Talent Free

Today I'm talking with my friend Asya. She works in HR and career development and does not consider herself a creative person, but she wanted to explore creativity anyway. How do you let it into your life? What even is it? And how do we make sure the creative process doesn't become just another thing we're supposed to be doing to stay mentally healthy?This conversation gave me new angles and perspectives and it felt like exactly the right way to close the season.
Today’s guest
Asya Soskova
LinkedIn
Talent Free Substrack
https://substack.com/@sashamazurk?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Host
⁠Sasha Mazur-K⁠
⁠Instagram ⁠
⁠LinkedIn

Today we are talking with Carmen. She is an author, poet, mentor, creative practitioner and campaigner. We started with differences between spoken and written stories and why retelling fairytales can be so powerful. Why it is better to be the Witch than the Muse and how fictional and even mystical narratives can help us cope with very real life circumstances and what that tells us about creativity as a mental and emotional process.
It is a powerful and deep conversation that gave me a lot to think about.
Today’s guest
Carmen Marcus
https://carmenmarcus.co.uk/
Books and resources mentioned in the episode:
Toni Morrison
Selkie Woman story
Clarissa Pinkola Estés “Women Who Run with the Wolves”
CA Conrad “(Soma)tic Poetry Practice”
Carmen Marcus “How Saints Die”
Talent Free Substrack
https://substack.com/@sashamazurk?utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Host
⁠Sasha Mazur-K⁠
⁠Instagram ⁠
⁠LinkedIn

This episode is with Annie Guest — a mental health therapist and author who inherited her family home after years of caregiving and turned the renovation into a way to process grief. We talk about using objects and interior design to redirect memory toward the moments we cherish, how the creative process of making a home can support emotional healing, finding creative freedom within limitations, and memories that make us feel connected to people for whom we are irreplaceable even if they are gone.

Today’s guest
Annie Guest
https://www.annieguestdesignforyourmind.com/
https://www.instagram.com/annieguestdesign
Resources mentioned in the episode:
https://uk.pinterest.com/
https://www.benjaminmooreitalia.com/
https://heatherwick.com/project/maggies/
Talent Free Substack
Link to Substack
Host
⁠Sasha Mazur-K⁠
⁠Instagram ⁠
⁠LinkedIn

In this episode, I speak with Yuliya who is a costume designer and Butoh dancer.
We talk about how attached we become to our masks, and how costume can shift from something we hide behind into a tool for exploration, play, and communication. Yuliya shares how Butoh is not only a dance form, but a philosophy of life and presence that invites slowness, attention, and transformation.
This conversation moves between costume design, masks, embodiment, and Butoh as a living practice exploring creativity as a process of self-discovery and opening space to reflect on how we relate to the different personalities we carry, and how creativity can help us meet them with curiosity.
Today’s guest
Yuliya V Krylova
https://www.yuliyavkrylova.com/
ButohUK
Instagram
People mentioned in the episode:
Marie-Gabrielle Rotie

Today I’m speaking with Lilit — a photographer, filmmaker, and photography teacher — about lens-based practices that quickly open into something deeper: personal archives, memory, and the emotional power of images. We unpack therapeutic photography vs. photo therapy, and how working with personal photos can support mental health and the creative process through reflection, meaning-making, and visual storytelling. And why, in creative work, being childish can actually be a strength.
Today’s guest
Lilit Danielyan
Therapeutic Photography course
Linktree
Instagram
Authors mentioned in the episode:
Neil Gibson "Therapeutic Photography: Enhancing Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy and Resilience"
Judy Weiser "Phototherapy Techniques: Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots and Family Albums"
Gabor Maté "The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture"
Elizabeth Gilbert Substack “Letters from Love”
Frida Kahlo “The Diary of Frida Kahlo”

Host
⁠Sasha Mazur-K⁠
⁠Instagram ⁠
⁠LinkedIn