Chasing Creative is all about how everyday people can make creativity a priority in their daily lives. We're talking to regular people who have insights and action steps you can take TODAY to make your creative plans happen. Whether you’re squeezing creative pursuits into your kids' naptimes or in the evening after working a 9-5, we're here to give you the inside scoop on how regular people are chasing creative.
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We thought we’d be back with a new season of Chasing Creative in 2022, but alas: it did not happen. Our lives are just too full right now with, well… life! We cannot, however, let the year go by without getting together to talk about books: our most favorite episode to record each season. So, we’ll dive in and talk about our reading wins this last year, our goals for next year, and what life *actually* looks like these days for both of us.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (audio narrated by Tom Hanks)
Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal
Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (on audio)
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Sea Wife by Amity Gaige
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon
Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo
The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch
The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
The Wild Robot & The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling (illustrated versions, too!)
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street Series by Karina Yan Glaser (audio)
The Henry Huggins Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Rewilding Motherhood by Shannon K Evans
State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
Attached to God by Krispin Mayfield
The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr
Try Softer by Aundi Kolber
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
2021: Our Year in Books
Monday, December 27, 2021 • Duration 01:20:12
Hi! It has been *an entire year* since we last appeared in your podcast feed.
We’re wading through Pandemic Year 2 just like everyone else, complete with all the day-to-day negotiations and risk calculations like everyone else. And also: a fourth baby for Ashley, a smattering of kids entering the public school system for both of us, and entire routines shifting overnight.
We gave ourselves a break and didn’t record a single thing together in all of 2021 – but it didn’t feel right to finish a year on the calendar without talking together about books. So let’s talk books!
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Rewilding Motherhood by Shannon K. Evans
No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley
What You Wish For by Katherine Center
It Didn’t Start with You by Mark Wolynn (DNF for Ashley)
Fair Play by Eve Rodsky (skimmed by Abbie)
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson
Harry Potter Book 1-3
The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
2020 in Books
Episode 6
Tuesday, December 29, 2020 • Duration 01:16:35
2020 hasn't been kind to most of us, but books are always there to see us through. Listen in to hear how 2020 changed our reading habits, the books we loved (and didn't), and what's next for our reading lives—and the podcast!—in 2021.
Books Mentioned in This Episode
The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
The Selection Series by Kiera Cass
The Book of Essie by Megan McLein Weir
Your Blue Flame: Drop the Guilt and Do What Makes You Come Alive by Jen Fulwiler
What Is a Girl Worth? My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics by Rachael Denhollander
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Attachments and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor & Park and Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Harry Potter (of course)
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters by Tom Nichols
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
Rhythms of Rest: Finding the Spirit of Sabbath in a Busy World by Shelley Miller
S7 E4: Kayla Craig on listening well and advocating for vulnerable people
Episode 5
Monday, December 7, 2020 • Duration 55:05
In today’s episode, we chat with Kayla Craig about what it looks like to advocate for the more vulnerable people around you. As a journalist, Kayla learned the value of listening well and choosing to hear a story and act on it. As a mom, Kayla knows just how important the stories we read and tell and see in our own lives affect everything about them -- and she has some tips for adding diverse voices to your shopping list this year.
Kayla Craig is a writer and podcast producer who believes in the power of story. She writes modern prayers for moms and dads at Liturgies for Parents and her book is forthcoming with Tyndale in 2021. Kayla co-founded and hosts Upside Down Podcast, a place for conversations on faith and justice. She is a podcast producer for Sacred Ordinary Days, where she helps cultivate peace, presence, and purpose. Kayla loves deep mugs of coffee, deeper belly laughs, and even deeper questions. She and her pastor-husband Jonny live in Iowa, where they’re raising four young kids who joined their family via birth and adoption. She has two fluffy dogs and spends too much time on Instagram. Her most recent published essays are in This Is Motherhood: A Motherly Collection of Reflections + Practices and Rally: Litanies for the Lovers of Jesus and Justice.
Kayla’s tips for diversifying your holiday decor and your bookshelves:
Buy a nativity set where the figures are historically accurate and have brown skin.
Buy books written by Black and brown authors.
Don’t just buy books with diverse characters struggling with racial tension. Buy books that normalize the lives Black and brown people live; make sure that your kids see Black joy.
Follow @hereweread on Instagram for diverse book suggestions all year long.
S7 E4: Ari Tison on Lifting Up Underrepresented Voices
Episode 4
Monday, November 2, 2020 • Duration 01:00:36
Ari Tison is an award-winning writer with poems and short works published in Yellow Medicine Review, The Under Review, and Rock & Sling. She is also the editor for Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop's Broadside Competition. Ari lives and works on Dakota and Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) lands in St. Paul, MN. Join us as she shares action steps for lifting up underrepresented voices in the literary community, especially Indigenous people and those who are incarcerated.
Action steps that life up underrepresented voices
Reach out to nonprofits to see where they need help. Look for ways to serve that match your interests and talents.
Investigate nearby prisons to see if they have creative arts programs you can support.
Seek out and share work by marginalized populations.
Read anthologies that include Native writers.
Connect with tribes in your area to learn about creative events or festivals you can attend or local artisans you can support.
Learn about the history of the land you live and work on. Which Indigenous tribe(s) was the land taken from?
S7 E3: Dani Bruflodt on hydration, social justice, and political engagement
Episode 3
Monday, October 5, 2020 • Duration 01:01:28
Deep in a pandemic, an election cycle, and a world that looks vastly different than six months ago, we’re all a little worn out these days. But we also need to press ahead like never before. We wanted to talk to Dani Bruflodt on how she summons the energy to engage online around social justice, politics, and making a difference in the world -- and how hydration is her secret weapon to get it all done with some energy left over.
Dani Bruflodt is a writer and creator who “talks loud on the internet”. She’s a native Minnesotan currently living the Universal-Healthcare dream life in Copenhagen, Denmark, and she would love for you to drink some water.
Dani’s 7 tips for how to get engaged and make a difference:
Know that it is never too late to become a better person. Feeling hypocritical stops a lot of us from joining movements or getting involved. You can wake up tomorrow and decide you’re going to be a better person.
Know that it is okay to change your mind, especially when you are presented with better information.
Pick one thing you’re passionate about. One cause that you really, truely, deeply feel passionate about. You don’t have to become an expert on everything immediately.
And then when you pick that thing, take time to step back. Do not rush in and expect to fix this issue that you’ve taken up. It’s especially important to pause and look to see who is already doing this work and fall in line with how to support them and continue their work rather than do anything that might interfere with work already being done.
S7 E2: Simone Griffin on Counseling and Creativity
Episode 2
Monday, September 14, 2020 • Duration 52:31
We’re welcoming counselor, writer, and calligrapher Simone Griffin to the show today. Join us as she shares about the overlap between counseling and creativity, and how art—both our own and others’—can improve our mental health. Be sure to check out Simone’s newsletter, Counseling + Christ, and her devotional workbook, Glimmers of Hope.
We’d be remiss in trying to continue on with the podcast acting as if nothing is happening around us. 2020 has been an upheaval year for just about every single person on the planet, and while we are both privileged, middle-class white ladies in Midwestern states who are faring quite well during the pandemic, all things considered, our lives do still look very different than they did in March.
So this season, rather than continue to explore how we fit creativity into our daily lives -- something we are largely unable to do right now as we have in the past -- we wanted to explore a topic that has emerged as one we both care about deeply: How do we use creativity to make a difference?
We’re going to be interviewing people who use their creativity to create change in directions that matter to them. We hope you’ll get to hear from a wide variety of artists who hold a variety of views. None of them will be identical to our own, and we don’t believe that they have to be. In this episode in particular, we’re going to be talking about the pandemic and what our lives look like right now. The choices we’ve made for our families may not be the same as yours, and that’s okay! We know that in this time, everyone is doing what they think is best.
However, we do want to be upfront and say that race and issues of equality are not “too political” to talk about on a podcast that discusses creativity. Everything is political, first of all. And second: the issue of equality for all people is a human rights issue, not something we are willing to debate.
We hope you gain some ideas from our guests this season about how you can create change around the things that matter to you, regardless of where your personal views land.
Got someone you’d love to hear from this season about how they make a difference with their creative gifts? Email us at chasingcreativepodcast@gmail.com.
**We had originally planned to air this episode in early June of 2020 (recorded in early May), but chose to hold off on publication to keep the airwaves clear in the wake of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and the nationwide uprising that continues to today as more Black lives are taken because of racist people and racist policies. We want our listeners to know that we stand in full support of the protests and the push for racial justice and equality. We are actively engaging with our own racial bias in our own lives, learning, growing, and working to become antiracist. We are listening to BIPOC Voices as we move forward in this never-ending work, and we are pledging to use this space to amplify those voices in the future. We apologize that we have not made this a priority in the past. We will do better. If you are someone that identifies as BIPOC and would like to come on the podcast to talk about creativity and your journey as an artist, or you'd like to recommend and connect us to someone who does, we would be grateful if you'd reach out to us at chasingcreativepodcast@gmail.com. Our mic is yours.
This season of Chasing Creative was about the ebbs and flows of the creative life. When we brainstormed that theme last summer, we had no idea that the world would be facing a pandemic in the spring of 2020 as we record and release this episode. It’s brought changes big and small to our own creative processes and, we’re guessing, yours too.
In this episode, we catch up on the first few months of 2020 -- new babies! pre-pandemic vacations! -- and how the onset of a global pandemic has affected our lives inside and out.
Resources We Talked About
Ashley recorded a special episode of the podcast title Creativity as Self-Care in early April. If you’re finding your creative energy decimated by the pandemic, that episode could be a creative hug for where you are at right now.
Ashley is knitting a shawl using this pattern, and she gets her yarn from Yarnery in Minnesota. They offer shipping around the country in case you, too, have a hankering to make something with your hands these days.
S6 E11: Kendra Adachi on Trusting Your Creative Intuition
Episode 11
Monday, May 4, 2020 • Duration 57:32
As the lazy genius, Kendra Adachi teaches people how to be a genius about the things that matter, and lazy about the things that don’t. Join us in this episode to hear how she listens to her intuition when it comes to creative projects, the seasonal rhythms she uses to get things done, and the creative process that led her to leave perfectionism behind as she wrote her book.
Resources mentioned in this episode
Preorder Kendra’s book, The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done.
Sign up for Kendra’s monthly newsletter, The Lazy Letter, for some of the best book/movie/TV show recommendations on the internet, plus smart reflections on living life the lazy genius way.
It is okay to be wrong, and it is okay to say “I am not informed enough to speak on this topic”. Fear of being wrong, or the feeling that if you claim to be an activist you automatically have to know everything stops so many of us. No. It is OKAY to be wrong. It is a mark of intelligence to recognize when you’re wrong, learn better, and do better, and there is nothing wrong with being asked a question or being engaged in a conversation and saying “You know what, I don’t feel informed enough to speak on this.”
Know that there is probably not an end-point to the work. Whether it’s anti-racism or ending child hunger. Even if you ensure all children have full tummies, you still have to get up every day after that and ensure those programs stay afloat, that they have funding.
You have to remember to rest. Getting into the trenches with any form of activism is not for the faint of heart. It takes a toll on you physically and emotionally -- especially if you are a privileged white person who has rarely had to endure chronic stress -- this can really hit you like a brick wall. You have to learn to take breaks, to rest, to step away from the work for a moment and then get back in there.
Dani’s 3 groups of people we’re worried about offending and what to do instead:
“Following”: Focus on gaining supporters, not followers. Focus on quality, not quantity.
Family/Friends: Lean into the fact that if you lose them for being outspoken, they may not have been worth your time or energy to begin with.
Potential Clients or Collaborators: Trust that sharing your morals and values will help you attract clients and collaborations that align with you.
The blue unicorn and festive llama cross stitch kits that Jacob completed can be found here if you or your kids (or partners!) need some handiwork for the evenings.
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