In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Dr. Keith Sawyer interviews cognitive neuroscientist Dr. John Kounios, one of the world's leading researchers on insight, the "aha moment," and the neuroscience of creativity. Kounios—coauthor of The Eureka Factor—has spent decades studying how sudden breakthroughs emerge, what's happening in the brain when insight strikes, and how we can increase the odds of having more creative ideas. Together, Keith and John unpack the mysteries of insight, from Archimedes' bathtub to shower thoughts, jazz improvisation, and why some kinds of creativity flourish only when we're relaxed, a little fuzzy, and not trying too hard. You'll learn what brain areas activate during an aha moment, how EEG and fMRI reveal the timing and location of insight, and why creativity requires both hard analytical work and moments of letting go. This wide-ranging conversation covers the neuroscience of insight, the psychology of mind-wandering, the power of sleep, the secrets of flow states, improvisation, ADHD and creativity, and practical techniques anyone can use to boost creative thinking.

In This Episode

• What the "Eureka effect" really is—and what makes an insight different from everyday thinking
• Why most people have many small insights they never notice
• How researchers trigger and measure insights in the lab
• The brain signature of an aha moment (and why it's like a sudden electrical "pop")
• Why insight and analytical thinking rely on different brain systems
• How positive mood, low pressure, and "psychological safety" expand thought
• Why we get ideas in the shower—and why Thomas Edison napped with steel balls
• How sleep reorganizes memory and produces breakthrough ideas
• Why creativity is a "strong spice"—powerful, but only useful at the right moment
• The surprising connection between ADHD symptoms and insight-based problem solving
• The neuroscience of flow and why expertise makes effortless creativity possible
• What jazz improvisation teaches us about creative brain states
• Practical steps for becoming more creative this week

Five Key Takeaways

1. Insight is sudden, non-obvious, and comes with a burst of neural activity. It's a different cognitive process than deliberate problem-solving, and each mode has strengths.
2. Positive mood, reduced pressure, and mind-wandering increase insight. Psychological safety and relaxation widen the scope of thought, allowing remote associations to surface.
3. You can't have insights without preparation. Expertise and hard work load the mind with the building blocks that insights rearrange in new ways.
4. Sleep is one of the most powerful creativity boosters. It consolidates memory, breaks fixation, and often produces solutions you couldn't find the day before.
5. Flow emerges from expertise and reduced frontal-lobe control. In high-skill improvisation (like jazz), creativity becomes automatic, effortless, and deeply absorbing.

Practical Advice from John Kounios

• Get more sleep. It improves mood, reorganizes memory, removes fixation, and dramatically increases insight.
• Make time for creativity. Insights won't happen if you never give yourself space to think, wander, or play.

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

In this episode, Keith Sawyer speaks with cognitive scientist Liane Gabora. Her work spans creativity research, artificial intelligence, cultural evolution, and complex systems. Dr. Gabora has spent decades developing computational and mathematical models to understand how ideas emerge, evolve, and spread—both within individual minds and across societies.

The conversation centers on Gabora's research showing that creativity is a self-organizing process in the mind that reshapes a person's entire worldview. Rather than seeing creativity as confined to specific domains, her "honing theory" explains how creative thinking draws on experiences across a person's life. When you're thinking creatively, you are transforming ideas, and your mindset is one of openness and potentiality.

She also talks about why creativity is deeply therapeutic, how cultural change depends on a balance between novelty and continuity, and what recent advances in AI reveal about the human mind.

Five Key Takeaways

1. Creativity reorganizes the mind. It's not just about having ideas. Creative work helps resolve internal tensions and brings greater coherence to how we understand ourselves and the world.

2. Creative inspiration is cross-domain. The sources that fuel creative ideas usually come from many areas of life, even when the final output appears in a single domain.

3. Creative thinking depends on potentiality. Creativity involves holding ideas in flexible, unfinished states where meanings can shift depending on context.

4. Cultural evolution mirrors creative processes. Human culture advances through cycles of invention and imitation, with the same process as individual creativity.

5. Transformational creativity is "problem finding." The most powerful creative ideas come from stepping outside the choices we're given and redefining the problem itself.

For additional information

Web site: https://gabora-psych.ok.ubc.ca/

Her research group is called "Art and Science of Creative Change"

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

In this conversation, Professor Arthur I. Miller discusses artificial intelligence and creativity, including his book The Artist in the Machine. We discuss the essence of creativity, exploring its interdisciplinary nature and the connections between art and science. Dr. Miller emphasizes the importance of visual imagery in both science and art, and he identifies the key characteristics of highly creative individuals. We talk about the role of AI in creativity, the future of human-machine collaboration, and we end with practical advice for enhancing your own creativity.

Takeaways

• Breakthrough creativity comes from interdisciplinary connections.
• Visual imagery underlies creativity in both art and science.
• The future of creativity will be in the collaboration between humans and machines.
• Creativity can be cultivated through practice and new experiences.

For further information:

Arthur I. Miller's web site

Professor Miller's book The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

Every January, millions of people make New Year's resolutions—and just as many abandon them weeks later. But where did this ritual come from? In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer traces the surprising 4,000-year history of New Year's resolutions, from ancient Babylonian vows to Roman civic promises, Christian moral reflection, early American self-engineering, and modern consumer culture. Along the way, he shows that resolutions were never inevitable or instinctive. They're a powerful example of collective creativity: a social tradition that slowly emerged as each generation added something new. Even when resolutions fail, we still grow from reflecting on our past and thinking about the future.

Five Key Takeaways

• New Year's resolutions are a tradition that emerged over thousands of years.
• The earliest resolutions were about social trust, not self-improvement. In ancient Babylon, people made public vows to repay debts and keep promises to maintain social order.
• Christianity turned resolutions inward. Over time, public civic vows evolved into private moral commitments focused on personal character and self-examination.
• Modern resolutions were shaped by early American self-tracking--a science of the self. Figures like Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin treated the self as something that could be systematically improved through intention and measurement.
• Failure doesn't mean resolutions are pointless. Even when resolutions aren't fully kept, the act of reflection helps people clarify values, imagine future selves, and move toward personal growth.

Chapters

• Intro
• Why do we make resolutions? Reflection and self-improvement.
• The First Resolutions: Babylon, 2000 BCE. Vows to the gods as public tools for social trust and stability.
• Rome Invents January 1. How Julius Caesar, Janus, and Roman vota reshaped the calendar and the meaning of promises.
• Christianity Turns Resolutions Inward. From public ritual to private moral self-examination.
• Jonathan Edwards Invents the Modern Resolution. Seventy intense resolutions and the birth of systematic self-engineering.
• Benjamin Franklin Tracks His Failures. Virtue charts, black dots, and the idea that character can be optimized.
• Newspapers Start Making Fun of Resolutions. By the 1800s, some people were already making fun of how often they failed.
• Radio and Psychology Take Over. How 20th-century media transformed resolutions into intimate self-help.
• Advertising Discovers Resolutions. When self-improvement became a January sales strategy for gym memberships and Weight Watchers.
• How to Make Resolutions that Stick. Research on resolutions: when they fail and what you can do to be more likely to succeed.
• Collective Creativity. Resolutions are a social innovation that emerged over the centuries.
• Outro
• Closer

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Sparkling Eyes" by AFTERNOONZ

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Velvet" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"Blue Molasses" by Renderings

"Corner Trio" by Renderings

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

You've heard about Steve Jobs, the Wizard of Cupertino. They say he invented the iPhone. Some people called him the iGod. But the iPhone was not created by a single genius, not Jobs and not anyone else. The real story is more surprising, and more interesting, than a myth about a single man. In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer reveals the true history behind Apple's groundbreaking invention. It was years of secret teams, failed prototypes, competing visions, and the collective creativity of hundreds of people.

Before the iPhone, cutting-edge techies carried all sorts of devices--phones, PDAs, and music players. If your device had a screen, it was tiny. If you could touch that screen, you had to use a plastic pointer. Touching on glass with your finger seemed impossible. Top executives in the business thought that a phone without a keyboard was a ridiculous idea.

In 2007, Apple introduced a device that changed everything. It was more than a technological innovation; it changed entertainment, travel, and social life. Steve Jobs stood on stage at MacWorld, and said "We are calling it iPhone," but he wasn't the inventor. You'll hear that clip in this episode--he didn't say the iPhone, he said simply "iPhone."

This is the creation story of the iPhone. Not the myth, but what really happened. It's a wonderful example of group genius.

Five Key Takeaways

• The iPhone wasn't invented by one person—its creation emerged from years of ideas, prototypes, failures, and contributions from thousands of people.
• The breakthrough wasn't the hardware—it was the ecosystem: multitouch, iTunes, the App Store, cloud services, and developers all working together.
• Apple's first attempt at a phone, the Motorola ROKR, was a failure—and that failure was essential fuel for the true iPhone project.
• Cultural impact matters as much as technological innovation—smartphones fundamentally changed how humans navigate, create, communicate, and even remember.
• The iPhone is one of the most powerful examples of social innovation: a collective, emergent creation shaped by engineers, designers, users, markets, and culture.

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

This is a special Christmas episode of The Science of Creativity. The creation of Christmas is an example of social innovation, a kind of collective creativity where everyone plays a role. Five hundred years ago, Christmas was a wild party, where young men got drunk and roamed in packs around town. Children didn't start getting gifts until about 200 years ago. The Santa Claus myth was invented, along with the elves and the workshop at the North Pole, in the late 1800s. This episode gives you the history of the secular, non-religious traditions that we celebrate at Christmas. It started two thousand years ago, in Ancient Rome, it picked up steam in the 1800s, and we're still creating new Christmas traditions today. The creation of Christmas is a story of social innovation and group genius.

This is a special encore of one of my favorite episodes, originally published as season 1, episode 15, on December 1, 2024

Chapters

Intro

Traditions and Change

Wassailing and Twelfth Night

Toys and Gift-Giving

Santa Claus and the Elves

The War on Christmas

The Holiday for Everyone

Outro

Music by license from Soundstripe

Blues for Oliver - Cast of Characters

Christmas Tree Jazz Trio

Silent Night – Cast of Characters

Just Walkin' – Ryan Saranich

Uptown Lovers - What's the Big Deal

References

The Pagan Origins of Christmas: Saturnalia, Yule, and Other Pre-Christian Traditions | History Cooperative

Wikipedia on "The war on Christmas" and "Wassailing" and "Syncretism" - ChatGPT

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Keith Sawyer talks with Dr. Hansika Kapoor about the psychology of dark creativity — how the same cognitive processes that generate brilliant ideas can also lead to deception, manipulation, or harm. Kapoor explains that creativity itself is amoral: it can be directed toward good or bad outcomes depending on intent and context. Their conversation spans the neuroscience of lying, the overlap between moral and creative cognition, and the role of cultural factors in shaping creative expression. They also discuss recent findings on the "art bias," on using creativity tests in college admissions, and about the cultural practice of jugard in Indian culture.

Dr. Kapoor has been a Research Author at the Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai since July 2011. Monk Prayogshala is an independent not-for-profit academic research institute, striving to improve the academic research environment in India, starting with the social sciences. She is also an Affiliate at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

Her work has been published in several international peer-reviewed academic journals, such as Creativity Research Journal, Thinking Skills and Creativity, and Personality and Individual Differences (here's her CV). She also regularly contribute to popular media publications, including Psychology Today, Mint, and The Wire (complete list).

Key topics include:

• The concept of dark creativity and its ethical implications
• Creativity, deception, and moral reasoning in the brain
• Cultural perspectives on creativity in India and the idea of jugard
• Creativity as a predictor of educational success
• The "art bias" and everyday creativity

For additional information:

Dr. Kapoor's web site

Dr. Kapoor's Psychology Today blog

Music by license from SoundStripe:

• "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ
• "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
• "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

Based in New York City, Carol prefers to leave the studio and seek out the immediacy of city life, whether sidewalks, parks, boxing studios, or Coney Island. In this conversation, Carol Fabricatore shares her extensive experience as a professional illustrator and how she teaches advanced MFA students to advance on their creative journey. She talks about the mystery of capturing motion and energy in drawing, the role of fearlessness in artistic practice, and the transformative journey of students in MFA programs. She emphasizes the value of leaving the computer and drawing by hand, the necessity of experimenting and taking risks, and the significance of narrative and storytelling in art. Carol encourages even experienced artists to explore beyond their comfort zones, leave their existing style behind, and pursue a creative journey toward new ways of seeing and working.

Carol began her career in editorial and book illustration, with work appearing in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Chicago Tribune. Over the years, her practice has expanded into fine art, where she combines acrylic and gouache to capture both the complexity and vulnerability of human experience. With a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, Carol has spent more than two decades teaching narrative drawing.

For additional information:

Carol's web site

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer