The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

Robin Dellabough, writer and editor, shares her unconventional journey from growing up in a bohemian Greenwich Village household to spending decades supporting other people's creativity. Raised by beatnik parents who gave her the confidence to try anything, she hitchhiked Europe at 17, lived in a Hawaiian treehouse, worked as a theater stage manager, and ghostwrote books—all while her own creative...

Rob Bloom, creative director for Universal theme parks, shares his journey living with a stutter that shaped his entire life and career. He reveals how hiding his stutter for 30 years meant ordering food he didn't want, watching movies he didn't choose, and avoiding authentic self-expression. Paradoxically, stuttering forced him to become creative early—making videos for school presentations inste...

Rich Karlgaard, author of Late Bloomers, dismantles the toxic narrative that success must come early. Drawing from his father's reinvention in his 30s and his own struggles after college, he explains why our obsession with early achievement is detrimental to people who develop at different paces. Karlgaard analyzes the college admissions scandal as a symptom of parental pressure, explores how comp...

Rebecca Beltran shares her unconventional journey from polyamory to becoming a courtesan, challenging cultural stigma around sex work and intimacy. She reveals that her work is primarily about connection and being truly seen—not just physical encounters. Rebecca explains how religious Puritanism shapes American attitudes toward sexuality, why younger men in their 20s and 30s are now seeking her se...

Jenny Blake, author of "Free Time," reveals how her father—an architect who gives ruthless editorial feedback with his "WKIYB" abbreviation (we know it’s your book)—taught her to eliminate unnecessary qualifiers and strengthen her writing. Drawing from her experience creating a paid family newsletter at age 11 with 50 subscribers, Blake has always been entrepreneurial, guided by her mother’s lesso...

Marc Elliott shares his controversial perspective on NXIVM, arguing that media narratives have distorted the truth about Keith Raniere and the organization. Living with severe Tourette syndrome for 20 years, Elliott found relief through NXIVM techniques when traditional medical approaches failed. He challenges the dominant narrative by examining inconsistencies in accusers stories, questioning the...

Luvvie Ajayi Jones challenges the cultural expectation that harmony is more important than justice. As a professional troublemaker, she argues that speaking up in rooms where bad ideas or unjust systems persist is not just necessary—it is our responsibility. Drawing from her Nigerian heritage and her grandmother's fearless example, Luvvie explores how we've been conditioned to shrink ourselves, hi...

Peter Krask, creator of Myth Merchant and former Hollywood producer, shares his journey from quitting grad school to producing reality TV to building a business around storytelling and mythology. After realizing a PhD wasn't his path, Krask dove into the entertainment industry, learning the business side of creativity—budgets, staff, international shipping, and legitimacy through visibility. He ex...

Oliver Burkeman, author of "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking," dismantles the self-help industry's obsession with optimism and goal-setting. Raised as a Quaker with pro-social parents, Burkeman explores why chasing happiness often makes us miserable, how negative visualization (imagining worst-case scenarios) builds resilience, and why acceptance of uncertainty...

In this powerful conversation, former CBS news anchor and positive psychology researcher Michelle Gielan unpacks how we can rewire our communication habits to shape more resilient, empowered, and optimistic lives — both personally and collectively. Drawing on research from her book *Broadcasting Happiness*, Gielan shows how small shifts in the way we speak, frame problems, and open conversations h...

Michelle Florendo shares her journey from following the immigrant dream of Stanford, an MBA, and a "good job" to discovering she was miserable and needed to chart her own path. As a decision engineering expert, she reveals the three essential elements of every decision (options, objectives, and information), explains why we confuse decision quality with outcome quality, and shares how embracing un...

Justin McRoberts, musician, pastor, and author of "It's What You Make of It," shares how confronting death early in life shaped his approach to creativity and faith. Having attended over 20 funerals by age 25, McRoberts explains why understanding mortality is essential to living fully and why the cultural narrative of imperviousness keeps people from taking creative risks. He explores how opportun...

Jeff Wald, author of The End of Jobs and CEO of WorkMarket, examines how robots and AI are creating the fourth industrial revolution—a massive power shift from workers to companies that mirrors past technological upheavals. Drawing from labor history, on-demand platforms, and regulatory battles like California Prop 22, Wald reveals why the lifetime employment contract was always a myth with averag...

Jeff Spencer, former Olympic cyclist and performance coach to Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and Olympic gold medalists, breaks down the precise architecture of champion-level achievement. From losing his father at age 10 to competing in the Munich Olympics to coaching nine Tour de France victories, Jeff reveals the eight sequential steps every prolific performer navigates: prepare, perform, achiev...

Jason Naylor, artist and author of Live Life Colorfully, shares how growing up as the second of seven children in a Mormon family in Salt Lake City shaped his caretaker personality and his eventual escape to New York where he discovered creative liberation. Naylor reveals the symbiotic relationship between color and messaging in his work—the more positive and uplifting his messages became, the mor...

Jacob Sager Weinstein, comedy writer for Dennis Miller and author of How to Remember Everything, shares how growing up in privileged Washington DC where the vice president's daughter was in his debate club gave him confidence to walk into any room but delayed his understanding that not everyone has equal access to opportunity until he reached Princeton. Weinstein reveals how writing for Dennis Mil...

Hillary Weiss, brand strategist and positioning coach, reflects on growing up in suburban South Florida where attending the same school for 14 years meant everyone remembered who peed their pants in pre-K yet created lifelong friendships that watched her evolve from emo to punk rock to professional white woman. Weiss challenges the dangerous mindset mantra in entrepreneurship, arguing that privile...

Gautum Mukunda, Harvard professor and author of Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, reveals the paradox at the heart of leadership selection: the more effort you put into picking a leader, the less it matters who you pick. Drawing from decades of presidential history, Mukunda introduces the concept of filtered versus unfiltered leaders—George H.W. Bush represents the filtered ideal with 44...

Cal Newport, computer science professor and author of Digital Minimalism, argues that the better analogy for social media is not big oil that must be broken up because it's vital to society but big tobacco that must be culturally rejected because it's unhealthy and dispensable—people don't care if you tell them to leave Facebook for six months but petroleum deprivation changes lives. Newport revea...

Psychologist and bestselling author Ethan Kross breaks down the science of *chatter*—the internal voice that can either empower or paralyze us. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience and emotion regulation, Kross explains how introspection, while powerful, can often backfire, leading to rumination, anxiety, and impaired performance. In this conversation, Kross explores how our inner voices...

Computer science professor and bestselling author Cal Newport explains why cognitive fitness matters as much as physical fitness for elite performance. Drawing from his work with NBA teams and hedge fund managers, Newport breaks down the connection between attention control and exceptional achievement. He challenges the myth that social media grows your audience, revealing that craft—not constant...

Eric Barker, bestselling author of Barking Up the Wrong Tree and Plays Well with Others, reveals what decades of social science research says about relationships, friendship, love, and meaning. From his journey through Hollywood screenwriting to the video game industry to running one of the most-read personal development blogs, Eric explains his obsession with translating peer-reviewed research in...

Dylan Beynon, founder of Mindbloom, shares the deeply personal story behind building the first at-home ketamine therapy platform. After losing his mother and sister to severe mental illness, Dylan became determined to bring psychedelic medicine into mainstream healthcare. He explains the neuroscience of how ketamine creates neuroplasticity—allowing the brain to rewire itself—and why these treatmen...

Brea Starmer, founder of Lions and Tigers, challenges the outdated workplace model that measures face time over impact. Drawing from her experience as a mother of three running a company during COVID-19, she introduces the concept of "highest and best use"—a real estate framework adapted to human potential that prioritizes outcomes over hours logged. Starmer reveals why 11.5 million workers quit t...

Douglass Vigliotti, author and creative, explores the tension between doubt and conviction that defines the creative process. Drawing from his parents, his father relentless drive and his mother empathy, Douglass reflects on what it means to pursue creative work when society constantly asks if you want more. This conversation examines the uncomfortable questions creatives must answer about their w...