In this engaging episode of the Epistemic Alchemy Podcast, Dr. Mohammed Raei speaks with Dr. Amy Climer, creativity expert, speaker, and author of the bestselling book Deliberate Creative Teams: How to Lead for Innovative Results. Drawing from her academic research and professional experience with organizations like the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University, Dr. Climer unpacks the myths and realities of creativity, especially within team settings.

She introduces her "Deliberate Creative Team Scale," a tool born from her mixed-methods dissertation that identifies three essential elements for team creativity: clear team purpose, effective team dynamics, and an intentional creative process. Climer emphasizes that creativity is not accidental—it is a deliberate, structured endeavor. She shares her journey transforming academic research into a practical, story-rich book, discusses her writing habits, and highlights tools like Scrivener and Climer Cards that aid the creative process.

The conversation also explores applications in academia, strategies to foster individual and team creativity, and Dr. Climer’s vision of what a deliberately creative university might look like. Packed with actionable insights and reflective moments, this episode offers valuable guidance for scholars, leaders, and practitioners looking to enhance creativity in their work and teams.

Resources:

Climer Consulting website: https://climerconsulting.com

Climer Cards website: https://climercards.com/

Deliberate Creative Teams: How to Lead for Innovative Results book: https://climerconsulting.com/book

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/climerconsulting Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyclimer/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyclimer/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/amyclimer

The Deliberate Creative Podcast: https://climerconsulting.com/podcast/

Creativity by Csikszentmihalyi https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Csikszentmihalyi-Mihaly-1st-HarperPerennial/dp/B00C6P1KWE

Scrivener https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview

Ulysses writing software https://ulysses.app/en/

In this thought-provoking episode of the Epistemic Alchemy Podcast, host Dr. Mohammed Raei welcomes Dr. Philip Adu, a leading expert in research methodology and founder of the Center for Research Methods Consulting, LLC. Together, they explore the ethical and practical dimensions of using AI in academic research, especially within qualitative methodologies.

Dr. Adu shares his early curiosity and evolving relationship with AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, illustrating how these tools can streamline tasks such as interview question design, data coding, and theme development. The conversation delves into ethical concerns around privacy, bias, and skill erosion, emphasizing the importance of researcher oversight, transparency, and institutional guidelines.

Listeners will gain practical tips on using AI responsibly, including how to prompt tools for better outcomes, conduct pilot interviews with AI, and incorporate AI ethically into mentorship and literature reviews. Dr. Adu and Dr. Raei also debate the future of AI in academia—will it replace key research functions or simply augment them?

Whether you're a researcher, doctoral student, or just curious about the impact of AI on scholarship, this episode offers nuanced insights and real-world examples to help you navigate this rapidly evolving landscape.

Resources:

Dr Adu's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@drphilipadu

Books:

A Step-by-Step Guide to Qualitative Data Coding: https://www.routledge.com/A-Step-by-Step-Guide-to-Qualitative-Data-Coding/Adu/p/book/9781138486874?srsltid=AfmBOorAbKwPw9RQ4n0epOZlzITzoZUmELi7ZMMBt76xtgIFUOpVTFYu

The Theoretical Framework in Phenomenological Research: Development and Application is an introduction to phenomenology: https://www.routledge.com/The-Theoretical-Framework-in-Phenomenological-Research-Development-and-Application/Larsen-Adu/p/book/9780367540524

Dissertation Research Methods: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Up Your Research in the Social Sciences: https://www.routledge.com/Dissertation-Research-Methods-A-Step-by-Step-Guide-to-Writing-Up-Your-Research-in-the-Social-Sciences/Adu-Miles/p/book/9781032213859

Ailyze: https://www.ailyze.com/ Napkin ai: https://www.napkin.ai/ ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/ Gama App: https://gamma.app/

In this profound episode of Epistemic Alchemy, Dr. Mohammed Raei is joined by Dr. Lynn Horan—scholar, coach, and former Protestant clergy—to explore her pioneering research on the lived experiences of millennial women clergy who have left active ministry due to violations of interpersonal boundaries and psychological safety.

Drawing from her journey through politics, ministry, and academia, Dr. Horan shares how her career transitions shaped her inquiry into embodied leadership and feminist epistemology. The conversation traces the historical and theological disembodiment in Protestant traditions, examines the evolution of grounded theory methodology from Glaser and Strauss to Kathy Charmaz, and highlights how constructivist and feminist lenses can bring critical and emancipatory depth to qualitative research.

Dr. Horan reflects on the tensions of being both an insider and outsider in her fieldwork and explains how somatic awareness, trauma-informed research practices, and embodiment techniques deepen both understanding and healing.

Resources:

Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. L. (2000). Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Routledge.

Horan, L. M. (2024). Feminized Servanthood, Gendered Scapegoating, and the Disappearance of Gen-X/Millennial Protestant Clergy Women (Doctoral dissertation, Antioch University).

Horan, L. (2025). Dismantled: Abusive church culture and the clergy women who leave. Tehom Center Publishing.

Morse, J. M., Bowers, B. J., Charmaz, K., Clarke, A. E., Corbin, J., Porr, C. J., & Stern, P. N. (2021). Developing grounded theory: The second generation revisited. Routledge.

Schwartz, R. (2023). No bad parts: Healing trauma & restoring wholeness with the internal family systems model. Random House.

In this episode, I interview Dr. Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm where we discuss metamodernism and metamodern scholarship:

*The different strands of metamodernism and its history.

*What metamodernism adds to postmodernism.

*Storm's contribution to metamodern scholarship, including the concept of social kinds.

*Developmental theories and metamodernism.

*The Journal of Metamodernism Theory and Praxis.

*The metamodern university.

Resources mentioned:

• Dr Storm’s works

Josephson, J. A. (2019). The invention of religion in Japan. University of Chicago Press.

Josephson-Storm, J. A. (2019). The myth of disenchantment: Magic, modernity, and the birth of the human sciences. University of Chicago Press.

Storm, J. Ā. J. (2024). Metamodernism as the Pedagogy of Revolution: Response to Special Review Symposium (Religion & Theology 30, no. 3&4 [2023]): Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm, Metamodernism: The Future of Theory (Chicago, IL; London: University of Chicago Press, 2021). Religion and Theology, 31(1-2), 129-136.

• Other metamodern books

Metamodernism (Radical Cultural Studies)

by Robin van den Akker (Editor), Alison Gibbons (Editor), Timotheus Vermeulen (Editor)

Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics Paperback – October 30, 2023

by Brendan Graham Dempsey (Author)

Freinacht, H. (2017). The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics. Metamoderna ApS.

• The Journal of Metamodern Theory and Praxis

https://sts.williams.edu/metamodern/

Articles

Kleineberg, M. (2024). Piaget as Metamodernist. Metamodern Theory & Praxis, 1(1), 22-60. https://doi.org/10.70613/2024.0003

Andersen, L. R. (2024). Polymodern economics. Metamodern Theory & Praxis, 1(1), 61-84. https://doi.org/10.70613/2024.0004

Díaz, A. D. (2024). University of the future. Metamodern Theory & Praxis, 1(1), 115-123. https://doi.org/10.70613/2024.0011

Other:

Freire, P. (2020). Pedagogy of the oppressed. In Toward a sociology of education (pp. 374-386). Routledge.

In this episode, I interview Dr Rob Archer and we talk about Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism and how it deals with the crisis of replication.

*What is critical realism?

*What is the role of ontology?

*What is a transcendental argument?

*How does critical realism deal with the issue of replication?

*How has Bhaskar’s critical realism evolved over time and his spiritual turn.

*Where critical realism is going?

Resource mentioned in the episode.

Retiring Popper: Critical realism, falsificationism, and the crisis of replication

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09593543241250079

Critical realism, psychology, and the crisis of replication: A reply to Haig; Derksen & Morawski; and Trafimow

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09593543241279138

Replicating is difficult but necessary, and methodology can help

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09593543241265912

Haig, B. D. (2024). Should psychology adopt Bhaskar’s critical realist philosophy of science? Theory & Psychology, 34(5), 585-590. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241265727 (Original work published 2024)

Derksen, M., & Morawski, J. (2024). Replications are informative, particularly when they fail. Theory & Psychology, 34(5), 597-603. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241269697

Roy Bhaskar’s works

• The Possibility of Naturalism: A philosophical critique of the contemporary human sciences
• Reflections on metaReality
• The Order of Natural Necessity: A Kind of Introduction to Critical Realism
• From East To West: Odyssey of a Soul (Classical Texts in Critical Realism (Routledge Critical Realism)
• Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom

Margaret S. Archer book

• Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach

Iceberg model

https://changemanagementinsight.com/iceberg-model-of-change-management/

Lipton’s Inference to the best explanation model

Lipton, P. (2017). Inference to the best explanation. A Companion to the Philosophy of Science, 184-193.

In this episode, I interview Dr. Stacey Guenther and Dr. Lisa Berkley and we discuss our experience of editing an academic anthology together.

*The challenges of editing academic anthologies.

* What makes an anthology unique?

*The process for collaboration.

*Doing a call for chapter proposal vs invite only.

*Misconceptions about editing academic anthologies.

*Rewarding aspects of editing an academic anthology.

*Decolonizing.

*Spirituality and the shadow side and dark side.

*Cross-cultural scholarship.

Dr. Stacey Guenther’s Website

https://www.drstaceyguenther.com/

Dr. Lisa Berkly’s Website

http://innereconomy.com/

Resources mentioned in the episode

Leadership at the Spiritual Edge

https://www.routledge.com/Leadership-at-the-Spiritual-Edge-Emerging-and-Non-Western-Concepts-of-Leadership/Raei-Guenther-Berkley/p/book/9781032500591

Ken Wilber’s waking up, growing up, and cleaning up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mROP49BeJc

In this episode, I interviewed Four Arrows, who was selected by AERO as one of 27 visionaries in education and is recipient of a Martin Springer Institute Moral Courage Award for his activism.

Topics covered include:

*Decolonizing

*Indigenous research/scholarship.

*The role of spirituality.

*Alternative/authentic dissertations.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• The Authentic Dissertation: Alternative Ways of Knowing, Research and Representation by Four Arrows aka Don Trent Jacobs (Author)
• Differing Worldviews in Higher Education: Two Scholars Argue Cooperatively about Justice Education First Edition by Walter Block (Author), Four Arrows (Author)
• The Indigenization Controversy For Whom and By Whom?

https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/186438

• Worldview Chart for Rebalancing Life Systems on Planet Earth

https://kindredmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/Worldview-Chart-BW-8-5-2024.pdf

• APA article:

Four Arrows, W. T. (2024). Restoring sanity and remembering spirit in psychology: Reclaiming our pre-colonial worldview. Review of General Psychology, 28(2), 106–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680231226387

• Messages from Water and the Universe by Masaru Emoto