The Spark File with Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien
Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien
Your one stop shop for creative ideas and inspiration. Sign up for our newsletter HERE. Each week on The Spark File podcast, Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien reach into their spark files and share stories, ideas and fascinations to ignite your imagination. Obsessed with creativity, Blackwell and Camien also talk with artists and makers, movers and shakers who have taken the spark of inspiration and fanned it into a flame. Hear from inspiring creatives like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Eric Stonestreet, Jonathan Groff, Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich, Zachary Quinto, Leslie Odom Jr, Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Billy Eichner, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Karen Olivo, Sutton Foster, Michael R. Jackson and many more about their passions and their failures, their inspirations and their aspirations. Refill your creative fish pond with new ideas and fresh perspectives. Listen, then take it and make it! Learn more at thesparkfile.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 3, 2023 • 31min
Creativity Sparks: Season 4 Finale!
Holy Moly! Season 4 of The Spark File is coming to an end! In this episode, Susan + Laura reminisce on some of our favorite sparks from this season. ..And with a bonus spark inspired by Milwaukee Bucks player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who left us with this mini ted talk when asked if he believed this season was a failure because they didn’t win the playoffs. Just because you don’t win, do we count that as a fail?.Season 4 of The Spark File is wrapping up, but don’t worry - there are 178 episodes of The Spark File for you to binge! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 26, 2023 • 60min
Creativity Sparks: From Good to Great
Ever wonder what's needed to take your creative project to the next level? Or wonder if maybe good is good enough? How do we know when to invest the additional time and energy it's going to take to go from Good to Great? If you're ready or when you're ready to level up your work, Susan and Laura discuss the difference between Good and Great, and some of the factors it takes to get there. Inspired by the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins, but seen through the lens of creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 19, 2023 • 55min
Creativity Sparks: You Have a (true) Story to Tell
Is there anything better than a well-crafted personal story told with humor, authenticity and heart? Even better if its a TRUE story, right? Well, the folks at The Moth have boiled the art of storytelling down to a science. In this week's episode, Laura and Susan share how sparked they are by The Moth and their book How To Tell a Story. We all have one - tune in to learn how to tell YOUR story! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2023 • 1h 5min
Creativity Sparks: Processing Creative Conclusions and Milestones
Friends, trust us when we say it is valuable, meaningful, and potentially essential that you take the time to celebrate your creative wins - large and small! Join us this week as Susan and Laura discuss why it's so important that we take the time to acknowledge and reflect on the milestones and the conclusions, the hits and the misses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 5, 2023 • 60min
Creativity Sparks: The Imperfect Perfectionist
Do you have a creative project that has never seen the light of day because you just don't think it's ready to share yet? Despite years of effort even? Do you have a creative project you've dreamt of making but you haven't even started yet? Because the thought of it not turning out great keeps you from even trying? On this week's episode, Laura and Susan dig into the plight of the perfectionist. Thanks to researchers and authors like Brene Brown, we might just have a chance to prevail - IF we can embrace our imperfections and (shocker!) maybe even learn to enjoy them! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 29, 2023 • 52min
Creativity Sparks: AI + Creativity
Have you gotten into the AI craze yet? Have you asked Chat GPT to write your next marketing plan or promotional copy? Have you asked it to write lines of dialogue, jokes for a stand up routine or a synopsis for your pitch? Have you asked it to write your resume? This week, Susan and Laura dive into what AI might be great for, where it's limitations are, and where it's headed. Do creatives have anything to worry about? Tune in to sort it all out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 22, 2023 • 59min
Creativity Sparks: The Ah-ha Moment
Ever wonder what exactly is going on in your brain when you have an Ah-ha moment? On this week's episode of The Spark File podcast, Susan + Laura discuss what is transpiring in your head when you get that spark of an idea - and the rush of excitement that goes with it!Wouldn't it be great if we could understand it so that we can create conducive conditions to invite more and more Ah-ha moments to happen?! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 15, 2023 • 1h 10min
Creativity Sparks: Jesse James and the KGC Gold
Were there stashes of gold hidden around the country after the Civil War? Did leaders of the confederate south intend this money fund a second Civil War? Was the outlaw Jesse James responsible for hiding some of this treasure? And has it recently been found?💥 Tune in this week to find out more about the Knights of the Golden Circle, their confederacy gold, and what role Jesse James may or may not have played in it. 💥 A fantastic article in Popular Mechanics by @davehoward99 has left us with so many questions... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 8, 2023 • 1h 8min
Creativity Sparks: The New Rules
This week, Laura and Susan discuss that tremor in the force you felt a few weeks ago when New York Magazine's The Cut handed us all The New Rules.These 194 rules on how to exist in polite society, sparked conversations everywhere. Listen in to get our take on their take on everything from dating apps to work slacks, texting friends and lovers or engaging with stangers and others... Are we all doing it wrong?? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 1, 2023 • 1h 5min
Creativity Sparks: Let's Talk about Death over Dinner
You know at The Spark File, we are not afraid to contemplate our own mortality, especially if doing so enhances our lives and our creativity. According to the author, Michael Hebb, “Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death—and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered.”On this week’s episode of The Spark File podcast, Susan and Laura dig into these critical conversations, aided by Hebb’s book, “Let’s Talk about Death over Dinner.”Pull up a chair and we’ll serve you up a delicious and substantial dialogue that will increase your end-of-life awareness and just might magnify your celebration of LIFE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
