The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Theatre, Dance, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Social Justice, Spirituality, Feminism, Tech, Sustainability

When the poet Victoria Chang’s father had a stroke and lost his language and shortly thereafter her mother passed away, she realized the history of her immigrant parents was disappearing into silence. Since then, her work, including the acclaimed collection Obit and her collage memoir, Dear Memory, has been an attempt to fill those generational gaps through art. In our interview today, we’ll focus on how she uses the natural world and the visions of artists like Hilma af Klint to map the invisible landscapes of grief in her latest book, Tree of Knowledge. We’ll also talk about the felling of a eucalyptus tree outside her window, how she learned to read silences, and how poetry has helped her speak with the ancestors she never truly knew.
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast
(0:00) The Mystery of Poetry
(4:25) The Language of Silence
(5:55) Dear Memory - A Reading
(11:47) Releasing the Burden of History
(14:25) Performing Identity and Agency
(16:03) The Immigrant Experience and Gratitude
(26:10) Misogyny and the Visual Arts
(29:24) Grief and Shared Existence
(31:53) Radical Attentiveness

“What do you do now that your parents are both gone? And what’s left, and what are you supposed to do with the rest of your life? And I think that whole book was an exploration of those ideas and thinking through that. I think a lot of my books and works are me sort of thinking through things that I’m experiencing, and I think I came out of that book thinking, “Oh yeah, I’m supposed to live.” And I had to remind myself after they died, like, who am I without them? You know, I’m walking on this earth, I’m maybe walking an inch above the earth now, and I think it’s because all of that burden and history had evaporated."
When the poet Victoria Chang’s father had a stroke and lost his language and shortly thereafter her mother passed away, she realized the history of her immigrant parents was disappearing into silence. Since then, her work, including the acclaimed collection Obit and her collage memoir, Dear Memory, has been an attempt to fill those generational gaps through art. In our interview today, we’ll focus on how she uses the natural world and the visions of artists like Hilma af Klint to map the invisible landscapes of grief in her latest book, Tree of Knowledge. We’ll also talk about the felling of a eucalyptus tree outside her window, how she learned to read silences, and how poetry has helped her speak with the ancestors she never truly knew.
(0:00) The Language of Silence
(4:56) Reading - Dear Memory
(9:32) The Mystery of Poetry
(30:43) Releasing the Burden of History
(34:00) Identity and Agency 38:16 The Immigrant Experience
(48:30) Misogyny and the Visual Arts
(54:11) Grief and Shared Existence
(1:05:31) Radical Attentiveness
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“So all the stuff that we can gather, the information, it's all wonderful, it can be very helpful, but we don't live a disembodied experience. Our lives are not curated by the data we collect. Our lives are a product of the experiences we have with real people in real time. I think we devalue the beauty of humanity and the capacity for human beings to create and generate so many things of their own volition. I also think that when you create a world where so many things are happening around you and you cannot keep up, that's a great precursor, particularly for children, for stress.”
Dr. Michael C. Nagel is a researcher and educator, and a leading voice in neurodevelopment at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He has spent his life studying human development and the relationship between technology, the brain and mental health. In his essential books, The Livewired Child and his new work, The Livewired Teen, he explores neuroplasticity, how our brains are literally physically constructed by the environments we inhabit. And he has taken this science out of the lab and directly into the schools, advocating for a radical rethinking of modern education. But his work is not just about children, it's about all of us. It's about how we develop our personalities in a technological age. It's about the absolute necessity of the natural world for our cognitive health, how we nurture our imaginations, relationships and individuality. How do we foster critical thinking when algorithms do the thinking for us? As we face a critical threshold, how do we hold onto a sense of play, curiosity and what makes us human?
(0:00) Our Lives Are Not Curated by the Data We Collect
(2:40) The Tech Displacement
(3:38) The Echo Chamber
(4:23) Working Through Adversity
(5:39) The Despair of Social Media
(8:52) The Livewired Child, A Reading
(12:17) Multilingualism & Empathy
(13:32) Nature's Medicinal Effect
(15:02) The Intimacy Illusion
(17:00) The Eulogy Virtues
(19:02) A Return to the Classics
(21:00) The Gratitude Walk
(23:54) The Courage to Live the Life You Want to Live
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Dr. Michael C. Nagel is a researcher and educator, and a leading voice in neurodevelopment at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He has spent his life studying human development and the relationship between technology, the brain and mental health. In his essential books, The Livewired Child and his new work, The Livewired Teen, he explores neuroplasticity, how our brains are literally physically constructed by the environments we inhabit. And he has taken this science out of the lab and directly into the schools, advocating for a radical rethinking of modern education. But his work is not just about children, it's about all of us. It's about how we develop our personalities in a technological age. It's about the absolute necessity of the natural world for our cognitive health, how we nurture our imaginations, relationships and individuality. How do we foster critical thinking when algorithms do the thinking for us? As we face a critical threshold, how do we hold onto a sense of play, curiosity and what makes us human?
“So all the stuff that we can gather, the information, it's all wonderful, it can be very helpful, but we don't live a disembodied experience. Our lives are not curated by the data we collect. Our lives are a product of the experiences we have with real people in real time. I think we devalue the beauty of humanity and the capacity for human beings to create and generate so many things of their own volition. I also think that when you create a world where so many things are happening around you and you cannot keep up, that's a great precursor, particularly for children, for stress.”
(0:00) Our Lives Are Not Curated by the Data We Collect
(2:36) The Tech Displacement
(4:22) The Echo Chamber
(9:55) Working Through Adversity
(15:12) The Despair of Social Media
(19:20) The Livewired Child, A Reading
(42:12) Multilingualism & Empathy
(46:43) Nature's Medicinal Effect
(54:55) The Intimacy Illusion
(58:20) The Eulogy Virtues
(1:03:20) A Return to the Classics
(1:07:14) The Gratitude Walk
(1:13:21) The Courage to Live the Life You Want to Live
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“ So that's what I would love for people to see and to realize is that nature is so incredibly beautiful and diverse. And so are we.”
Today, we’re looking at how the landscapes of our childhood shape the way we see the world. We explore memory, nature, and attunement to the present moment with composer Max Richter and writer and biologist David George Haskell. We’re joined by authors Kristin Ohlson and Dan Werb who revisit the freedom of youth. Novelist Amitav Ghosh shares his sensory his experiences of Calcutta. Writer and musician Eiren Caffall reflects on finding hope and living with illness, while circular economy designer Claire Potter reflects on the living world and the art of noticing.
(0:00) MAX RICHTER (Award-winning Composer & Pianist) A Continuous Stream of Music
(1:55) CLAIRE POTTER (Circular Economy Designer) Protecting What You Love
(3:55) EIREN CAFFALL (Writer & Musician) A Legacy of Generational Knowledge
(7:40) AMITAV GHOSH (Award-winning Novelist, Ghost-Eye) Sensory Discovery and Food
(9:31) DAVID GEORGE HASKELL (Biologist, The Songs of Trees) Stories to Tell the Future
(10:58) KRISTIN OHLSON (Author, The Soil Will Save Us) Learning the Power of Observation Through a Free Range Childhood
(12:42) DAN WERB (Epidemiologist & Author, Our Wild Familiars) The Undertow of the Pacific
To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews.
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast