Episodes

  • Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera (Hacks) on casting aside his creative crutches
    Apr 29 2025

    Emmy and Grammy-winning composer Carlos Rafael Rivera (Hacks, The Queen's Gambit) details the painful lessons required to get to a healthy space of being less precious about his creative work.

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    35 mins
  • Author/screenwriter Ben Winters on the challenge of distraction
    Apr 15 2025

    Despite the best-selling books and hit TV shows, author/screenwriter Ben Winters (CBS' hit show Tracker, The Last Policeman) says distraction and anxiety remain very much a part of the creative process—even in the face of his ever-growing run of successes.

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    31 mins
  • Poet/author Tina Cane on the importance of congruent creativity
    Apr 1 2025

    Tina Cane's work as an activist and educator has kept her work as an author and poet (including a long stint as the former Poet Laureate of Rhode Island) so close to the earth. It’s beautiful and accessible and meaningfully grounded. After spending some time in conversation with her, it’s clear that her ability to be so authentic in her craft is the important result of being so intentional. In short, her internal work—of staying true to herself, of pushing against resistance—is made so clear in her external work.

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    40 mins
  • Behind the open-handed creativity of Tony Dekker and Great Lake Swimmers
    Mar 18 2025

    Tony Dekker has had the right posture from the beginning. Of course, it probably helped that he was never trying in the first place. The central figure of Great Lake Swimmers has made a career in the music industry for more than two decades now, but as Dekker tells the story, that first self-titled record was never intended to be anything more than a personal passion project—to be heard by family and friends.

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    38 mins
  • Hip-hop pioneer Lyrics Born on changing long-term paths
    Jun 19 2024

    Acclaimed artist and actor Lyrics Born speaks about finding a new identity beyond hip-hop, what he’s learned in 30 years as a recording artist, and the importance of saying yes when unexpected gifts come your way.

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    33 mins
  • Joan Osborne reflects on the organic origins of her musical career
    Jun 4 2024

    Acclaimed songwriter Joan Osborne says the artist will never stop pushing against the Resistance, but the doubts that arise will take on different forms.

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    36 mins
  • Land of Talk's Lizzie Powell on spurned opportunities and protecting the work
    May 15 2024

    Land of Talk's Lizzie Powell talks about spurned opportunities, lessons learned to protect the work, and the upsides of being a slow burn of a band—all of which has made them one of Canada’s most respected artists of the last 20 years.

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    34 mins
  • Ben Nichols (Lucero) on creation and boot camp experiences
    Apr 24 2024

    Lucero front man Ben Nichols talks about the acclaimed band's desire for boot camp experiences in the studio, the lessons learned over a quarter century of piling in a van for another tour run, and how/why he's so keen to face the resistance in the first place.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    31 mins