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

Film editor Alan Edward Bell has cut three of The Hunger Games series. He also edited (500) Days of Summer, Water for Elephants, Red Sparrow, The Dark Tower, The Amazing Spiderman, and other films. A former competitive rock-climber and guide, Alan transitioned to editing after spending time around film people while taking them on climbing expeditions. That his editing often pushes the boundaries of what is technically possible is more amazing when you consider he is self-taught. After years in Hollywood, Bell now lives and edits from his studio in New Hampshire, where he also practices silversmithing.www.creativeprocess.info

“I do feel that we are infinite choice makers. You make millions of choices all the time. Make the right choice and if you make the wrong choice, understand that mistakes are great teachers. Learn from that and move on. I do have this sense of responsibility of passing something on a love of dance history that really informs my process. Speaking in old language in a new way with a contemporary accent. Something so wonderful about dance and the arts is that you never stop learning. It is like always just this long process, and I continue. Students teach me every day. It is such a gift. It is probably the most important thing I can think of. Especially when I think of two things. In terms of history, the humanities show us how we were, why we were, and while we were...But then I also think about the future. What are we doing now? What seeds are we planting to inform the future?...And I said it earlier about making sense out of a chaotic universe where bad things happen to good people. Arts will help you figure that out.”Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden’s Danstation Theatre and France’s EXIT Festival. Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L’Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons’ production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park’s As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran’s work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce’s The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre’s studio company, Denmark’s Upper Cut Company, Sweden’s Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Seán Curran began his dance training with traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his performance in Secret Pastures. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was an original member of the New York City cast of the Off-Broadway percussion extravaganza Stomp, performing in the show for four years. He has performed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the United States as well as at Sweden’s Danstation Theatre and France’s EXIT Festival.Current and recent projects for Curran include productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for The Shakespeare Theater, the twentieth anniversary production of Nixon in China and Street Scene at Opera Theater of St. Louis; choreography for the New York City Opera productions of L’Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio, and Acis and Galetea; the Playwrights Horizons’ production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park’s As You Like It. He recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut choreographing Romeo and Juliette. Curran’s work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce’s The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for Trinity Irish Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre’s studio company, Denmark’s Upper Cut Company, Sweden’s Skanes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy, as well as for numerous college and university dance departments.· www.seancurrancompany.com· tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/dance/109207637.html· www.creativeprocess.info· www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“It's kind of a scary thought. We've got these PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), you hear them now referred to as forever chemicals because these chemicals–none of these existed on the planet prior to World War II–they're fairly recent invention and they have this unique chemical structure that makes them incredibly useful in a lot of different products, manufacturing operations, but also that same chemical structure makes them incredibly persistent and incredibly difficult to break down once they get out into the environment, into the natural world, into our soil, into our water. They simply, many of them, particularly the ones with eight or more carbons in their structure, don't break down under natural conditions. Or it may take thousands or millions of years for those chemicals to start breaking down. But not only that. Once they get into us, they get into people, they tend to accumulate in our blood and build up over time. They not only persist, they bioaccumulate. Unfortunately, as the science has slowly been revealed to the world about what these chemicals can do, we are seeing that they can have all kinds of toxic effects And unfortunately, we’re finding that those things can happen at lower and lower dose levels.”“I can't speak highly enough of Mark Ruffalo and what he was able to accomplish with the film. He just did an amazing job. He reached out to me after reading the story that appeared in The New York Times Magazine back in 2016 about this situation down in West Virginia along the Ohio River and was really shocked when he read about it because it was really highlighting an environmental contamination problem that had potentially nationwide, if not worldwide implications but that he had never heard of, and you know he was active in the environmental arena and active in water issues and was surprised that he had not heard of this before and really wanted to find a way to help bring the story out to a wider audience so that we could hopefully start seeing some change in the way type of situations not only develop but how we deal with them. He was able to team up with the folks at Participant Media, who, if you go on their website, and see the types of films they've produced are just incredible filmmakers. Teamed up with Todd Haynes who is an incredible director, and just a terrific cast. Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins and others.  Really they were very dedicated to making sure they did the story and brought it to film in the right way, to show what really happened, not only legally and scientifically, but also to real people. What kind of impact these situations have on real people in real communities. What these people went through for 20 years in this community waiting for this process to unfold. So I think they did a tremendous job in taking a very complicated story that involves a lot of science and a lot of law and conveying it in a way that really impresses upon people why this is a story that matters to all of us and why this is a story that really is one that hopefully is inspiring because, as we discussed, it shows that things can be changed. Things that look impossible can be overcome.”Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamina

Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination.  Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob.  Rob’s story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.”  Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world.  Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina.  Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Michael Maren is a journalist, filmmaker and former aid worker. He’s written scripts for HBO, Sony Pictures, and many independent producers. His film, A Short History of Decay was a funny and moving examination of a writer Bryan Greenberg visiting his ailing parents, played by Linda Lavin and Harris Yulin. His forthcoming film is an adaptation of Chris Belden’s novel Shriver. It’s a comedy set at a writers conference and stars Michael Shannon, Kate Hudson, Don Johnson, and Zach Braff. Maren has taught screenwriting at Wesleyan University, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Taos Summer Writers’ Workshop, and co-directs the Sirenland Writers Conference. He created the film screening/discussion series Under the Influence: Writers on Film. · michaelmaren.com · www.creativeprocess.info

Michael Maren is a journalist, filmmaker and former aid worker. He’s written scripts for HBO, Sony Pictures, and many independent producers. His film, A Short History of Decay was a funny and moving examination of a writer Bryan Greenberg visiting his ailing parents, played by Linda Lavin and Harris Yulin. His forthcoming film is an adaptation of Chris Belden’s novel Shriver. It’s a comedy set at a writers conference and stars Michael Shannon, Kate Hudson, Don Johnson, and Zach Braff. Maren has taught screenwriting at Wesleyan University, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Taos Summer Writers’ Workshop, and co-directs the Sirenland Writers Conference. He created the film screening/discussion series Under the Influence: Writers on Film. · michaelmaren.com · www.creativeprocess.info

“We all have things to learn when it comes to these diversity-related issues or issues of identity. We have so much to learn. Just because, let's say, you’re a person of color, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to be accepting of transgender individuals. You might have some real hangups. Or you could be transgender and have some hangups around people of color, all around the spectrum. You can be a woman who doesn't support women. You can be a woman who doesn't support women trans-women. There are all of these kinds of things that I think we have to be open to, and we have to be open to learning and also open to making mistakes because sometimes people are going to make mistakes around these issues. And this just goes back to the whole benefit of diversity. So one of the reasons why I feel that I benefit so much from the people that I work with is because they are so diverse in many ways, and they are open to talking and interacting and making sure that you're up to speed.” Marybeth Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair, a Distinguished Professor, and Associate Dean for Research at Rutgers University. Her areas of expertise include U.S. history, HBCUs, racism, philanthropy, and leadership. She is the author or editor of 30 books, including Envisioning Black Colleges (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), Educating a Diverse Nation (Harvard University Press, 2015), Making Black Scientists (Harvard University Press, 2019), and Doing the Right Thing: How to End Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring (Princeton University, 2022). She is Executive Director of Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice & Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. · www.marybethgasman.net· Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice & Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions: https://proctor.gse.rutgers.edu/

Marybeth Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair, a Distinguished Professor, and Associate Dean for Research at Rutgers University. Her areas of expertise include U.S. history, HBCUs, racism, philanthropy, and leadership. She is the author or editor of 30 books, including Envisioning Black Colleges (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), Educating a Diverse Nation (Harvard University Press, 2015), Making Black Scientists (Harvard University Press, 2019), and Doing the Right Thing: How to End Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring (Princeton University, 2022). She is Executive Director of Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice & Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. · www.marybethgasman.net· Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice & Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions: https://proctor.gse.rutgers.edu/

“I think humans really need to feel valued and loved. The question is where do you get your value from? And I try to get my value from–faith plays a big part of my life, but not everyone has that way of thinking about the world, so I'm not going to major on that, but that's only part of it, the sense that I believe there's a God who thinks I'm of worth, but it's more than that.  I believe that my closest friends and my family think I'm of worth. That's it. That will do. And if 100 or 1,000 people think I'm an idiot, that’s a bit annoying, but it's not totally the end of the world. And they’re not going to think about it after a week because they’re going to have other things to think about. And so I think that's probably made me more comfortable in saying that if I do stand up and it’s a disaster, it doesn't matter that much. If I start a charity and it fails, and I have started things that fell apart, it's not the end of the world.”Jon Yates is Executive Director of the Youth Endowment Fund, a £200 million charitable fund focused on integrating young people into society. After graduating from the University of Oxford, he started his career as a community worker in the London Borough of Newham, before joining McKinsey and Company, where he advised charities, companies and government on strategy and organisational development. He has co-founded a series of charities and initiatives including The Challenge and More in Common aimed at improving life chances and understanding. These programmes now reach 1 in 6 Britons in their lifetime.· www.youthendowmentfund.org.uk · www.creativeprocess.info · www.oneplanetpodcast.org