Imagination & Junk

Thank you and good night. Mat and Bill will return in the near future with a new podcast under the Imagination & Junk umbrella. Please hang on to your subscription!

Creative people have been chasing perfection since the first painters daubed pictures on cave walls. But is it even possible to reach it? And if not -- why do we bother?Plus: Humidity, ducks, grammar, double espressos, Coffman starters, Run-DMC, LaJethro Jenkins, rhombuses, Paterson NJ, a mug's game, Robert Towne, candy cigars, Previously on America, and Born To Run. Also: Never follow a juggler. 

This week we're looking at the role of rules in creativity -- when to follow them, and when to blow them up with dynamite from the ACME Corporation. Plus: Struggle, drag, Scottish sheep, a good day's work, Jacques Tati, music halls, both-sidesing, humiliation, bankruptcy and Henry Kissinger. Also: Never meet your heroes. And: Is it raining?

This week we're looking at one of art's enduring mysteries: Why is it so hard to call yourself an artist? Also: Thunderbirds, multiple Negronis, Chuck Jones, superspreader events, tiny coffees, Picasso, evolution, self-consciousness, Maya Angelou, a perfectly-cut child-sized waistcoat, gatekeepers, Cybertrucks, and a heavy dose of the side-eye. Plus: The more you say it, the truer it gets.

This week we’re talking about the work we did when we were young and foolish, or at least less experienced. How should we feel about it? Are regret or even shame ever useful? Also: Goth kids, Logan Paul, steel-toed boots, messages (sent and received), a comfortable shoe, go-away heat, The Brill Building, knife-wielding idiots and the biopic of Mat’s life. Plus: Drunk rugby boys (as separate and distinct from knife-wielding idiots)!

This week, in the first episode of Season 4, we're talking about the myth of talent. At least one of us feels a small tickle of resentment when someone, with the best of intentions, tells him he's talented. Why? It's complicated. Plus: Doomsday bunkers, tall people, "air quotes," sizzling fingertips, MREs, espresso machines, gatekeeping, Jumpin' Jimmy Baldwin, London's stabbiest borough, and a beautiful gift for plumbing. Also: Showgirls!

As a tune-up for the premiere of Season 4, we're bringing you another installment of our occasional bonus feature, I Might Be Wrong But... in which one of us argues in favor of a maligned piece of pop culture while the other one reconsiders our friendship. This week Bill's up, and he's making the case for Ron Howard's 1982 "Night Shift," starring Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton as a couple of guys who have the extremely poor judgment to run a call-girl ring out of the NYC morgue. (It's based on a true story, because of course it is!) Trigger warning: This episode contains explicit references to fat phobia, '80s rock group Quarterflash and cowboy underwear.Imagination & Junk returns in its regular, less-ridiculous form on March 11.

As a tune-up for the premiere of Season 4, we're bringing you another installment of our occasional bonus feature, I Might Be Wrong But... in which one of us argues in favor of a maligned piece of pop culture while the other one points and laughs. This week Mat's up, and he's making the case for the 1985 teen comedy "Real Genius," starring the late Val Kilmer. Trigger warning: This episode contains explicit references to popcorn, bad wardrobe and an undergraduate ice show. Imagination & Junk returns in its regular, less-ridiculous form on March 11.

This week we're talking about the things that aren't there. Plus: Trash drafts, Parrot Face, the dog that didn't bark, well-dressed clowns, empty piazzas, terrible silence, Mike Birbiglia, and the smell of space. (It smells like steak, apparently.)    This is the last episode of Season 3. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. In the meantime, keep your ears peeled for two Very Special Episodes™️ of our between-seasons experiment I Might Be Wrong But… , in which one of us tries to convince the other that some fringe cultural artifact he inexplicably loves is actually — y’know: Good?

How do you know if what you're creating is any good? This week: Juggling the internal and external critics. Plus: Humility, shouting at clouds, Idiots vs. Fools, marrying up, Baby Shark, shame, brainwashing, sometimes it's harder to suck, The Well of Metaphor, fact checkers, and getting the brushes back out. 

People like to say the great ones make it look easy, but what are we really looking at when we see a great creator showing what looks like effortlessness? Plus: Spectacular failures, concerned murmurs, Jenny from the block, beautiful aliens, Henri Matisse, rubber band balls, drifting toward the abyss, ha cha cha and hot dogs by the sea. 

This week we're talking about doing what you're bad at. Why do some people charge blindly full speed ahead, and others try to shrink into their own shoes? And what's to be gained from what can be a traumatic experience? Also: Noble pain, sociopaths, Norma Desmond, tinnitus, bad steak, Christmas island, horrifying plunky sounds and more Mel Cooley. 

This week we're looking at limitations in creative work. When do they hurt? When can they help? And how can we become more agile creators by learning how to work with them, rather than around them? Also: Fake expertise, low ceilings, ukuleles vs. bowling balls, rich idiots, guitar control, speed wounds, bourgeois sharpnress, and I Kid Because I Love. 

This week we're looking at a part of the job that comes hard for many creative people -- self-promotion. Is there a way to be an effective promoter without feeling awkward and cheap? We suggest that there is, and tell you a way forward. Also: Big asks, mug's games, the SEO scam, wide boys, Chelmsford, crying in coffee shops, lost luggage, bonbons and juggling for Jesus. 

It's one of the paradoxes of creative life: the longer you do it, the more tools you acquire, the more it becomes the goal to get simpler. To do less. This week we're talking about the quest for simplicity, and about finding the sweet spot between brevity and clarity. Plus: Slow TV, phantom limbs, Robot Thatcher, greening, a blow to the head, Wesley Van Wesleyson, promises and threats, and content cubed. 

Every creator likes think they're shiny and golden, dancing with their muse in a singular act of invention. But is that true? Is that how it works? Or is all creativity an act of remix? Are we inevitably treading on ground others have walked before us? And if there's no such thing as originality -- why do we bother? Also: Brain fizz and sparky fingertips, Woz, falling down, Pinwright's Progress, high blood pressure, how to breathe, grand larceny, DJ Kool Herc, Muskification, and 400,000 years ago (a Tuesday). 

This week we're looking at one of the hardest decisions a creator can make: When is it time to admit an idea isn't panning out and move on? It can be agonizing to put aside a piece of work in which you've invested time and care and effort, but sometimes it's not just the best choice, it's the only one that makes sense.  Plus: Loud noises, Labrador footwarmers, Italian getaways, toboggans of regret, beans on toast, the world's longest putt, unconscionable delays and a big steely swan-like metaphor in the sky. 

When Apple announced its plans for artificial intelligence earlier this week, the presentation failed to make a minor point: AI, as currently constituted, doesn't work very well. Also, not for nothing, it's theft on a grand scale. So: Here comes the future, we guess? This week, we're kicking off our third season with a deep dive on the role of artificial intelligence in creativity. Auto-summarized version: You can keep it. Plus: Eliza, angry ducks, carnies, strike snacks and idea smoothies, rat snakes, juggling fatalities, bullet-headed Bond villains, clean smart data, the Eternal Return and alt-right Seinfeld. 

This week, in the second of two Very Special Episodes™️, we're wrapping up our mini-series "I Might Be Wrong, But... " with a look at the 1973 blaxploitation demi-classic "Willie Dynamite." Bill takes the position that it's worth a second look; Mat argues the contrary, taking the classic dialectical stance he identifies as "Nuh uh." Wherever you come down on this cultural question, surely we can all agree on one thing: This episode is 33 minutes long. Imagination & Junk returns for its third season on June 12. 

Join us, won't you, as we clear our throats before Season 3 with a Very Special After School Episode of Appointment Listening we're calling "I Might Be Wrong, But... " In this first of two bonus installments we're kicking around the idea that Steven Seagal's 1991 magnum opus "Out For Justice" is actually kind of... good? Yes, we've lost our damn minds, but only temporarily; we'll be back with another full season of the usual fast, funny, probing conversations about creativity on June 12. In the meantime: Here's this thing!

In the last episode of Season 2, we're recalling the worst things that ever happened to us as creative people, and trying to excavate whatever lessons we can from the wreckage. Featuring: Murder in Encino, and a near-international incident in Beijing.   We'll be back with a new season of Imagination & Junk after a short break.

In this episode we're talking about tools of the trade. Every creative trade has them. But they function in a variety of ways: As tools, yes, but also as signifiers of membership in a group, and as objects of desire. Also: Man purses, puppies, promiscuous scribbling, snappy suits, Japanese dining tables, Toots Thielemans, custom juggling balls and cricket.

Here's a creativity brain puzzler: Is it better to break new ground or to keep polishing the same act until it gleams? It depends, to a degree, on for whom you create in the first place. Also: Jackie Chan, treading water, private eyes, the changeup pitch, Eurovision, litigation, the verdict of history, singularity, space shoes, The Shipping Forecast and quite a bit, actually, about the eternal villainy of The Beach Boys' Mike Love.

This week we're looking at Getting Things Done, and at the cult of productivity that's sprung up around David Allen's original GTD methodology. It looks good, it sounds good -- but is it an aid to creative work or the exact opposite of what creativity calls for? Once again, we have thoughts. And this time we've put them in a nice list, with checkboxes. Also: Raccoons, stone tablets, Starfighters, making a mess and tidying up, disresepcting the Bing, shallots and where to put them, things that are too good to check, and the night Bobby Flay made a mockery of Kitchen Stadium. 

Can creativity be malign? Or is it always just... creativity? In this episode we're looking at what researchers call "dark creativity," or the use of creative tools to gain an unfair advantage over another person. And yes: We have thoughts. Also: Con artists, hammers, work snacks, spoon-bending, Bond villains, Stevie Wonder Wednesday and the trouble with ponds.

This week we're talking about criticism, including the trickiest kind: Self-criticism. We'll also look at the buzzing neon sign hanging outside the hotel room of your mind that spells out your own doubts and insecurities, and how to filter it out. Plus: Humility and its plodding cousin experience, spoons, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, sleeping policemen, fixed-rate mortgages, the magical power of putting things in drawers, and the worst heckle ever. (Seriously. The all-time worst.)

In this episode we're looking at Impostor Syndrome, the conviction that you've been faking it and are always just inches away from being unmasked. We have a theory about where it came from (hint: it was the '70s), and some thoughts about how it can be turned to creative people's advantage. Plus: Penn & Teller, non-apology apologies, fresh batteries, a ridiculous excess of materials, and the Moscow Philharmonic. (Or were they?)

How do you get your audience in the tent? And how do you send them home happy at the end? Journalists have the lede and the kicker; entertainers have the opener and the closer. But they're not the only creative people with tricks. Every art form has them, and if you dig into them you can see some of the wiring that holds all creative work together. Also: Coco Chanel, Spot is a dog, a bowler hat with a chess piece on the top, and that time Bill had a chance to alter the course of history and declined to do so.

How do we measure success in creative work? Is it about the reception the work gets, or is the scale more elusive? Answering this question takes some clarity of thought and a good grasp of expectations. This week, in the first episode of season 2, we're talking about meter-setting. Also: Explosions, sleepy Labradors, and coffee with butter in it.

Imagination & Junk is coming back! Season 2 premieres Wednesday, April 26. For our listeners in the UK, that's Wednesday, 26 April. (Bill here. I'm the American one, and am pretty sure those are the same day, but why take chances?) We've been working hard on the new season and we hope you like it. If you do, please subscribe. And if you care to help us spread the word by any of the usual means, we'd sincerely appreciate it. See you soon!

Is it frivolous to do creative work when the world seems to be falling apart around you? Or can it be a palliative -- for both the creator and their audience? In the last episode of Season 1 we're looking at creativity in hard times, and peeling back the curtain on some decisions we're made about how to approach the hulking coronavirus-shaped elephant in the room. Also: Way too much talk about how to get an elephant out of a room. Season 2 comes your way in 2022.

A decade ago a group of Dutch researchers postulated that anger may under some conditions be an effective spur to creativity. We’re unpacking that eccentric idea this week, and comparing it with our own histories as creators. Do anger and other negative emotions unlock creativity? Also: How and when can arrogance be useful? Plus: Bad sitcoms, toxic bosses, Jetskis and a standup desk you definitely did not want to explore.

"Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable." -- Octavia Butler It's almost impossible to get creative work done without discipline, but not all of us are naturally disciplined creators. That's where habit and routine enter the scene -- they're ways we impose discipline on ourselves. And they're more important skills to develop then ever before in a world where the old structures propping up creative careers have fallen away. This week we're looking at ways habit and routine help keep us on track -- and at some ways in which they don't. Also: Mat recalls working a street pitch with Eddie Izzard, and Bill recalls a near-brush with greatness involving Bob Dylan and a fancy wedding venue. Plus: Hats!

Style is the beautiful face we put on what we do. It goes hand in hand with technique, but the way they inflect each other is a complicated dance -- technique without style can be dull, but style without technique is something worse; it shreds the all-important trust that has to exist between a creative person and her audience. In this episode we talk about what style is, that critical distinction between style and technique, and how style helps a creative person stake her claim on a place in the lineage of people who do what she does. Also: Mat goes all in on professional wrestling as metaphor, and Bill talks about writing the weirdest thing to ever appear in a national newsmagazine. Plus: Bananarama!

There's a misconception that creativity means coming up with ideas. But ideas are one thing, results are another, and the distance between them can only be traversed by work. How do creative people sort ideas, develop them and emerge on the other end? That's where process and technique enter the picture. Also: Mat makes the first of several references to professional wrestling, and Bill explains why if you're a comedy writer, the name "Nakamura" gives you night sweats. For more information, visit the web site.

There are a million possible ways to start a new creative project, but they can all be reduced to one: Just start. In the premiere episode of Imagination & Junk you’ll meet your hosts: Bill Barol, a longtime professional writer in just about every medium, and Mat Ricardo, a variety performer who’s toured the world for decades, playing every kind of venue from street corners to theaters and festivals. Locked down by COVID in their respective home countries (the US for Bill, the UK for Mat) they begin a transatlantic correspondence that attempts to get at some basic questions about the kind of work they do: What is creativity? Where does it come from? Why is it worth thinking about? And how much does it boil down to a magic trick? Chapters (00:00:05) - Just Start: Imagination and Junk(00:00:41) - How I Learned to Write Again(00:06:17) - The Magic Castle(00:15:51) - Why Do I Keep Making Things?(00:20:19) - What's So Hard About Writing(00:25:11) - What Are the Magic Tricks?