The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: 2022-2023 – Details, episodes & analysis

John Patrick Shanley is from The Bronx. His plays include Prodigal Son, Outside Mullingar (Tony nomination), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Italian-American Reconciliation, Welcome to the Moon, Four Dogs and a Bone, Dirty Story, Defiance, and Beggars in the House of Plenty. His theatrical work is performed extensively across the United States and around the world. For his play, Doubt, he received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the arena of screenwriting, he has ten films to his credit, most recently Wild Mountain Thyme, with Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, and Christopher Walken. His film of Doubt, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis, which he also directed, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Other films include Five Corners (Special Jury Prize, Barcelona Film Festival), Alive, Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed), and Live From Baghdad for HBO (Emmy nomination). For his script of Moonstruck he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for best original screenplay. In 2009, The Writers Guild of America awarded Mr. Shanley the Lifetime Achievement In Writing.

"You grow up wherever you grow up. And there are things there, and there are other things that are not there, and the things that are not there, you can imagine. And I did a lot of imagining in the Bronx because there were a lot of things that I gravitated toward that just weren't there: the fantastic, The Thief of Baghdad, magic, beautiful clothes, beautiful places, the exoticism of that. And then at another later point, I thought, I am missing my whole life from my work. I am writing about all these things that are not my life. Because I think everything that I actually saw and heard and felt is so ordinary that it's not worth repeating. And I think most of us feel that way, and we're dead wrong. That in fact, those things are gold. Those are the things that we actually have to write about. And you can write about anything when you start with those things and embrace them. Embrace your own life."

www.imdb.com/name/nm0788234

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www.oneplanetpodcast.org
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Listen to Part 2 of this Special Series with music courtesy of composer Max Richter.

All voices on this episode are from our interviews for The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast:

MANUELA LUCÁ-DAZIO - Executive Director, Pritzker Architecture Prize - Fmr. Exec. Director of Venice Biennale, Visual Arts & Architecture Dept.

BRITT WRAY - Author of “Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis”, Researcher Working on Climate Change & Mental Health, Stanford University

WALTER STAHEL - Architect, Economist, Founding Father of Circular Economy - Founder-Director, Product-Life Institute

MATHIS WACKERNAGEL - Founder & President of the Global Footprint Network - World Sustainability Award Winner

JAY FAMIGLIETTI, Fmr. Senior Water Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Exec. Director, Global Institute for Water Security, Host of "What About Water?" Podcast

RICHARD VEVERS - Founder & CEO of The Ocean Agency

ARMOND COHEN - Executive Director of Clean Air Task Force

PAULA PINHO - Director of Just Transition at the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy

MARTIN VON HILDEBRAND - Indigenous Rights Activist - Winner of Right Livelihood & Skoll Awards - Founder of Fundacion Gaia Amazonas, named #40 NGOs of the World by The Global Journal

HAROLD P. SJURSEN - Professor of Philosophy - Science, Technology, the Arts - NYU, Beihang University, East China University

BILL HARE - Founder & CEO of Climate Analytics, Physicist, Climate Scientist

SIR ANDY HAINES - Tyler Prize Award-winner for Environmental Achievement - Professor of Environmental Change & Public Health

LISA JACKSON PULVER - Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of Sydney's Indigenous Strategy & Services 

Max Richter’s music featured in this episode:

“Spring 1” from The New Four Seasons – Vivaldi Recomposed
Vladimir’s Blues” from The Blue Notebooks
"Lullaby From The Westcoast Sleepers” from 24 Postcards in Full Colour,

Music is courtesy of Max Richter, Universal Music Enterprises, and Mute Song.

www.maxrichtermusic.com
https://studiorichtermahr.com

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

“I've been fortunate over the last 13 years to meet some of the world's leading conservationists. Dr. Sylvia Earl, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, his Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia, who came to the film festival in 2014, where we showed some films from his foundation. And there have been a number of others, award-winning filmmakers, and a number of celebrities that have come to the film festival, Academy Award Winner James Cromwell. We've had other celebrities, from Paul Giamatti to Alec Baldwin to Sigourney Weaver, all of whom may have a passion for, if not saving wildlife, then for the environment. And I have found them very humble, very easy to speak to, and I'm immensely grateful that they took the time to come to WCFF from their busy schedule. And we hope to build more relationships.

So, we continue to grow, we continue to evolve. These global partnerships are helpful. And there have been a number of challenges. The biggest challenge right now that I have is I have the biggest fight of my life. In September of 2021, I was diagnosed with stage three liver cancer. And unfortunately, it's progressed now to where it's stage four and, you know, it's something that I have to fight with every day. Today I have a lot of energy. I feel good. Some days I do not get out of bed, and unfortunately, the cancer that I have is contracted by maybe 1% of the population. It's a cancer delivered by bile ducts. So there's not a lot of research on it. There's not a lot of studies on it. My physicians have been very candid with me. They cannot cure this. So I don't know how much time I have, whether it's five months, five years, or 50 more years. What they're doing right now is holding it at bay and keeping me alive.”

Christopher J. Gervais is an award winning producer. His animated film Dream won a 2017 Golden Lion for film and a Silver Lion for music at the 64th Annual International Festival of Creativity. He is environmental and marine scientist and has decades of experience in field work and research with multiple academic institutions and natural history museums. A former science and social studies teacher, later an administrator, he became the youngest principal of a public school in the state of Florida. While a graduate student, Christopher conducted fieldwork and research to study the Pleistocene Mega fauna and their fossils that were deposited over 10,000 years ago. His study of these extinct species informs his concerns for preserving biodiversity and was a significant factor in the founding of the WCFF. Christopher was one of the first scientists to conduct underwater vertebrate paleontology research. He is a professional, advanced scuba diver with NAUI, PADI, SSI and NASDS with over 2,500 logged dives. Christopher founded the WCFF in 2010 using his life savings to get the organization off the ground and has maintained the operations since then. He is a philanthropic supporter of conservation organizations across the globe. Christopher is President of the International Exploration Society, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, member of the Ocean Geographic Society, friend of American Philosophical Society.

www.wcff.org
www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

“I live my life embodying the teaching my grandmother instilled in me – that no matter which lens I walked on, I had to learn how to build relationships with the land and the Indigenous peoples whose land I reside on to become a welcome guest. As a displaced Indigenous woman, my longing to return to my ancestral homelands will always be there, and this is why I continue to support my communities in the diaspora. However, my relationships are not only with my community, but also the Indigenous communities whose land I am displaced on, and this is the foundation of my work while residing in the Pacific Northwest. I strongly believe that in order to start healing Indigenous landscapes, everyone must understand their positionality as either settlers, unwanted guests, or welcomed guests, and that is ultimately determined by the Indigenous communities whose land you currently reside on or occupy. This teaching has also helped me envision my goals in life. Every day I get closer to becoming an ancestor because life is not guaranteed but rather a gift we are granted from our ancestors who are now in the spiritual world.”

Dr. Jessica Hernandez (Binnizá & Maya Ch’orti’) is a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. She has an interdisciplinary academic background ranging from marine sciences to environmental physics. She advocates for climate, energy, and environmental justice through her scientific and community work. Her book Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science breaks down why western conservationism isn’t working–and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors. In 2022, she was named by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women of Central America. She holds appointments at Sustainable Seattle, City of Seattle's Urban Forestry Commission, and the International Mayan League. Fresh Banana Leaves received the Bruce Piasecki and Andrea Masters Award on Business and Society Writing (2022).

www.jessicabhernandez.com

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675699/fresh-banana-leaves-by-jessica-hernandez/
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
www.creativeprocess.info

Dr. Jessica Hernandez (Binnizá & Maya Ch’orti’) is a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. She has an interdisciplinary academic background ranging from marine sciences to environmental physics. She advocates for climate, energy, and environmental justice through her scientific and community work. Her book Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science breaks down why western conservationism isn’t working–and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors. In 2022, she was named by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women of Central America. She holds appointments at Sustainable Seattle, City of Seattle's Urban Forestry Commission, and the International Mayan League. Fresh Banana Leaves received the Bruce Piasecki and Andrea Masters Award on Business and Society Writing (2022).

“I live my life embodying the teaching my grandmother instilled in me – that no matter which lens I walked on, I had to learn how to build relationships with the land and the Indigenous peoples whose land I reside on to become a welcome guest. As a displaced Indigenous woman, my longing to return to my ancestral homelands will always be there, and this is why I continue to support my communities in the diaspora. However, my relationships are not only with my community, but also the Indigenous communities whose land I am displaced on, and this is the foundation of my work while residing in the Pacific Northwest. I strongly believe that in order to start healing Indigenous landscapes, everyone must understand their positionality as either settlers, unwanted guests, or welcomed guests, and that is ultimately determined by the Indigenous communities whose land you currently reside on or occupy. This teaching has also helped me envision my goals in life. Every day I get closer to becoming an ancestor because life is not guaranteed but rather a gift we are granted from our ancestors who are now in the spiritual world.”

www.jessicabhernandez.com

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675699/fresh-banana-leaves-by-jessica-hernandez/
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
www.creativeprocess.info

"Essentially, what the thesis of the book is that science is really about finding simple solutions. And I guess one of the other themes of the book is that life appears like a scientist. It finds the simplest solutions to problems, and that's because there's a mechanism in natural selection, whereby stuff that is unnecessary gets removed by mutations. We lose stuff that is no longer useful for us. Like tails, for example, our ancestors had tails, and we don't because natural selection tends to go for simple solutions, and that's really what's made natural selection so successful, and it's also what makes science so successful too." 

Johnjoe McFadden is the author of Life is Simple, How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe. He obtained his PhD at Imperial College London and went on to work on human genetic diseases and then infectious diseases, at the University of Surrey. Professor McFadden has specialised in examining the genetics of microbes such as the agents of tuberculosis and meningitis. His other books are Quantum Evolution: Life in the Multiverse, and Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology (co-authored with Jim Al-Khalili). He has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals on a wide range of subjects and lectures around the world. His present post is Associate Dean (International) and Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey.

www.surrey.ac.uk/people/johnjoe-mcfadden

https://johnjoemcfadden.co.uk

www.basicbooks.com/titles/johnjoe-mcfadden/life-is-simple/9781549112119

www.creativeprocess.info

www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Johnjoe McFadden is the author of Life is Simple, How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe. He obtained his PhD at Imperial College London and went on to work on human genetic diseases and then infectious diseases, at the University of Surrey. Professor McFadden has specialised in examining the genetics of microbes such as the agents of tuberculosis and meningitis. His other books are Quantum Evolution: Life in the Multiverse, and Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology (co-authored with Jim Al-Khalili). He has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals on a wide range of subjects and lectures around the world. His present post is Associate Dean (International) and Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey.

"Essentially, what the thesis of the book is that science is really about finding simple solutions. And I guess one of the other themes of the book is that life appears like a scientist. It finds the simplest solutions to problems, and that's because there's a mechanism in natural selection, whereby stuff that is unnecessary gets removed by mutations. We lose stuff that is no longer useful for us. Like tails, for example, our ancestors had tails, and we don't because natural selection tends to go for simple solutions, and that's really what's made natural selection so successful, and it's also what makes science so successful too." 

www.surrey.ac.uk/people/johnjoe-mcfadden

https://johnjoemcfadden.co.uk

www.basicbooks.com/titles/johnjoe-mcfadden/life-is-simple/9781549112119

www.creativeprocess.info

www.oneplanetpodcast.org

"Scott [Kid Cudi] is the most beautiful, kind, goodhearted man, but also he's brilliant. He's a generator of ideas. I feel like by being next to him, your role is to take all of these concepts that he's crafting and ideating and bring them to fruition, so it's a really beautiful gift where you feel like you're paired with an artist who is the source of so much. Scott was also really important to me in a lot of ways from our very beginning."

"So the animated series Entergalactic tells the story of a black modern love story in New York City. It's simple in its core. Jabari, the character Scott plays, is a graffiti artist, and Cosmic Comics has decided to option his character and turn it into a comic book. So he's at this point in his life where he is moving into the loft apartment of his dreams, everything seems to be working for him when he meets Meadow, who's his neighbor. And she is this amazing woman, photographer, coolest cat on the planet. And essentially this show follows their meet-cute and their love story and the will they-won’t they of if they'll end up together. So there's something very warm in its aesthetic. But what's so interesting is that the love story is very nostalgic. It's, it just hearkens back to what a romance feels like.”

Karina Manashil is the President of Mad Solar Productions. She began her career in the mailroom at WME (William Morris Endeavor) where she became a talent agent. She represented notable clients including Scott Mescudi, known by his stage name, Kid Cudi, and built her career taking talent into new arenas.

In 2020, she partnered with Mescudi and Dennis Cummings to launch Mad Solar, which is backed by BRON Studios. Manashil then went on to Executive Produce SXSW fan-favorite X and its sequel, Pearl, directed by Ti West. Manashil is an Executive Producer on the Netflix animated series Entergalactic directed by Fletcher Moules. Entergalactic was created by Kid Cudi and features voiceover from Jessica Williams and Timothée Chalamet. It was released alongside its album of the same name from Kid Cudi on September 30th. Manashil is a native of Los Angeles and graduated from Chapman University with a BFA in Film Production.

Manashil www.imdb.com/name/nm3556462/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
www.kidcudi.com

Mad Solar https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0831164 

Entergalactic www.netflix.com/title/81053303

Pearl www.imdb.com/title/tt18925334/

X www.imdb.com/title/tt13560574/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

www.creativeprocess.info

www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Karina Manashil is the President of Mad Solar Productions. She began her career in the mailroom at WME (William Morris Endeavor) where she became a talent agent. She represented notable clients including Scott Mescudi, known by his stage name, Kid Cudi, and built her career taking talent into new arenas.

In 2020, she partnered with Mescudi and Dennis Cummings to launch Mad Solar, which is backed by BRON Studios. Manashil then went on to Executive Produce SXSW fan-favorite X and its sequel, Pearl, directed by Ti West. Manashil is an Executive Producer on the Netflix animated series Entergalactic directed by Fletcher Moules. Entergalactic was created by Kid Cudi and features voiceover from Jessica Williams and Timothée Chalamet. It was released alongside its album of the same name from Kid Cudi on September 30th.

Manashil is a native of Los Angeles and graduated from Chapman University with a BFA in Film Production.

"Scott [Kid Cudi] is the most beautiful, kind, goodhearted man, but also he's brilliant. He's a generator of ideas. I feel like by being next to him, your role is to take all of these concepts that he's crafting and ideating and bring them to fruition, so it's a really beautiful gift where you feel like you're paired with an artist who is the source of so much. Scott was also really important to me in a lot of ways from our very beginning."

"So the animated series Entergalactic tells the story of a black modern love story in New York City. It's simple in its core. Jabari, the character Scott plays, is a graffiti artist, and Cosmic Comics has decided to option his character and turn it into a comic book. So he's at this point in his life where he is moving into the loft apartment of his dreams, everything seems to be working for him when he meets Meadow, who's his neighbor. And she is this amazing woman, photographer, coolest cat on the planet. And essentially this show follows their meet-cute and their love story and the will they-won’t they of if they'll end up together. So there's something very warm in its aesthetic. But what's so interesting is that the love story is very nostalgic. It's, it just hearkens back to what a romance feels like.”

Manashil www.imdb.com/name/nm3556462/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
www.kidcudi.com

Mad Solar https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0831164 

Entergalactic www.netflix.com/title/81053303

Pearl www.imdb.com/title/tt18925334/

X www.imdb.com/title/tt13560574/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

www.creativeprocess.info

www.oneplanetpodcast.org

“For me, watching him [Jean-Michel] paint reminded me of the times I would sit and play harmonica while Bob Marley, with his acoustic guitar, would be writing songs that were eventually to become classics,” Jaffe says. “With Jean and Bob, it seemed like they were channeling inspiration coming from an otherworldly place.”

Lee Jaffe, a cross-disciplinary visual artist, musician, and poet, took photos of his friend, Jean-Michel Basquiat, when they traveled abroad in 1983. As a photographer, Jaffe had a connection to Basquiat, and their time spent together resulted in an archive of imagery that captured one of the art world’s true legends through an unfiltered and authentic lens.

“For me, watching him [Jean-Michel] paint reminded me of the times I would sit and play harmonica while Bob Marley, with his acoustic guitar, would be writing songs that were eventually to become classics,” Jaffe says. “With Jean and Bob, it seemed like they were channeling inspiration coming from an otherworldly place.”

Basquiat and Jaffe connected over reggae music. It was the early 1980s in New York. Jaffe had been a member of Bob Marley’s band, producer on Peter Tosh’s first solo album.  and collaborated with art world figures Helio Oiticica, Gordon Matta Clark, and Vito Acconci. Jaffe is the author of Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossroads.

www.leejaffe.com
www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847871841/

www.creativeprocess.info
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