The Creative Condition podcast
by Ben Tallon
Welcome to ’The Creative Condition’ podcast: an ongoing exploration of human creativity to help you navigate an increasingly automated world with your story and soul. The show is hosted by creativity coach, Founder of The Creative Condition, author and illustrator Ben Tallon. Creativity is an often misunderstood pillar of human happiness, something far bigger than artistic talent and crucial for fulfilling lives and careers. But in a data and efficiency-obsessed world, self-awareness, story and soul are more important than ever.Featuring exclusive interviews with experts and thought leaders, including illustrators, designers, artists, founders, rock stars, sensitivity experts, musicians, emergency service workers, Olympic gold medal winners, comedians, microbiologists, photographers, fighters, and many others. Supported by founding sponsor Illustration X, Paradiso Institute the Ukrainian Institute.For more creativity resources or coaching opportunities with Ben, head to The Creative
Episodes
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Ep 318: Art = Sanity, a story about art's warm embrace
I felt awful. Anxious, full of dread, stressed. Art was the answer. The entire The Creative Condition podcast archive is available at https://thecreativecondition.com/pod Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the…
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Ep 317: Rachael Renae on play as the ultimate tool for fulfilment, purpose and a fulfilling life
Rachael Renae embarked upon a career in engineering that wasn't right for her. Was it a mistake or a valuable side quest? Today she works as an artist, play enthusiast and creative hype gal, helping others find the best path through their lives. Getting there wasn't easy. It rarely is and she…
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Ep 316: Your people. Together. In a Room. Reflecting on collective energy and its importance for creative flow.
Being together in a room with those who share your passion is one of the most energising things a human being can do. But we routinely overlook it, scroll, message from afar, to the detriment of our enthusiasm and imagination. I reflect on this electric experience off the back of chairing a...
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Ep 315: Daring and the need to jump in creative careers with Radim Malinic
From the moment someone tells us to colour inside the lines, daring is essential to remain truly creative. In a hyper-speed, hyper-convenient world, daring is a daily task from the moment our feet hit the floor. So, who better to draft in to tell us about it than Daring Forever author Radim...
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Ep 314: Common mistakes made by creative professionals
Drawing upon my work as a creativity coach, here are the most common mistakes made by my clients and perhaps more than anyone else, me! Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the work! Supported by...
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Ep 313: What we can learn from the world's leading art and design schools with Dr Keith Sawyer
Dr Keith Sawyer spent a lot of time inside the world's leading art and design schools. He's a scientist studying creativity. His book Learning to See is a game changer. We talk on episode 313 of The Creative Condition podcast. https://keithsawyer.com/ Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or...
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Ep 312: Cleaning Out My Creative Closet. Facing uncomfortable truths
Some core traits, hard-wired and reinforced by our life story, can feel incredibly uncomfortable. Self-loathing and comparison can emerge when we have to look in the mirror. Literally cleaning out a closet brought on harsh truth this week and I reflect on how it can affect our flow and energy....
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Ep 311: Mid-life, change and course correction with Middle Boop Founder Gordon Reid
Creativity is ever-changing. It grows, shrinks, intensifies and quietens in response to the shape of our story as humans. Branding agency Middle-Boop Founder Gordon Reid returns to the show to discuss emerging from COVID and new parenthood, plotting a new way forward and being true to yourself....
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Ep 310: Creative Cabin Fever?! What Do You Need?
A book whispered to me. It was my own. The page it opened on resonated with my current creative need. What do you need? Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the work! Supported by https://illustrationx.com - the...
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Ep 309: Why art can start revolutions and make the deepest impact with Archana Srivastava
Mumbai-based artist Archana Srivastava's work is rooted in history and spirituality. We discuss why art moves us and stirs something vital on a level politics and logic cannot. We touch upon Buddhist traditions, her childhood in India and trusting the things that speak to the heart in a world…
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Ep 308: Living the life you want to live and how it changes your mindset
It's too easy to slip into fear and scarcity. We all do it, but what changes when we make creative career decisions based on the life we want to live instead of in short-term mindsets? Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity...
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Ep 307: AIGA NY President Justin Wong on community, creativity and how organisations can support today's creative industry
Justin Wong, the new president of AIGA NY joins Ben Tallon to discuss how design support organisations can get behind creative communities, share equal opportunities and champion brave creativity in the 21st century. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend...
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Ep 306: A story about self acceptance and a boiled egg
I hadn't expected the act of peeling a boiled egg in the street to trigger raucous laughter and a wave of self-awareness, but here we are. When it comes to story, who you are and creativity, there's a lot more to it than the big buzzwords. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the...
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Ep 305: Confidence in Your Story with Deyson Ortiz
Deyson Ortiz meets countless people with phenomenal lived experiences, big achievers and thought leaders who have no idea how to tell their story. When the camera goes on or the mic is in front of their face, they run for the hills. He helps them to change that. We're talking about confidence…
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Ep 304: A Good Bad Influence
The return of Jackass to my life, a TV show that would not see the light of day in today's world, has exhumed a part of me that I've neglected too often. The mischief and dirty energy that informs so much of my creativity is harder to come by in middle age, but bad influences are good. It…
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Brew Brain Dump 14: The Joy/madness of Cleaning the Dishwasher when you should be working
Is it mad or wise to be cleaning the dishwasher when you could be productive? I ponder this over a black chicory coffee replacement, no sugar. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the work! Supported by...
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Ep 303: Story Strategist Kendra Valentine on How To Tell Your Best Story
Kendra Valentine is a Story Strategist who helps businesses, brands, and creative projects communicate their value clearly by translating complex ideas into authentic stories that resonate. Her book, How To Pitch Almost Anything, is a phenomenally helpful guide to distilling your offer into a...
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The Creativity Diary: Why I Miss Retail Jobs
In the latest instalment of The Creativity Diary: Why I miss retail jobs Immersing the brain and creativity The new hairdresser's window Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the work! Supported by...
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Ep 302: Thomas Kurppa on how creativity unites 200 people in one agency, Kurppa Hosk
How the hell do you manage and inspire 200 employees in one branding agency? I don't know, but Thomas Kurppa, co-founder of Swedish branding agency Kurppa Hosk, does, and he takes us on a ride through electronic music, DJing, posters, album covers, and into the design industry. Please consider...
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Ep 301: Why Not? The essential role of facing the unknown and making from the heart
We live in a data-obsessed society. Trapped by the tools and addicted to certainty, too few of us are creating with bravery, daring to fail or f**k up. I reflect on 11 years of podcasting following the 300th episode and share stories of finding out, getting it wrong, growing, and playing through...
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Austin Kleon on Mario Kart and Safely Destroying Our Kids: Bonus Episode
Something silly and extra for the 300th episode of The Creative Condition podcast : ) Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the work! https://austinkleon.com/ Supported by https://illustrationx.com - the show's...
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Ep 300: Austin Kleon – Creating Like the Kids, how we can steal some of the magic we've surrendered
Austin Kleon is a phenomenally successful author. His books, Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work, Keep Going, and now, Don't Call It Art, have sold in obscene numbers for a great reason: he brings immense value to the lives of people who wish to create something true to them. For the 300th…
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The Creativity Diary: A Sanity Toolkit!?
Even the calmest of minds is being tested in these times. Drawing upon my inner work during a period of anxiety, stress and at times, despair I've compiled a list to serve as a possible sanity toolkit! Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me...
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Ep 299: Following the Feeling with Tina Rapp
Tina Rapp works with creatives, founders, and visionaries who appear successful on the outside yet feel disconnected from themselves in their creative and professional lives. Her work sits at the intersection of art, psychology, and spirituality, helping people untangle the performance patterns,...
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Brew Brain Dump 13: The Need To Unlock the Digital Prison Cell Door
We default to tools, to software, to digital prisons before we've considered how best to play, to serve the idea. A reflection on analogue's role in the information age. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through the…
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Ep 298: Your Universe – an Inspiration Tool for Sluggish Moments
Here's a little tool I've begun helping my creativity coaching clients with. 'Your Universe' can bring a vital lift in lethargic, low, or pensive moments. Here's how it works. Please consider subscribing, reviewing, or rating the podcast, and tell a friend to help me elevate creativity through…
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Ep 297: Always Growing. Why it's all, always unfolding and the importance of letting it happen
It's all, always unfolding. As we change and grow, so must our creativity. Otherwise, that way lies discontent, frustration, and diminishing returns. Supported by https://illustrationx.com - the show's founding sponsor Join the Paradiso Institute and a new wave of creative leaders at...
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Ep 296: Are You Present? Harris and Micah Purnell discuss the role of phones in our creativity and our lives
Tethering Presence is a stunning project, encapsulating the truisms of Micah Purnell and the photography of Harris, exploring the role of distraction and smartphones in our lives across two books – a London and a New York edition. They join me to discuss the role of smartphones in our creativity...
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Ep 295: I Am an Artist
I reminder to self, and to all artists that we are artists, and this is our way of life. Supported by https://illustrationx.com - the show's founding sponsor Join the Paradiso Institute and a new wave of creative leaders at https://paradisoinstitute.org/ Music for the show is by Dirty Freud...
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The Creativity Diary: The AI Ignoramus
The latest instalment of The Creative Condition's Creativity Diary. Covered in this edition: Fear over AI ignorance and analog loyalty Being unafraid of disorder and acknowledging the messy ways of creativity An old friend returns in a second-hand bookshop Supported by https://illustrationx.com -...
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Ep 294: The Things in Your Control with Abby and Owen's Owen Smith
Owen Smith was delighted to see I'd discovered and had begun using Stoicism teachings to improve my mental health and creativity. He told me so, and we hopped on a call to talk about getting active in your own rescue and the exhilarating feeling of being the author of the career you want to live....
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Ep 293: The Mental Battery
Humans have finite mental energy. Creativity thrives when our battery is well-managed. But we live in a world drowning in information and data. Some thoughts on the mental battery. Hear the full episode of Do Radio on the mental battery now at https://thedoradio.com Supported by...
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Ep 292: Self-Awareness in Creativity
The creative industry is deep in a damaging obsession with the external. We're terrified of the tools, spending our energy arguing in black and white about artificial intelligence, starting the design process trapped in programmes before we've considered what will serve the idea. But really, we...
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DO Something!
We all need to DO something. I'm doing a new radio show. Here's what, why, and where you can listen. https://thedoradio.com Supported by https://illustrationx.com - the show's founding sponsor https://open.spotify.com/artist/2c5NcXidirDDqL3sc3vW8S?si=bL3qx6zWQn6Mn03anHRPfQ...
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Ep 291: Evolving a Creative Industry Career with Dirty Freud
Dirty Freud takes time out of composing an opera to talk about the many directions his music career has taken him. We discuss the need to evolve, how variation or specialising fits different people in different ways, and the role of personality in proceeding in a way that's right for you.…
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Brew Brain Dump 12: There's a Fly's Brain in the Insect Matrix. How Creativity Can Preserve Sanity When Fiction Becomes Truth
A few years ago, I wrote a silly, speculative science fiction story about a teenager getting stuck in Snake 2. Now we live in a world where it's dated because someone in Silicon Valley has put a fruit fly's brain on a chip and it's doing fly things in the insect matrix. Let's sit with that and...
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Ep 290: Local scenes, connections, and the personality of a place with All Flows founders Richard Wiggins and Simon Wright
As the world gets noisier and our heads fill up quicker by the day, there's a growing appetite for quieter, intimate, real-life connections. All Flows and Pooleyville co-founders Richard Wiggins and Simon Wright have cultivated a wonderful creative industry scene in Milton Keynes, and they join…
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Ep 289: Do Yo Get Excited? Why Excitement is So Essential for Creative Career Health and Wellbeing
Do you get excited? As we grow into adult life, the glee of childhood changes. But do you stay attuned with what excitement is for you now, or get trapped in routines and habits? This is one of creativity's biggest blind spots. Covered in this show: Excitement's role in creativity The sense of...
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Brew Brain Dump 11: Unexpected AI workaround benefits
I work hard to avoid using AI on environmental grounds. This has brought about some deeper thinking about analog methods and how I can thrive in my creative practice as a luddite. The latest ramble over a brew. Covered in this show: AI resource use Working around AI Deeper connections by having…
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Ep 288: The Importance of a Point of View in a Portfolio. Lessons from my first creative industry body of work!
Flawed, clumsy, and crass are a few of the words that came to mind as I dug out as much as I could find of my first illustration portfolio in 2008. But I also saw the fire, the humour, and the strong personality I'd packed into it. We live in the information age, where everyone has the tools, so…
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Brew Brain Dump 10: Creating to Ease Existential Dread?!
Who else wakes up with a sense of existential dread? Maybe it's just my midlife crisis, but it's also nothing new. How can we channel thoughts bigger than us, that wrestle with the nature of existence into something interesting and cathartic? Covered in this show: Mortality and creativity...
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Ep 287: The pace of life emergency! Slowing down, creativity, and meaning with The Fax Club Experiment
The Fax Club Experiment was an idea by the Founder of The Do Lectures, David Hieatt. Once a week for 52 weeks, anonymous members would receive a question via fax. A question that insists on deep introspection, time with inner parts of ourselves that tend to be forgotten in the fever pitch of…
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Brew Brain Dump 9: Slowing down for better mental health and creativity
Reflections about the opportunity for better creativity and joy in our lives if we learn how to slow down and communicate properly. Covered in this show: Technology's sweet spot Anxiety and mental illness in the information age Creativity and communication As ever supported by the show's founding...
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Ep 286: Are You Gollum? The Ring of Power, Smartphones, and Our Creativity
We reach for the destructive object in our pockets without conscious awareness. We know the damage it does to our minds and our souls, but we're too far gone. It keeps us from our peace and our creativity. Are you Gollum? Supported as ever by the founding show sponsor, Illustration X....
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Ep 285: Is Talent a Lie? Kevin Murphy's story suggests it might just be!
Kevin Murphy taught himself to be an artist. By breaking down the craft into systemic steps, he earned himself a career as an illustrator and artist working with The Rolling Stones, Barnes & Noble, National Geographic, and LucasArts before he started Evolve Artist. We discuss why the program…
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The Creativity Diary: Thinking Differently and Gravedigger's Theory
The Gravedigger's Theory is a term in journalism that refers to the story of Jimmy Breslin, a journalist who, when offered the chance to cover JFK's funeral along with the world's media, chose to interview Clifton Pollard, the man tasked with digging the grave. Creativity depends on thinking...
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Ep 284: Overthinking, anxiety, the brain and creativity with Nikki Emerton
Overthinking can be second nature to creative thinkers. A classic downside to empathy and sensitivity. I've battled with anxiety in recent years, and my overthinking has been out of control. Constant rumination, wild and unmanaged responses to news headlines, and an uncharacteristically gloomy...
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The Creativity Diary Entry 26
In this entry of The Creativity Diary: Understanding the self over job titles and skills The need for space to avoid overwhelm and nervous system activation Stoicism as a tool for managing uncertain times As ever supported by Illustration X https://illustrationx.com Work with me through the 'PIT...
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Ep 283: A Creativity and Mental Wellbeing Checklist?
Journaling was one of several tools I used to tackle a tough year of anxiety. While reflecting upon a previous entry, I noticed that the list of helpful habits to support my mental well-being was more or less interchangeable with core components of healthy creativity, so I wanted to explore that...
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Ep 282: Min Lew, head of Base Design New York on 'lived data' in the creative process
'Lived data' is how Min Lew, head of Base Design in New York City, described intuition. I loved this. Min has quite the story, and she joins me to discuss her work overseeing the creative output and business of Base. We discuss why moodboards have their place, but often stifle thinking big and...
About this show
Welcome to ’The Creative Condition’ podcast: an ongoing exploration of human creativity to help you navigate an increasingly automated world with your story and soul. The show is hosted by creativity coach, Founder of The Creative Condition, author and illustrator Ben Tallon. Creativity is an often misunderstood pillar of human happiness, something far bigger than artistic talent and crucial for fulfilling lives and careers. But in a data and efficiency-obsessed world, self-awareness, story and soul are more important than ever.Featuring exclusive interviews with experts and thought leaders, including illustrators, designers, artists, founders, rock stars, sensitivity experts, musicians, emergency service workers, Olympic gold medal winners, comedians, microbiologists, photographers, fighters, and many others. Supported by founding sponsor Illustration X, Paradiso Institute the Ukrainian Institute.For more creativity resources or coaching opportunities with Ben, head to The Creative
Hosted by
Ben Tallon