The Language of Creativity Podcast

“A creator is inherently born to change the status-quo.”  In this bonus episode, Stephen Bau tackles “Imposter Syndrome” with Ensoulment coach Veronica Anderson during a candid private coaching session. Stephen Bau is an artist, designer and social architect who was also my guest on Epsiodes 17 and 18 . Stephen and Veronica talk about overcoming the “dragon” of the status-quo and Veronica points o...

Before we sat down to do this interview with this commissioned artist she made a very bold statement: “I hate making art.”  Talyn Edelson is a warrior through and through. Having conquered both intense physical and mental obstacles in her life, Talyn has trained to be lit on fire, perform with weapons, fall off buildings and be pulled back through walls or doorways by ratchets. Although she studie...

In honor of Memorial Day Honor and Glory, a poem by Jack T. Leyton. www.jaxsongs.com Spotify YouTube  

Starting out can be hard. Steve was sitting at a podcasting panel when the lady sitting next to him looked over and asked “do you understand any of this?” It turns out the lady sitting next to Steve has been on PBS and NPR with her course, Learn to Play Guitar in a Day! Marlene Hutchinson is a teacher at heart, and was at one time an elementary school teacher. She didn’t actually learn to play gui...

Steve hates banter! So here's a full episode of it. Links Undercover Rubicon ( Spotify ) Hers ( Spotify ) Class Of 1999 ( IMDB ) tags: banter episode, Selena, Danny Elfman, Netflix, Hers, LTO tape, demos, Cubase, Dongles, Win 98, pawn shop regret, synths, Paula Abdul, Corona, quarantine, podcasting, studio attire, ENFP, Tommy Bahama, school conformity, high school, control constructs, GED's, indep...

What do you do when you’re locked in your house for 6 months? Record an EP of course! Inspired by the sound of 80s Post-Punk and Darkwave, this musical duo loves to take a look back at the past “to see how genres intertwine.”  This episode was recorded in late 2020: we were looking back on quarantine and how it allowed more time to make music. Before that, the duo says “the only time we had to mak...

What happens when you start to question the moral foundation you grew up on? In this episode, Steve and Leo sit down to have another conversation about programming but begin to notice similar principles behind law, society, its mores, and even religion. Leo grew up a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant-Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of the Sabbath (on S...

How can a programmer help put out a blazing wildfire? Steve talks to longtime friend and programmer Leo Lutz about unconventional creativity and what happens when you pair non-conventional thinking with an open approach to problem-solving. (Hint: you get culture-shifting ideas.) Leo Lutz is cofounder of Deytah , a digital consultancy focused on helping small businesses and nonprofits solve problem...

Would you like to know a little secret about making great records? Who doesn’t want to know a great secret! The origin story goes that Joe Solo discovered Macy Gray while she was working in a Beverly Hills diner and he decided to develop her career, vowing to work “however long it takes” until they made it big - a promise that took nearly 15 years to fulfill. Since then Joe has worked with the lik...

Steven is having a bad day! Luckily, he was about to sit down with our next guest, Michael Boyle, a licensed psychotherapist specializing in work with relationships and trauma. Orphaned temporarily from his recording studio due to a COVID outbreak, Steven dons his backpack and his new mobile recording rig to host the podcast outside on a blanket down by the river! Michael Boyle is a former college...

tags: The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, NES, connection, play, video-games, hard drive crashes, save game, “endless adventure”, story, Joseph Campbell, meaning making, avatar, persona, duration, story-making, songwriting, reflections, experience, growth, memory, non-linear editing, Adobe Premiere, Japan, The Last Of Us 2, Playstation, Minecraft, adventure, CONTINUE? Look for Scott Thrift's full-epis...

New fields such as Biomimicry offer amazing insight into the way nature solves the most complex problems with stunning simplicity, allowing scientists to create amazing “advancements” in human technology. What is clear is how little we really know about everything. In part one, Stephen Bau begins to speak about The Holobiont: the emergent, living system of all nested systems. In part 2, we explore...

Designers make powerful choices that ultimately affect real lived experience. What happens when those choices have unforeseen consequences? Stephen Bau is a UX design mentor at Designlab but prefers the term “human experience” to “user experience.” Starting out at a young age with a love for art and deciding upon a path toward graphic design in Vancouver, Canada, Bau joined the industry at a tumul...

We all create narratives defining who we are, yet so many of us forget that we all have the power to craft and hone these narratives to define ourselves, our worlds, and the legacy we leave behind. Jarod Cerf lives by his adage that everyone is a storyteller. A consummate storyteller himself, Cerf has long recognized the power of storytelling and crafting narratives not only in the artistic sphere...

We’ve all said things like “where did the day go?” or “wow, it’s already the end of the year!” Traditional timepieces aim to keep us on task, but are we missing something in the pursuit of endless “productivity?” Scott Thrift is a “filmmaker turned artist” (Wired Magazine) and the co-founder of the award-winning creative agency m ss ng p eces, which he left in 2013 to pursue his dream of making an...

Death And Snow, a poem by Nat Magnuson.   Silver Grain Art www.silvergrainart.com

AB-5 sucks! Covid sucks! Zoom school SUCKS! 2020 pretty much sucked. But you know what doesn’t suck? Being an everyday hero like our guest Christiane Cargill Kinney.   As an entertainment lawyer, Christiane Kinney has represented Platinum-selling and Grammy-winning artists and estates as well as independent artists, Presidential candidates, festivals, music tech start-ups, artists, and avatars (wh...

What does it mean to find meaningful work? How do we decide what path our lives will take without letting life dictate our path to us? Today we talk about something most adults will spend most of their lives doing: work. Terese Anthony is a college career counselor who also happens to be a world-traveled modern-day renaissance woman. From bullfighting in Costa Rica to bartending to getting chased...

A first for us, listener-feedback episode! When I called Monica, she had just lost her job (that she hated). WOO HOO!!! (That part we hadn't hit record for). We talk about my ideas for the bigger picture of the podcast as well as a little about her new foray into the amazing book The Artist's Way. Guest: Monica Berning ( monica.berning@zohomail.com ) Host: Steven Leavitt ( icreatesound.com ) The o...

In this very special Bonus Episode, Steve and his son Caleb talk about a very important topic - PLAYING!

Steve just hits publish! In this (very first) solo episode Steve reflects on the inner-work of the past 6 months. Keywords: #thefuture #lettinggo #thebeach #clearing #covid #quarantine #movement #struggle #slowingdown #sadness #overwhelm #innerwork #authenticity

Justin Miyamoto explores concepts like the ocean, space and time-travel to convey the human experience of love, joy and struggle through songwriting as a form of journaling. The Oceanographers’ musical style mirrors the tides of Hawaii as Justin and Steve muse about the similarities between water and the inner world of emotions.   Originally from Southern California, he moved to Hawaii to find lik...

Toni Koch is an Independent Artist Promoter from Phoenix, Arizona. Toni found her tribe in the late 70s and early 80s movement when folk was overtaken by disco. A songwriter first, Toni began working at record stores like Zia Records and Tower Records and soon began to DJ in local clubs. Then local area promoter Danny Zelisko gave her a shot at doing something new: forming a street-team to promote...

What is it like playing in a real recording studio? What does it take to set yourself apart as a musician? Steven Leavitt sits down with his friend and colleague Dustin Stonebrook to talk about studio musicians and audio engineering, and how a true professional is someone who has learned how to check their ego at the door.   Dustin is a true renaissance man, originally from Texas, who left the pat...

In this very special episode, Steven Leavitt is joined by his first boss, Wendy Vanguard.  This becomes a touchstone for a very intriguing conversation that goes into mentorship, design, physics, energy, illustration, the emotional effect of color, the world of art in Los Angeles in the 70’s (the LA Women’s Building, AIDS, Roe v. Wade), parenting, and the dawn of computer-generated animation. Wend...