Field of Streams

Feeling low energy? No motivation? Time to supplement these words, because with those words, you can do amazing things. Join me as I read my latest piece of writing, followed by some thoughts about it.  This is an audio reading of the post "With these words" published in my newsletter, The Stream, on April 16, 2026. Subscribe to the newsletter and find addition inspirations here : https:...

Part travelog, part love letter to trees, in this episode I take you on a seven-day motorcycle trip and wax poetic about the glory of the ancients (and how we are alike). Related links:  Walk the Methuselah Loop with me and check out the Bristlecones. https://www.instagram.com/reels/DMyzZfDpEVK/ Photos from my motorcycle tour found here:  https://www.jumpinthestream.com/are-we-not-trees/ This is a...

Make art. Write history down. Sing the times. It is your job. Stay sane with Heather Cox Richardson. Read her Substack : https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com Watch YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson This is an audio reading of the post "How+L" published online on January 30, 2026. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com...

I'm a huge fan of what I call the "Art Safari" where you travel somewhere to go look at art and experience something creative. In today's episode, I talk about my first ever Art Safari in 2023 to go see some of artist, Mark Maggiori's paintings. He paints epic scenes of the American West.  Related Links: Listen to the episode about my 2024 Glasgow Art Safari here: https://...

On the healing powers of a gentle bicycle ride. One that is NOT for exercise purposes and simply for tootling about and enjoying the day. This is an audio reading of the post “Bitching in a Forward Direction,” published online on May 30, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/continue-on/ Support the show About Field of Streams This podcast provide...

Inspired by the Japanese print style of Gyotaku ('fish print'), today I'm talking about how we all desire to leave an impression on others. What will yours look like? This is an audio reading of the post "Catch of the Day", published online on December 16, 2024. Additional inspirations, including videos showing how to make a Gyotaku print, can be found at that link. https:...

I had a dream. Bob Dylan was in it. What does it all mean? Time for some armchair dream analysis.  This is an audio reading of that post "Absolutely Sweet Dreams" , published online on December 16, 2024. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/dreams/ Support the show About Field of Streams This podcast provides audio readings of The Stream news...

If all poetry had to be fact checked before it got published, there would be no joy.  The David Sedaris interview with Mike Birbiglia where he talks about The New Yorker fact checking his writing can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJtgocLVa0A   All poems referenced within this piece are listed in the footnotes here if you want to go read some great poems! https://www.jumpinthestrea...

Slow down. Don't get mad. There are things you can control and things you can't and you can't escape time. Lemme explain what I mean. This is an audio reading of the post "The time it takes is the time it takes" from April 9, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/time Support the show About Field of Streams This podcast pr...

You are what you make. Listen in to ten minutes of me reframing what failure and success look like for me going forward, then launch into a spirited reading of my new mantra. If you want to skip straight to that, hit 11 mins and 18 seconds and GO!  I mention a Greg Proops pep talk quote. Here is a picture of it on my corkboard: https://www.instagram.com/p/DP20nIcjqG2/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== The Pat...

Today I read a piece of my writing triggered by Justin Hawkins, frontman of The Darkness, describing a certain type of drummer as a "shed builder." I take that term and give it a positive spin in relation to creativity and what it takes to be an artist. One's heart must hammer on. One must keep building the shed and banging in the nails. Blessed are the shed builders!  This is an au...

Komodo dragons have an 'iron' coating on their teeth, protecting them and keeping 'em sharp. In today's episode, I make a connection between the idea of the damage negative emotions have on us and how we must eat them to learn how to digest and build a sort of emotional enamel against them. You'll see... take a listen! The story on Komodo dragon teeth that I mention in the...

In a time of doomscrolling and constant distraction via the rectangles in our hands and the insanity of the churning of content butter it is ever more important to step away. In this episode, I urge you to take a hike, actual or in the imagined worlds of others.  This is an audio reading of the post "Take a hike" from May 12, 2025. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https...

On a warm night in Santa Cruz, California, I entered the Quarry Amphitheater at UCSC to watch one of my favorite bands, Primus, play as part of the “Onward and Upward” tour, 2025. It got me to thinking about a moment in time, 30 years ago, when a song about a beaver helped me realize it’s ok if you don’t feel like you fit. Join me as I read to you a personal essay about the things that influence u...

Do the things that hurt us shape us? Should we try to forget or rewrite the hurt found in our personal histories so that it doesn’t continue to hurt us all our lives? What can we learn from our scars? And is the "book of hurt" one of the most important emotional guide books (metaphorical) to our lives? The story that inspired it all, about the bowdlerizing of Roald Dahl books . https://p...

Can we be taught how to connect with art, be it a painting, music, writing, or whatever? Let’s talk about it.  LA Story “looking at art” scene:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsN40iv5nzg This is an audio reading of the post "Hello, you have reached the Plug and Play Hotline" from March 6, 2023. Additional inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/hello-yo...

Every day is a new day. An opportunity to hit the reset button on ourselves and be different than we were the day before. Let's talk about it! Bonus link: The cherries scene I mention from "The Witches of Eastwick." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdyFtK-HmNs This is an audio reading of the post "Resurrect Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself" from March 23, 2023. Additional...

When things aren't sticking - when you're not breaking through - it can be tempting to try what others are doing. No! Don't be same same. Be you you. That's the real disruption.  This is an audio reading of the post "Appetite for Disruption" from December 2022. Additional inspirations can be found at that link.  https://www.jumpinthestream.com/disrupt/ Support the sho...

An aubade is a parting song, often sung at dawn as lovers farewell. This idea of singing our loves away was the inspiration for this episode, where the love is our creation - our work - and we must sing it on its way to find roost in the world. Listen in! This is an audio reading of the post "The bird who must be aubade" originally published on February 6, 2023. Additional creative inspi...

Just like the 400 meter hurdles, you cannot complete a creative project without completing the steps in between.  The Intelligencier article I reference in the intro “ The Singular Beauty of the 400 Meter Hurdles ” is here: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/the-singular-beauty-of-the-400-meter-hurdles.html This is an audio reading of the post ” The Steps in Between ” originally published on...

Have we simply forgotten how to sit in the nothing of the moment? To sit in the silence without reaching for a phone? Sit. Take note of what's around you. Don't let frivolous things take you out of it.  This is an audio reading of the post "The calm before the storm within" originally published on January 30, 2023. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. htt...

 Inspired by the phrase, “Use the whole buffalo” today’s episode encourages you to use the whole ‘buffalo’ of your life and experience to create your art.  Here’s the TED video explaining how the title of this episode is grammatically correct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWbzjGIec20 This is an audio reading of the post “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” originall...

Are you right or left brained? Is that even a thing? And would you trust how your brain responds to an optical illusion to tell you so? Here’s something I wrote inspired by a little animation of a horse walking backward… or is it forward?  Here’s the illusion. Which way does the horse walk for you? https://x.com/juliabradbury/status/1431221260860764162 This is an audio reading of the post “This ho...

Have you ever heard of vitrification? Crudely put, it’s the process where super-hot liquids cool rapidly and turn to glass. In this episode, I explore how hot ideas, if cooled too quickly, turn to glass and shatter. You need to cool those ideas down by degrees if you want them to survive. Listen in.  I filmed a behind the themes video to go with this episode, and you can watch that here: https://j...

At the start of 2023, I made a pact with myself: for the next year, I vowed to be Prolific AF.* I made the vow, then I wrote myself this pep talk, which I will happily read to anyone who needs it. Be prolific! Hope to see you out there, making stuff.  This episode is somewhat of a follow on from the episode "What does it mean to be The Best?" , which you can listen to here: https://www.b...