The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity

Marco De Molina is Grammy Nominated film producer who has received international acclaim throughout his career at prestigious film festivals worldwide including the Festival de Cannes. He has been recognized for his striking visuals, unique storytelling, a keen eye for developing new talent, and his ability to maximize production value. Marco has produced countless music videos for chart-topping musicians in all genres from metal t...

Storytelling is a huge part of the creative process, and we all carry many stories within us. In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, we explore how to find the stories in our own life experiences, and how to begin working with them. We also explore the healing power of telling our stories, and how our personal (and sometimes painful) experiences can speak to larger, more universal themes. This episode, like the mini-episodes...

What if you began each day outside, in nature, without technology, viewed your daily activities and connections as ways to increase the surface area of your serendipity, and spent Thursday evenings appreciating the sunset with friends? Welcome to Charles Cadbury’s world. A multi-award-winning technologist focusing on human-computer interaction and AI assistance, Charles is a creative entrepreneur who values the alchemy of con...

In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, Melinda & Charlotte explore both the fears and the benefits of sharing our creative selves with family, friends, and the wider world. Many creatives feel misunderstood by those closest to us, such as family members who may not “get” or value our work, so we feel hesitant or resistant to share our creative ideas and expressions with them. However, we believe there’s...

What either allows or prevents us from taking action on our creative ideas and bringing them into being? According to our guest Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, PhD, emotions and choice play a major role, including our fears about being judged, as well as both our sense of creative anxiety and identity. How we manage these emotions ultimately guides our creative freedom and efficacy. 

For our Creativity Pro-Tip, if you have more ideas t...

In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, Melinda & Charlotte discuss both the fears and rewards of putting your creative work out into the world, sharing examples from their own experiences with music, film, and writing. While sharing your creations can feel uncertain, vulnerable and risky, you’ll never know the potential benefits unless you try. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes in...

If music is a language of emotions, mathematics is a language of the nature of reality. In this episode, jazz musician and mathematician Lawrence Udeigwe reveals how these two languages inform each other, and the lessons they hold for everyday life. We discuss his new album, Four Lemmas, and how he bridges the worlds of music and math in his creative, academic, and teaching work. Dr. Udeigwe is a Professor of Mathematics at Manhatt...

In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, Melinda & Charlotte explore the power of imagination, both as a driver of innovation and a pathway to liberation. If we want to play a role in shaping the future, we must use our imagination to envision possibilities, rather than simply letting politicians and tech leaders, who likely do not have our interests at heart, do it for us. This episode, like the mini-episodes that precede...

This episode explores the connections between anxiety, authenticity, and creativity, including the hidden gifts and messages of anxiety and their implications for personal development. Amanda Beck is an actress, writer, and doctor of humanistic psychology whose work lives at the intersection of creativity, anxiety, and the authentic self. She holds a PhD from Saybrook University with a specialization in Creativity Studies, where he...

In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, Melinda & Charlotte explore questions of power and agency, and how they connect with creativity and creative empowerment. We explore power dynamics, focusing on power with (collaboration), power to (personal empowerment), and power within (personal agency and efficacy). These ways of understanding our personal power (as opposed to the traditional hierarchical model of power over, or...

Dr. Tamara Russell is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, martial artist and mindfulness trainer. She works as an academic and clinician, exploring the use of embodied mindfulness in the work of transformation and self-development. Tamara is involved in international collaborations looking at how mindfulness training changes the structure and function of the brain. She is the Director of the Mindfulness Centre of Excellence, L...

In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, Charlotte and Melinda discuss the vital role that artists play in helping to envision and shape the future with their creative work. In keeping with our recent episode on Creativity for the Common Good (Episode 112), we explore how artists can use their vision and problem-solving skills to help make the world a better place, from pioneering new innovations and fostering community to hel...

Dr. AZA Allsop is an artist, neuroscientist, and psychiatrist who conducts research at the intersection of social cognition, music mindfulness, and psychedelics. AZA received his MD from Harvard Medical School, PhD in Neuroscience from MIT, and was an Emerson Scholar at Berklee College of Music. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Yale’s Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Collective Healing at Howar...

Building upon our recent Creative Spark episodes on creativity in communication (Episode 110) and self-empowerment (Episode 108), Charlotte and Melinda contemplate how we can use our creativity for the common good, such as connecting in meaningful ways, supporting our local communities in challenging times, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and asking questions before jumping to conclusions. This episode, like the mini-episod...

Grant Davis is the co-owner of Record ATX, a creative audio and video production studio in Austin, Texas, where we record The Syncreate Podcast.He’s also the longtime co-host of The Beerists Podcast, an award winning craft beer review show and host of Hello Crawlers, a book club podcast dedicated to the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series. Our conversation traces Grant’s journey from baby podcaster to studio co-owner, shar...

,In this episode of our Creative Spark series, we reflect on how we can bring our creativity into our communication and relationships with others, using the “Yes, and…” principle from improv, which opens up possibilities, inviting dialogue, collaboration, and a deepening of connection. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the...

Keila Shaheen is a Brazilian–Puerto Rican American scholar, international bestselling author, and musician. She is the creator of the Zenfulnote app and author of The Shadow Work Journal, which has sold over a million copies and helped introduce shadow work to a new generation. Now pioneering the practice of Light Work, Keila’s mission is to guide others toward inner transformation and creative awakening. Keila integrat...

In this episode of our Creative Spark series, we explore how our limiting beliefs and scarcity thinking can hold us back from personal, creative, and professional opportunities. With examples from our own lives, we share how to invite more abundance and expansiveness into our mindset, from actually seeing ourselves as creative to allowing ourselves little luxuries. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also include...

Hannah Williams infuses the practice of mindfulness into all aspects of her life, from songwriting and performing to her work in real estate, and to her podcast, Mindfully Austin. Our conversation explores how practicing mindfulness creates ripple effects, touching every person and situation we come into contact with, from our professional relationships to our families and our creative work, fostering greater authenticity, connecti...