The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we explore the possibilities that can emerge from experimenting across media in our creative work. For example, if we’re writing a poem, what if we expressed it as a dance? Or if we’re composing a song, how would it translate into a painting? Exploring our ideas across media can open up new possibilities, which can inform and deepen our prim...

Peter Himmelman is a Grammy and Emmy nominated singer-songwriter, visual artist, best-selling author, film composer, entrepreneur, and rock and roll performer with over 20 critically acclaimed recordings to his credit. His new book, Suspended by No String , reflects on the spiritual elements that suffuse his life and creative work. In addition to his own creative work, Peter is the founder of Big...

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we explore the delicate balance between preparation and spontaneity in our creative work. How do we invite structure and planning into our process, while also allowing for freshness, mystery, surprise, and improvisation? Maybe the thought of public speaking terrifies us, so we want to prepare meticulously. But no one wants to hear someone si...

Amanda Johnston is the 2024 Texas Poet Laureate, the first Black woman appointed to the role by the Texas State Legislature. She is also the recipient of a 2024 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key , and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter . Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications.  Named...

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we discuss the role of curiosity, exploration, openness to experience, and the spirit of adventure in the creative process. Following our curiosity opens up new ideas, connections, and inspirations, which then enhance our creative work. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, includes insights and prompts from our book, Syncre...

Benjamin Kintisch is a cantor, chaplain, and music teacher. He created a musical based on his experiences as a chaplain working with patients and families involved in hospice care, called Life Review: The Hospice Musical . We discuss his inspiration for the musical, his songwriting collaborations, and his pandemic pivots, as well as his involvement with songwriting retreats and teaching music to c...

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, Charlotte and Melinda discuss the importance of exercising our creativity in challenging times, not only for personal fulfillment and joy, but also to build community and be of benefit to the world. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, includes insights and prompts from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creativ...

Is creativity something you’re born with, or can you learn it? In this episode, we talk with creative director and writer Chris McKenna about creativity as a skill that we can learn and practice. Chris is the founder of Wee Beastie, a creative agency based in Los Angeles. Part of his work with clients and organizations involves teaching people about the creative process. We discuss his journey fro...

In this installment of our Creative Spark series, Melinda shares the connection between creativity and meaning making. We can use our creativity in service of healing, integration and wholeness. This may involve paying attention to our dreams, and to messages from our unconscious, and then conveying them through a variety of creative media. This episode includes insights and prompts from our book,...

Reena Friedman Watts is the host of the Better Call Daddy podcast, which features guests from all walks of life with stories to share. She got her start chasing stories at the Jerry Springer Show, and worked for Court TV before starting her own show. We discuss storytelling, creativity, and the art of podcasting, as well as religion and spirituality, our relationships with our fathers, and more!  ...

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we discuss the art of giving and receiving feedback in the context of our creative work. It’s so important to ask for and receive feedback to polish our work into its final form. But sometimes this feedback can be hard to receive in the moment, or we may need to take some time to digest it before we can incorporate the feedback. Similarly, w...

Jimmy Johnny Juste leads groups and organizations through a process of conscious facilitation, helping them to resolve conflicts, navigate change, and embrace innovative solutions. At the core of his practice lies the liberation of self, employing diverse methods from somatic work to hypnosis and facilitative mediation. Facilitation, a transformative modality for meaning-making, empowers participa...

In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we emphasize the importance of time management and prioritizing our creative work. Though we have a vision for a project, we may struggle with how to begin, or it may feel overwhelming. But if we break the process down into manageable goals, milestones, and tasks, we can move from start to finish with more ease. We may also have trouble prio...

Our guest today is Jennifer Leigh Selig, author of the new book Deep Memoir , and founder of Mandorla Books, an award-winning boutique publisher. Our conversation explores creativity and depth psychology, which examines the deeper questions of life, meaning, and purpose. We discuss the proverbial underworld journey, or dark night of the soul, and how we can make meaning of pain and suffering for t...

In this installment of our Creative Spark series of bite-size, mini-episodes, Melinda & Charlotte explore the distinctions between our creative practice, process, and products, and how this can help us in bringing our creative work into the world. When working with clients, we find it helpful to look at our creative work through each of these lenses. Our creative practice includes our workspac...

This episode is a co-release with From Illumination to Innovation Podcast (Episode 4) with Stephanie Crain and Shaniqua Brown, where I was a guest discussing creativity and leadership in organizational contexts, and how best to foster cultures of innovation. We discuss the Syncreate model of Play, Plan & Produce, as well as how companies that value creativity can truly nurture and support crea...

In this installment of our Creative Spark series of bite-size, mini-episodes, Melinda & Charlotte discuss the vulnerability of sharing work we know is not finished, but for which we need feedback in order to improve it. Sharing work before it feels complete can be a little scary, so it’s important to consider who we can trust for feedback to get the work where it needs to be. Then we can feel...

With a 40-year career in the toy and art supply industry, most recently as CEO at Faber-Castell USA, Jamie Gallagher brings a wealth of insight into how creative companies function. He is the founder of 4 the Win, which fosters creativity and innovation among individuals, teams, organizations and communities through four pillars of success: Purpose, Culture, Creativity, and Clarity. Drawing upon J...

In this installment of our Creative Spark series of bite-size, mini-episodes, Melinda & Charlotte discuss the importance of giving back to our creative communities. This could take the form of mentoring or guiding others, or just simply lending a helping hand with someone’s creative work or process. Helping others can also help us out of our own creative ruts. We might not think we have anythi...

Picking up where we left off in Part 1 ( Episode 34 ), we continue the conversation about creativity and transpersonal psychology with Marina Smirnova, Ph. D., head of the Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health specialization within the Humanistic Psychology program at Saybrook University, and a professor of transpersonal psychology, or the psychology of spirituality. We explore quest...

In this episode of our Creative Spark series, we explore the creative call to adventure and subsequent journey through the wilderness. We often start our creative projects with a sense of inspiration and excitement, only to flounder along the way, or plunge into self-doubt. Never fear - this is actually part of the process, and if we can learn to navigate this wilderness, our work can actually ben...

Where do our creative ideas and inspirations come from? For many of us, our creativity is deeply intertwined with questions of meaning, consciousness, and spirituality. Our guest today is Marina Smirnova, Ph. D., head of the Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health specialization within the Humanistic Psychology program at Saybrook University, and a professor of transpersonal psychology...

 In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte emphasize the importance of creative incubation, and of stepping away from our work at key moments in order to gain the perspective to move forward in a productive way. This is not the same as procrastination or avoidance; it is a strategic move in the creative process that allows us to return to the work with fresh eyes. This ep...

How does synchronicity shape a creative life? In this episode, we explore how a shared connection, a chance meeting, or a risk taken can lead to opportunities we may never have imagined possible. Our guest is Dr. Steven Pritzker, Co-Editor of the The Encyclopedia of Creativity , Professor of Creativity Studies at Saybrook University, and a renowned television writer for Emmy-winning shows Room 222...

In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte discuss the power of collaboration. It’s in our name, Syncreate: synergy and co-creation. We can accomplish so much more through collaboration than we can on our own. We describe own experiences of collaboration, and how you can harness the power of collaboration in your own creative work. This episode, like the mini-episodes that...