Imagination & Junk

Thank you and good night.  Mat and Bill will return in the near future with a new podcast under the Imagination & Junk umbrella. Please hang on to your subscription!

Creative people have been chasing perfection since the first painters daubed pictures on cave walls. But is it even possible to reach it? And if not -- why do we bother? Plus: Humidity, ducks, grammar, double espressos, Coffman starters, Run-DMC, LaJethro Jenkins, rhombuses, Paterson NJ, a mug's game, Robert Towne, candy cigars, Previously on America, and Born To Run. Also: Never follow a juggler....

This week we're looking at the role of rules in creativity -- when to follow them, and when to blow them up with dynamite from the ACME Corporation. Plus: Struggle, drag, Scottish sheep, a good day's work, Jacques Tati, music halls, both-sidesing, humiliation, bankruptcy and Henry Kissinger. Also: Never meet your heroes. And: Is it raining?

This week we're looking at one of art's enduring mysteries: Why is it so hard to call yourself an artist? Also: Thunderbirds, multiple Negronis, Chuck Jones, superspreader events, tiny coffees, Picasso, evolution, self-consciousness, Maya Angelou, a perfectly-cut child-sized waistcoat, gatekeepers, Cybertrucks, and a heavy dose of the side-eye. Plus: The more you say it, the truer it gets.

This week we’re talking about the work we did when we were young and foolish, or at least less experienced. How should we feel about it? Are regret or even shame ever useful? Also: Goth kids, Logan Paul, steel-toed boots, messages (sent and received), a comfortable shoe, go-away heat, The Brill Building, knife-wielding idiots and the biopic of Mat’s life. Plus: Drunk rugby boys (as separate and di...

This week, in the first episode of Season 4, we're talking about the myth of talent. At least one of us feels a small tickle of resentment when someone, with the best of intentions, tells him he's talented. Why? It's complicated. Plus: Doomsday bunkers, tall people, "air quotes," sizzling fingertips, MREs, espresso machines, gatekeeping, Jumpin' Jimmy Baldwin, London's stabbiest borough, and a bea...

As a tune-up for the premiere of Season 4, we're bringing you another installment of our occasional bonus feature, I Might Be Wrong But.. . in which one of us argues in favor of a maligned piece of pop culture while the other one reconsiders our friendship. This week Bill's up, and he's making the case for Ron Howard's 1982 "Night Shift," starring Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton as a couple of gu...

As a tune-up for the premiere of Season 4, we're bringing you another installment of our occasional bonus feature, I Might Be Wrong But... in which one of us argues in favor of a maligned piece of pop culture while the other one points and laughs. This week Mat's up, and he's making the case for the 1985 teen comedy "Real Genius," starring the late Val Kilmer. Trigger warning: This episode contain...

This week we're talking about the things that aren't there. Plus: Trash drafts, Parrot Face, the dog that didn't bark, well-dressed clowns, empty piazzas, terrible silence, Mike Birbiglia, and the smell of space. (It smells like steak , apparently.)    This is the last episode of Season 3. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. In the meantime, keep your ears peeled for two Very Special Episodes™️...

How do you know if what you're creating is any good? This week: Juggling the internal and external critics. Plus: Humility, shouting at clouds, Idiots vs. Fools, marrying up, Baby Shark, shame, brainwashing, sometimes it's harder to suck, The Well of Metaphor, fact checkers, and getting the brushes back out. 

People like to say the great ones make it look easy, but what are we really looking at when we see a great creator showing what looks like effortlessness? Plus: Spectacular failures, concerned murmurs, Jenny from the block, beautiful aliens, Henri Matisse, rubber band balls, drifting toward the abyss, ha cha cha and hot dogs by the sea. 

This week we're talking about doing what you're bad at. Why do some people charge blindly full speed ahead, and others try to shrink into their own shoes? And what's to be gained from what can be a traumatic experience? Also: Noble pain, sociopaths, Norma Desmond, tinnitus, bad steak, Christmas island, horrifying plunky sounds and more Mel Cooley. 

This week we're looking at limitations in creative work. When do they hurt? When can they help? And how can we become more agile creators by learning how to work with them, rather than around them? Also: Fake expertise, low ceilings, ukuleles vs. bowling balls, rich idiots, guitar control, speed wounds, bourgeois sharpnress, and I Kid Because I Love. 

This week we're looking at a part of the job that comes hard for many creative people -- self-promotion. Is there a way to be an effective promoter without feeling awkward and cheap? We suggest that there is, and tell you a way forward. Also: Big asks, mug's games, the SEO scam, wide boys, Chelmsford, crying in coffee shops, lost luggage, bonbons and juggling for Jesus. 

It's one of the paradoxes of creative life: the longer you do it, the more tools you acquire, the more it becomes the goal to get simpler. To do less. This week we're talking about the quest for simplicity, and about finding the sweet spot between brevity and clarity. Plus: Slow TV, phantom limbs, Robot Thatcher, greening, a blow to the head, Wesley Van Wesleyson, promises and threats, and content...

Every creator likes think they're shiny and golden, dancing with their muse in a singular act of invention. But is that true? Is that how it works? Or is all creativity an act of remix? Are we inevitably treading on ground others have walked before us? And if there's no such thing as originality -- why do we bother? Also: Brain fizz and sparky fingertips, Woz, falling down, Pinwright's Progress, h...

This week we're looking at one of the hardest decisions a creator can make: When is it time to admit an idea isn't panning out and move on? It can be agonizing to put aside a piece of work in which you've invested time and care and effort, but sometimes it's not just the best choice, it's the only one that makes sense.  Plus: Loud noises, Labrador footwarmers, Italian getaways, toboggans of regret...

When Apple announced its plans for artificial intelligence earlier this week, the presentation failed to make a minor point: AI, as currently constituted, doesn't work very well. Also, not for nothing, it's theft on a grand scale. So: Here comes the future, we guess? This week, we're kicking off our third season with a deep dive on the role of artificial intelligence in creativity. Auto-summarized...

This week, in the second of two Very Special Episodes™️, we're wrapping up our mini-series "I Might Be Wrong, But... " with a look at the 1973 blaxploitation demi-classic "Willie Dynamite." Bill takes the position that it's worth a second look; Mat argues the contrary, taking the classic dialectical stance he identifies as "Nuh uh." Wherever you come down on this cultural question, surely we can a...

Join us, won't you, as we clear our throats before Season 3 with a Very Special After School Episode of Appointment Listening we're calling "I Might Be Wrong, But... " In this first of two bonus installments we're kicking around the idea that Steven Seagal's 1991 magnum opus "Out For Justice" is actually kind of... good? Yes, we've lost our damn minds, but only temporarily; we'll be back with anot...

In the last episode of Season 2, we're recalling the worst things that ever happened to us as creative people, and trying to excavate whatever lessons we can from the wreckage. Featuring: Murder in Encino, and a near-international incident in Beijing.   We'll be back with a new season of Imagination & Junk after a short break.

In this episode we're talking about tools of the trade. Every creative trade has them. But they function in a variety of ways: As tools, yes, but also as signifiers of membership in a group, and as objects of desire. Also: Man purses, puppies, promiscuous scribbling, snappy suits, Japanese dining tables, Toots Thielemans, custom juggling balls and cricket.

Here's a creativity brain puzzler: Is it better to break new ground or to keep polishing the same act until it gleams? It depends, to a degree, on for whom you create in the first place. Also: Jackie Chan, treading water, private eyes, the changeup pitch, Eurovision, litigation, the verdict of history, singularity, space shoes, The Shipping Forecast and quite a bit, actually, about the eternal vil...

This week we're looking at Getting Things Done, and at the cult of productivity that's sprung up around David Allen's original GTD methodology. It looks good, it sounds good -- but is it an aid to creative work or the exact opposite of what creativity calls for? Once again, we have thoughts. And this time we've put them in a nice list, with checkboxes. Also: Raccoons, stone tablets, Starfighters,...

Can creativity be malign? Or is it always just... creativity? In this episode we're looking at what researchers call "dark creativity," or the use of creative tools to gain an unfair advantage over another person. And yes: We have thoughts. Also: Con artists, hammers, work snacks, spoon-bending, Bond villains, Stevie Wonder Wednesday and the trouble with ponds.