As always, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Read my bestselling novel, Monsters in My Mind: https://bit.ly/431rY3U

Follow me on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nick-Oliveri/author/B09NLBSHV5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1737603747&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

X: @faultyharb

Instagram: @nick0liveri

Nick Oliveri is a Ukrainian-born, bestselling novelist whose work explores the intersections of psychology, power, art, and human consequence. Known for his haunting lyricism and emotionally charged storytelling, Oliveri crafts narratives that challenge readers to question the systems around them and the truths within themselves.

His books have been read by leaders in business, government, and academia, praised for their depth, originality, and unique blend of literary ambition and narrative tension.

Nick Oliveri is inspired by a disparate set of creators and leaders including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vladimir Nabokov, Stephen King, Virginia Woolf, Hatshepsut, Lil Wayne, Hunter S. Thompson, Frida Kahlo, and Vincent Van Gogh.

Nick is a startup co-founder dedicated to the onset of the circular economy. Born in Ukraine but having grown up in the United States, today you can find Nick next to nowhere, and sometimes somewhere, enjoying whatever it is that he does.

As always, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Read my bestselling novel, Monsters in My Mind: https://bit.ly/431rY3U

Follow me on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nick-Oliveri/author/B09NLBSHV5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1737603747&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

X: @faultyharb

Instagram: @nick0liveri

Youtube: @TheNickOliveri

As always, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Read my bestselling novel, Monsters in My Mind: https://bit.ly/431rY3U

Follow me on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nick-Oliveri/author/B09NLBSHV5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1737603747&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

X: @faultyharb

Instagram: @nick0liveri

Youtube: @TheNickOliveri

As always, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Read my bestselling novel, Monsters in My Mind: https://bit.ly/431rY3U

Follow me on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nick-Oliveri/author/B09NLBSHV5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1737603747&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

X: @faultyharb

Instagram: @nick0liveri

Youtube: @TheNickOliveri

In this episode, I examine the modern notion of genius and argue that the word has been so overused it has nearly lost its meaning. Genius is often mistaken for high intelligence, professional success, or the ability to function smoothly within systems. Just as often, it is treated as a distant historical curiosity, safely removed from the present and stripped of its disruptive force.

I propose a more grounded definition of genius as something genuinely rare. Genius is the externalization of a capacity most people do not possess, either the ability to see what others cannot see or to do what others are unable to do. It is not an affect, a refusal, or a posture, and it is not synonymous with talent, intelligence, or skill, though it may involve aspects of all three.

Drawing from philosophy, art, science, literature, and music, this episode explores real examples of genius throughout history and examines why people so often dislike the genuine article. Genius threatens the ego, violates norms effortlessly, and exposes uncomfortable truths. The episode ends with a quiet warning about what happens when we label competence as genius and mistake safety for brilliance.

In Part 2, I define what a real writer is without apology. A writer writes. Period. This episode moves past diagnosis and into responsibility, examining writing not as self expression or inspiration, but as obligation, discipline, and privilege.

I address common counterarguments, including family obligations, trauma, illness, and addiction, with intellectual fairness, then dismantle them by looking at the historical record. Writers and artists have produced enduring work while facing conditions far harsher than inconvenience or self doubt. Writing has never required ideal circumstances. It has always required seriousness.

This episode reframes writing as an act of sovereignty over one’s own mind, rejects the outsourcing of struggle to abstract excuses, and ends with the only command that matters. Write anyway.

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, I dissect the modern notion of “writer’s block” and argue that the term itself functions as a linguistic alibi, one that falsely implies an external impediment to a fundamentally solitary act. Writing does not happen in crowds, and nothing outside the writer can prevent the sentence from being written.

This episode separates real psychological and physical hardship, including fatigue, burnout, grief, depression, and illness, from what is more often an indulgent and socially reinforced avoidance of the work itself. I examine how the idea of writer’s block is normalized within creative communities, how deadlines become a substitute for discipline, and how resistance to writing is mischaracterized as incapacity rather than a confrontation with the subconscious.

Drawing from philosophy, neuroscience, and the lived practices of writers throughout history, Part 1 diagnoses the lie and prepares the ground for a harder question. If writers facing poverty, illness, addiction, and despair could still produce great work, what exactly is stopping you?