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#368: Amanda Palmer on Creativity, Pain, and Art

Apr 18, 2019

Guest

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer, a multi-talented artist known for her innovative approach to music and art, discusses her journey through creativity and personal pain. She reflects on her experiences with crowdfunding and the emotional depth of storytelling, particularly around themes of loss. Palmer challenges the belief that suffering is essential for art, advocating for openness and vulnerability. She emphasizes the transformative power of community support in fostering creativity, illustrating how platforms like Patreon have allowed her to connect more deeply with her audience.

01:55:17

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ANECDOTE

Zen and Shoplifting

Amanda Palmer was gifted Dropping Ashes on the Buddha and it changed her life.
She was arrested for shoplifting and reacted with unexpected calmness due to the book's teachings.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Anthony's Passing

The death of her mentor, Anthony, deeply impacted Amanda Palmer.
She moved to Boston to care for him during his illness, experiencing a profound loss.

insights

INSIGHT

Finding Peace in Grief

The day after Anthony's death, Amanda Palmer felt a strange sense of peace.
She realized the cultural narrative around death instilled unnecessary fear.

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Maximizing Marketing Potential with LinkedIn

03:58 • 2min

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Crafting Truths: A Journey of Creativity

06:24 • 9min

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The Transformative Power of Sleep: Insights from 'Why We Sleep'

15:43 • 4min

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Vulnerability Through Interviews

20:13 • 21min

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A Journey Through Loss

41:31 • 24min

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The Artistry of Pain and Healing

01:05:58 • 25min

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The Power of Community in Art

01:30:42 • 18min

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Light Banter and Promotional Segments

01:48:51 • 4min

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Embracing On-Demand Fitness with Peloton

01:52:49 • 2min

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Dropping Ashes on the Buddha

The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn

Seung Sahn

Stephen Mitchell

Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a unique record of interactions between Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. It presents Zen teachings through dialogues, stories, and formal interviews, using methods like dharma combat to provoke realization. The book is a classic guide for Zen students, showcasing the application of traditional Zen methods in a modern context.

There Will Be No Intermission

THE ARTBOOK

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer's "There Will Be No Intermission" is a collection of photographs and essays that accompanies her solo piano album of the same name. The book offers a deeply personal and intimate look into Palmer's life, exploring themes of loss, grief, and resilience. Through poignant writing and evocative imagery, Palmer shares her experiences with miscarriage, the death of loved ones, and the challenges of motherhood. The book serves as a companion piece to the album, providing additional context and emotional depth to the music. It is a testament to Palmer's vulnerability and her ability to transform personal pain into art. The book's raw honesty and emotional resonance make it a powerful and moving read.

1000 True Fans

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Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly's '1000 True Fans' challenges the conventional wisdom of needing millions of customers for success. Kelly argues that a creator or business can thrive by cultivating a dedicated following of just 1000 true fans who deeply appreciate their work and are willing to pay for it. The book emphasizes the importance of direct connection with fans and building a loyal community. It provides a practical framework for identifying and engaging with true fans, regardless of the field. This approach allows for sustainable growth and creative freedom.

Radical acceptance

Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

Tara Brach

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach offers a transformative practice to help readers overcome habitual feelings of deficiency and better relate to their experiences and emotions. The book emphasizes two key pillars: observing one's experience clearly and responding with compassion. Through personal stories, case histories from her clinical psychology practice, and guided meditations, Brach provides practical guidance on mindfulness, compassion, and acceptance. The book helps readers stop being at war with themselves and live fully in every moment, addressing issues such as self-judgments, conflicts, addictions, and perfectionism. It also clarifies that Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence or passivity but rather empowers genuine change and healing.

Why We Sleep

Matthew Walker

This book delves into the purpose and power of sleep, explaining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Walker discusses how sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions, recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. He also explores the consequences of sleep deprivation and provides actionable steps to improve sleep quality, including ways to prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity.

The art of asking

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

Amanda Palmer

In this captivating memoir, Amanda Palmer shares her journey of embracing vulnerability and the power of asking for help. The book delves into her experiences as a musician, friend, and wife, highlighting the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of asking. Palmer discusses how fear of asking for help can paralyze lives and relationships, and she inspires readers to rethink their ideas about asking, giving, art, and love. The book is an expansion of her highly acclaimed TED talk and explores her successes and failures in building a supportive community through her music and art.

"I'm just so fundamentally optimistic, and I barrel forth in life with this attitude that everything is going to be absolutely fine and go my way." — Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer) is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, blogger, and ukulele enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art. She first came to prominence as one half of the Boston-based punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality.

Her solo career has proven equally brave and boundless, featuring such groundbreaking works as the fan-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its release in 2012 and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter. In 2013 she presented The Art of Asking at the annual TED conference, which has since been viewed over 20 million times worldwide. The following year saw Palmer expand her philosophy into the New York Times best-selling memoir and manual, The Art of Asking: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Let People Help.

Since 2015 Palmer has used the patronage subscription crowdfunding platform Patreon to fund the creation of her artwork. This has enabled her to collaborate with artists all over the world with over 14,000 patrons supporting her creations each month. Palmer released her new solo piano album and accompanying book of photographs and essays, There Will Be No Intermission, on March 8, 2019, followed by a global tour. Recorded in late 2018 with grammy-winning Theatre Is Evil producer/engineer John Congleton at the helm, the album is a masterwork that includes life, death, abortion, and miscarriage among its tentpole themes.

Please enjoy!

Click here for the show notes for this episode.

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