Episode 25: Ghosts in the Machine
This week we're talking about the things that aren't there.
This week we're talking about the things that aren't there. Plus: Trash drafts, Parrot Face, the dog that didn't bark, well-dressed clowns, empty piazzas, terrible silence, Mike Birbiglia, and the smell of space. (It smells like steak, apparently.)
This is the last episode of Season 3. We’ll be back soon with new episodes. In the meantime, keep your ears peeled for two Very Special Episodes™️ of our between-seasons experiment I Might Be Wrong But… , in which one of us tries to convince the other that some fringe cultural artifact he inexplicably loves is actually — y’know: Good?
Episode 24: Cynicism and Coffee
How do you know if what you're creating is any good? This week: Juggling the internal and external critics.
How do you know if what you're creating is any good? This week: Juggling the internal and external critics. Plus: Humility, shouting at clouds, Idiots vs. Fools, marrying up, Baby Shark, shame, brainwashing, sometimes it's harder to suck, The Well of Metaphor, fact checkers, and getting the brushes back out.
Episode 23: Fred and Gene
People like to say the great ones make it look easy. But what are we really looking at when we see a great creator showing what looks like effortlessness?
People like to say the great ones make it look easy, but what are we really looking at when we see a great creator showing what looks like effortlessness? Plus: Spectacular failures, concerned murmurs, Jenny from the block, beautiful aliens, Henri Matisse, rubber band balls, drifting toward the abyss, ha cha cha and hot dogs by the sea.
Episode 22: Watch Out For The Shoe
This week we're talking about doing what you're bad at. Why do some people charge blindly full speed ahead, and others try to shrink into their own shoes?
This week we're talking about doing what you're bad at. Why do some people charge blindly full speed ahead, and others try to shrink into their own shoes? And what's to be gained from what can be a traumatic experience? Also: Noble pain, sociopaths, Norma Desmond, tinnitus, bad steak, Christmas island, horrifying plunky sounds and more Mel Cooley.
Episode 21: Somebody Hold Me Back
When do limitations on creative work hurt the project? When can they help? And how can we become more agile creators by learning how to work with them, rather than around them?
This week we're looking at limitations in creative work. When do they hurt? When can they help? And how can we become more agile creators by learning how to work with them, rather than around them? Also: Fake expertise, low ceilings, ukuleles vs. bowling balls, rich idiots, guitar control, speed wounds, bourgeois sharpnress, and I Kid Because I Love.
Episode 20: Brigadoonish
Is there a way to be an effective promoter without feeling awkward and cheap? (Yes.)
This week we're looking at a part of the job that comes hard for many creative people -- self-promotion. Is there a way to be an effective promoter without feeling awkward and cheap? We suggest that there is, and tell you a way forward. Also: Big asks, mug's games, the SEO scam, wide boys, Chelmsford, crying in coffee shops, lost luggage, bonbons and juggling for Jesus.
Episode 19: Less
It's one of the paradoxes of creative life: the longer you do it, the more tools you acquire, the more it becomes the goal to get simpler.
It's one of the paradoxes of creative life: the longer you do it, the more tools you acquire, the more it becomes the goal to get simpler. To do less. This week we're talking about the quest for simplicity, and about finding the sweet spot between brevity and clarity. Plus: Slow TV, phantom limbs, Robot Margaret Thatcher, greening, a blow to the head, Wesley Van Wesleyson, promises and threats, and content cubed.
Episode 18: Salad Bar
Is all creativity an act of remix? And if there's no such thing as originality -- why do we bother?
Every creator likes think they're shiny and golden, dancing with their muse in a singular act of invention. But is that true? Is that how it works? Or is all creativity an act of remix? Are we inevitably treading on ground others have walked before us? And if there's no such thing as originality -- why do we bother?
Also: Brain fizz and sparky fingertips, Woz, falling down, Pinwright's Progress, high blood pressure, how to breathe, grand larceny, DJ Kool Herc, Muskification, and 400,000 years ago (a Tuesday).
Episode 17: Stupid o’Clock
it’s one of the hardest decisions a creator can make: When is it time to admit an idea isn't panning out and move on?
This week we're looking at one of the hardest decisions a creator can make: When is it time to admit an idea isn't panning out and move on? It can be agonizing to put aside a piece of work in which you've invested time and care and effort, but sometimes it's not just the best choice, it's the only one that makes sense.
Plus: Loud noises, Labrador footwarmers, Italian getaways, toboggans of regret, beans on toast, the world's longest putt, unconscionable delays and a big steely swan-like metaphor in the sky.
Episode 16: Plagiarism Robot
This week, we're kicking off our third season with a deep dive on the role of artificial intelligence in creativity. Auto-summarized version: You can keep it.
When Apple announced its plans for artificial intelligence earlier this week, the presentation failed to make a minor point: AI, as currently constituted, doesn't work very well. Also, not for nothing, it's theft on a grand scale. So: Here comes the future, we guess?
This week, we're kicking off our third season with a deep dive on the role of artificial intelligence in creativity. Auto-summarized version: You can keep it.
Plus: Eliza, angry ducks, carnies, strike snacks and idea smoothies, rat snakes, juggling fatalities, bullet-headed Bond villains, clean smart data, the Eternal Return and alt-right Seinfeld.
An Imagination & Junk Bonus Episode: “I Might Be Wrong, But… ” (Ch. 1)
…Steven Seagal’s “Out For Justice” is — good?
Welcome back! This is Season 3 of Imagination & Junk, and we’re kicking it off with a Very Special Episode™️! It’s the first of two episodes we’re calling “I Might Be Wrong, But… ” We do this to give ourselves a flimsy gossamer layer of deniability, because some of what we have to say in this episode is definitely very wrong. We are arguing (by which I, Bill, mean that my partner, Mat, is arguing) that Steven Seagal’s 1991 shoot-em-up “Out For Justice” is… well… good? I guess? And yes, it’s this “Out For Justice” that we’re talking about:
Think of this episode and the one that follows as the soft opening of Season 3. Think of it as the throat-clearing we do before we get down to the real work of the show on June 12. Think of it as your podcast pals Mat and Bill inviting you in to the kind of conversation a couple of guys have late at night after a few pints — a conversation in which there are no right or wrong opinions but they are nonetheless expressed with A GREAT DEAL OF FIRMNESS AND CERTITUDE. And just so you don’t think it’s only Mat who’s gone right off his head, wait until you get a load of the cultural artifact I strive to make a case for in two weeks. (Hint: It’s from the ‘70s. Enough said.)
So with that, we give you an Imagination & Junk bonus episode: I Might Be Wrong, But… Ch. 1, “Out For Justice.”
Hey, one more thing: No. Wait. Three things.
Thing 1: We’d appreciate it if you’d subscribe. This gooses the algorithm, which encourages the robot overlords for whom we all now work to expose the show more widely. It’s also a big boost to us when you share the show across your socials.
Thing 2: This show continues to cost us real American/British cash money, so your material support of it will help us keep making it.
Thing 3: Was this episode a good idea? Or was it, alternately, and hear us out here, the best idea? We’d love to hear from you. And we’ll see you back here on May 29 for one more Very Special Episode™️ before Season 3 launches in earnest with episode 16 on June 12.
As always, thanks for listening. /BB
Episode 15: Mousetrap
What’s the worst that could happen? No, seriously: This is the worst that could happen.
In the last episode of Season 2, we're recalling the worst things that ever happened to us as creative people, and trying to excavate whatever lessons we can from the wreckage. Featuring: Murder in Encino, and a near-international incident in Beijing.
We'll be back with a new season of Imagination & Junk after a short break.
Episode 14: The Gorgeous Notebook Store
Every trade has its tools. But they serve a variety of purposes, from signifiers of status to objects of desire.
In this episode we're talking about tools of the trade. Every creative trade has them. But they function in a variety of ways: As tools, yes, but also as signifiers of membership in a group, and as objects of desire. Also: Man purses, puppies, promiscuous scribbling, snappy suits, Japanese dining tables, Toots Thielemans, custom juggling balls and cricket.
Episode 13: Six Feet From Genius
Here's a creativity brain puzzler: Is it better to break new ground or to keep polishing the same act until it gleams?
Here's a creativity brain puzzler: Is it better to break new ground or to keep polishing the same act until it gleams? It depends, to a degree, on for whom you create in the first place. Also: Jackie Chan, treading water, private eyes, the changeup pitch, Eurovision, litigation, the verdict of history, singularity, space shoes, The Shipping Forecast and quite a bit, actually, about the eternal villainy of The Beach Boys' Mike Love.
Episode 12: Chaotic Playtime
Is GTD an aid to creative work, or is it the exact opposite of what creativity needs?
This week we're looking at Getting Things Done, and at the cult of productivity that's sprung up around David Allen's original GTD methodology. It looks good, it sounds good -- but is it an aid to creative work or the exact opposite of what creativity calls for? Once again, we have thoughts. And this time we've put them in a nice list, with checkboxes. Also: Raccoons, stone tablets, Starfighters, making a mess and tidying up, disresepcting the Bing, shallots and where to put them, things that are too good to check, and the night Bobby Flay made a mockery of Kitchen Stadium.
Episode 11: Super Auto
Can creativity be malign? Or is it always just... creativity?
Can creativity be malign? Or is it always just... creativity? In this episode we're looking at what researchers call "dark creativity," or the use of creative tools to gain an unfair advantage over another person. And yes: We have thoughts. Also: Con artists, hammers, work snacks, spoon-bending, Bond villains, Stevie Wonder Wednesday and the trouble with ponds.
Episode 10: Buzzing Neon
Criticism, self-criticism, and the worst heckle ever.
This week we're talking about criticism, including the trickiest kind: Self-criticism. We'll also look at the buzzing neon sign hanging outside the hotel room of your mind, the one that spells out your own doubts and insecurities, and how to filter it out. Plus: Humility and its plodding cousin experience, spoons, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, sleeping policemen, fixed-rate mortgages, the magical power of putting things in drawers, and the worst heckle ever. (Seriously. The all-time worst.)
Episode 9: Catch Me If You Can
You’re not a fraud. You only think you are.
In this episode we're looking at Impostor Syndrome, the conviction that you've been faking it and are always just inches away from being unmasked. We have a theory about where it came from (hint: it was the '70s), and some thoughts about how it can be turned to creative people's advantage. Plus: Penn & Teller, non-apology apologies, fresh batteries, a ridiculous excess of materials, and the Moscow Philharmonic. (Or were they?)
Episode 8: The Lede (and how to swing it)
How do you get your audience in the tent? And how do you send them happy at the end?
How do you get your audience in the tent? And how do you send them home happy at the end? Journalists have the lede and the kicker; entertainers have the opener and the closer. But they're not the only creative people with tricks. Every art form has them, and if you dig into them you can see some of the wiring that holds all creative work together. Also: Coco Chanel, Spot is a dog, a bowler hat with a chess piece on the top, and that time Bill had a chance to alter the course of history and declined to do so.
Episode 7: Struck by Lightning
How do we measure success in creative work?
How do we measure success in creative work? Is it about the reception the work gets, or is the scale more elusive? Answering this question takes some clarity of thought and a good grasp of expectations. This week, in the first episode of season 2, we're talking about meter-setting. Also: Explosions, sleepy Labradors, and coffee with butter in it.