The Creativity for All Podcast

The Creativity for All Podcast is a bi-monthly show designed to explore creativity in all its forms and hosted by Caroline Jestaz, a fiction writer, language teacher and writing mentor, who believes that we are all born with the potential to be creative and that potential is most of the time unrecognised, untapped and unvalued. With The Creativity for All Podcast, Caroline is keen to explore creativity in all its forms, to debunk many myths about creativity – such as being for the chosen few, unreachable, expensive and painful, to show that creativity is for everyone and is accessible and to create a vibrant and inspiring community of like-minded people from all over the world. The Creativity for All podcast is for everyone, whether you consider yourself a creative person or not. And if you think you cannot be creative, Caroline would like to change your mind about that! So join her, every other Monday, as she explores and celebrates the many forms of day-to-day creativity, either focusing on a key topic in her solo episodes or interviewing, in her guest episodes, all manner of creative people, who share their take on creativity and what being creative means to them.

Mention the word ‘creativity' and you will very likely be faced with perplexed or sceptical stares. To many it seems elusive, mysterious even, and is therefore completely outside their reach. To some, it's an illusion, a myth. And, on the whole, creative people are seen as established artists with a fertile imagination, finely-honed skills and a boundless capacity for self-torture. With such a take on the subject, one cannot be blamed for dismissing creativity entirely! I believe that creativity can be found in everyday life and doesn't require external validation, that being creative is fun and good for us and helps us connect with one another on a deep, personal level. I believe that we are all born with the potential to be creative and that potential is most of the time unrecognised, untapped and unvalued. I also believe that creativity is not just about writing stories or creating a work of art, that it manifests itself in many often unseen, day-to-day, forms that are worth exploring and discussing.​ With my new bi-monthly podcast, entitled The Creativity for All Podcast, I'm keen to:​ explore creativity in all its forms,​ debunk many myths about creativity, such as being for the chosen few, unreachable, expensive and painful,​ show that creativity is for everyone and is accessible,​ create a vibrant and inspiring community of like-minded people from all over the world. ​The Creativity for All Podcast alternates solo episodes, focusing on a particular theme, and guest episodes with all manner of creative people discussing their take on creativity and what creativity means to them. My podcast is designed for anyone tempted to pursue a creative path or who's already being creative. It's also designed for those of you who think they are not creative or can never be creative. I would love to change your mind about that! The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services. www.blueasanorange.com caroline@blueasanorange.com

In this episode of the Creativity for All Podcast – the first guest episode of Series 1 about the origin of creativity – I'm talking to Helen Murray. Helen is passionate about facilitating learning and development and is a qualified teacher and education development advisor. She's also a home-educating parent who values freedom, self-direction and consent in education. She's interested in learning as a creative process, which makes her the ideal first guest on my show. She's an original thinker and in the seven years I've known her, there isn't a single conversation we've had that hasn't left me with food for thought, especially on the subject of creativity. Helen and I talk about active learning, how to encourage children to be creative, about boredom as a trigger for creativity and the freedom to be creative, among many other topics, so I hope you will enjoy our discussion. More information about Helen Murray Do schools kill creativity?, A talk by Sir Ken Robinson, author and educator. Bring on the Learning Revolution, A talk by Sir Ken Robinson, author and educator.

To most of us perfectionism is a badge of honour, the personality trait you brag about in interviews or performance reviews, the indispensable ingredient to a successful career, to a successful life. It's the engine driving us fast, faster and faster for the most perfectionist among us. Perfectionism pushes us to always do better, to challenge ourselves further, ignoring any progress or accomplishments, while often putting our health and well-being at risk. When it comes to creativity, is perfectionism our friend or our foe? Is it the engine we have to use in order to be creative or is it our very own poison, or both? Can we be creative without being perfectionists? Is it remotely possible? The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services.

Today's guest is Meg Kissack. She's a coach, writer, podcaster and all-round rebel-rouser for creative and multi-passionate women, who want to do the things only they can do and leave the world a brighter place. She is the founder of That Hummingbird Life, host of The Couragemakers Podcast and The Daily Pep! Podcast. Her motto is: ''Everything changes when you believe you matter''. I've invited Meg because she uses her own creativity to not only encourage others to nourish and sustain theirs, through her podcasts and writing, but also to coach creative women, helping them tap into their unused creative potential. 'We need to be creative thinkers to survive in this world' she says, and rightly so. Meg has an honest, compassionate and insightful take on what happens when we start being creative. We talk about listening to our intuition, giving ourselves the permission to create, the importance of being curious, the fear of failure and of success, the benchmarks we set for ourselves when it comes to being creative and the creative scars, bruises and boxes we have to navigate in order to embrace our own creativity. Every interaction I've had with Meg has left me inspired, so I hope you will enjoy her interview. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services.

A shorter episode, published a week early, on the relationship between anxiety and creativity, the role of storytelling, and  embracing creativity in order to fight anxiety. These are scary and anxiety-inducing times, so I hope this episode will encourage you to be creative and bring you some respite from the relentless news cycle. Stay safe.

Today's guest is Dominique Henz. Dominique studied theatre and film in Germany, Scotland and Australia. She was a director at the Mainz State Theatre, worked for ZDF, the German public-service television broadcaster, for Deutsche Bank, the University of Göttingen, the Max-Planck-Institute and has written a PhD on the Australian movie director, Peter Weir. In 1994, I saw a beautiful and heartbreaking production of a play by Joshua Sobol entitled Ghetto, directed by Dominique, as part of her third-year project at Glasgow University. She was a student still, but already a fully-formed director, putting together a play in English, aged 22, which included a band singing and performing live. I chose to invite Dominique on the Creativity for All Podcast, because in the twenty-five years that I've known her, she has showed an uncanny ability to use her creativity to not only further her career, but to challenge herself to keep on learning new skills and exploring new fields. We talk about her desire to understand others, how they work, what their stories are and how communication and interconnectedness are at the core of everything she does. About the role of storytelling, not only in creativity, but in everyday life, and about tackling fear and venturing outside of our comfort zone. Dominique shares her motto and experience of following her intuition and approaching complex or tricky situations creatively. I've always found her courage and creative approach to life inspiring, so I hope you will enjoy her interview.

Being creative is not a passive process, creativity isn't born out of the void. To get creative, we need to feed and stimulate our brain. But where do we start, especially when our energy and concentration levels aren't as high as they used to be? In this episode, I look at what makes us creative, even in the most stressful of times, and how to nurture and nourish our own creative potential in a kind, compassionate and strategic way.

Today's guest is Julie Martin. Julie is an embodied yoga teacher who wants her students to think outside the box, get off their mat and shake up old dogmas! She wants us to find freedom to unfold into the beauty of a yoga practice that emerges from the inside. It is a practice of inquiry - a somatic exploration of sensation, movement and stillness. With over twenty-five years of experience, Julie offers teachings for yoga teachers, who wish to evolve and empower their practice and teachings, as well as encourages yoga students around the world to break free from linear, injurious yoga to embrace a practice based on how it feels - not what it looks like. Now more than ever, we need to focus on our well-being, physical and mental, and to me yoga is the union of both. I've been taking Julie's classes online for a couple of months and her creative approach to teaching yoga has led me to invite her on the Creativity for All Podcast. She talks about how, after twenty-five years, she's had to break the rules and follow her own path to rethink her yoga practice and teaching creatively and how she sees yoga as an exploration and an opportunity to develop a relationship with our body, without judgement, and to discover sensations through movement. After listening to this episode, I'm pretty sure you will be tempted to start a yoga practice and/or refresh an existing one or, at the very least, your take on movement and your own body is likely to change, so enjoy! The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services. Julie's Online School for Yoga Teachers Events, online yoga and more for everyone Facebook: @brahmaniyoga Instagram: @brahmanijulie

Many of us have experienced the fear of embracing our own creativity. In fact, it's one of the key reasons why we choose not to be creative. And while there's a lot to fear at the moment – and the fear of being creative might seem entirely irrelevant or secondary – there's no better time to address the fundamental need to express ourselves through creativity and turn our fear of all things creative into a joyful and exciting exploration. Creativity is good for our mental health and we need it more than ever.

Today's guest is Kate Spence. Kate is an archaeologist, academic and moonlight potter. She went to her first pottery evening class with her mother, as a teenager, and has taken it up again in 2017. She produces tableware at Kiln Cambridge, working alongside a wonderful community of like-minded makers and enjoys throwing on a potter's wheel and experimenting with glazing. She's interested in the role of ceramics in everyday rituals surrounding the preparation and sharing of  food, and the way relationships are formed with and through ceramics. She's also fascinated by the role of creativity within an ancient craft with long-established traditions, and the opportunities that creativity offers us daily. Kate describes her creative approach in helping her students explore their own ideas and how pottery has given her the freedom to play, but also taught her to embrace uncertainty and re-evaluate her take on a ‘ruined piece'. Not only is she passionate about her craft and creativity, but you're going to learn a lot about pottery, so I hope you will enjoy this episode. Instagram: @katespenceceramics Kiln Cambridge

We've been told repeatedly for the past four months, that lockdown is the ideal time to be creative. But is it, really? When is a good time to be creative and is free time, together with the obligation to remain at home, conducive for embracing our creativity successfully? In this episode, I analyse the pressure to be creative at a specific time, i.e. during a global pandemic, and dismantle a series of assumptions in the process. If you've been feeling the pressure and haven't figured out what to do, this episode is for you!

Today's guest is Shilpa Shah. Whether it is with her coaching, community building or with her meditation practice, singing and storytelling, creativity is at the core of everything she does. A community builder and facilitator at heart, Shilpa tells us how she uses her experience, creativity and a focus on what feels good, to help people connect at a deeper level, build relationships, be playful, and open to new ideas. How creativity is an integral part of activism, as is showed with the Black Lives Matter Movement, and how, following a long tradition embraced by social change movements, she used singing as a form of protest, but also of healing, with the singing circle she created. We also talk about being open to creativity and creating the space to welcome and nourish it. Shilpa describes her creative approach to meditation and how, during lockdown, she ran meditation circles to help people deal with anxiety and loneliness and wrote a short story for children to help them understand the isolation and stress caused by such an extreme situation. She even shares with us, and for the very first time, a beautiful poem she wrote about connecting with nature. To me, Shilpa is the embodiment of what it means to come alive creatively, so I hope you will enjoy her interview. Shilpa Shah's portfolio Shilpa's short story: https://orcaguardians.org/niniti-and-the-storm/   https://youtu.be/mpyPco7j3bM  The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services.

It's hard for most of us not to equate the notion of ease with not doing enough, not caring enough, even sometimes, with being casual and unprofessional. And when it comes to creativity, ease is nowhere to be seen. Surely being creative cannot be easy, surely you have to work hard and suffer, in order to be creative? But is it really the case? What if there is another way to approach ease, which let's us tap into our own creative potential? The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services.

Two years ago, I had a fascinating chat with Rob Leslie at a mutual friend's party. Upon hearing that he was a maths teacher, I resisted the impulse to share with him my tales of maths woe and, instead, asked him what he did to make maths accessible, clear and relatable to his students. In other words, I asked him about his creative approach to teaching and about the relationship between maths and creativity, although, at the time, the word 'creativity' wasn't used. Rob studied maths and computation (computer science with a strong mathematical foundation) at Oxford and worked as a computer programmer. His keen interest in languages led him to take French and Latin GCSE and, later on, to study Spanish and Polish in his free time and take an EFL (English as foreign language) course. He taught English in Poland for four years, before moving back to the UK, where he taught a mix of EFL, maths and computer studies. He now teaches A-Level maths and Further maths at Hills Road Sixth Form College, in Cambridge.   Today's conversation is a continuation of our first chat and an opportunity to show you that there is creativity, even in a subject like maths, dreaded by so many, including yours truly. Rob shares his take on creativity as a transformative process, whether in making food, learning languages, or using maths. Demystifying key concepts, such as rules and problem-solving, he shows us that it's possible to be flexible, playful and to experiment when teaching and learning maths. That maths is a language, which allows us to ask questions and has many practical applications in everyday life, including in marketing and medicine. Maths to him is an art form, constantly surprising, and even, at times, funny! His love of his subject is infectious. And we also talk about chocolate (a favourite topic of mine!), which he creates, because who doesn't want to know more about chocolate-making?! So I hope you will enjoy this interview, and that some of you might even look at maths in a whole new, and creative, light. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services.

Language learning is often seen as difficult and awkward. There are conjugations to learn, pronunciation to master and the risk of sounding silly when speaking in public. Many choose to believe that languages are best learned as children, that it's too late, or too hard, for adult students. But what if there's a way to approach language learning creatively, to finally embrace the process and have fun expressing yourself? The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition and editing/translation services.

Hello everyone! The Creativity for All Podcast is on a break. So this week, instead of an interview or a solo episode, I would like to share two things with you. First, I want to thank you all for listening. I launched my podcast in January of this year, with the hope of reaching listeners interested, like me, in exploring creativity in all its forms. I had no idea if anyone would listen, let alone get in touch, so I'm very grateful for your support and feedback. Also, I've decided to change the format of my next solo episode and use it as an opportunity to answer questions about creativity, writing, teaching, and podcasting. Some I've already been asked, the rest I leave to you. So if you have any questions, please send them in an email to caroline@blueasanorange.com and I will do my best to answer them. I look forward to hearing from you! Caroline

Today's guest is Jesse Fox. Jesse is an actor, director and theatre-maker based in London. He trained on the Collaborative and Devised Theatre BA Acting course at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he's now a regular Visiting Lecturer. Jesse is the co-founder of the devised theatre company, Engineer Theatre Collective, which creates stories based on interview-led research processes, through highly collective working methods, using actor improvisation as a means of creating text, and a strong emphasis on design elements, such as sound and lighting. The company has twice been nominated for Best Ensemble at the OffWestEnd Awards and Jesse, himself, was twice nominated for Best Director. The work of Engineer Theatre Collective has been reviewed and featured in numerous prominent publications, such as The Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. As a freelance actor, he has worked for the BBC and ITV and, in 2019, was one of the three lead roles in the play ‘Afterglow' at the Southwark Playhouse. In 2021, Covid permitting, he will take on the lead roles in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and ‘Sense and Sensibility' for the Pitlochry Festival Theatre summer season. For someone who doesn't see himself as ‘unusually creative', Jesse Fox certainly has a clear take on the creative process of bringing both a part and a play to life! He describes the various stages of unlocking the script, figuring out the speed and rhythm of movement, the physical tensions, as well as the character's motivations, linking in the process mind, body, and imagination. To Jess, acting is a highly relational process, which allows him to engage with the world and reflect it back to the audience. Debunking many myths, such as acting is showing emotions and pretend, and there's one way to prepare for a part, or that directors have all the answers, Jesse gives us a vivid insight of what it means, as an ensemble, to generate, shape and perform stories. He explains why placing and passing the focus on stage is key and describes the highly collaborative and satisfying creative process of prodding and wrestling with a text, so that what emerges, when the performance begins, is ultimately greater than its parts. I cannot wait to see his future productions and performances and hope you will enjoy his interview. More information about Jesse Fox A review of 'Afterglow' The Time Out review of 'Keep Watching' Jess talks about 'Keep Watching' The New Yorker review of 'Run' Jesse Fox and Jemima James talk about 'This Restless State' For news about the Engineer Theatre Collective audio-play to be released this autumn: www.engineertheatre.com. Please note that, at the time of releasing this podcast, the company's new website is under construction. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition for individuals and companies and editing/translation services.

A behind-the-scenes episode, in which I answer your questions about podcasting and creativity, but also about teaching and writing. Thank you so much for getting in touch, for caring, and for listening! Here are links to the episodes/pages mentioned in this podcast: Episode 1. Introducing the Creativity for All Podcast Episode 3. Perfectionism and creativity Episode 7. Feeding your creative brain Episode 9. Fear and creativity Episode 14. Exploring maths creatively with Rob Leslie Episode 15. The creative approach to language learning My FB page My LinkedIn profile The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition for individuals and companies, and editing/translation services.

Money is a tricky topic, to say the least, and is not usually mentioned in relation to creativity, other than to quote box office records or the auctioning of a masterpiece. But what if there's a creative way to approach not only money, but also the notion of abundance? Today's guest is Julia Magnay. Julia is an abundance coach, financial adviser, home-educating parent, NLP Practitioner, and creator of ‘Live Enriched'. She has been passionate about personal development since the age of twelve. One of the things that makes her heart sing, is helping others enrich their lives. Her work as an abundance coach encompasses all areas of life, including happiness, health, wealth, love, and fulfilment. When running her Money Mindset Workshops, Julia was asked regularly about teaching the principles to children and quickly realised that she wanted to create programmes to help parents increase their abundance consciousness, be inspiring role models, and introduce the same wisdom to their children. The Live Enriched Facebook group brings together a community of people who wish to enjoy more happiness, health, wealth, love and joy. As well as guidance and inspiration, it offers free online Money Mindset workshops. The next one will take place on Monday 2nd November 2020. Julia is passionate about helping others feel better and enriched, not just financially, but emotionally. She explores our human needs in relation to money, and explains how money acts as a magnifier, and how being intrinsically creative helps us create the lives we want for ourselves and our children. I could have talked to Julia for hours so I hope you will enjoy our chat. If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, why not tell a friend or relative about it? Every new recommendation will help The Creativity for All Podcast be more visible in search engines, so thank you in advance for talking about it! The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition for individuals and companies, and editing/translation services.

Welcome to season 2 of the Creativity for All Podcast! While season 1 focused on the origin of creativity, Season 2 is going to explore the many ways in which we can nurture it. You might find it highly ironic that I've chosen failure as the topic for the first solo episode of 2021. In fact, I can't think of a better way to kick off the second season, than by wrestling with this particularly tricky notion. After all, fear of failure prevents many from accessing and using their creative potential and if they have tried to do so and failed, then failure often becomes the reason for not trying again, for deciding that only artists are being creative, that there's no other way to be creative and, since they're not artists, the case is well and truly closed. Failure is a loaded word, entirely negative, and final. There's no recovering from it, only shame and self-criticism, both of which are intensely paralysing. But what do we mean exactly by failure and what does failing at being creative look like? Could there be a way to free ourselves from the pressure and fear of failure by reframing it? If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, why not tell a friend or relative about it? Every new recommendation will give it more visibility in search engines, so thank you in advance for talking about it! The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, tailored language tuition for individuals and companies, and editing/translation services.

Now more than ever, we need joy in our lives, and I can't think of a better guest than speed painter, Sarah Rowan, to remind us all of the joy of being creative and sharing creativity with others. Sarah has been creating unique works of art for two decades, performing live at over 400 live events, from Parliament House to the Opera House, in Sydney, and leaving her mark as a speed painter for corporate events, weddings, festivals, schools and fundraisers, raising nearly 200K through her paintings so far. She not only seeks to entertain, but to inspire, using her platform as an artist to speak on creativity and wellbeing, as a keynote speaker. She loves engaging with her audience with a microphone, as well as a paintbrush, sharing her inspiring message of embracing your true colours and living a life of curiosity. When I came across videos of her events, I was fascinated by the joy and energy she radiates as she paints live. Despite not seeing herself as a creative person, surprisingly, Sarah embraces what she calls her ‘acts of creativity' with an energy, a boldness, and a sense of fun, which are both exhilarating and inspiring. She shares with us the visceral experience of speed painting, the messiness, the mistakes, which she reframes beautifully as ‘plot twists', and the magic of the creation process. She also describes how she connects with others, by sharing her most sacred place – her canvas – with members of the audience, handing them a brush and encouraging them to have a go, like her. It's no wonder than some of them have ended up taking up painting, or even leaving their jobs to embrace an artistic career! To her, creativity is a birthright, an exploration with, at its core, a curiosity and a playfulness, which remind us all to give ourselves the permission to be human and have a go as well, so I hope you will enjoy our conversation. Sarah's performances: KOALA Live Art Netball World Cup 2015 Painting the ocean Wedding Entertainment Sarah's TV interview Sarah's website Sarah's Instagram To purchase Sarah's prints The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, as well as tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

That curiosity is key to any creative pursuit might seem obvious. It does not mean, however, that the correlation between the two is easy to pinpoint. In this episode, I'm exploring the nature of curiosity, the obstacles we might encounter when embracing it, such as assumptions and passivity, as well as suggestions to re-energize it and turn curiosity into our most powerful creative ally, so I hope you will enjoy it. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, and tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

Alison Grade has been a professional freelancer all her career and describes her key skill as transforming creative concepts into a business reality. She accomplishes this with the films she produces, the creative entrepreneurs she mentors, small and medium enterprises she advises, and in her book, The Freelance Bible (Penguin).   The minute I came across an article about Alison, I knew I wanted to interview her on the podcast to discuss, not only what it means to embrace a freelancing career, but also the tricky relationship between creativity and business.   Drawing from her academic training, as well as from her experience as an entrepreneur who has established her own businesses and worked at senior level in many media companies, Alison shares her take on creativity as problem-solving. Whether it's finding solutions and new ideas for enterprises or helping creative entrepreneurs becoming empowered, solving problems is at the core of everything she does.   And at a time when we're redefining work conditions and productivity, after a year of working from home, I'm sure many of you will find it inspiring to hear her debunk myths about freelancing and describe the joy and excitement of seeing her clients understand their 'why' and own their space, story, and value in the world. For further details on Alison's work: Alison's website Alison's LinkedIn Profile The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, as well as tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

As with anything we feel strongly about, and is worth embracing, creativity takes determination but also nurturing. Season 2 of the podcast explores the many ways in which we can nurture our creative potential, but what does it mean practically? What does taking care, feeding, and protecting our creativity look like? The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, and tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

I came across the breathtakingly beautiful glass pieces created by Studio Gillies Jones on the Fen Ditton Gallery website and, unusually for me, I was desperate to touch, and grab hold of, them. Such a visceral reaction led me to immediately invite Kate Jones on the podcast to discover her creative process and the art of glassblowing and engraving.   She and her partner, Stephen Gillies, both studied at Stourbridge College of Art (Stephen, glass design, and Kate, fine art), and established their joint studio in 1995 to develop a range of sculptural vessels and contemporary glassware for everyday life.   Within the collaboration each artist has specific skills sets: Stephen blows the glass and adds layers of colour, while Kate slowly engraves away these layers to reveal the colours within. They draw inspiration from the patterns and histories of the North York Moors landscape that surrounds their studio and from their commitments to the demanding skill of hot glassmaking.   In the past three decades, they've created a distinctive collection of batch-produced glass bowls that are collected internationally and critically acclaimed unique works in Swedish overlay. These unique works push their technical and creative limits through a range of larger free-form one-off vessels which celebrate elements of the landscape and are in numerous museum collections including the V&A.   Self-taught Kate describes the process of glass blowing – which Stephen is passionate about – the technique of Swedish overlay, glass colouring and engraving; where Stephen's work ends and hers begins; moving from 2-D drawing to 3-D engraving; and using nature and her “curiosity of the small” as inspiration.   She shares with us what it feels like to be in tune with glass, learning to work within its limitations, while still exploring new, spontaneous ways to draw and mark it. How playing with the light, with transparency and reflections, makes a piece sings and how that magical result often comes as a surprise.   Kate's creative approach is both rigorous and relaxed, exploratory and fun, so I hope you will enjoy our conversation and feel as inspired as I do by Kate and Stephen's talent. Studio Gillies Jones The making of overlay / original work Fen Ditton Gallery online exhibition The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, as well as tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

This week, I'm moving away from the usual format to offer a practical approach to nurturing our creativity with a short meditation exercise. While not a meditation teacher, nor an expert, I know that meditating, even shortly, makes us feel better and the more we meditate, the more creative energy we have. So today we're focusing on our breath, letting our nervous system relax and inviting silence in. Needless to say, you can repeat this exercise as often as needed. I hope it will bring you peace and quiet. The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, as well as tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

In 2018, out of sight, anonymously, and with a ginormous morsel of trepidation, a mysterious duo took to the streets of Cambridge, UK, with an unexpected mission to *SAVE THE WORLD*. It sounds implausible, but they were contacted by an other-worldly being known only as the 'Supreme Leader', who asked them to spread wonder, delight, and a healthy dose of happy, here on planet Earth.   This unfathomable alien entity had noticed that many of the humans were a bit miserable, what with the relentless daily onslaught of terribly-depressing terrible news, and everything. They needed willing accomplices to help them on this mission to cheer up Earth's inhabitants. A crack team who didn't ask too many questions and weren't afraid to drill into concrete they strictly weren't allowed to drill into.   The Supreme Leader was most insistent that they should *SAVE THE WORLD* through the medium of… er… it says here 'dinky little doors'. Which was a bit weird. Surprisingly small doors. Hidden just out of sight. Made with care, passion, and designed to deliver a perky payload of positivity. To lift your mood, prepare you for the day's next challenge, and start a chain reaction of optimism that could *SAVE THE WORLD*. And so Dinky Doors was born. Guerrilla street artists, installing quirky 'fairy' doors under the slightly erratic direction of an unknown Supreme Leader. There are currently 10 'doors' hidden around Cambridge, all unique, all slightly weird, and not really anything like what you might think a fairy door should look like. Unsurprisingly, Dinky and Doorky – or Team Dinky – have a lot to say about creativity and inspiration in this episode, and they even have news about the Supreme Leader! Now that's a relief... You can find out more about their mission to *SAVE THE WORLD* at dinkydoors.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @dinky_doors and Instagram @dinkydoors. The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, as well as tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

Episode 7, entitled ‘Feeding your creative brain', is by far the most downloaded solo episode of this podcast, which has led me to think that you'd welcome a new episode exploring this topic further.   Today I'm looking at the ways in which we can identify our own creative potential, lean into it, and feed it properly. Creativity not only helps us manage our life, but makes it more engaging and fun, so how about taking a moment to think about how you can access it and make it an integral part of your life? The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, as well as tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

A couple of weeks ago, an article caught my attention on the BBC website. It was the story of how a Mexican doctor had got in touch with the British company making the backpack he'd been using for a year to voice his frustration, because he couldn't use it anymore. The coronavirus pandemic was raging and his backpack couldn't be sterilised and taken into the hospital. Not only did the owner and creator of the bag, Sarah Giblin, respond to his message, but with his feedback, she designed in only 11 months – and during lockdown – the first backpack that can be sterilised and therefore used safely by medical staff. This isn't Sarah's first invention. On her commute one day, in 2012, she noticed a problem with backpacks: the person behind you can get into it. The solution? Remove zips on the outside of the backpack and design them neatly against your back. Her creation, RiutBag, is used daily by over 20,000 travellers around the world and has sparked an anti-theft backpack industry making travel safer for millions. I was so impressed by Sarah's creative response to not just one, but two specific safety needs, that I immediately invited her on the podcast to discuss her creative approach to functionality. Sarah is passionate about improving the user's quality of life and shares her motto, function before form, the process of embracing her new ideas and bringing them to life, and her very own take on creativity. If you thought functionality isn't creative, think again! Visit www.riut.co.uk to see the latest RiutBags Sarah has created. Taking an invention from idea to the marketplace (BBC article) The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers, and tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

The Creativity for All Podcast is currently on a break, but for the 30th episode, I've decided to give you the opportunity to share your very own definition of creativity, as well as any tips/suggestions you might have to nurture our creative potential. Send me an email at caroline@blueasanorange.com and I will include your responses in my next episode. I look forward to learning more about your take on creativity!

We're back! And for the 30th episode of The Creativity for All Podcast, I decided to give listeners the opportunity to share their very own definition of creativity, as well as any tips/suggestions they might have to nurture our creative potential. Many of you got in touch, thank you for that!, and it's been great fun reflecting on your definitions and suggestions, so I hope you will enjoy this episode. The Creativity for All Podcast explores creativity in all its forms. With each guest I interview every two episodes, we discuss what it means to be creative in their daily life, zooming in on the mechanics behind their creativity and debunking myths, wherever possible, to show you that you too can be creative on a daily basis, that you don't have to be an artist to be creative. My hope is to show you that creativity is everywhere and to inspire you to tap into your own creative potential. ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

In September 2021, I was lucky enough to take a guided tour of Madingley Hall garden with Julie Dore and, within five minutes, I knew I wanted to invite her on the podcast. Keen to explore her love of plants and nature and to help people be well and healthy, Julie left her career in local government finance to become a qualified medical herbalist and member of both the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) and the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy (CPP). She's also an experienced university lecturer in natural sciences. Although semi-retired now, Julie still tutors on Open University courses and leads guided walks and talks on plants and their uses with the Women's Institute, gardening groups, the University of the Third Age, and at Madingley Hall where I met her. Care of the environment and its preservation are key to her. She's also passionate about ancient history, natural sciences, wildlife, and going on nature tours in the UK and around the world, especially in Africa. A born storyteller, Julie shares with us her passion for nature and the many creative ways to harness it. We talk about the divide between conventional medicine and medical herbalism, as well as the suspicion around the use of herbs, despite herbalism being the oldest form of medicine. She also explains what it takes to become a medical herbalist and what consultations are like. As she shares stories about trees, plants, and herbs, Julie reminds us of the extraordinary creativity human beings have showed since the dawn of time when it comes to exploring nature. After this episode, you will not see nature around you in quite the same way! For information on Julie's walks, talks, and demonstrations UK National Institute of Medical Herbalists ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

One of the most powerful clichés about creativity is that of inspiration being an integral part of the creative process. While we've established in this podcast that creativity is not just for artists, writers, or craftspeople, that we are all born inherently creative, what of inspiration? Can we be creative without being inspired? Is our creative output less likely to be valuable or meaningful without inspiration? And what do we actually mean by it? ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too.

We often feel helpless when wanting to do something constructive to help others. We fear our contribution will amount to a drop in the ocean or we simply don't know where to start. Positive News is filled with stories of individuals using their creativity to bring about change to society and Lucy Purdy is the person in charge of curating those stories. After a traditional route into journalism, beginning at local newspapers, Lucy went freelance, in order to write about topics that felt most important to her, including our connection to nature and growing food. She's fascinated by how the world would look if more media was dedicated to telling stories about humanity's positive potential and, has been the editor-in-chief of Positive News since 2016. When much of the media is full of doom and gloom, instead Positive News is the first media organisation in the world dedicated to quality, independent reporting about what's going right. A co-operative owned by readers and journalists worldwide, it pioneers ‘constructive journalism', which is about rigorous and relevant reporting that is focused on progress, possibility, and solutions. The minute I first read Positive News, in June 2021, I wanted to know more about the creative process of sourcing and choosing such inspiring stories. Lucy shares with us her take on creativity and describes the excitement of putting together each quarterly issue, the challenge of capturing the resilience, resourcefulness, strength and challenges in each story, and how constructive news bring a sense of community to readers and, in some cases, inspire them to take action as well. We talk about the cynicism around the notion of positivity, how a balanced news diet is crucial to our mental health, and the stories Lucy found the most inspiring. If you're feeling demotivated and are struggling to see the positive side of human nature, this episode is for you! The articles mentioned by Lucy during our conversation:   Litter picking has become a national obsession Life after an eating disorder Leaving hate behind A global movement of former neo-Nazis is helping others renounce extremism Subscriptions sign-up: www.positive.news/subscribe Newsletter sign-up: www.positive.news/letter/ To purchase a copy of the latest issue: www.positive.news/product/positive-news-107-oct-dec-2021/ Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: /positivenewsuk ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Grab a pen and paper and join me for this short creative exercise designed to get you thinking about your own take on, and relationship with, creativity. Ready? ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

In need of inspiration a while ago, I subscribed to the weekly email alerts from the award-winning Cambridge digital marketing agency, Sookio, and was immediately struck by their creative, but also down-to-earth and relatable approach to marketing, so much so that I decided to invite its founder, Sue Keogh, on this podcast. After a decade working in radio and digital media for the BBC, ITV, Yahoo, and Aol, Sue founded Sookio in 2008, which offers content strategy, training, and content creation, like video, social media, and copywriting. To Sue, everything is interesting and stimulating, from the most mundane objects, materials, to specialised topics or even how people dress. She shares with us what it's like to create a visually stimulating and nurturing workplace and to run a digital marketing agency during the pandemic. We discuss the importance of parameters and constraints to stimulate our creativity and deliver relatable content, the value of a simple but effective idea, and of sharing smaller stories at a human scale. If you thought digital marketing wasn't creative, think again! ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Albert Einstein once said ‘'Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere''. When they think about imagination, most people tend to think of storytelling or artistic pursuits, but imagination is everywhere, as is creativity. In fact, you cannot have one without the other. So grab a pen and paper and join me for a series of short, fun exercises designed to stimulate your imagination. Ready? ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

A new season is coming! About The Creativity for All Podcast A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I am determined to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind! The Creativity for All Podcast is sponsored by Blue as an Orange, where we believe in creativity through communication, and offer mentoring and coaching for aspiring writers and tailored language tuition for individuals and companies.

Welcome back! Season 3 starts with an exploration of the human brain, no less!, with Alex Cayco-Gajic, a junior professor at the Group for Neural Theory at the prestigious school, l'École Normale Supérieure, in Paris. Alex is interested in how different brain regions coordinate during motor and cognitive behaviours and has talked about her teaching and research with such passion and eloquence during our lessons, that I decided to invite her on the podcast to talk about the human brain, but also what makes her work so intensely creative. She describes taking a leap from applied mathematics to embrace the messiness and frequent change of pace of systems neuroscience, where the frontier of knowledge is constantly moving and boundaries on previous theories are constantly being pushed, leading her to review her own assumptions and methods on a regular basis and to come up with new creative approaches to problem-solving. Through striking examples, including my favourite, the glowing neuron, Alex not only shares her excitement about her work, but gives us a vivid and engaging picture of a field, which often seems daunting and impenetrable. We talk about the link between basic science and applied research, machine learning, language acquisition, ethics, what it's like to work in an interdisciplinary department, but also the resilience, flexibility, and adaptability needed in her work, which often makes her feel like she's riding one exciting wave after another. Just like my conversation with maths teacher, Rob Leslie, helped us see mathematics in a whole new creative light, this is an opportunity to explore science, leaving behind our assumptions and experience from school, to discover what it's like, and what it feels like, to explore one of the most complex subjects ever studied, the human brain. Alex's website The Guardian article on artificial intelligence Alex's book recommendations ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

What if we're not meant to avoid boredom at all costs? What if it's actually good for us and for our creativity? In this first solo episode of Season 3, I'm challenging you to rethink your own take not only on boredom, but also on productivity. Are you ready? ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST   A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Ever since launching the podcast, I've wanted to invite a photographer and more specifically, someone who masters both digital and film/analogue photography. Two months ago, I came across Jahan Saber's film photography course on Skillshare and, by the end of the first module, I knew I had to get in touch. Jahan was born in Vienna. His photographic journey began at a young age and was rekindled in his mid-twenties. Leaving a career in commercial photography, he returned to the roots of the analogue process, working mainly from his home darkroom. Jahan is currently enrolled at the University of Applied Arts of Vienna and is the founder of the DEVELOP label, which focuses on analogue processes and how their practice is essential to living a more mindful life, one of the many topics raised in today's conversation. Jahan shares his multifaceted take on creativity, his approach to photography, focusing on the intent behind taking a picture, whether on film or with a digital camera. He explains the difference between the two mediums, but also how they complement each other. To him, photography is about reacting to the world, not just capturing a moment in time. He describes the physical process of developing a negative and making prints, which he relishes, and working on the grain of the picture, which he loves. How developing a picture gives him a second chance, not only at capturing the light, but in reliving the moment when he took it, with the potential element of surprise when discovering the final image, but also what the whole process feels like. We discuss the value of constraints, technical or otherwise, taking portraits, the intuitive feel that film photography allows, despite not being a natural process at all, and how photography is never just about the image alone. By the end of this conversation, you won't be looking at a picture in quite the same way. And, who knows, you might start exploring your own creativity through photography? In any case, I hope you enjoy this episode. Jahan's Instagram The DEVELOP Label Jahan's Skillshare classes (one-month free trial membership included) Jahan's YouTube channel The AllFormat Collective The portrait of the migrant mother with the thumb mentioned by Jahan The retouched version of that portrait ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

That observation is a key skill when it comes to any type of creative endeavour seems fairly obvious. That we all have observation skills, even more so. But to what extent are we aware of them, how often are we actively using them, and what can we do to hone them? ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Ten minutes is all it took between the moment I came across a post about The Human Library and the moment I sent an invitation to its founder, journalist and social change activist, Ronni Abergel, today's guest. The Human Library is an international not-for-profit organisation, which started in Copenhagen, Denmark, 22 years ago, and is now available in 85 countries and 50 languages. Just as you borrow a printed book from your community's library, you can borrow a human book from one of the many book depots The Human Library is running across the world. You choose a title – homeless, bisexual, bipolar, transgender, to name but a few – from a reading list of people from your community, who are facing stigmas and exclusion on a daily basis, and you spend 30 minutes with your book. You're given a neutral space to listen and ask questions. How you choose to read your human book is up to you. To quote Ronni's words, ‘We are in charge of our learning outcomes. It is our courage and curiosity, which define the experience and what we get to talk about. This means that no two readings nor events are the same'. My very first Human Library event, a couple of weeks before recording this conversation, was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. I arrived in rainy Norwich feeling curious and excited, and as I was about to read my very first human book, a man with Asperger's syndrome, I suddenly felt anxious, uncomfortable, and vulnerable. By the time he started telling me what his life had been like, about the judgements, the challenges, but also his passions and interests, I decided I would do my best to read as many books as was possible that day. I read five and, on the train back to Cambridge, I felt uplifted, exhilarated, and vulnerable still. An unlikely combination, perhaps, but one that reminded me that connecting with others and overcoming our fears and prejudices, means exploring our own humanity in the most creative way possible, because it means using our imagination and empathy to relate to somebody's else experience, however different it might seem. Today Ronni shares his take on creativity and why running The Human Library feels like a calling. He describes the process of developing a sustainable model and reviewing it on a regular basis, and of creating book depots across the world, putting ethical boundaries when selecting human books and tailoring reading lists to corporate and institutional partners. We discuss what it means to acknowledge our unconscious biases, inherent to our survival instinct, and own them, in order to potentially ‘unjudge' others, a term embraced by The Human Library which, I hope, will soon make its way into our dictionaries. When I started this podcast in January 2020, I didn't know where it would take me. All I knew, was that I wanted to explore creativity in all its shapes and forms and meet all manner of creative people. Since then, I've had a wide range of guests from different parts of the world talking about our shared creativity and humanity. The fact that two years on, I am now introducing a conversation between a Dane, and myself, a French woman, recorded in English, about what brings us together as human beings, about our prejudices, fears, and vulnerability, but also the immense creativity we have at our disposal to overcome those and help us connect with one another, makes me feel not only very grateful, but also proud, so I hope you will enjoy it. ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc.

Grab a pen and paper and join me for another short creative exercise – a follow-up to the ever so popular episode 34 – designed to get you thinking about your own take on, and relationship with, creativity. Ready? ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Kindness.org is on a mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness and science is the foundation and heartbeat of their work, through their collaboration with researchers at Harvard University and educators, one of the many topics raised in my conversation with today's guest, Becca Reed. Over the last decade Becca's worked with thousands of educators and students across the US, first as a classroom teacher, a program designer and trainer, and then as an education consultant. As the latter, she worked with change-making educators and organizations to build bridges between “what is” and “what could be” in education.   She is now the Director of Products & Programs at Kindness.org and the creator of the Learn Kind curriculum, a K-8 kindness curriculum powered by social-emotional learning and scientific inquiry that has reached nearly 100,000 students since its launch in 2020.   Becca shares with us her take on creativity, the role of storytelling in inspiring and empowering us to choose kindness, and how science can remove barriers and help us embrace kindness wholeheartedly.   We discuss the reason kindness needed rebranding, how we all have the capacity to choose it, but don't always know where to start, and her excitement at the powerful – scientifically proven – ripple effect the smallest act of kindness can generate. By the end of this episode, you will not see kindness in quite the same light, so I hope you enjoy it. Kindness.org   Kindness.org's Initiatives   The Learn Kind Curriculum   Can I help you with anything?   Becca's LinkedIn profile   Becca's podcast (retired but still active) ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Today's guest, Voula Tsoflias, is a writer of psychological fiction and non-fiction psychology, combining her two passions in life: fiction writing and psychology. Following a long and happy career as a corporate psychologist, she now devotes her time to writing and related activities. She's finishing her third novel, Halo. Her first novel, Honor's Shadow, was published by Karnac in 2012. She's a contributing author to the DK Psychology book and the co-founder of Resilience for Writers, with author Isabel Costello, supporting writers through the specific challenges of trying to get published, with workshops and writings. Voula is also the Ambassador for Corporate Sponsorship for the charity Bounce Forward, dedicated to developing the psychological fitness of next generations of children and young people, through high-quality teaching in schools. In her professional work as a psychologist, she applied the science of positive psychology, working closely with leaders facing complex business challenges. A powerful element of that, is the identification of obstacles to goals, and how to overcome them, which is also a fundamental element of most fiction. For Voula, psychology and storytelling are profoundly entwined, which is one of the many reasons I've invited her on the podcast. I've known her as a writer and mentor for close to nine years and I was curious to hear her take, not only on creativity and the ways to explore it, but also on emotional resilience, a topic which has been on my mind for many years. To her being creative, means thinking and seeing things differently, experimenting through a process which is both bold and challenging. She explains the core principles of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), from which most therapies spring, how we can use our thoughts to down-regulate our feelings, as well as the various ways in which we can address our own self-criticism and "wardrobe of beliefs" we cling to. We discuss the notion of flexibility as a key component of positive psychology and creativity, the definition of realistic optimism, why self-kindness isn't as natural as being kind to others, and the creative ways we have at our disposal to reframe our internal narratives, in order to live a more fulfilling and resilient life. I finished our discussion feeling inspired and invigorated, so I hope you enjoy it. Voula's website Books/websites mentioned by Voula during our conversation: Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, Martin E.P. Seligman (1990), ISBN: 978-1473684317 The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self, Dan P. McAdams (1993), ISBN: 9781572301887 The DK Psychology Book Honor's Shadow Rick Hanson's website ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

Sculpture, and especially willow sculpture, has always fascinated me, so when I came across Emma Stothard's website, I knew I had to get in touch. Emma is a Yorkshire-based willow and wire sculptor. Inspired by the creatures of the North York Moors, where she lives, she creates sculptures of wild/domestic animals and birds. After receiving a BA Honours in Fine Art from Southampton Solent University, she briefly moved to the Somerset Levels to learn the process of growing, coppicing, bundling, and weaving willow. In 2001, thanks to a loan from The Prince's Trust, Emma started her sculpting business. Her sculptures are exhibited nationally and internationally, with some gracing the gardens of stately homes, galleries, and private homes around the country, including a large-scale portrait of King Charles III's beloved Jack Russell dog ‘Tigga', made from willow grown on the Highgrove Estate and sited there. Emma shares her take on creativity as a continual flow of movement of the materials and of ideas, the relationship between her work and the outdoor space, from which she draws her inspiration, and how she's always pushing herself to explore her own creativity and learn something new, using different scales (from mice to dragons, elephants, and small castles), different mediums (willow, silver, bronze and copper wire, clay, ceramics), and exploring new fields (such as, jewellery, homeware, and garden furniture), with the view to creating functional pieces with a sculptural aspect. She describes the process of going from a 2-D drawing to a 3-D sculpture and of welding a metal armature as a basis to weave the willow around, giving her the freedom to create the shapes she wants. She also explains why she chose willow primarily and what makes it such an evocative and enjoyable medium. From celebrating Whitby's fishing heritage to sculpting hares and six-foot tall scarecrows, there's a palpable sense of excitement in every project Emma takes on, sometimes even adding personal touches to her sculptures and, in the process, attaching a story to them. I had a wonderful time talking to Emma and learning about her creative process, so I hope you enjoy our conversation. Emma's website On Instagram: @emmastothard On FB: Emma Stothard Sculpture On Twitter: @emmastothardart ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!

In September 2022, a stall at the Ely market caught my attention, not just because every woven piece was beautiful, but because I saw at the far end of the table a small weaving loom, which made me think, quite rightly, that the creator of these lovely pieces was worth having a chat with. Rosie-may Greenbank is a traditional hand-weaver, cloth designer, maker, photographer, and web designer. Working with heritage skills to create artisan cloth, she uses traditional wooden looms, very much in the same way weavers have for hundreds of years. During the first lockdown she set up her business Mays Wonderfully Woven with the help of the Prince's Trust. She designs and weaves artisanal cloth, which is then hand-crafted into a variety of bespoke apparel, furnishings, and gifts. In this episode, Rosie-may shares her take on creativity and her creative process, from having a specific inspiration point – a colour or yarn, a visit to Bletchley Park, or the sharp contours of a piece of metal or even paper – to drawing and creating a design based on a series of numbers in a grid system, which she translates into a piece of woven cloth. To her, weave is a language. Her designs are meticulously planned, allowing her to have a flexible approach when creating her pieces, to experiment and immerse herself in the flow of weaving. Rosie-may describes the magic of building fabric, effectively creating a piece out of nothing, how the tradition of weaving has been passed on through generations, the emotional connection she has with each piece she weaves and the pride she takes in not only carrying out such a tradition, but in making it accessible to others through her online tutorials. Fabric, as she reminds us beautifully, is an integral part of our lives and each of her pieces has a unique story. This conversation made me want to grab a pencil and draw, so I hope you enjoy it and will feel equally inspired by it! Useful Links Rosie-may's website Rosie's Instagram Rosie's Facebook Rosie's Ely market dates Meet the women working wonders with thread ABOUT THE CREATIVITY FOR ALL PODCAST A maths teacher can be creative. So can a financial adviser, a community builder, and a yoga teacher. Not to mention a speed painter, a potter, or an actor! Creativity is everywhere and I love nothing more than to explore it in The Creativity for All Podcast, either by focusing on a theme – such as perfectionism, feeding your creative brain, or the pressure to be creative – in my solo episodes, or through my conversations with all manner of creative people. I want to challenge the perception of creativity and, in the process, debunk many myths attached to it: it's painful, for artists and the chosen few, etc. My guests and I are keen to zoom in and dissect the origin of an idea, the impulse that makes us engage with our own creativity, with the hope that it will inspire listeners to get creative too. My podcast is designed for anyone who's already being creative, or is tempted to use their creativity, in particular those of you who think they are not creative or can never be. I would love to change your mind!