Social Justice & Activism - The Creative Process - Activists, Environmental, Indigenous Groups, Artists and Writers Talk Dive

The Creative Process
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Social Justice & Activism episodes of the popular The Creative Process podcast. We speak to activists, environmental organizations, indigenous groups, artists, writers & others who have devoted their life to making a difference. 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 Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Pulitzer, leaders & public figures share real experiences & offer valuable insights. Notable guests and participating museums and organizations include: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & 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 & 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. SIRI HUSTVEDT on Love, Grief & the Future of Democracy

    FEB 23

    SIRI HUSTVEDT on Love, Grief & the Future of Democracy

    “Grief happens because you don't stop loving the person who died. The person doesn't exist in your reality anymore. The everyday is not colored and shaped by this other human being, but you don't stop loving the person. So grief is a particular kind of unrequited love. And probably without that dynamic relationship with this person, I would be someone else. And he would've been someone else. I mean, Paul died before me. But we were, I think, hugely important to the drama of becoming in our own lives.” Today, we are honored to welcome a writer whose work has long explored the intimate landscapes of the mind, memory and the heart. Siri Hustvedt’s writing moves between the personal and the philosophical, the literary and the deeply human. Her work bridges collections of essays, non-fiction, poetry, and seven novels, including the international bestsellers What I Loved and The Summer Without Men. Recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature and the Gabarron Prize for Thought, her work has been translated into over thirty languages. Her new memoir, Ghost Stories, is a reflection on forty-three years shared with her late husband, the writer and filmmaker Paul Auster. In its pages, we encounter not only love and loss, but the quiet persistence of presence, memory, and language itself. (0:00) Grief as Unrequited Love Siri explores the emotional reality of living without Paul Auster, noting that grief occurs because love does not stop when a person dies. (4:00) Facing Death with Courage The importance of not hiding from mortality and how discussing end-of-life wishes offered a necessary perspective. (12:37) Reading from Ghost Stories Siri reads the opening passage of her memoir, detailing how the loss of her husband deranged her sense of time and bodily rhythms. (18:41) The Phantom Limb: ” The beloved is taken away and it feels as if you're amputated or gutted.” (21:50)  Grandfather, Father and Son: Generational Traumas Behind Paul Auster's Writing (24:11)  How Powerful Emotions and a Person's Life Can Play a Role in Illness (30:09) Feeding the Earth "Paul very pointedly told me that he wanted to be buried in the Jewish mode. And the phrase he used was, “I want my body to feed the earth.” (44:23) Physical Love in Marriage On the importance of physical intimacy in long-term marriages, a reality often left out of grief memoirs. (54:00) The Philosophy of the Between How relational existence is foundational to life. (1:00:16) The Hubris of Controlling Nature (1:12:00) The Dark History of Statistics (1:32:12) The Art of Learning vs. AI and Automated Outcomes “I think we have to ask ourselves, what is education? What do we want from it? How do we want people to learn? Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    1h 38m
  2. Who Are We? What Makes Us Care? Jim Shepard, Neil Patrick Harris, John Patrick Shanley & Artists Share Their Stories

    FEB 11

    Who Are We? What Makes Us Care? Jim Shepard, Neil Patrick Harris, John Patrick Shanley & Artists Share Their Stories

    Can curiosity and empathy be taught? How can we expand our sense of solidarity through stories? In this episode, we explore the internal dialogues of artists, actors and writers to ask what it means to step into someone else's shoes. (0:00) Novelist  Jim Shepard discusses Literature as a Tool for Emotional Education and Exploring History (2:05) Tony Award-winning Actor Neil Patrick Harris on Being Moved by Theater and its Ability to Bridge Worlds (3:55) Novelist Katie Kitamura on How a Book is Made in Collaboration with the Reader (5:00) Screenwriter, Playwright Laura Eason on Inhabiting the Hearts of Characters Different from Ourselves (6:03) Academy Award-winning Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on the Art of Visual Storytelling (6:37) Cinematographer, Director Benoit Delhomme on the Freedom of Handheld Cinematography (7:19) Author Etgar Keret on Looking for Humanity through Shared Intention (8:18) Viet Thanh Nguyen – Opposing Power through Expansive Solidarity (9:27) Adam Moss – Author, Fmr. Editor New York magazine on “The Work of Art” (10:29) John Patrick Shanley – Tony & Academy Award-winning Writer, Director on Finding Value in Ordinary Experiences and the Creative Power of Daydreaming (11:56) Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist Nicholas Kristof on Why Individual Stories are Necessary to Generate Connection To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews. Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

    14 min
  3. 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
  4. 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

  5. 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
  6. 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. 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. “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
  7. Reclaiming the American Dream with DAVID PALUMBO-LIU – Stanford Professor, Author & Host, Speaking Out of Place

    12/27/2025

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

    12/13/2025

    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
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Social Justice & Activism episodes of the popular The Creative Process podcast. We speak to activists, environmental organizations, indigenous groups, artists, writers & others who have devoted their life to making a difference. 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 Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Pulitzer, leaders & public figures share real experiences & offer valuable insights. Notable guests and participating museums and organizations include: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & 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 & 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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