The Great Creators with Guy Raz

Latest Episodes:

Jesse Tyler Ferguson: Playing a Gay Parent on Modern Family Was a Lot of Pressure Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

Jesse Tyler Ferguson played one of the most important TV characters of the past 25 years. The role of Mitchell Pritchett – the openly gay lawyer and father on Modern Family – brought Jesse fame; praise; a deep sense of meaning; and as you'll hear in this episode, some criticism, too.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Jesse talks about trusting his intuition and going all-in on acting despite financial struggles; the powerful influence of a mentor early in his career; stereotypes and the perils of representing an entire group of people on TV; his one-man show on Broadway; and where he's taking his career next.

Jesse's podcast is called Dinner's On Me.

Links:

Modern Family "Lion King" scene
Trailer for Jesse's one-man Broadway show, Fully Committed
Jesse's podcast, Dinner's On Me
Jesse's Instagram

See all our episodes – including conversations with Tom Hanks, Jason Sudeikis, Bjork, and many more – at TheGreatCreators.com.

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Jewel: When I Was Poor, I Rejected $1M and Built a Plan for My Happiness Jan 09, 2024

Show notes

Singer-songwriter Jewel shares her incredible life story, from yodeling in bars as a kid to becoming homeless as a teenager and shortly thereafter becoming one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. She tells Guy about the mental exercises and Stoic philosophy she relied on as she climbed out of homelessness; why she declined a $1 million signing bonus; her "business plan" for her career and happiness; the conversation with Bob Dylan that may have saved her career; and why she's still making music but choosing not to publish it.

Links from the show:

Discovery show about Jewel's family's Alaska homestead
Writers who inspired Jewel: Anais Nin, Flannery O'Connor, Anton Chekhov, Charles Bukowski, Immanuel Kant, Plato, Socrates
Her debut album, Pieces of You
"Who Will Save Your Soul" video
"You Were Meant for Me" video
New 25th-anniversary edition of Spirit, Jewel's sophomore album
Innerworld, Jewel's online platform connecting people to mental health counseling anonymously

Photo credits: Dana Trippe, Brendan Walter

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Logic on His "Farewell" Album and Retiring to Rural Oregon Jan 02, 2024

Show notes

Bobby Hall -- better known by his stage name Logic -- first started making waves in the rap scene with his 2010 mixtape "Young, Broke, and Infamous". In 2018, he blew up and received two Grammy nominations for a song he titled 1-800-273-8255, which is the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. But just a couple years later, he announced his retirement and moved to rural Oregon to focus on his family. In this episode, Guy and Bobby talk about the methods he’s been using to cope with his persistent anxiety, and why he’s gearing up to release what he's calling his last "rap" album ever.

Links from the show:

Guy's How I Built This interview with Logic

Logic: Young, Broke, and Infamous

Logic: 1-800-273-8255

Logic's edited Instagram photo that fooled everyone

John Cleese on Open and Closed Creativity

Interview with Andre 3000 about why he stopped rapping

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Andy J. Pizza: This Author-Illustrator Wants to Give You a Creative Pep Talk Dec 26, 2023

Show notes

Andy J. Pizza is the best-selling author-illustrator of Invisible Things and the host of Creative Pep Talk, his long-running podcast about building a creative career. In this episode, Andy talks about growing up as a hyper-creative but unfocused kid; his rocky journey to developing a unique artistic style; a medical diagnosis that changed his life and work forever; the neuroscience behind artistic taste; what he does when he feels stuck; and the epiphany that led to his biggest creative breakthrough.

Links from this Episode:

Andy's "Giant Markers" Exhibit
His newest book, Invisible Things
Creative Pep Talk podcast
Andy interviewing Guy on Creative Pep Talk
The ADHD talk that hit Andy like a ton of bricks
How I Built This
Andy's next book, A Sundae with Everything On It

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DJ Shadow on Creating the First Ever Completely Sampled Album Dec 19, 2023

Show notes

DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, was and is a famous crate digger. He could spend hours in a record store collecting obscure albums, looking for interesting melodies and beats to sample and mix together on his turntables. And in 1996, Josh used this encyclopedic knowledge of music to create the first ever completely sampled album as DJ Shadow. The album, "Endtroducing", became one of the most important albums in experimental hip-hop, and you can still hear its influence today. In this episode, Guy talks with Josh about how he discovered hip-hop on his college radio station, his love of putting people on to new music, and how curiosity became his biggest superpower.

Links from the show:

Endtroducing - DJ Shadow

Action Adventure - DJ Shadow

Licensed to Ill - The Beastie Boys

Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa

Jam-Master-Jay - RUN DMC

One for the Treble - Davy DMX

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Brian Grazer: How Curiosity Led to $15 Billion at the Box Office Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

Brian Grazer is the award-winning producer of many iconic and successful films and TV shows, like Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, Friday Night Lights, 24, and Arrested Development. More than 40 years ago he co-founded Imagine Entertainment with director Ron Howard. Together their films have made more than 15 billion dollars. In his conversation with Guy, Brain talks about his accidental start in Hollywood, what it was like working there in the early 70s, and the steps he took that helped him advance in the movie industry. He talks about meeting and working with Ron Howard, and what makes their collaboration so successful and enduring four decades later. And he talks about the power of curiosity, a quality he ultimately credits for his creative success, and explores in his best-selling book A Curious Mind.

Links from the show:

Night Shift (1982) Movie Trailer

Splash (1984) Movie Trailer

Bowfinger (1999) Movie Trailer

Frost/Nixon (2008) Movie Trailer

Brian's book A Curious Mind

Brian's and Ron Howard's production company Imagine Entertainment

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Sir Patrick Stewart: I Almost Turned Down Captain Picard on Star Trek Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

Sir Patrick Stewart is beloved for his portrayal of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Next Generation and its spinoff films. But Patrick was 47 years old when he took that life-changing role... and he almost turned it down! He sits down with Guy to talk about the extraordinary life that led to Picard: his working-class upbringing, how he learned to tame perfectionism on stage and embrace his own dark side when playing "horrible" men, and why he wants to focus on comedy in the final chapter of his career. Sir Patrick has written a memoir about his life and career called "Making It So".

Links from this episode:

Star Trek: Next Generation - Picard's best speeches
Shakespeare play The Winter's Tale
Patrick playing Macbeth
Picard memes (CNET)
Patrick's Instagram
Patrick's memoir, 'Making It So'

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James Blunt: How the “You’re Beautiful” Singer Saved Us From World War III Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

When James Blunt released "You're Beautiful" in 2004, it quickly became the most popular song in the world. The album it was on, Back to Bedlam, became the best selling album of the 2000s in the UK. But James was already in his 30s when that song broke, and before that he lived a completely different life. In this episode, you'll hear about James' time in the British army leading NATO troops in Kosovo, his stint as one of Queen Elizabeth's ceremonial bodyguards, and how he randomly became roommates with Carrie Fisher while recording his first album.

Links from the show:

James in Kosovo in 1999

You're Beautiful

Goodbye My Lover

James' new album Who We Used To Be

Dark Thought

The Girl That Never Was

Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story

James' Pub The Fox and Pheasant

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Jeff Tweedy: “I Loved It” When My Label Said Wilco Would Fail Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo is an iconic indie musician and songwriter. He joins Guy to talk about Uncle Tupelo's unexpected breakup, how that inspired him to explore new musical territories, and the story behind the classic album that cost Wilco their record deal -- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Jeff has a new book out, it's called "World Within A Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music".

Links from the show:

Wilco playing "New Madrid" Live

Trailer for "I am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco"

Wilco at NPR's Tiny Desk

Wilco performs "California Stars" live on KEXP

Jeff on "Late Night with Seth Meyers"

Jeff's new book "World Within A Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music"

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Gavin Rossdale (Bush): The Failures That Led to 90s Rock Immortality Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

Gavin Rossdale and his band Bush were at the forefront of the grunge movement in the 90s. Their debut album Sixteen Stone was a huge success, selling over 6 million copies. Almost overnight, Bush went from playing pubs in London to headlining arenas across the US. But before that, during a time when Britpop was dominating the British airwaves, Rossdale struggled for years to find success. In this episode, Gavin talks with Guy about being bullied while growing up in England, and how learning how to channel his anger into music helped him create one of the most commercially successful bands of the 90s.

Links from the show:

Gavin Rossdale in Midnight

Sixteen Stone

Man on the Run

Tickets for Bush's Tour

Loaded - The Greatest Hits

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