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Craft and Chaos

Craft and Chaos

By: TruStory FM
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About this listen

 A Weird Show for Weirdos Who Make Things How do you make art when the world feels like it’s on fire? Welcome to Craft and Chaos, the podcast for creative minds trying to thrive in the madness. Whether you write, paint, build, perform, or daydream ideas that keep you up at night, this show is your companion through the wild ride of making something out of nothing. Join Misty, Pete, Kyle, and Ryan — a ragtag team of creative types — as they dive into the joy, frustration, and beautiful mess of the artistic process. From the spark of inspiration to the reality of “I actually made this,” they’ll share honest stories, epic wins, total flops, and the weird, wonderful chaos that comes with being possessed by a new idea. This isn’t just about craft. It’s about surviving the noise, embracing your weird, and making cool stuff anyway. Wherever the strangest podcasts are found.©TruStory FM Art Social Sciences
Episodes
  • How to Survive Being Quote-Tweeted by Strangers

    How to Survive Being Quote-Tweeted by Strangers
    Feb 5 2026

    When your work gets traction, people don’t just consume it—they build a little civilization around it. In this episode, Pete Wright, Mandy Fabian, Kyle Olson, and Ryan Dalton talk about the first time strangers made their work feel real (and slightly terrifying), from festival reviews and elevator recognition to fan-made dioramas and grandparents reading novels aloud together.

    They dig into what creators owe their communities, how to set boundaries without killing the joy, what “seeding” iconic objects really means, and what music helps them write without their brains wandering off to watch Star Wars in their head. Also: an unexpectedly sincere love letter to pencils, France’s finest export (ennui), and a rapid-fire fandom game that proves no one should be trusted with a t-shirt press.

    Links & Notes

    • Kyle's Twenty Twenty Mix Playlist



    • (01:11) - The Moment You are the Center of the Fandom
    • (34:25) - "Sponsor" • Ennui
    • (36:30) - Music
    • (46:56) - Kyle's 202Mix
    • (49:01) - "Sponsor"• It Starts with Trees
    • (50:59) - Who is YOUR Favorite Creator?
    • (54:32) - Tell me you're a fan!
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Permission Granted: Skip the Hard Part and Come Back Later

    Permission Granted: Skip the Hard Part and Come Back Later
    Jan 22 2026
    Look. We're back. New year. New host. And we opened the show with Ryan reading the dictionary definition of the word "we," which is either a bit or a cry for help — the line is thin and we're not here to judge. The point is: Mandy Fabian is here now, Misty is off surviving life at full speed, and we're all still pretending we know what we're doing creatively. (We don't. That's the show.)Here's the thing about creative work that nobody tells you until you've already panicked about it seventeen times: you don't actually have to know what happens next. The writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation — a show that ran for seven seasons and won actual awards — would literally write "tech the tech" in the script when they didn't have the specific quantum warp polaron nonsense figured out yet. Grey's Anatomy? "Medical, medical, medical." These are real strategies used by professionals who got paid. The details came later. The momentum mattered now. This is permission. Take it.We also answer a listener question that hits painfully close to home: what happens when you suddenly have all the time in the world to be creative and your brain immediately responds by doing absolutely nothing? Turns out "I can do anything" metabolizes into "I can't do anything" faster than you'd think.We talk egg timers, scheduled creativity, and why imposing fake limitations on yourself might be the only way to survive unlimited freedom. And then, because we are who we are, we spend the last chunk of the episode pitching wildly different plays based on the same prompt — a veterinarian's office, three actors, and the opening line "Do you want the honest version or the one that'll let you sleep tonight?" Somehow we ended up with alien kittens, a ketamine heist, and a sentient skin rash that makes people act out telenovelas. This is the show. We're so glad you're here.Smart People Who Said Smart Things:Ronald D. Moore — The "tech the tech" guyShonda Rhimes — The "medical, medical, medical" queenMadeleine L'Engle — "Inspiration more often comes during the work than before it." Correct.Don Roos — Screenwriter behind the one-hour egg timer method: commit to one focused hour, let it grow if it wants toSteven Pressfield — Author of The War of Art, originator of "the resistance" as a concept for that voice in your head that tells you you're garbagePlaces That Let Creatives Do Weird Things on Deadlines:Muse Fest at Space 55 (Phoenix) — Nine muses, nine responses, one week, no stakes, maximum creativityPhoenix Theater's 24-Hour Theater Project — Kyle wrote a 15-page script overnight and it was about a sentient skin rash. We'll explain.Series Fest / Tribeca / Frameline — Festivals Mandy is submitting her pilot toProjects You Should Know About:StorySprawl — Pete's invite-only collaborative writing project where you never write what comes next, someone else does, and it's apparently liberating as hellYou Are Here — Mandy's indie TV pilot, shot micro-budget over three days. Coming soon?The Black Cape Saga — Ryan's upcoming words! Mark your Goodreads!Go Help Yourself — Misty's podcast. Still running. Go listen if you miss her. We do.Tools for People Who Need Structure:Obsidian — Kyle is migrating his notes here from Zoho Notebook and found a file from eight years ago that just said "This is where the good ideas go." Still waiting.The One-Hour Egg Timer Method — One hour. No phone. No errands. If it turns into three hours, great. If not, you did the hour. That's the whole thing. Sean Carlin has a good write-up here.Public Domain Watch (From the Fake Sponsor):Nancy Drew, Miss Marple, Sam Spade — All entered public domain January 2026. Do something interesting with them. Please. No more horror movies. (00:00) - Welcome to Craft and Chaos(02:45) - Creative Hijinks(23:00) - Sponsor: Jess Plus None • A Film by Mandy Fabian(27:03) - You Don't Have to Have All The Answers Right Now(44:12) - Listener Question(57:23) - "Sponsor:" Nancy Drew & The Public Domain(58:58) - When You Have No Time At All
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • How to Kill Dynamic Ad Insertion with Kyle Olson, Pete Wright, and Horses

    How to Kill Dynamic Ad Insertion with Kyle Olson, Pete Wright, and Horses
    Jan 14 2026

    In this Very Special Episode, it’s just Pete and Kyle pulling the curtain back on one of the show’s most reliably chaotic features: those “ads” that don’t so much sponsor the show as wander into it, sit down uninvited, and start making sustained eye contact. The spark is a listener question—who on earth is making these things?—and the answer turns into a funny, slightly unsettling tour of how Craft and Chaos builds its weird little universe without losing the thread of why it exists in the first place.

    What follows is less “inside baseball” and more “inside the raccoon’s head,” as they talk about the creative logic behind a recurring bit: how surprise keeps reactions honest, why the show’s structure makes the interruptions land the way they do, and how the team balances absurdity with affection so the joke doesn’t curdle into cynicism. It’s a conversation about craft, yes—but also about restraint, collaboration, and the particular joy of making something that’s small, strange, and clearly made by people with fingerprints.

    And if you’ve ever wondered why certain “sponsors” feel like returning characters, why others show up like weather, or why some interruptions feel suspiciously… polished… this episode gives you just enough context to appreciate the chaos more without robbing it of its best trick: catching you off-guard.
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    51 mins
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