My friend Elizabeth Johnston has been podcasting at “Own Your Creativity” for more than a year now! Tune in for a great listen.
Johnston interviews creators she admires about how they define creativity, how they fit art into their lives, struggles they’ve had in connection to their art, and typical habits that inspire their creativity. Every conversation has been completely different from the others.
My favourite episode so far is her first interview with Bill O’Hanlon, a mental health professional whose book “Do One Thing Different” got him on Oprah. O’Hanlon has a calming, yet inspiring way of presenting creativity. To hear their conversation, visit the show episode.
Johnston’s interviews with Bruce Langford and Mony Dojeiji were also inspiring and surprising. Langford’s comments about his dog will make you laugh.
Story: Making time for creativity
Most of the discussions in Own Your Creativity focus on strategies guests use to make sure that their artistic endeavours fit into their busy lives. They also discuss how they overcame addictions, fears and worries to transform themselves into creative people. As guest Shari D Teigman says “the falling apart is where you find your real passion.”
Structure: a 30-minute conversation
Johnston works hard to make sure that every podcast episode lasts only 30 minutes, despite the deep concepts she and her guests confront.
This has got to be a challenge given that most of her guests have multiple types of activities in addition to their main creative outlet. Creators are actors, authors, broadcasters, dancers, musicians, poets, novelists or several things at once. Some of them are also coaches, community workers, editors, parents and publishers, so the conversations touch many interests.
Style and Sound: Calm simple interview
Listening to “Own Your Creativity” is like sitting in on a telephone conversation in which two creators explore the deepest meanings of their lives. It’s clear that the creators and host are both coming up with their answers as the conversations take place.
For instance, at one point Carmine Starnino says:
There is something to being young and discovering poetry and feeling excited by it that becomes a powerful motivator to getting poems written. That slows down as you get older, I feel. You’re not as needy to get people to pay attention to you.”
This thought seems to occur to him as a feeling that he’s working out as he speaks. Perhaps Starnino will develop the idea into a future essay, but it’s rewarding to hear him working out the idea as it occurs to him.
This is just one example in which the audience gets to hear creators thinking about the process of what they do rather than the results of their creative work. I suspect that many of the intervies will spark more creative work on behalf of both the guests and Johnston herself.
Thanks Elizabeth for a stimulating podcast series.
To hear all the podcasts, subscribe to Own Your Creativity in Itunes or Podbean. A new episode comes out every Wednesday.
To learn more about Elizabeth Johnston, visit her website.
