

The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Theatre, Dance, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Social Justice, Spirituality, Feminism, Tech, Sustainability
Mia Funk
Exploring the fascinating minds of creative people. Conversations with writers, artists and creative thinkers across the Arts and STEM. We discuss their life, work and artistic practice. Winners of Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Pulitzer, Nobel Prize, leaders and public figures share real experiences and offer valuable insights. Notable guests and participating museums and organizations include: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Neil Patrick Harris, Smithsonian, Roxane Gay, Musée Picasso, EARTHDAY-ORG, Neil Gaiman, UNESCO, Joyce Carol Oates, Mark Seliger, Acropolis Museum, Hilary Mantel, Songwriters Hall of Fame, George Saunders, The New Museum, Lemony Snicket, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Galleries, Joe Mantegna, PETA, Greenpeace, EPA, Morgan Library and Museum, and many others.
The interviews are hosted by founder and creative educator Mia Funk with the participation of students, universities, and collaborators from around the world. These conversations are also part of our traveling exhibition.
The interviews are hosted by founder and creative educator Mia Funk with the participation of students, universities, and collaborators from around the world. These conversations are also part of our traveling exhibition.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 18, 2022 • 11min
Saving Species: How Can We Prevent Extinctions? - STUART PIMM - Highlights
“It's a complicated issue. I think a lot of those bird disappearances come from the fact that we have massively intensified our agriculture. Large areas of North America and Europe are now under intense agriculture. They are sprayed with a whole variety of pesticides, which I think is also responsible for the fact that many insects have disappeared, so species that depend on farmland have clearly declined dramatically, but it isn't all birds and there is a piece of this complicated story that involves water birds. Herons and egrets and ducks. Those species both in North America and Europe, are now much more common than they were 30, or 40 years ago. That comes from active conservation of protecting wetlands, making sure we don't shoot our wetland birds. So it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some success stories. There are many things we can do. I think 50 years ago, there were only something like 300 bald eagles in the lower 48 states. Bald eagles are now nesting in every state apart from Hawaii. Our conservation efforts have done a great job.”Stuart Pimm is a world leader in the study of present-day extinctions and what can be done to prevent them. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct, how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction and, importantly, the management consequences of this research. Pimm received his BSc degree from Oxford University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University in 1974. Pimm is the author of over 350 scientific papers and five books. His commitmnt to the interface between science and policy has led to his testimony to both House and Senate Committees on the re-authorization of the Endangered Species Act. In 2019, he won the International Cosmos Prize, which recognised his founding and directing Saving Nature, a non-profit that uses donations for carbon emissions offsets to fund local conservation groups in areas of exceptional tropical biodiversity to restore their degraded lands. · https://nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/pimm· Saving Nature: Rescue endangered habitats and vulnerable communities from environmental destruction: https://savingnature.com· Connect with Nature - Share your Observations of the Natural World www.inaturalist.org· NatGeo’s Big Cats Initiative: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/big-cats-initiative/· The World According to Pimm: A https://www.amazon.com/Scientist-Audits-Earth-Stuart-Pimm/dp/0813535409/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3A29YJYQ1JPOM&keywords=The+World+According+to+Pimm&qid=1652772158&sprefix=the+world+according+to+pimm%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-1 · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

May 18, 2022 • 39min
STUART PIMM - Global Leader in the Study of Present-Day Extinctions & Biodiversity - Founder/Director of Saving Nature
Stuart Pimm is a world leader in the study of present-day extinctions and what can be done to prevent them. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct, how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction and, importantly, the management consequences of this research. Pimm received his BSc degree from Oxford University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University in 1974. Pimm is the author of over 350 scientific papers and five books. He is one of the most highly cited environmental scientists. Pimm wrote the highly acclaimed assessment of the human impact to the planet: The World According to Pimm: a Scientist Audits the Earth in 2001. His commitment to the interface between science and policy has led to his testimony to both House and Senate Committees on the re-authorization of the Endangered Species Act. He was worked and taught in Africa for nearly 30 years on elephants, most recently lions — through National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative — but always on topics that relate to the conservation of wildlife and the ecosystems on which they depend. Other research areas include the Everglades of Florida and tropical forests in South America, especially the Atlantic Coast forest of Brazil and the northern Andes — two of the world's "hotspots" for threatened species. His international honours include the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2010), the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006), the Society for Conservation Biology’s Edward T. LaRoe III Memorial Award (2006), and the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology, from the Marsh Christian Trust (awarded by the Zoological Society of London in 2004). Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, awarded him the William Proctor Prize for Scientific Achievement in 2007. In 2019, he won the International Cosmos Prize, which recognised his founding and directing Saving Nature, www.savingnature.org, a non-profit that uses donations for carbon emissions offsets to fund local conservation groups in areas of exceptional tropical biodiversity to restore their degraded lands. “It's a complicated issue. I think a lot of those bird disappearances come from the fact that we have massively intensified our agriculture. Large areas of North America and Europe are now under intense agriculture. They are sprayed with a whole variety of pesticides, which I think is also responsible for the fact that many insects have disappeared, so species that depend on farmland have clearly declined dramatically, but it isn't all birds and there is a piece of this complicated story that involves water birds. Herons and egrets and ducks. Those species both in North America and Europe, are now much more common than they were 30, or 40 years ago. That comes from active conservation of protecting wetlands, making sure we don't shoot our wetland birds. So it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some success stories. There are many things we can do. I think 50 years ago, there were only something like 300 bald eagles in the lower 48 states. Bald eagles are now nesting in every state apart from Hawaii. Our conservation efforts have done a great job.”· https://nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/pimm· https://savingnature.com·

May 17, 2022 • 11min
Biennials & the Exhibitions that Created Contemporary Art - ANTHONY GARDNER - Highlights
“I think art can engage with the body, the mind, and the imagination in so many different ways that can compliment modes of thinking, other modes of creating, thinking through, working through and devising. I was thinking about this in relation to the last 18 months and how the sciences have rightly been heralded as the great way of getting ourselves out of this pandemic, but culture is the way and art is the way that we've been getting through the pandemic. So many people have been watching Netflix, reading, singing music, playing music, making images, and making art as a way of getting through very difficult times and reflecting through that process. And in that sense, science compliments the arts, and the arts compliment the sciences because you can't get out of a situation without getting through it. So in order to get to the end of this sort of crisis, we have to be able to work through them. And so art becomes a very important means and space and time for being able to reflect, but also delve into thinking through and thinking where the situations we have at hand and the situations we find ourselves in.”Anthony Gardner is Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Oxford, where he was the Head of the Ruskin School of Art from 2017 to 2020. He has published widely on subjects including postcolonialism, postsocialism and curatorial histories. His books include Politically Unbecoming: Postsocialist Art against Democracy, and Biennials, Triennials and documenta: The exhibitions that created contemporary art, co-authored with Charles Green.· https://www.rsa.ox.ac.uk/people/anthony-gardner· https://www.rsa.ox.ac.uk· https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Biennials%2C+Triennials%2C+and+Documenta%3A+The+Exhibitions+that+Created+Contemporary+Art-p-9781444336641· www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org

May 17, 2022 • 53min
ANTHONY GARDNER - Professor of Contemporary Art History, Oxford - Fmr. Head, Ruskin School of Art
Anthony Gardner is Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Oxford, where he was the Head of the Ruskin School of Art from 2017 to 2020. He has published widely on subjects including postcolonialism, postsocialism and curatorial histories. His books include Politically Unbecoming: Postsocialist Art against Democracy, and Biennials, Triennials and documenta: The exhibitions that created contemporary art, co-authored with Charles Green.“I think art can engage with the body, the mind, and the imagination in so many different ways that can compliment modes of thinking, other modes of creating, thinking through, working through and devising. I was thinking about this in relation to the last 18 months and how the sciences have rightly been heralded as the great way of getting ourselves out of this pandemic, but culture is the way and art is the way that we've been getting through the pandemic. So many people have been watching Netflix, reading, singing music, playing music, making images, and making art as a way of getting through very difficult times and reflecting through that process. And in that sense, science compliments the arts, and the arts compliment the sciences because you can't get out of a situation without getting through it. So in order to get to the end of this sort of crisis, we have to be able to work through them. And so art becomes a very important means and space and time for being able to reflect, but also delve into thinking through and thinking where the situations we have at hand and the situations we find ourselves in.”· https://www.rsa.ox.ac.uk/people/anthony-gardner· https://www.rsa.ox.ac.uk· https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Biennials%2C+Triennials%2C+and+Documenta%3A+The+Exhibitions+that+Created+Contemporary+Art-p-9781444336641· www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org

May 13, 2022 • 10min
Embracing Vulnerability & Strength with Poet COURTNEY PEPPERNELL - Highlights
“I really hope that kindness is preserved. I really think manners and being polite can go a long way. People are in such a rush these days. Everybody wants to acquire so much, and they forget to just be thankful for the little things in life. To slow down, how you move through the world and how selfless you are, holding open a door for someone, or just telling someone to have a good day. Those are all things that can have a lasting effect on another person and make them want to be better as well.”Best-selling author Courtney Peppernell is from Sydney, Australia. Her poetry collection Pillow Thoughts was a worldwide success. Her Young Adult novels and poetry books have struck a chord with young readers and the LGBTQ+ community. Her other works include I Hope You Stay, Watering the Soul, as well as Hope in the Morning, profits of which were donated to assist relief efforts for injured wildlife affected by Australian bushfires. · https://www.peppernell.com · https://www.instagram.com/courtneypeppernell/ · WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation https://www.wires.org.au· www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org

May 13, 2022 • 42min
COURTNEY PEPPERNELL - YA Writer & Poet - Author of Pillow Thoughts
Best-selling author Courtney Peppernell is from Sydney, Australia. Her poetry collection Pillow Thoughts was a worldwide success. Her Young Adult novels and poetry books have struck a chord with young readers and the LGBTQ+ community. Her other works include I Hope You Stay, Watering the Soul, as well as Hope in the Morning, profits of which were donated to assist relief efforts for injured wildlife affected by Australian bushfires.“I really hope that kindness is preserved. I really think manners and being polite can go a long way. People are in such a rush these days. Everybody wants to acquire so much, and they forget to just be thankful for the little things in life. To slow down, how you move through the world and how selfless you are, holding open a door for someone, or just telling someone to have a good day. Those are all things that can have a lasting effect on another person and make them want to be better as well.” · https://www.peppernell.com · https://www.instagram.com/courtneypeppernell/ · WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation https://www.wires.org.au· www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org

May 11, 2022 • 12min
Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future with CANDACE FUJIKANE - Highlights
“The struggle for a planetary future calls for a profound epistemological shift. Indigenous ancestral knowledges are now providing a foundation for our work against climate change, one based on what I refer to as Indigenous economies of abundance—as opposed to capitalist economies of scarcity. Rather than seeing climate change as apocalyptic, we can see that climate change is bringing about the demise of capital, making way for Indigenous lifeways that center familial relationships with the earth and elemental forms. Kānaka Maoli are restoring the worlds where their attunement to climatic change and their capacity for kilo adaptation, regeneration, and tranformation will enable them to survive what capital cannot.”Candace Fujikane is an author and professor of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, teaching aloha ʻāina and the protection of Hawaiʻi. Having grown up on the slopes of Maui’s Haleakalā, Candace has stood for the lands, waters, and political sovereignty of Hawaiʻi for over 20 years. Her newest book, Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future, contends that “Indigenous ancestral knowledge provides a foundation for movements against climate change, one based on Indigenous economies of abundance as opposed to capitalist economies of scarcity.”· english.hawaii.edu/faculty/candace-fujikane/· www.dukeupress.edu/mapping-abundance-for-a-planetary-future · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

May 11, 2022 • 56min
CANDACE FUJIKANE - Author of Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future - Prof. of English - Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Manoa
Candace Fujikane is an author and professor of English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, teaching aloha ʻāina and the protection of Hawaiʻi. Having grown up on the slopes of Maui’s Haleakalā, Candace has stood for the lands, waters, and political sovereignty of Hawaiʻi for over 20 years. Her newest book, Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future, contends that “Indigenous ancestral knowledge provides a foundation for movements against climate change, one based on Indigenous economies of abundance as opposed to capitalist economies of scarcity.”“The struggle for a planetary future calls for a profound epistemological shift. Indigenous ancestral knowledges are now providing a foundation for our work against climate change, one based on what I refer to as Indigenous economies of abundance—as opposed to capitalist economies of scarcity. Rather than seeing climate change as apocalyptic, we can see that climate change is bringing about the demise of capital, making way for Indigenous lifeways that center familial relationships with the earth and elemental forms. Kānaka Maoli are restoring the worlds where their attunement to climatic change and their capacity for kilo adaptation, regeneration, and tranforma- tion will enable them to survive what capital cannot.”· english.hawaii.edu/faculty/candace-fujikane/· www.dukeupress.edu/mapping-abundance-for-a-planetary-future · www.oneplanetpodcast.org· www.creativeprocess.info

May 10, 2022 • 12min
Can Fiction Heal Historical Wounds? DOLEN PERKINS-VALDEZ - Highlights
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of Wench, and Balm. She was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for fiction, and she was awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in Washington, DC with her family and teaches at American University. She discusses her latest novel Take My Hand, along with the importance of family, legacy, and history, particularly in regards to race.In 2017, HarperCollins released Wench as one of eight "Olive Titles," limited edition modern classics that included books by Edward P. Jones, Louise Erdrich, and Zora Neale Hurston.Dolen is the current Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. On behalf of the foundation, she has visited nearly every public high school in the District of Columbia to talk about the importance of reading and writing. She is currently Associate Professor in the Literature Department at American University and lives in Washington, DC with her family.· www,dolenperkinsvaldez.com · www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/113386/dolen-perkins-valdez/· www.penfaulkner.org· www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org

May 10, 2022 • 51min
DOLEN PERKINS-VALDEZ - NYTimes Best-selling Author of Take My Hand
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of Wench, and Balm. She was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for fiction, and she was awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in Washington, DC with her family and teaches at American University. She discusses her latest novel Take My Hand, along with the importance of family, legacy, and history, particularly in regards to race.In 2017, HarperCollins released Wench as one of eight "Olive Titles," limited edition modern classics that included books by Edward P. Jones, Louise Erdrich, and Zora Neale Hurston.Dolen is the current Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. On behalf of the foundation, she has visited nearly every public high school in the District of Columbia to talk about the importance of reading and writing. She is currently Associate Professor in the Literature Department at American University and lives in Washington, DC with her family.· www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com · www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/113386/dolen-perkins-valdez/· www.penfaulkner.org· www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org