Follow Your Curiosity

Every last one of us got through school, and probably work, by knowing the answers most—if not all—of the time. Is that actually necessary? NOPE. And it can even hinder your creative process. I'll tell you why in this short episode.

Could you leave a review?It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Read this week's post: What tech has taken from us, and how to get it back.

• Engage with your creative dreams with ease and joy
• Feel both more confident in yourself and your work, and more vibrant than you have in years
• Take time each day to do the things that light you up
• Feel the freedom of following your own inner guidance and the delight that comes with creative activity

Book afree 30-minute coaching callwith me! Here's what we'll do:

• You'll tell me about your creative dreams
• We'll look at what's getting in the way
• If you're someone I can help, and we both want to...
• ...I'll share more about the Reignite Your Creative Spark program

Ellen Kaplan is an actress, writer, and director, and professor emerita of acting and directing at Smith College. She performs and directs internationally, in places like Pakistan, China, Israel, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Puerto Rico, and she recently edited the new book Theater Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons. Ellen joins me to talk about her work in and out of the classroom, dealing with “the shoulds,” how easy it is to get in our own way, why we are each a culture unto ourselves, what we’ve each learned from our students, and more.

Read this week's article, on how Apple accidentally told the truth about technology and creativity, here.

Episode breakdown:

00:00 Introduction

03:15 Self-discovery through teaching experiences

08:42 Importance of humility, listening, and respect

12:27 Cultural differences observed while teaching ESL

18:15 Embracing individuality in students

22:30 Influence of "should" on decision-making

28:05 Pressure of being an expert vs. staying open to learning

34:14 Value of revision in the creative process

38:50 Saying yes in improv and life

44:35 Creating healing spaces through storytelling

48:52 Career serendipity and intrinsic experiences

54:18 Commodification's impact on creativity

58:23 Kitsugi and the beauty of imperfections

01:03:41 Ellen's work in conflict zones and peace efforts

01:09:56 Improvisational recalculating of identity and work

Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and connect with me and fellow creatives on Substack.

Please leave a review for this episode and in it, tell us about a time when you got in your own way.

If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in theatre.

We're all told that we have to finish the things we start. But is that true? NOPE. I'll tell you why in this short episode.

Could you leave a review?It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Read this week's post: What tech has taken from us, and how to get it back.

• Engage with your creative dreams with ease and joy
• Feel both more confident in yourself and your work, and more vibrant than you have in years
• Take time each day to do the things that light you up
• Feel the freedom of following your own inner guidance and the delight that comes with creative activity

Book afree 30-minute coaching callwith me! Here's what we'll do:

• You'll tell me about your creative dreams
• We'll look at what's getting in the way
• If you're someone I can help, and we both want to...
• ...I'll share more about the Reignite Your Creative Spark program

I've been under the weather, so here's an interview worth revisiting. I'll be back next time with a brand-new conversation!

Author Rahna Reiko Rizzuto wrote the way many of us do as a child and teen, but didn’t truly turn to writing until she discovered, at the age of 30, that her Japanese-American mother, and her family, had been stripped of everything and put in an internment camp during World War II. The book she produced in her quest to understand these events, Why She Left Us, won the National Book Award. Her two subsequent books, Hiroshima in the Morning and Shadow Child, continue to explore themes of war, race, and historical blindness. Reiko also teaches writing; we met when she became my first faculty advisor in the Goddard College MFA program in 2007. We talk about Reiko’s start as a writer, including that pivotal discovery and the quest to learn more, her time in Japan just before and after 9/11 as she sought to learn from survivors of the Hiroshima bombing—and how 9/11 changed their willingness to speak—and how she taught herself to write and teaches her students those same techniques.

Episode breakdown:

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:02:45] Family of writers encouraged reading, faced criticism.

[00:10:50] Multiracial Hawaiian culture with loose boundaries.

[00:15:19] Uncovering the family's history in the Japanese internment.

[00:23:33] Discovering the art of crafting a book.

[00:28:33] Learning from students' questions.

[00:37:37] Writing to convey human consequences of historical events.

[00:40:32] Nonfiction book about survivors of atomic bomb.

[00:48:58] Passion for teaching and nurturing writers' stories.

[00:56:07] Best job, supportive colleagues, successful publication.

[01:03:09] Caregiving, love, loss, hoarding: a personal journey.

[01:06:48] Open the portal, practice showing up.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about how discovering a part of your history changed you.

Want more? Here are some handy playlists with all my previous interviews with guests in writing and publishing.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Threads and BlueSky!

If you'd like weekly updates, plus a chance to see where my curiosity is leading me, check out my new (free!) Substack newsletter.

When was the last time you let yourself play? Why are you holding yourself back?

In less than four minutes, I'm sharing the biggest creative problem I see in the world, why it's so damn heartbreaking, and why I want to help you bust out of it--for free. (Hint: it's also a big part of why I started this podcast.)

Give yourself permission to play on May 5 here. Or join us on May 11 here. It's totally free, and you're welcome to bring a friend if you like (just have them register, too, so I have an accurate head count)!

See you there!

It's so easy to keep doing the same thing, or even to actively avoid taking the unknown path. The courageous option is usually the one with the bigger payoff, though. I look at the difference in this short episode.

Join me for a free "Permission to Play" workshop on May 5, 2024 (repeated on May 11, 2024) at 1pm eastern! It’s easy for adults to forget that it’s okay to play, and that lack of play can keep us stuck! Join us for approximately 90 minutes so you can reconnect with your playful inner kid and feel your creative energy flowing again.

Register: May 5 or May 11

Could you leave a review?It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Read this week's poem, which is called One Step.

Domenic Sciortino is a creative powerhouse. By day, he’s a barber. Much of the rest of the time, he’s an artist, musician, and now, a talent buyer for a local entertainment venue in Pennsylvania. Dom was one of my first guests on the podcast, and I’m thrilled to have him back to talk about the intersection of art and commerce, with stops at creative courage (specifically, the courage to fail in and with a crowd), why you should always aim to please yourself first with your creative work (even if you want to sell it), the effects of ignoring our creative call, and just what happens behind the scenes of the performing arts—especially on the money side.

If you missed Domenic's first episode, give it a listen!

Read this week's article, which is a longer look at the potential perils of combining art and commerce. Check out my piece on lapsed creatives, too!

Episode breakdown:

00:00 Introduction

1:04 Creating art in various forms, sometimes successful.

08:29 Billy Joel forgets lyrics, crowd sings instead.

11:23 Sudden insight into creative life force experience.

16:42 Passion leads to happiness and less spending.

24:28 Robots creating art due to cheaper labor.

31:19 Promo highlights importance of arts education.

37:08 Artists deserve better pay and more transparency.

40:05 National touring artist fees are usually non-negotiable.

43:22 Wilco: Warner pushed Americana band, Tweedy went ambient.

50:27 Scarcity and marketing.

53:56 Existence and purpose: the struggle is worthwhile.

59:26 Don't judge yourself by professional standards.

Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and connect with me and fellow creatives on Substack.

Please leave a review for this episode and in it, tell us about your experience with art and commerce.

If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.

Want more? Here are some handy playlists with all my previous interviews with guests in music and visual arts.

One of the hardest things to do when we've created something is to leave room for other people to see it through their own lens. I share some thoughts on why it's a good idea to step back, and how to know which opinions are worth listening to, in this short episode.

Could you leave a review?It's really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Read this week's article, which is on Failure and Regret.

On January 3, 2019, I took a huge leap and launched the Follow Your Curiosity podcast. Five years later, to no one’s amazement as much as mine, I’m still going strong. I wanted to look back at what I’ve learned since 2019, so I asked my friend Domenic Sciortino, who interviewed me back then, to come back and do it again. Together, we look at how the show got started, what initially gave me the idea for a podcast, what curiosity is, who my “dream guest” might be, why you should start where you are, and more.

Episode breakdown:

00:00 Amazed by 5-year podcast journey, started spontaneously.

06:34 Audio editing discovery: listen while doing tasks.

08:19 Podcasting with a full-time job.

12:41 To run ads, or not to run ads?

15:37 Curiosity is asking questions, being connected, wanting to know more.

19:51 Prepare questions but have a natural conversation.

20:56 Explore unexpected places in conversation, be flexible.

27:02 Embracing uncertainty.

29:36 Sometimes things just fall into place.

32:13 Go-to interview example of the podcast.

36:33 Emphasis on untold stories, expanding podcast.

38:02 Creating 1 on 1 program to reconnect creatively.

42:21 How a story about Sam Neill led to the podcast idea.

45:04 Choosing authenticity over conforming to others' expectations.

47:44 Overcoming doubts, starting small leads to success.

I really would love to hear from you! The easiest way is to connect on Substack, but you can also drop me a note here, or on Instagram, Twitter, or BlueSky.

Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and connect with me and fellow creatives on Substack.

Please leave a review for this episode and in it, tell us about a time when you took a leap to try something new.

If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.

What happens when we let our creativity lapse? You may think there's no effect on us, but you'd be wrong. I explain in this short episode.

Read my article on lapsed creativity here. If you recognize yourself here, I'd love to hear your story and learn from your experience. If you can spare 30 minutes, contact me and we'll set something up!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Please leave a review, and in it, tell us about a creative dream of yours.

Join my free creative community, The Spark! We celebrate each other's creative courage, and I'll be sharing programs for subscribers and listeners there in the coming months. https://fycuriosity.substack.com