Always Choose Orange

Meg Loeks lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with her husband and five children. She is an international award-winning fine art and portrait photographer whose nostalgic work centers around the home. In-between photographing her family, she teaches several online and in-person domestic and international workshops. Meg is an instructor through Click Photo School, a SIGMA & Profoto Ambassad...

Why would a novel require the use of two bookmarks? What does a 957-word sentence sound like? Is it humanly possible to understand Finnegans Wake ? We'll explore those questions and more in this week's episode. Join me as I highlight the three things that can easily push a book over the edge and send it teetering into the abyss of unreadability. We'll talk about the effects of structur...

Robin Fox is a self-taught photographer residing in Hamilton, Ontario. Fox began her study of photography seven years ago and credits her close examination of the works of photographers and cinematographers of past eras in helping to find and refine her visual voice. Having just begun pursuing opportunities to show her work, she is grateful to have been included in exhibitions in the United States...

Jacob Montague is a producer and multi-instrumentalist by day (Branches, Tsutro, Dream Cassettes, Far Friends, figuers, MVVE) and cinematic folk composer by night. His compositions weave a musical landscape composed of big beats, plucked strings, minimal patterns within grand combinations, and honest ethereal sounds. Jacob's music has appeared in a number of popular TV shows including — Americ...

Hailing from Washington and Oregon, M.L Silverline has spent 25 years as a student of the spoken, written, and experienced word – traveling the world to explore people, places, and philosophy wherein he finds his greatest inspiration in the untold spirit; the uncelebrated and the subtleties of life that go uncounted. A graduate of Western Washington University in Bellingham, he has experimented wi...

Pieper Bloomquist is a contemporary folk artist based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She studied Swedish Dalmålning and Bonadsmålning, and has been painting in traditional Scandinavian styles of folk art since 1993. Pieper enjoys utilizing elements from folk art traditions to tell modern stories, incorporating the floral forms, borders, layout and perspective of the past to depict scenes that — whi...

Erothyme is the electronic music solo project of Bobby West. Erothyme is best known for emotive downtempo and for the musical use of field recordings, but also has roots in the world of all things glitchy, funky, strange, and soulful. As of 2024, the project spans 15 years and more than 40 releases, which branch across a wide range of moods and sound palettes, all while maintaining an unmistakable...

In part three of the Body of Work series, Craig Hanks from the  Legendarium Podcast  joins me to talk about the timeless work and legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien. During our conversation, we share the ways we were introduced to Tolkien, explore a few of the universal themes of  Lord of the Rings , and spend some time comparing Tolkien and his work to Johann Sebastian Bach, a skyscraper, a cathedral, and...

David Gungor is an artist, songwriter, pastor, speaker, and music producer based in New York City with his wife Kate and their four children.  David is half of  The Brilliance  — a band that creates art that inspires empathy. Their acoustic-electronic, symphonic-pop songs invite you to step outside yourself; to see the world through the eyes of the other, the stranger, those you may consider your...

Inspired by Mason Curry’s book,  Daily Rituals: How Artists Work , this episode explores the power in forming a creative routine. In Curry’s words, “A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.” Join me as I share personal insights and experiences in developing my own creative habits. Plus, I’ll guide you through a set of thought-pr...

Interested in poetry but feel like you don’t really understand it? It took me longer than I'd care to admit for it to finally click. In this week's episode, I share three simple things that helped me have a deeper appreciation for poetry. Tune in to hear the Mary Oliver quote that had me fire up the airhorns and stick around to the end to hear me recite three of my favorite poems of all-ti...

It's time for a reading check-in! Join my brother Andrew and I as we discuss some of our favorite books we read so far in 2024. The two of us use the six questions below to guide our discussion and as always, take a few detours along the way to explore different aspects of reading. Which book surprised you the most? What is the most ambitious book you read this year? Which book had the best pr...

Wilder Adkins is a singer-songwriter based in Birmingham, Alabama. With influences spanning from Appalachian folk ballads to Indian devotional music to the poetry of Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver, his songs are steeped in natural imagery and frequently touch upon the subjects of faith, doubt, hope, and sorrow. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of strong lyrical imagery, his experie...

Michael Gungor is a creative mystic living in Pasadena, California. Primarily known for his music, Michael is the co-founder and primary songwriter of the eclectic indie band Gungor. The group's acclaimed albums blend elements of folk, rock, electronic, and world music, with introspective lyrics exploring the divinity of the human experience. Aside from his work under the Gungor moniker, Micha...

Can the quality of your art be improved by the questions you ask as you make it? Will the right questions help you get unstuck? How do you make sure the feedback you receive from your friends will positively contribute to your creative process? Will this episode provide satisfactory answers? Tune in to find out! Resources: Sermonsmith Interview | Steve Carter How to Use Writing to Sharpen Your Thi...

What is the relationship between creativity and the flow state? What happens when we don't feel inspired to make art? In this episode, we'll draw from Verlyn Klinkenborg's  Several Short Sentences About Writing  to challenge the commonly-held idea that creativity is supposed to effortlessly burst through us. Sources: Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg The Legen...

In 1989, Sir Terry Pratchett released  Guards! Guards! , the eighth entry in his Discworld series. In 2024, I read that book for the first time while sitting on my back porch. In today's episode, we look at one of the reasons the book is so great — it's character introductions.

In today's episode, I share my thoughts and key takeaways from Tiago Forte's book  Building a Second Brain , which focuses on digital notetaking and the ways it can contribute to your creative output.  Resources: Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte Digital Notetaking Resource Guide Pablo Picasso's Le Taureau

“Have ye seen the white whale?” It's a great question, but it's not the one we’ll be investigating in this week's episode. Instead, we’ll attempt to answer the question that has been plaguing literature lovers since the dawn of time — is  Moby-Dick  the best novel ever written or is it a 206,000-word abomination that would best serve as the anchor to a whaling ship? Well also explore o...

The Body of Work series continues! Join Tim from the Earbuddies podcast and I as we blast off into the stratosphere and share our thoughts on Coldplay’s discography. We rank their nine full-length albums, unpack the universal nature of their music, and poke fun at Chris Martin’s… uhh…lyricism?  My favorite (so far) episodes of Earbuddies:  Episode 10: Dumb Rock Episode 101: Clean White Noise - Loo...

Adam Orfale, aka Feverkin, is a music producer and composer based in Portland, OR. Drawing inspiration from trip hop, future garage, lo-fi, jazz, and classical music, he strikes a unique balance between melody and beat, resulting in instrumentally-driven downtempo music that is both organic, glitchy, and emotionally impactful. In our conversation we talk about his early days of making music under...

Feeling creatively stuck? In this short episode, I share one simple perspective that can help you breathe new life into the thing you're working on.  Books referenced in the episode: Basketball (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano God Was In This Place & I, I Did Not Know by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Grant Eadie, aka Manatee Commune, is a musician based in the Pacific Northwest. His music combines field recordings, textures from nature, surfy guitar licks, arpeggiated sine waves, and classically influenced viola. In our conversation, Grant and I talk about his early musical memories and the episode of MTV Cribs that started his fascination with electronic music. Then, we dive into his songwrit...

I finally read Susanna Clarke's  Piranesi , and (no surprise) it blew my mind. Rather than a straightforward book review, I spend this episode ruminating on the different things that made it so immersive. Buckle up because we cover a lot of ground - from chapter lengths to serif fonts to  Chronicles of Narnia  references! UPDATE (12/28/25): I pronounced the name of the book wrong throughout th...

Join Bookborn (@bookborn.reviews) and I as we explore Brandon Sanderson's bibliography, including his characters, writing style, main themes, and creative evolution.    Follow Bookborn at: YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@Bookborn/videos Instagram: @bookborn.reviews   My favorite Bookborn videos (so far): Do SFF authors think we are stupid now 6 fantasy books you can read in one day   This e...