Stay ConnectedTo be creative is to be human. And exploring that drive might help us understand ourselves better. Creative Fuel counters the myth that only certain people are creative by showcasing how essential creativity is in everyone’s everyday.
Host Anna Brones guides listeners through exploring the big questions of what it means to be human through the lens of creativity. Each episode begins with a central question, and features the expertise of researchers, scientists and creatives.
Copyright: © 2022 Creative Fuel Collective
As we honor the winter solstice and step into the season of midwinter we're reflecting on what a slower, softer, more introspective time means for our creativity.
This bonus episode is a short conversation with writer Katherine May about rethinking this season and how we might imbue it with a little more meaning.
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Let the abundance of light infuse your creative process.
We're entering a new season, and in tandem with the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere - Anna shares a special Summer Solstice Meditation to inspire play, curiosity and, of course, creativity.
This bonus episode is a short seasonal reflection on what the summer season means for our creative process.
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Are you a brand that wants to sponsor Season 2 of Creative Fuel? Reach out here: hello@creativefuelcollective.com.
Solstices and equinoxes mark a seasonal shift, a change in what’s happening around us. But what does this mean for our creativity?
This bonus episode is a short reflection on what the winter season means for our creative process, and is a call to contemplate what creative rest and regeneration can look like in this slower, quieter season.
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
In a darker, slower season, our bodies crave rest. Yet all around us, it feels like society wants us to speed up. This time of year can be particularly difficult for working artists, and whether or not we make a living from our creative pursuits, we can often feel the need for a slower pace. But in the midst of systemic forces, how do we take care of ourselves? Artist Antoinette Thomas and Outdoor Journal Tour founder, wellness leader and author Kenya Jackson-Saulters help us to better understand the forces that we’re up against, and what we can do when to slow down and to pause.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Featuring:
Kenya Jackson-Saulters: Master workshop facilitator, Kenya Jackson-Saulters, MS, is a five-time published self-help author, certified spiritual coach and reiki master. Kenya is a thought leader in the wellness community and has been recognized for her work integrating outdoor activity into the mental health process. In 2015, Kenya along with partner Michelle, blended the health benefits of exercise, meditation and writing to form a custom personal development experience for women called The Outdoor Journal Tour. The Outdoor Journal Tour uses each of the aforementioned elements to provide clarity, healing, and connection for participants. Soon after, Kenya created the outdoor wellness phenomenon #wehiketoheal, and authored the best-selling Nature Meditations Deck. Kenya holds dual undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Psychology from Xavier University, and a master’s degree in Policy Analysis with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from Georgia State University.
Antoinette Thomas: Antoinette Thomas is a multi media artist that works as an illustrator and painter. The comic strips Thomas creates move between meditations on daily struggles, as well as a more direct social commentary that addresses the audience head on. Subjects like race, being a woman, the work place, etc. are all tackled with a whimsical humor. For the artist, being able to experience representation of Black people outside of a lens of oppression and strife, is imperative. Thomas aims to build a world of works that normalizes the image of Black people and celebrates their bodies, experiences, and culture.
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Sponsor Links
Big Cartel believes you don't have to sell out to sell online. With their simple stores for artists, makers, and creators, you won't be surprised by hidden fees and they don't take a cut of your sales like some other platforms. The sky's the limit on your sales and your success. Open your own shop at bigcartel.com.
Writer Cheryl Strayed draws some thoughtful parallels between grief and a creative state.
In our last episode of Creative Fuel, "How Do We Get Through Hard Times?" we took a look at the topic of grief - and other difficult times in our lives that we move through. As always, we covered more in our conversation than we could share in the episode. So for this Dose of Creativity, we'll hear how grief can be a rebirth, how it changes us on a cellular level, and how Cheryl Strayed recommends moving forward in the face of it.
Each episode of Creative Fuel starts with one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
Featuring: CherylStrayed
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel.
Featuring:
Cheryl Strayed: Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide and was made into an Oscar-nominated major motion picture. Her book Tiny Beautiful Things is currently being adapted for a Hulu television show that will be released in early 2023. In 2016, Tiny Beautiful Things was adapted as a play that has been staged in theaters around the world. Strayed is also the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel, Torch, and the collection Brave Enough, which brings together more than one hundred of her inspiring quotes. Her award-winning essays and short stories have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, and elsewhere. She has hosted two hit podcasts, Sugar Calling and Dear Sugars. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
There are moments in our lives when we are stopped in our tracks. Moments where something out of our control impacts us in a way that can fee insurmountable. These are moments of sadness, of stress, of darkness, of feeling broken. We may lose someone, we may experience a great change in our lives. Or we may be in a moment where we struggle to find the drive to create like we want to. What do we do when we’re in that place?
When Cheryl Strayed was 22 she lost her mother to lung cancer, and words became a way to carry her through. In this episode, with the help of Dr. Girija Kaimal, the current president of the American Art Therapy Association, we explore how creativity can serve as a tool for helping us grapple with those moments in life when things feel unstable and unknown.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Featuring:
Cheryl Strayed: Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide and was made into an Oscar-nominated major motion picture. Her book Tiny Beautiful Things is currently being adapted for a Hulu television show that will be released in early 2023. In 2016, Tiny Beautiful Things was adapted as a play that has been staged in theaters around the world. Strayed is also the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel, Torch, and the collection Brave Enough, which brings together more than one hundred of her inspiring quotes. Her award-winning essays and short stories have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, and elsewhere. She has hosted two hit podcasts, Sugar Calling and Dear Sugars. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Girija Kaimal: Dr Girija Kaimal (EdD, MA, ATR-BC) is Associate Professor, Interim Chair and most recently served as Assistant Dean for Special Research Initiatives at the Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions. In her Health, Arts, Learning and Evaluation (HALE) research lab, she examines the physiological and psychological health outcomes of visual and narrative self-expression. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers and has a book forthcoming with Oxford University Press called The Expressive Instinct. Her research has been continually funded since 2008 by federal agencies like the Department of Defense, Department of Education, National Endowment for the Arts as well as foundation and academic centers and has been featured by NPR, CNN, The New York Times as well as a range of media outlets worldwide. In her current studies, she is examining outcomes of art therapy for military service members with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, narratives from Gulf war veterans, and arts-based approaches to mitigate chronic stress among patients and caregivers in pediatric hematology/oncology units. Additional international research projects include examining the therapeutic underpinnings of indigenous and traditional artforms and the creative self-expression in times of adversity across the human lifespan. Living out her research interests, she has been a lifelong visual artist and her art explores the intersection of identity and representation of emotion. She is currently the President of the American Art Therapy Association (a member organization of over 4,000 members) Dr. Kaimal has a doctorate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Master of Arts from Drexel University and Bachelor's in Design from the National Institute of Design in India.
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Sponsor Links
Big Cartel believes you don't have to sell out to sell online. With their simple stores for artists, makers, and creators, you won't be surprised by hidden fees and they don't take a cut of your sales like some other platforms. The sky's the limit on your sales and your success. Open your own shop at bigcartel.com.
We’re slated to have a new episode out today, but we needed a little extra time to work on it so we pushed it out a week. We’ll be taking a look at the question “how do we get through hard times?” and this deeper, heavier topic has simply required a bit more space. This short message from Anna is an invitation to slow down when it comes to creative projects.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
How creative flow was modeled for us when we were growing up has a lot to do with how we seek it out today. And writer Bonnie Tsui strives to achieve a more balanced approach to her creative pursuits so that her children feel empowered to do the same.
In our last episode of Creative Fuel, "How Do We Find Flow" we took a look at the topic of flow. As always, we covered more in our conversation than we could share in the episode. So for this Dose of Creativity, we'll hear how flow and creativity were modeled for Bonnie through her father's relationship to art.
Each episode of Creative Fuel starts with one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
Featuring: Bonnie Tsui
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Creative flow is a desirable but often elusive state. Many of us crave those moments where it feels like everything just comes together and we’re in the zone. But how exactly do we get there? And what can we do to facilitate more flow in our everyday lives? In this episode we explore the flow state with the help of researcher Dr. Richard Huskey and writer Bonnie Tsui. We take a look at the science behind flow, what it can do for us, and how we can facilitate more of it in our everyday lives.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Featuring:
Dr. Richard Huskey: Richard Huskey (PhD, University of California Santa Barbara) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and the Cognitive Science Program at the University of California Davis. Dr. Huskey is the principal investigator in the Cognitive Communication Science Lab, a researcher in the Computational Communication Research Lab, an affiliated faculty member at the Center for Mind and Brain, an affiliated faculty member in the Designated Emphasis in Computational Social Science, and Chair of the International Communication Association Communication Science and Biology interest group. He studies how motivation influences the attitudes people hold and the behaviors they adopt. He researches these questions using a variety of methodological techniques including: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), computational methods, and lab-based experimentation. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, snowboarding, and walking his dog Turner.
Bonnie Tsui: Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the author of American Chinatown, winner of the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Her latest book, Why We Swim, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of 2020; it is currently being translated into nine languages. Her first children’s book, Sarah and the Big Wave, about the first woman to surf Northern California’s Mavericks, was published last year. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, and the Mesa Refuge.
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
“A computational theory of the subjective experience of flow” Melnikoff et al., 2022
“Why does experiencing ‘flow’ feel so good?” By Dr. Richard Huskey
To learn more about somatic movement, Tori recommends checking out Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies and the book The Body Keeps Score
Featured listeners
Sponsor Links
Big Cartel believes you don't have to sell out to sell online. With their simple stores for artists, makers, and creators, you won't be surprised by hidden fees and they don't take a cut of your sales like some other platforms. The sky's the limit on your sales and your success. Open your own shop at bigcartel.com
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Awe an important emotion that has been shown to make us kinder and improve our empathy, and awe can help us to better tap into creativity. As Florence Williams shares, we don't necessarily need epic sunsets or grand vistas to get these benefits. A practice of microdosing awe helps us to access this important state more regularly.
On the last episode of Creative Fuel, "How Do We Spend Time Alone?" we discussed how, in solitude (and in groups) we can open ourselves up to awe -- which ultimately benefits our creative practice. And in this Creative Dose, author Florence Williams walks us through how we can tap into its power in our daily lives.
Each episode of Creative Fuel starts with one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
Featuring: Florence Williams
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Solitude can help the creative process flourish, but how can time alone be generative and not just lonely? When writer Florence Williams’ 25-year marriage falls apart, it sets her on a journey to explore the science behind loneliness. Photographer Alexandra de Steiguer on the other hand has spent the last quarter century actively seeking out time on her own, spending her winters as the caretaker of Star Island in the Isle of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. With the help of these two creatives we explore what spending time alone means for ourselves, our creativity, and our connections to the communities around us.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Featuring:
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Sponsor Links
Big Cartel believes you don't have to sell out to sell online. With their simple stores for artists, makers, and creators, you won't be surprised by hidden fees and they don't take a cut of your sales like some other platforms. The sky's the limit on your sales and your success. Open your own shop at bigcartel.com.
Kaywin Feldman, the Director for the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., points out why visiting art museums can provide us boosts of creativity. On last episode of Creative Fuel, "How Do We Connect With Each Other," we discussed how art museums and other public displays of art can be such powerful bridges between people. And in this short, Kaywin discusses how that relates to experiencing awe and wonder together.
Each episode of Creative Fuel starts with one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
Featuring: Kaywin Feldman
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
We share traits with every single human on this planet. But often our differences define us more than our commonalities. In this episode we explore our empathetic potential, and how art just might be a bridge for creating better connection.
Social psychologist Dr. Sara Konrath and Director of the National Gallery of Art guide us through an exploration of art and empathy, and we explore a new public art installation at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial in Washington State.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Featuring:
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Sponsor Links
Big Cartel believes you don't have to sell out to sell online. With their simple stores for artists, makers, and creators, you won't be surprised by hidden fees and they don't take a cut of your sales like some other platforms. The sky's the limit on your sales and your success. Open your own shop at bigcartel.com.
On art and science. In our first episode, "Do We Need Newness for Creativity?" we connected with Christine Liu, a neuroscientist and artist. She had some fantastic things to say about the intersection of science and creativity, something that is at the root of all of our Creative Fuel episodes.
Each episode of Creative Fuel start swith one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
Featuring: Christine Liu. Head here to discover Christine's Venn diagram on the overlaps between art and science.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Christine Liu:A neuroscientist currently conducting postdoctoral research at UCSF, where she explores how psychedelic drugs alter neural circuits. She earned her PhD research from UC Berkeley, focusing on the relationship between nicotine and the brain's dopamine system. She's an artist at heart, and uses art as a means of scientific communication and is the co-founder of the art collective Two Photon Art.
Resources Mentioned
We all know that spark of inspiration that easily happens when we go somewhere out of the ordinary, or feel like we're doing something for the first time. Do we need that sense of newness to spark creativity, and what do we do if we can't find it?
In this episode we talk to writer Amanda Machado and neuroscientist Christine Liu to learn exactly what's happening in our brains when we have new experiences and how it impacts our creative process.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Engineering by Steph George
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Featuring:
Resources Mentioned & Places to Learn More
Sponsor Links
Big Cartel believes you don't have to sell out to sell online. With their simple stores for artists, makers, and creators, you won't be surprised by hidden fees and they don't take a cut of your sales like some other platforms. The sky's the limit on your sales and your success. Open your own shop at bigcartel.com.
To be creative is to be human, and understanding that drive might help us understand ourselves better. Season one launches September 13, 2022.
Each episode begins with a central question, and features the expertise of researchers, scientists and creatives. In this first season, we'll explore topics like “how do we connect with each other?,” “how do we get through hard times?,” and "how do we find flow?" By exploring these questions through the lens of creativity, we'll come to understand how integral it is to all aspects of our lives. And listeners will gain insights on how to leverage its power in their everyday.
Creative Fuel is hosted by Anna Brones.
Trailer features: Cheryl Strayed, Bonnie Tsui, Kaywin Feldman, and Dr. Sara Konrath.
Producers and show creators: Anna Brones + Gale Straub
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