If you live in a city, you’ve probably had that moment in the middle of the night. You hear a scratching in the walls, or you catch the glowing eyes of a raccoon peering out from a dumpster, and for a second, the concrete world feels a lot less 'controlled' than we like to pretend. We’ve been taught to think of cities as 'biological deserts'—places where nature goes to die. But my guest today, Dan Werb, says that’s a myth we tell ourselves to feel safe. Dan is an award-winning epidemiologist and a musician, and in his new book, Our Wild Familiars, he explores the 'synanthropes'—the wild creatures that aren't our pets, but aren't quite strangers either. They are the coyotes, the bats, and even the octopuses that are learning to use our cities as laboratories for their own rapid evolution. He’s also the author of The Invisible Siege and City of Omens.

(0:02) The unexpected biodiversity of urban areas and wild familiars

(1:18) What is a Synanthrope?

(4:15) The Myth of the Biological Desert

(8:04) The Ancestral Bond between early humans, ravens, and foxes

(9:15) Crows and Grudges

(12:42) Stepping Stones in the Concrete

(14:20) The Epidemiological Triangle

(17:58) The Illusion of AI Connection

(19:56) The Museum of Memory

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

"So synanthropes are animals that have adapted to human-modified environments, and the Greek translation essentially is together with humans, so synanthrope. And they're a fascinating subset of wild animals that they're all around us, but we don't really notice them. And so in this new book, I was excited about writing something that had to do with the natural world. I was excited about writing something that touched on climate change. These are not just insects and earthworms and things like that. These are very large predators that have nevertheless found a way to survive among us. And that in and of itself I think is just an amazing story and what I explore in this book."

If you live in a city, you’ve probably had that moment in the middle of the night. You hear a scratching in the walls, or you catch the glowing eyes of a raccoon peering out from a dumpster, and for a second, the concrete world feels a lot less 'controlled' than we like to pretend. We’ve been taught to think of cities as 'biological deserts'—places where nature goes to die. But my guest today, Dan Werb, says that’s a myth we tell ourselves to feel safe. Dan is an award-winning epidemiologist and a musician, and in his new book, Our Wild Familiars, he explores the 'synanthropes'—the wild creatures that aren't our pets, but aren't quite strangers either. They are the coyotes, the bats, and even the octopuses that are learning to use our cities as laboratories for their own rapid evolution. He’s also the author of The Invisible Siege and City of Omens.

(0:02) The unexpected biodiversity of urban areas and wild familiars

(2:32) What are synanthropes?

(6:04) Why cities are becoming magnets for wildlife and natural biodiversity

(14:32) How our discarded garbage acts as a reliable nutrition source

(18:01) The raccoon city and highly adaptable urban mesopredators

(21:49) Redesigning cities as crucial sites for wildlife conservation and containerisation

(26:31) The impact of highways on mountain lion migration in Los Angeles

(31:03) The ancestral spiritual bond between early humans, ravens, and foxes

(38:24) Facial recognition, grudges, and the intense intelligence of urban crows

(42:40) Discovering giant Pacific octopuses living in discarded garbage near Seattle

(49:04) How translucent boardwalks helped save baby salmon afraid of the dark

(52:42) Building green corridors and ecological stepping stones in the concrete

(1:01:07) Cultural shifts in pods of orcas sinking boats off the Iberian coast

(1:05:23) Social epidemiology, vulnerable populations, and insights from City of Omens

(1:08:29) The epidemiological triangle and the environmental causes of novel viruses

(1:16:08) The rhythm shift required to observe wild animals in urban spaces

(1:25:26) Why we need more cosmological humility when studying animal biology

(1:31:06) The illusion of AI connection and why engaging with nature expands the mind

(1:34:46) Memories, Laughter, and Animal Connection

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

It is an ordinary human impulse to find a reflection of ourselves in the machines we build. But what happens when the lifeless begins to talk back, to paint, to compose and to simulate our emotions? How do we hold on to what makes us human? Today we hear from philosophers and writers Siri Hustvedt, C. Thi Nguyen, and Bayo Akomolafe on the myth of machine consciousness. Artist Jonathan Yeo, playwright and screenwriter Laura Eason, composer Max Richter, and photographer Ralph Gibson discuss why the struggle of the creative process cannot be outsourced. They are joined by actress Catherine Curtin, neuroscientist Liad Mudrik, tech journalist Jacob Ward, and museum director Chris Dercon, who examine the power of imperfection, imagination, intuition, and how to avoid getting lost in the machine.

(0:00) Siri Hustvedt (Author of Ghost Stories, What I Loved) (4:07) Jonathan Yeo (Portrait Artist) (5:08) Catherine Curtin (Actress, Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things) (8:49) C. Thi Nguyen (Philosopher, Author of The Score) (10:35) Bayo Akomolafe (Philosopher, Writer, Founder of The Emergence Network) (13:41) Chris Dercon (Museum Director, Fondation Cartier) (17:58) Laura Eason (Playwright, Screenwriter, Three Women, House of Cards) (20:58) Max Richter (Composer, Pianist, SLEEP, Hamnet) (23:44) Jacob Ward (Tech Journalist, Author, The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World Without Choices) (28:19) Liad Mudrik (Neuroscientist, Professor, Tel Aviv University) (29:04) Ralph Gibson (Photographer)

To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews.

Episode Site

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“Imagining with precision is a very fundamental part of my work. When I sit down to write about anything, whether it be The Hungry Tide in the Sundarbans, or let's say The Shadow Lines, or Ghost-Eye. It's very important for me to get the topography right, to get the outlay of the streets or the house exactly right so I can actually picture all of that in my head. It's very important for me to have a sort of pictorial sense of what I'm seeing and what I'm writing about. Before I can write about it, I need to see it, as it were. So that's absolutely fundamental to my craft. That's just how I go about it. Like the Sufis say—behind the apparent reality is a hidden or batin reality. “

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Amitav Ghosh about his new novel, Ghost-Eye. The novel is about reincarnation, but also a lot more. In our conversation we talk about the need to address the terrible set of environmental and other crises we face, and the seeming foreclosure of the imagination by the obsession with technology and the future it offers to us. Instead, we look to how we can fashion beginnings out of endings, aided by a renewed sense of wonder, curiosity, and awe. We turn to the body, to the haptic, and perhaps most important, to food as more than simply nourishment. In all this, story-telling, the revival of connections between living beings, and a deep sense of other times and places are central.

(0:56) Planetary Crisis and Accelerating Disasters

(3:50) The Lasting Impact of The Hungry Tide

(5:00) Storytelling and the Existential Crisis

(8:26) Imagining with Precision in Literature

(12:46) The Denuded Human Existence and AI

(15:37) Artisanal Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence

(17:57) Food, Industrial Agriculture, and Memory

(21:16) Cultural Assimilation Through Cooking

(24:12) The Sociability and Joy of Cooking

(27:57) The Failure of the Humanities

(31:38) The Role of the Narrator

(35:27) Regaining Our Sense of Wonder

(37:04) Past Life Memories and Circular Temporality

Episode Website

www.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.com Bluesky @palumboliu.bsky.social Instagram @speaking_out_of_place

How much of our consciousness is shaped by our bodies? That rhythmical reality that Siri Hustvedt describes is something we often take for granted until it is disrupted by grief or illness. Much of what we consider the mind is happening in the body.

Today, we're looking at embodied cognition, the idea that we think with our limbs, our breath and our physical interactions with the world. We will hear from researchers and neuroscientists Anil Seth, David J. Linden, Dr. Guy Leschziner and Daisy Fancourt, who are studying how much touch, sleep and the arts physically alter our brains. We will also talk with philosophers, advocates and spiritual leaders Arash Abizadeh, Bayo Akomolafe, Master Shi Heng Yi and Helen Whybrow. To understand how this translates into art and movement, we are joined by author Siri Hustvedt, curator Marie Nipper, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, dancer and ballet stager Noelani Pantastico and choreographer Sean Curran.

0:00) Siri Hustvedt (Author of Ghost Stories) (18:53) (2:22) Guy Leschziner (Neurologist, Author, The Nocturnal Brain) (3:45) Daisy Fancourt (Author, Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health) (5:08) Helen Whybrow (Shepherd, Organic Farmer, Author of The Salt Stones) (6:28) Marie Nipper (Dir., Creator Projects, Fmr. Dir., ARKEN Museum of Modern Art) (8:16) Arash Abizadeh (Professor, Political Science, McGill University, Author) (9:04) David Linden (Professor, Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Author of Unique, Touch) (11:16) Bayo Akomolafe (Philosopher, Founder, Emergence Network) (12:13) Master Shi Heng Yi (35th Generation of Shaolin Masters, Headmaster, Shaolin Temple Europe) (13:48) Anil Seth (Author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness, Co-director, Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science) (15:41) Robert Waldinger (Psychiatrist, Harvard Study of Adult Development, Author, The Good Life) (16:40) Noelani Pantastico (Fmr. Principal Dancer, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Dance Teacher) (18:02) Sean Curran (Dancer, Dir, Sean Curran Company)

For more, listen to their full interviews

Episode Site https://www.creativeprocess.info/interviews-featured/anth-body

Today, we examine how we will adapt to a changing climate and learn to listen to the Earth.(0:00) Abrahm Lustgarten (Reporter, ProPublica) (3:00) Jon Gertner (Author, The Ice at the End of the World) (5:32) Bill Hare (CEO, Climate Analytics) (6:35) Rob Nixon (Prof. Environmental Humanities, Princeton) (8:12) Louis de Jaeger (Co-founder, Food Forest Institute) (10:06) Kathleen Rogers (Pres., EarthDay.org) (11:31) Rebecca Tickell (Filmmaker, Kiss the Ground) (13:42) Ben Goldfarb (Author, Crossings) (14:56) Jane Madgwick (CEO, Plantlife International) (19:23) Jason deCaires Taylor (Sculptor, Underwater Museums) (21:02) William McDonough (Architect, Cradle to Cradle) (23:19) Euan Nisbet (Scientist, Royal Holloway) (26:06) Roland Geyer (Author, The Business of Less) (28:15) Ron Gonen (CEO, Closed Loop Partners) (29:34) Paul Shrivastava (Co-President, Club of Rome) (30:14) Carlo Ratti (Architect, Dir., MIT Senseable City Lab) (31:24) Osprey Orielle Lake (Founder, WECAN) (32:38) Liza Featherstone (Journalist) (33:41) Yolanda Kakabadse (Fmr. President, WWF)

For more, listen to their full interviews

Episode Site: https://www.creativeprocess.info/interviews-featured/anth-regen

Today we explore the collapse of the journalism business model, the rise of spin dictators and how disinformation has become the new censorship. As empires struggle and media consolidates, the pursuit of truth remains an act of hope. We hear from foreign correspondents and journalists Nicholas Kristof, Abrahm Lustgarten, Michael Maren, Richard Black and Jacob Ward. They're joined by scholars and economists Jeffrey Rosen, Sergei Guriev, James Fishkin, Richard Wolff and Daniel Susskind. Writers Viet Thanh Nguyen, T.C. Boyle and Lee McIntyre, TV showrunners George Pelecanos and Debora Cahn and activists Dean Spade and Mike Davis explore language, authoritarianism and human conflict.

(0:00) Nicholas Kristof (Journalist, NYTimes) (3:03) Abrahm Lustgarten (ProPublica) (4:45) Lee McIntyre (Philosopher) (8:40) Richard Black (Fmr. BBC, Dir. of Policy, Ember) (7:40) Jacob Ward (Journalist) (10:50) Jeffrey Rosen (Journalist, Legal Scholar) (11:19) Sergei Guriev (Economist, Dean, LBS) James Fishkin (Dir., Stanford's Deliberative Democracy Lab) (14:14) Viet Thanh Nguyen (Author, The Sympathizer) (15:37) T.C. Boyle (Novelist, Blue Skies) (16:16) George Pelecanos (Writer/Co-creator, We Own This City, The Wire) (17:48) Dean Spade (Activist) (18:15) Debora Cahn (Creator, Netflix's The Diplomat) (18:51) Richard Wolff (Economist, Co-founder, Democracy at Work) (22:23) Daniel Susskind (Economist) (30:19) Mike Davis (CEO, Global Witness) (33:50) Michael Maren (Filmmaker, Fmr. Foreign Correspondent)

https://www.creativeprocess.info/interviews-featured/anth-journalism https://www.creativeprocess.info/pod

“I've discovered in my studies of creativity in general that creativity is not about starting with a brilliant idea and then following a linear path to an execution of your idea. What I see in art and design is a much more iterative, wandering, exploratory process where the ideas emerge from the act of engaging in the work.”

Dr. Keith Sawyer’s work focuses on creativity and human ingenuity. With over 20 books and a career that spans computer science, psychology, and the study of innovation, he has explored what it means to lead a creative life. Following his foundational research with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, his books include Explaining Creativity and Group Genius. In his latest book, Learning to See: Inside the World's Leading Art and Design Schools, he pulls back the curtain on how elite institutions cultivate the creative mind. He has been a jazz pianist for over 40 years. We will explore the evolution of his research, and what music and improvisation have taught him about life.

(0:00) The Non-Linear Process of Creativity

(3:12) Teaching Students to Find Their Own Aesthetic

(7:13) The Pressure to Replicate Success

(13:31) Guided Improvisation in Education

(16:46) Unlearning Rigid Perceptions

(22:52) Embodiment and the Material World

(25:27) Deep Listening and Jazz Improvisation

(27:09) Domain General vs. Domain Specific Creativity

(30:07) Architecture as an Exchange

(37:47) Learning from Nature: The Velcro Lesson

(42:54) Gen AI and Human Ingenuity

(44:42) The System of Improv

(1:01:08) The Value of Problem Finding

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast