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

“Storytelling, which is a very whole person kind of activity, is one that delivers all kinds of truths. It's on the factual ground of reality that we build our cathedrals and our castles that we live in. And those are not just made of facts. They're made of other kinds of truths that make the stories of who we are, the cities we live in, the languages we speak—these are made of fact and fiction together, and those are the stories that define our lives.”
My guest today is Yann Martel,the internationally acclaimed author best known for his Booker Prize-winning Life of Pi and weaving philosophy, imagination, and profound human questions into unforgettable stories. His new novel, Son of Nobody, is a feat of literary imagination. Written in Homer-esque verses and layered with footnotes, the book draws us into the voice of a Greek storyteller while simultaneously mirroring our own present moment. It’s a work rich with history and intertextual echoes—ancient stories resurfacing in modern life, reminding us how deeply the past still speaks through us.
At its heart, Son of Nobody isa meditation on life, death, grief, and the fragile ways our human vanity can cloud our search for meaning. Through myth, memory, and philosophical storytelling, Martel explores what it means to long for home, to wrestle with ambition, and to confront loss. It’s a deeply moving reflection on how ancient tales—told and retold across centuries—can still teach us compassion, humility, and perhaps the courage to recognize that we can be nobody and still matter. It’s a beautiful, sometimes haunting story about what we can learn from the past when it comes to homesickness, love, grief, and ambition—and about remembering to value what we have before the search for more blinds us to it.
(0:00) Why is there human suffering? Why humanizing conflict is essential to understanding it
(5:48) The Limits of Rationality & Magical Thinking Why pure logic fails to answer life's deepest philosophical questions
(6:41) Education is Everything
(8:59) Why War Needs Stories How individual narratives help us comprehend the true tragedy of conflict
(9:44) Facts vs. Truth in Storytelling How psychological and emotional truths surpass factual accuracy
(11:47) The Iliad vs. The Gospels
(15:21) The Heroism of Translators
(16:03) AI vs. Human Creativity
(17:07) Animals as Ambassadors of the Wild
(18:08) Art, Religion and Ways to Go Beyond
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Insta @creativeprocesspodcast

Why do ancient myths still hold the answers to our modern anxieties? When faced with inexplicable grief or the incomprehensible scale of modern war, where does rationality fail us? Can the stories of our past save our future?
My guest today is Yann Martel, the internationally acclaimed author best known for his Booker Prize-winning Life of Pi and weaving philosophy, imagination, and profound human questions into unforgettable stories. His new novel, Son of Nobody, is a feat of literary imagination. Written in Homer-esque verses and layered with footnotes, the book draws us into the voice of a Greek storyteller while simultaneously mirroring our own present moment. It’s a work rich with history and intertextual echoes—ancient stories resurfacing in modern life, reminding us how deeply the past still speaks through us.
At its heart, Son of Nobody is a meditation on life, death, grief, and the fragile ways our human vanity can cloud our search for meaning. Through myth, memory, and philosophical storytelling, Martel explores what it means to long for home, to wrestle with ambition, and to confront loss. It’s a deeply moving reflection on how ancient tales—told and retold across centuries—can still teach us compassion, humility, and perhaps the courage to recognize that we can be nobody and still matter. It’s a beautiful, sometimes haunting story about what we can learn from the past when it comes to homesickness, love, grief, and ambition—and about remembering to value what we have before the search for more blinds us to it.
(0:00) Why is there human suffering? Why humanizing conflict is essential to understanding it
(02:14) Introduction to Son of Nobody, Yann Martel’s latest mythic novel
(04:20) The Limits of Rationality & Magical Thinking Why pure logic fails to answer life's deepest philosophical questions
(09:48) Why Greek Myths Still Speak to Us The universal relevance of ancient stories
(13:38) The Heroism of Translators
(18:32) Facts vs. Truth in Storytelling How psychological and emotional truths surpass factual accuracy
(21:23) Why War Needs Stories
(24:38) Reflections on Iran and Modern Conflict
(30:35) The Iliad vs. The Gospels
(41:26) What Do You Do with the Sadness of Mortals?
(45:52) How Life of Pi Changed Martel’s Spiritual Beliefs
(51:58) AI vs. Human Creativity
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
@creativeprocesspodcast

In the face of devastating state violence, the people of Iran continue to find new ways to resist. From a female marathon runner pacing her cell in prison, to an underground concert staged in defiance of the law, the fight for a free Iran is fought daily with bodies, art and solidarity.
In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu speaks with journalist Fatemeh Jamalpour about her book, For the Sun After Long Nights, which she wrote with fellow journalist Nilo Tabrizy. In September 2022, the world learned of the murder of a young Kurdish woman in Iran, Mahsa Jina Amini. Her death, while a captive of the Iranian state, sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Fatemeh and Nilo’s book frames those protests in the deep tradition of Iranian women leading political movements for rights and freedom, that date back at least a century. They also provide incredibly detailed and moving accounts of the everyday lives of people in Iran who are part of a collective movement under the most oppressive and violent conditions imaginable. Fatemeh talks about the significance of the many ethnic minorities in Iran, the unique role of Gen Z in the protests, and the many ways that women’s bodies have become a powerful weapon in the fight for collective freedom, in places as diverse as prisons and illegal music concerts. Clearing up myths and lies about Iran and the resistance, this is an especially important episode of Speaking Out of Place.
(0:00) A Century of Resistance Fatemeh discusses the deep historical roots of the Iranian women's movement
(2:58) Becoming a voice for suppressed women
(4:15) Sisterhood and Co-Authorship Meeting Niloufar Tabrizi and collaborating across borders
(7:15) Interrogations and Writing Documenting state interrogation as an act of defiance and survival
(12:45) The Diversity of Iran Highlighting the vital roles of Kurdish, Turkish, Arab, and Baluchi minorities in the struggle
(16:15) Personal Freedom vs. Collective Liberation Why returning to a "broken country" was an act of profound love and solidarity
(21:15) Gen Z Gamers in the Streets How young Iranians are using online strategy to fight security forces
(26:15) Turning Grief into Resistance
(29:15) Correcting Western Media Myths
(31:15) The Body as a Weapon Women reclaiming their agency through public presence without a hijab
(32:20) The Imaginary Concert The story of an illicit, breathtaking public performance in Iran
(35:15) The Future of Iranian Journalism
Episode Website
www.palumbo-liu.com
https://speakingoutofplace.com
Bluesky @palumboliu.bsky.social
@speaking_out_of_place

“We're looking at a lot of bad things in American history that we should have been thinking about over the past 50 years. What McCarthyism did, what it targeted with regard to the academic community—and that's really what I know the best—is that during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the focus of political oppression was on people who once were, had previously been near or were affiliated with the American Communist Party. It was focused on individuals who had once been in or near the Communist Party and who were refusing to cooperate with the witch hunt. That was it. That was what McCarthyism did. Today, what we're seeing is an attack on everything.”
In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu speaks with Ellen Schrecker, who has been referred to as “the dean of the anti-anti-Communist historians.” Well known for her classic studies of McCarthyism, today Schrecker explains how much worse Trump’s regime is than what we saw in the 1950s and 60s. A fierce defender of democracy, Ellen explains the central role education plays in creating a public culture and in maintaining democracy. Our conversation takes many paths, including an indictment of Capitalism, of the dominance of economistic thinking and values, of the ways university leaders are bending a knee to Trump. We talk about the value of the humanities, the importance of autonomous forms of education and mutual support such as we saw in the pro-Palestinian encampments, and one of the most remarkable differences between the days of McCarthyism—the phenomenon of mass protests like #NoKingsDay.
(0:00) The Prequel To The Civil War The threats to education today compared to the 1950s
(7:20) Democracy And Education
(13:40) Capitalism And Anti-Science How corporate interests fund the suppression of climate science and universities
(23:20) The Capitulation Of Leaders Why modern university administrators are giving in to authoritarian blackmail
(33:40) The Loss Of Cultural Capital The targeted elimination of the humanities and the arts in higher education
(39:20) Unprecedented Resistance Finding hope in modern student politicization and mass protests
Episode Website
www.palumbo-liu.com
https://speakingoutofplace.com
Bluesky @palumboliu.bsky.social
Instagram @speaking_out_of_place

"I am a poet without language and an empath without root. I am overflowing in something I do not recognize... something like terror, but still not quite that."
In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with poet, activist, and scholar Jamaica Osorio. Shortly after October 7, 2023, she began to write a series of astonishing poems about the war in Gaza and the genocide. Osorio graces us with readings of some of those poems, and engages in a rich, complex, and deeply moving discussion of what went into their composition. Throughout, we talk about the power of poetry to suspend time and allow us the space to contemplate the impossible. We talk about the nature of not knowing, of the inexpressible, and the ways certain poems can give us the strength, energy, and commitment to persist in working for the liberation of all peoples, even when dwelling in grief.
Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is an Associate Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her award-winning poetry and activism were the subject of the Sundance Film Festival documentary This is the Way we Rise, and she is the author of Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea, published by The University of Minnesota Press. She believes in the power of aloha ʻāina and collective action to pursue liberatory, abolitionist futures.
(0:00) Intro
(2:00) The Silence After October 7, Jamaica Osorio discusses the struggle to find language and the pressure to speak out
(5:00) The Sounds of Empire in Hawaiʻi Connecting the military helicopters over Pālolo Valley to the skies of Gaza
(7:00) Reading "For Palestine"
(13:00) Lingering in the Inexpressible Why poetry must offer questions and suspensions rather than simple answers
(18:00) Taking Risks and Earning Trust The vulnerability of sharing deeply personal, grief-stricken art with the public
(24:30) Reading: "It's Time to Dance" A beautiful meditation on holding the joy of a child alongside the terror of a genocide
(29:00) Children as Ancestors and Teachers How Osorio’s daughter teaches her to be fully present in both grief and joy
(37:00) Reading: "Rafah Burns" A raw poem about parenthood, weeping with a newborn, and the global resonance of loss
(42:00) Finding Connection in the Dark The shared emotional vocabulary of crying when the world becomes incomprehensible
(44:00) ʻOnipaʻa: To Be Steadfast
(46:00) The Ungovernable Belief in a Better World Why the organizers and poets will outlast the empires that try to dominate them
Episode Website
www.palumbo-liu.com
https://speakingoutofplace.com
Bluesky @palumboliu.bsky.social
Insta @speaking_out_of_place