The Global Creativity Initiative Podcast

This episode explores how divergent thinking, generating possibilities before evaluating them,  strengthens creativity, problem-solving, teaching, leadership, and collaboration. Tanya  and  Freddie share practical ways to keep conversations open, from asking “what if?” and “what else?” to considering multiple approaches before choosing a solution. The Global Creativity Initiative Podcast is a scho...

Resistance to Premature Closure and the Creative Mind This conversation explores the creativity factor of resistance to premature closure, and why it matters for problem solving, collaboration, and innovation. Dr. Freddie Reisman explains how staying open long enough to explore alternatives leads to better ideas, stronger decisions, and less shutdown in both workplaces and personal relationships....

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation as Factors of Creativity What motivates us ? Explore the relationship between intrinsic motivation, the enjoyment of a task itself; and extrinsic motivation, including rewards, encouragement, and environmental influences. Through stories from education and everyday life, this discussion on how motivations can and should work together, how controlling language can...

What changes when we respond to an unexpected idea with “maybe so” ? In this interview, Dr. Tanya Knudsen and Dr. Freddie Reisman explore how that small shift can make room for creative thinking. Drawing on Freddie’s work with Dr. E. Paul Torrance, they discuss why creativity belongs to everyone, how classrooms and workplaces can either encourage or constrain it, and what happens when a child’s cr...

Learning, Creativity, and Leadership: How Meaningful Learning Happens This episode opens a three part masterclass on learning, creativity, and leadership with Dr. Freddie Reisman, a longtime educator and leader in creativity research, and Dr. Tanya Knudsen , GCI podcast host. The conversation focuses on how teachers can match content to the learner’s cognitive level, why that alignment matters, an...

In this episode, the tables are turned as Dr. Robert Cleve interviews GCI podcast host Dr. Tanya Knudsen on her perspectives about creativity and the lessons she has gathered from conversations with creativity scholars and practitioners in the podcast.  Episode Highlights  Creativity is a fluency for what might be, what's possible. At its essence, it is a form of energy that can be used for g...

🎙️ Podcast Show Notes Creativity in Surgery: A Conversation PhD Candidate Alex Thabane, 2026 Ruth Noller Research Grant Recipient This episode explores how creativity shows up in structured fields like medicine and surgery, inspired by the work of Ruth Noller. We reflect on the meaning behind the Ruth Noller Award and why creativity matters, even in disciplines that don’t traditionally embrace it....

🎙️ Podcast Show Notes: Unlocking Creativity in Everyone 🌱 Creativity Starts Early As children, we naturally see ourselves as creative. We ask questions, explore freely, and follow curiosity without fear. But over time, many people lose that sense of creativity—not because it disappears, but because it gets buried under fear, risk aversion, and rigid expectations. 🔑 Why People Stop Feeling Creati...

Podcast Show Notes: Creativity in a Conformist World 🎙️ In this episode, we explore how creativity works, why modern systems often train us for conformity, and why creativity is essential for participating fully in a rapidly changing world shaped by technology and AI. Creativity is imagination made real. The process of turning ideas into something tangible through experimentation, iteration, and a...

This conversation reframes creativity as something practical, powerful, and accessible to all of us. ✨ Creativity Is a Process Creativity isn’t random inspiration. It can be practiced. Taught. Scaffolded. When we approach creativity as a process, we make it accessible, especially for people who may not yet have the vocabulary or confidence to see themselves as “creative.” 👥 Creative Leadership C...

What does putting on a play have to do with running a business? More than we think. When you put on a play, you gather people around an idea. You work with limited resources. You solve problems constantly. You trust each other. You fail, adjust, and try again. In many ways, it’s exactly how you build anything meaningful — including a business. But something deeper happens when we create together....

Creativity requires boldness. To create is to take a risk—and that boldness exists on a continuum from benevolent to malevolent. History shows us that creativity is often misunderstood at first: artistic breakthroughs like Cubism were rejected and ridiculed before becoming celebrated anchors in art history. What society labels as “good” or “bad” creativity is largely shaped by cultural and histori...

Creativity is abstract until we give it a lens. In this conversation with Dr. Robert Cleve , we explore how creativity becomes tangible through what is uniquely meaningful to each of us: art, language, movement, systems, relationships. These lenses don’t limit creativity. They reveal it. At the heart of creativity is a productive tension: freedom and structure, the unlimited and the bound. Languag...

This podcast explores creativity as a fundamental human capacity and a way of engaging with possibility in everyday life. More than an individual trait, creativity is a social and cultural process shaped by traditions, language, values, and shared practices. The conversation highlights how creativity depends on not-knowing, curiosity, and the ability to connect imagination with action. Vlad also a...

Creativity is a Catalyst: Reimagining Capitalism with Purpose Guest: Chris Grivas Ed. D. Bottom-line-first is a sure way to lose out.  What if creativity could help reshape capitalism? In this episode, creativity expert Chris Grivas explores how imagination and purpose can drive a paradigm shift from a shareholder model—focused only on profit—to a stakeholder model that values people, planet, and...

Follow this link to register   12 pm Central Standard Time November 6  The Global Creativity Initiative Podcast is a scholarly commitment to sharing creativity and specifically creative process for problem solving (aka life) with all of humanity.  Visit our website to learn more about The Global Creativity Initiative . Write to us at gci.creativitypodcast@gmail.com

Creative Mindset: Unlocking Possibility Through Curiosity and Courage What if the thing holding you back from being creative… is simply the belief that you aren’t? In this episode, we sit down with Laura Barbaro Switalski, who, for the first time in her 30s, began to consciously explore what it means to live with a creative mindset. Like many, Laura once believed creativity belonged only to the “a...

Whether you're in a boardroom or a dance studio, creativity isn’t an add-on.  It’s the through-line. In this episode, Janet Stormes dives deep into the powerful intersection of dance and business, revealing how the creative process serves as the bridge between two seemingly different worlds. Drawing from her unique experience in both the performing arts and finance, Janet uncovers the univers...

In this thought-provoking episode, we’re joined by Dr. Terry Marks-Tarlow,  clinician, author, independent scholar, and expert in nonlinear dynamics and creativity. Based in Santa Monica, Dr. Marks-Tarlow bridges cutting-edge science and deep clinical insight, offering a fascinating lens on the power of intuition, fractal geometry, and the art of being fully human. We explore how creativity is ess...

In this episode, Pauliina Valpas, co-founder of Yellow Method AI in Finland, explores how creativity fuels innovation especially as a problem-solving process. From identifying the right challenge to implementing solutions, creativity is present at every step. And if that sounds a bit abstract, Pauliina invites you to rethink what creativity looks like. Sometimes it happens on the fly, or even on a...

Season Three kicks off with an inspiring conversation featuring Dr. Teresa Lawrence, Program Director for the Creative Leadership and Innovation for Change PhD program in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Dr. Lawrence brings a wealth of insight into how Creative Problem Solving, CPS, adds value across education, research, and business. Dr. Lawrence invites us to rethink creativity as the ability to generat...

Unlock Your Creative Potential Life can be tough, filled with challenges and blind spots. How to problem find and resolve amid s stormy sea of valid reasons and feelings is messy. As Dr. Hector Ramos from Texas A&M University wisely puts it, "The heart of the problem is the problem in your heart."  In this episode, we explore how creativity isn’t just for entrepreneurs or artists—it’...

  Want to become more creative?  Do what the creative geniuses do. To be creative it to be schooled in imagination.   Dr Robert Root-Bernstein defines creativity as problem solving. No big surprise there perhaps. And what's the 'how"?  How about emulate creative attributes from the greats? Bob shares stories and insights as to what makes us more creative by drawing out creative trai...

Newsflash: You're already creative and your brain may be blocking your creativity.  Clearly, this is an important question -   How to unblock what's in the way of your creativity?    Pete Ophoven addresses this question by championing the value of understanding and leaning into the 'how' for developing one's creativity. This is doable, especially when we develop an awarene...

Creativity is often thinking differently inside the box. A box is a constraint, rather like time and money. And then again, sometimes a new box is needed. What worked before what won't work now. The world truly is messy place. It's time for a radically new approach.  Take a shoebox for example, as a paradigm shift in imagining a new satellite design.  A radically new concept, brought on...