roberta's design process—from sketching game worlds on oversized sheets of paper before writing a single line of story to scaling that approach from the 52 rooms of Mystery House to the full-motion video production of Phantasmagoria. They discuss getting graphics onto the Apple II, why King Graham changed how Roberta thought about character, and the four years of horror research (and nightmares) that went into creating Phantasmagoria. Ken also reflects on watching Sierra be sold to a buyer who turned out to be a fraud, on AI taking over game development, and on whether Roberta might design one more original game. Mentioned in this episode: Mystery HouseKing's QuestPhantasmagoriaColossal Cave (the 3D remake)Colossal Cave AdventureScott AdamsWilliam CrowtherDon WoodsRoberta's book: Farewell to TaraKen's author page on Amazon Follow Ken and Roberta Williams: Website: Ken's Blog⁠YouTube: MV North Star YouTube Channel (Northwest Passage voyage)⁠ Listen wherever you get podcasts.

    149. Ken & Roberta Williams (Sierra On-Line)

  3. Jun 16

    148. David Arndt

    David Arndt, author of Philosophy of Writing and a literature and philosophy professor at St. Mary's College of California, joins Tammy and Tim for a conversation that moves from the origins of a 25-year book project to what writing does to the person doing it. Arndt teaches in the Integral Program of Liberal Arts, a Great Books program at St. Mary's, where he has been on faculty for thirteen years. Before that, he taught at Deep Springs College in Eastern California, at a university in Ankara, Turkey, and at a state university in Pennsylvania. His first book, Arendt on the Political, was published by Cambridge University Press; his second, Philosophy of Writing, is out now from Bloomsbury. They talk about why it took Arndt 25 years to finish Philosophy of Writing, what Heidegger's concept of truth has to do with the experience of reading, why contemporary philosophy rarely mentions wisdom, how discussion-based teaching differs from filling buckets, and the four types of thought — demonstrative, interpretive, dialogical, and narrative — that structure the book's argument. Arndt also reads passages from Epictetus, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault that shaped his thinking, talks about studying with Jacques Derrida at UC Irvine, discusses his twin brother Michael Arndt's screenwriting work (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), and makes both books available for free as open access. Mentioned in this episode: David Arndt on Facebook (author page)Philosophy of Writing (Bloomsbury, open access)Philosophy of Writing on AmazonArendt on the Political (Cambridge University Press, open access)Michael Arndt — Endings: The Good, the Bad and the Insanely Great (YouTube)Deep Springs College Follow David Arndt: Facebook Listen wherever you get podcasts.

    148. David Arndt

  4. Jun 2

    147. Van Ryder Games

    AJ Porfirio and Evan Derrick of Van Ryder Games join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra to talk about what it takes to build an independent board game company. AJ started with a solo zombie game he designed in his living room. Evan came aboard a few years later. Together, they built Van Ryder Games into the publisher behind Final Girl, the first solo-only title to crack the BoardGameGeek Top 100. AJ is the founder and president of Van Ryder Games, designer of Hostage Negotiator, and co-designer of Final Girl. Evan is the creative director and vice president, designer of Detective: City of Angels, and the other half of the Final Girl co-design. On this episode, they get into how the mechanics of Hostage Negotiator became the foundation for Final Girl's solo board game design, why the modular double-sided feature film box came close to breaking the company before it became its defining signature, what it meant for a solo-only game to reach the BoardGameGeek Top 100, how fifteen years of Kickstarter board game campaigns changed how AJ and Evan think about tiers and stretch goals, and what Era Two of Final Girl will and won't change for people who own the game. They also talk about manufacturing in China, the current tariff situation for hobby board games, and what running a board game business looks like beyond the design work. Mentioned in this episode: Van Ryder GamesVan Ryder Games DiscordFinal GirlHostage NegotiatorDark Moon - published version of Evan's BSG Express Friday - solo board game by Friedemann Friese, 2011Search Engine podcast, episode on making a product in AmericaPower Publishing - AJ's YouTube series on board game publishing Follow AJ Porfirio and Evan Derrick: Van Ryder GamesVan Ryder Games Discord Listen wherever you get podcasts.

    147. Van Ryder Games

  5. May 19

    146. Matt Parkin

    Matt Parkin — 3D artist, game developer, and creator of The Polygon Pilgrimage — joins Tammy and Tim to talk about building games solo, shipping his first commercial title, and what it actually takes to go from a whiteboard idea to something playable on Steam. Matt has been running The Polygon Pilgrimage, a weekly tutorial series on YouTube, for over a decade. The channel covers 3D modeling, texturing, and game art using tools such as Blender, Substance Painter, Unity, and more, and has grown to over 10,000 subscribers. He also streams 3D modeling live on Twitch and has been featured by 80.lv for his tutorials on Substance Designer and Unity. Outside the tutorials, he works as a senior programmer for the Air Force, runs his own design LLC, and has spent 25-plus years in 3D art. In this episode, Matt talks through his background — drawing since age three, picking up 3DS Max in high school, earning a bachelor's degree in multimedia arts and animation, and teaching himself four programming languages along the way. He walks through the making of 1325 Maple Lane, a parody horror game about the terrors of home ownership, now on Steam. He also gets into his philosophy on using asset packs versus building from scratch, why he left Unreal Engine for Unity, how he manages color in his work as someone with achromatopsia, his approach to teaching beginners (start with the smallest complete circle you can make), and a Twitch-integrated game project currently in development. The after-show covers AI in 3D art pipelines, optimizing geometry for game performance, the importance of building the bottoms of the feet, and the games that helped shape his career. Mentioned in this episode: 1325 Maple Lane on SteamPaws & Play StudiosThe Polygon PilgrimageUnitySubstance 3D PaintertldrawDisney's 12 principles of animationBrickTownBust quickplay Follow Matt Parkin: TikTokDiscordTwitch

    146. Matt Parkin

  6. May 5

    145. Herbert Wolverson

    Herbert Wolverson has written three books on Rust and spent years teaching the language to engineers, chip designers, and conference audiences. He also co-maintains LibreQoS, an open-source networking tool that recently helped make school internet usable in Malawi for the first time. Herbert began programming at age six on a BBC Micro, detoured through law school, and returned to coding about a decade ago via Rust. His books — Hands-on Rust, Advanced Hands-on Rust, and Rust Brain Teasers — span beginner to advanced topics, all taught through game development, a method he’s favored since teaching himself C to build multiplayer dungeon games. In this episode, Herbert discusses why senior programmers are increasingly becoming AI prompt engineers, what that means for the next generation of developers, and how he approaches teaching a language in the age of AI. He also talks about LibreQoS, its impact in Malawi, and his ongoing project to map radio-frequency propagation for rural internet access. Mentioned in this episode: - Herbert's 86-chapter Rust roguelike tutorial - Hands-on Rust - Advanced Hands-on Rust - Rust Brain Teasers - Bracket Lib — Herbert's Rust game engine - Bevy game engine - LibreQoS - FQ Codel — the packet-shaping algorithm at the heart of LibreQoS - NLNET Foundation — funds open source internet infrastructure work, including LibreQoS - RustConf - JetBrains Rust tools Follow Herbert: - X: https://x.com/herberticus - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/herberticus.bsky.social

    145. Herbert Wolverson

  7. Apr 21

    144. Herb Baker

    Herb Baker — retired NASA manager, 42-year agency veteran, and author of the memoir From Apollo to Artemis: Stories From My 50 Years With NASA — joins Tammy and Tim for the return of Roundabout: Creative Chaos after a six-and-a-half-year hiatus, and the timing couldn't be more fitting. Baker spent his entire career at Johnson Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, and NASA Headquarters, finishing as Manager of the Operations Support Office at JSC — a role that put him in direct support of the Astronaut Office, Mission Control, NASA Aircraft Operations, and astronaut training. Long before that, as a teenager growing up just miles from the Manned Spacecraft Center, Baker worked for ABC Television as a film courier during the Apollo missions, running 16mm footage from Houston to Intercontinental Airport twice a day so the networks could broadcast it in New York. He did that for Apollo 11, 12, 13, and 15. His mother, meanwhile, was the NASA seamstress photographed at the sewing machine stitching the parasol that replaced Skylab's lost micrometeoroid heat shield — a story Baker tells with pride. Since retiring in 2017, he has served as an Officer on the Board of Directors of the NASA Alumni League–JSC and volunteers with STEM-engagement organizations, including the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and Space Center Houston. He is also an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin and has appeared in 22 theatre productions. The conversation covers an enormous amount of ground: what it was like to be a 17-year-old film runner during Apollo 11, the Challenger and Columbia disasters and NASA's annual day of remembrance, the Artemis II heat shield concerns and how NASA managed the risk, the woodpecker attack on a Space Shuttle external tank, Baker's decision to self-publish using Scrivener and Kindle Direct Publishing, why a conversation with Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise helped him choose independence over a hybrid publisher, his unexpected return to community theatre after decades away — including landing the lead role in Miracle on 34th Street — and what he's working on next, including a second book drawing on his own experience surviving squamous cell carcinoma. Mentioned in this episode: From Apollo to ArtemisHerb Baker's websiteDrawing on the Right Side of the BrainApollo 11 TrailerFor All Mankind (soundtrack by Brian Eno) Category: Science & Nature > Physics & Cosmology

    144. Herb Baker

  8. Apr 21

    143. Welcome Back

    After a six-and-a-half-year hiatus, Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra are back, and this episode is just the two of them catching up before the new season gets going. They piece together how Tim became co-host in the first place — he was a guest before stepping in on Jay Bonasenga's episode — and why they stopped the show, and how the editing process was a major factor in that decision. Tim also brings Tammy up to speed on his two active shows, More Than Just Code and Spockcast. The conversation also covers the animated Firefly announcement, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes having podcasts, and the surreal fact that people have apparently been listening to old Roundabout episodes throughout the entire hiatus. Mentioned in this episode: raywenderlich.comMore Than Just CodeSpockcastOnce We Were SpacemenDropping Names Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Category: Arts & Culture

    143. Welcome Back
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4.9
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About

A podcast about creativity, technology, and the people who make things. Each episode features conversations with scientists, game designers, software developers, authors, artists, and other creative professionals about their work, the decisions behind it, and the problems they solve.

Information

  • Creator
    Tammy Coron
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    154
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Tammy Coron
  • Show Website
    Roundabout: Creative Chaos

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