Re-Creative: A podcast about inspiration and creativity

Blair is a working stage, screen and voice actor and the president of ACTRA Alberta, the acting union for screen and voice performers. He shares with hosts Joe and Mark some fun acting stories and how various actors pursue their art before talking about the play that still inspires him, Little Shop of Horrors . Blair got to see the show at the age of 17 on the West End. That version starred Ellen...

Joe and Mark are joined by the famed cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling, from his studio in Torino (Turin), Italy. "I don't like doing the same thing over," Bruce says. "So, I don't write trilogies or sequels. I'm writing a lot of short fiction. I do some lecturing and consulting. I'm also the art director of an arts festival here in Turin, which is called Share Festival." One of Bruce's projects is...

Mark and Joe are joined by writer and poet Abigail Grimes to discuss the classic Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 . Fahrenheit 451, as perhaps you know, is a warning about the dangers of totalitarian thinking and censorship. "One of the criticisms about the book is the writing is so beautiful that it's hard to take it seriously," Abigail tells us. The gorgeous prose helps the reader get past the...

Joe and Mark welcome their first return guest: writer and editor Ira Nayman! Ira has returned to help Mark and Joe understand the importance and fun of the early Marx Brothers films, including Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933). Ira makes the convincing case that if you love Monty Python, and you haven't seen the Marx Brothers, you really sho...

Author Jenn Thorson joins the lads for a discussion of the classic children’s story, Alice in Wonderland . Jenn's latest work is set in the world of Wonderland. She writes about Mary Ann Carpenter, the White Rabbit’s former housemaid, who must solve various mysteries. Jenn has also written humour and humorous science fiction.  Mark, Joe and Jenn discuss the history of the Alice in Wonderland...

Author and critic Michael Antman joins Joe and Mark for a wide-ranging discussion about visual arts and writing. Michael started out as a poet. After switching to fiction, he's had two novels published by indie presses: Cherry Whip and Everything Solid Has A Shadow. He likes to explore themes of self-knowledge in his work, or, more accurately, "the lack of self-knowledge." The best surrealism comb...

Mark and Joe are thrilled to welcome Catherine Fitzsimmons to the show. Catherine is the founder of Brain Lag, an acclaimed Canadian science fiction and fantasy press that has now published fifty books! Catherine is also a writer, with six novels under her belt, and an artist in other ways. She explains how the press came to be and the role it plays in Canadian publishing. She's the first guest to...

Back in 2003, at the WorldCon held in Toronto, Canada – known as Torcon 3 – Joe Mahoney met Mark Rayner for the first time. Joe also had an opportunity to meet and interview John Scalzi for a radio documentary that later aired on CBC Radio's The Current. The interview (the entirety of which is included in this episode) is a fascinating slice of history. It was John’s first WorldCon and he took an...

Joe and Mark are joined by the super successful and super-fun science fiction writer, John Scalzi. It's an entertaining conversation about science fiction, the egotistical nature of writing, and John's hobby, which is music. In addition to having a terrible case of G.A.S. (guitar acquisition syndrome), John loves creating "weird ambient electronic music." Mark and Joe learn all about John's amazin...

Mark and Joe chat with the Canadian poet and science fiction doyenne, Candas Jane Dorsey. Candas is well-known in Canadian science fiction circles for her work as a novelist ( Black Wine , A Paradigm of Earth ) and editor-in-chief of The Books Collective, which included River, Slipstream and Tesseract Books. The conversation begins around one of Candas's favourite childhood fantasy books, Crab Vil...

Ben Fox is founder of the amazing book discovery site Shepherd.   Joe and Mark talk to Ben about a book that had a huge impact on him. Native Son , by Richard Wright, was assigned to Ben as a senior in high school. "I hated it from the depths of my soul, but now this book is strongly in my DNA," Ben says. He doesn't hate the story now, though it does haunt him. It's one of the top fifteen boo...

Joe and Mark reflect on the Re-Creative journey so far, after two complete seasons, and over forty episodes.  For more information, check out the show notes for this episode.   Re-Creative is produced by Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with MonkeyJoy Press.   Contact us at joemahoney@donovanstreetpress.com

"If you could write – and consume – only one of these genres of science fiction, what would you pick? Space opera. Post-Apocalyptic. Or Cyberpunk?" This is the diabolical question that Mark poses to Joe and their guest, renowned Canadian science fiction writer, Robert J. Sawyer.  Everyone has an answer and it connects with the piece of art that Rob has chosen to talk about – the 1968 science...

Joe and Mark are joined by a veritable Swiss Army Knife of writers, Mark Leiren-Young. Mark has written in multiple genres and formats, including television, animation, journalism, comedy, theater, and film. And he loves him some Spider-Man. Oh, and Kurt Vonnegut too, so you know that Mark LY gets along with both the lads like a house on fire! They NERD OUT in this podcast, talking about how Vonne...

The lads are joined by Noah Chinn, a Canadian writer of SFF, contemporary fiction and retro mysteries. (The latter two under the pen-name Noah J.D. Chinn.) Mark kicks off the podcast by asking Joe and Noah if there was anything weird happening to their hair in the 90s, which is also when the groundbreaking science fiction series, Babylon 5 ran. Noah loved that the series treated each episode as a...

Joe and Mark are joined this week by D.G. Valdron, a Canadian writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. The topic of this week's discussion is Doctor Who, in particular the expansive, creative and fascinating world of fan-produced films, plays and fiction that honor the Doctor. D.G. talks about this fandom with great affection and knowledge, something that he's been a part of as a fan, b...

Rock journalist and biographer Steve Rosen joins the lads to talk about guitar legend Edward (Eddie) Van Halen.  Steve began his career in 1972 and has interviewed hundreds of recording artists over the years, including some of his favorites: Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff, Peter Frampton, Steve Winwood, Brian Wilson, Pete Townshend, Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Supertramp, an...

Joe and Mark are joined by London, Ontario author and journalist, Mark Kearney, to talk about an early pioneer of Hollywood, Al Christie. Christie went to Hollywood in 1911, when it was just a village, some fruit trees and farms. “There had been a few directors shooting in and around Los Angeles, but Christie was the first to film in Hollywood,” Mark says. Christie became famous for his short come...

Deck the halls with boughs of … horror! Joe and Mark are joined by Jeff Preston, PhD, an associate professor of disability studies at King’s University College. In addition to being a professor, Jeff is a webcomic creator, activist and co-host of the podcast Invalid Culture. “The real story of disability is being able to bend the world around you to fit your needs, and about the real pain, angst a...

The Poet Laureate of Prince Edward Island (PEI), Tanya Davis, joins the lads to talk about the 1987 musical romance, Dirty Dancing. Tanya is a poet, musician, and performance poet: “My work is very much words based and writing based,” she says. In addition to her performance work and promotion of poetry generally, Tanya takes commissions and writes for events and special occasions. She also has a...

Joe and Mark are joined by Canadian writer of futuristic and contemporary mystery/thrillers, Timothy S. Johnston. They discuss the classic 1982 science fiction horror movie, The Thing . Directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, watching The Thing was a pivotal moment in Timonthy's life. "It was a watershed moment for me!" He'd already read the novelization of the movie, and there were...

Mark and Joe are joined by documentary film maker Teresa Alfeld. She's made two films, The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical and Doug and the Slugs and Me . Both of the co-hosts listened to (and loved) Doug and the Slugs when the Canadian band was popular. Teresa's best friend growing up was Shea Bennett, the daughter of Doug Bennett, who was the front-man and main songwriter for the band. "For me,...

Joe and Mark are joined by beloved and bestselling Canadian author, Terry Fallis. Terry's fiction has won the Leacock Medal for Humour twice, and his debut novel, Best Laid Plans , won Canada Reads in 2011. The annual CBC competition had a huge impact on his sales figures for that novel: more than 150,000 copies of the book to date. "Canada Reads made me a bestseller," he says, adding how grateful...

Mark and Joe are joined by the Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, Saul Rubinek. They have a wide-ranging and educational conversation that they launch with the question: "Who was your favorite playwright." Saul answers Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, whom he believes (along with many others) wrote all of Shakespeare's plays. "Even some of the most renowned academics have t...

Mark and Joe are joined by Hugo and Nebula Award winning science fiction author David Brin for a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion about the poem, his writing and his work with NASA. They also discuss how to think about the creation of sapient beings that are not human. David explains why he prefers the term sapience to sentience, and why he likes to call the general large language models (G...