Creative Rebels

Creative Rebels is on mid season break but here is a bonus episode, as I was lucky enough to jump on a substack live with the amazing Seth Werkheiser from Social Media Escape Club. We spoke about mailing lists, in person meet ups, making art outside and the truth about going ‘viral’. Thank you mary beth kaplan🪶 , Joi , Francesca Bossert , Fi Cooper , Gary Spetzler , and many others for tuning int...

Daisy Fancourt is professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology and Head of the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at UCL. Her book Art Cure shows how art makes us happier, healthier and helps us live longer. Daisy has published 300 scientific papers, won over two dozen academic prizes and is listed as one of the most highly cited scientists in the world. Enjoy! The podcast is taking a short break a...

I loved chatting with visual artist, Caitlin Winner about the modern realities of being an artist. We covered selling on instagram vs with galleries, why 10x is easier than 2x, learning from faliures and the type A approach to quitting! Here are some of Caitlin’s beautiful paintings! Get full access to Creative Rebels at creativerebels.substack.com/subscribe

This week is a special Q&A episode. I answer your questions and worries about social media, ‘content’, galleries, failures, doom scrolling and the freedom of creative discipline. I hope this fires you up for 2026! Make stuff. Put it out. You’re capable of more than you think. My insta - http://instagram.com/davidspeeduk My mailing list (to access art releases and event tickets) - https://shorturl....

Gabriel DeSanti is building the world’s longest resume. He has worked as a mural painter, a delivery driver, a dog walker, a wedding dress designer, a wiener-man and lots more. Each week he goes to work with someone new, films it and the resulting videos have had millions of views. We talk about the people he’s met, content creation and how long it took to finally ‘make it’. Get full access to Cre...

Bee was an elite swimmer as a child. They bring the determination and resiliance to their art career as they share their ups and downs through the work they make. This episode covers; approaching creativity as an athlete approaches sport, the behind the scenes studio struggles that no one sees and why you should work like you’re ‘peckish’. As always, when I have a visual artist on the show, it’s m...

This podcast has helped me so much over the last year. I hope it’s helped you too! This week we speak to the legend, Alex Brychta, the illustrator who drew over 600 Biff, Chip and Kipper kid’s books. You can check out his work here: https://www.instagram.com/alexbrychtacreative/ If you enjoy this episode - tell someone. Get full access to Creative Rebels at creativerebels.substack.com/subscribe

JOY! Collective is a creative production house from London, who specialise in huge public art projects. They describe themselves as an ‘outsource-able art department’. They began as mural painters in 2010 and focused on painting for many years. They still create murals but they also bring ideas to life in various creative ways that don’t always involve paint. In this episode we discussed finding t...

This is one of my favourite discussions, with one of the most iconic designers of all time - Peter Yee We discuss how pain tolerance is essential in a creative career in fact, the path of the creative is one of the most uncomfortable you can take. Most people give up at the first sign of pain. Peter didn’t give up and as a result, 90% of the planet has seen his work at some point. From the Oakley...

There have been three episodes of this show this year that have had a real impact on the art I’m making - podcasts with Luisa Omielan, Oliver Jeffers and this week’s episode with Alex Chinneck. Alex makes huge, incredible sculptures that deconstruct the world and put it back together. His work is surreal, it breaks the rules of gravity and physics. “There are more artists than opportunities” it’s...

This week you’re going to feel like you’re in the studio, listening in. I chatted to Frisbie about the realities of being an artist, from pouring time into big pieces to the pressures of posting on social. If you’ve not seen it, I’m excited to show you some of his hand made artworks! Frisbie’s website: www.byefrisbie.com Or search for byefrisbie on socials :) If you love this episode, maybe tell y...

Lava La Rue is the definition of a multi-hyphenate, they are a musician, a director, a designer and artist. In this episode we spoke about DIY culture and the idea that if you’re obsessed with what you do, you can build your own thing, even if you have no support. Build something, get people excited, create your own scene. If you enjoyed this episode, call everyone you know and tell them x Lava’s...

I was sitting at my kitchen table. Beans, my tiny cavapoo, was asleep on my lap. 4.29pm. 1 minute until the podcast is due to start. I go through the usual checks - mic is connected. Camera is on. My hat isn’t crooked. Internet is connected. Suddenly, my screen goes blank and a pop up appears.. “something something updates restart” Beans stirs as loud shutdown music plays. I hate being late. I sta...

I started a podcast as a hack. I wanted to speak to my heroes. If you email Seth Godin, Debbie Millman or Oliver Jeffers and ask for an hour of their time, the answer will probably be no. A podcast is the cheat code to having a conversation you never imagined you’d have and this week I get to tick another hero off of my list and share it with you. Oliver Jeffers has sold 18million books. But the f...

Jason Naylor is an artist, a designer and muralist known in New York for his bright colour palette and messages of positivity. He and I are both visual artists, our art carries similar messages of kindness and hope and our career ethos is similar too. This episode covers breaking up from a corporate 9-5, pitching brands and destroying trolls and haters with love As always, if you enjoy this episod...

Dr Rebecca Marks jokes that we shouldn’t listen to what critics and art historians say, but some of her unique takes in this interview, have been rattling around my brain since our discussion. Rebecca is an art historian, writer, and social media creator which is an interesting and pretty unique Ven diagram. In this episode we discussed some big topics, like the purpose of art and the ‘starving ar...

It’s time to take yourself seriously. It’s time to give those silly little drawings or that silly little writing the respect it truly deserves. No longer will we be delusional. We are going to stop running from the villain and find the truth that is keeping our creative voice small. This week’s guest is the incredible Vanessa Aldrich. Vanessa’s Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@vanessadomslife Vane...

This week I sit down with Quyen Dinh aka The Parlor Workshop The TikTok algo served me up one of Quyen’s incredible creations and I knew I had to try and get some time with this wonderland creator! We spoke about Quyen’s wiggly path to get where she is today. Growing up in a strict Vietnamese family, Quyen’s dad told her that art was selfish and that she needed to get a proper job. It’s something...

Creatives can learn so much from comedians. If a painting, a piece of writing or a sculpture goes wrong for us at least it doesn’t go wrong on stage in front of 100 people. All artists are bearing their soul to an audience in one way or another but I believe comedians are the bravest, to do it so publicly. It’s always a pleasure to bring you an episode with the brilliant Liz Miele. In this episode...

I’m excited to let you into the room to hear a discussion I was lucky enough to be a part of recently. I’ve just completed an artist residence at the University of Warwick, called ‘Retreat to Create’ as well as creating a mural and giving a keynote to the students, I hosted the panel talk you’re about to hear! My guests were; Doreen Foster who is the director of the Warwick Arts Centre, Jonothan N...

Choosing the creative path isn’t for everyone. In fact, if you do, you’re purposely choosing an incredibly challenging life. But when you realise that everything is made up and you can choose to do whatever you want in life, things get easier. My favourite quote from this week’s guest, Erin Nystrom, is ‘if you don’t know yourself the world will tell you who to be’. I let the world tell me who I sh...

I’ll try and get Soph back again, because this podcast is a masterclass! We spoke about everything arty in this episode but one of the stand outs to me was our discussion on Sophie’s now famous ‘Charity Shop’ series. Sophie goes to a charity shop, buys an item, paints on it, returns it to the shop and the item is then resold. It has catapulted the already well known artist into another stratospher...

I know a lot of brilliant creatives who make incredible work. They don’t get many jobs, however, because they’re unprofessional. Missing deadlines, not delivering what was promised, being inconsistent - these are not the traits of the professional creative. Christoph Niemann is a successful artist, author, animator and illustrator. He has over a million followers on social, he has produced dozens...

The right answer is never the fun answer. Over the years of this podcast we’ve always said - you must choose consistent, daily creative work over the allure of virality. Jami Attenberg is evidence that it works. She uses writing to explore other worlds and connect with a wider audience but it’s her consistency that has made the difference. In this episode you’ll learn how an accountability pact wi...

Sure, on it’s surface this episode might sound like two Pokémon fans chatting about toys, but we got much deeper… I listen through each episode and take notes, before uploading and this episode garnered the most notes of any episode this season! So-Hee’s career is the definition of follow your curiosity. She has experimented, she’s gone from digital and cutting edge new tech to pshysical and tradi...