The Spark File with Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien
Your one stop shop for creative ideas and inspiration. Sign up for our newsletter HERE. Each week on The Spark File podcast, Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien reach into their spark files and share stories, ideas and fascinations to ignite your imagination. Obsessed with creativity, Blackwell and Camien also talk with artists and makers, movers and shakers who have taken the spark of inspiration and fanned it into a flame. Hear from inspiring creatives like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Eric Stonestreet, Jonathan Groff, Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich, Zachary Quinto, Leslie Odom Jr, Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Billy Eichner, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Karen Olivo, Sutton Foster, Michael R. Jackson and many more about their passions and their failures, their inspirations and their aspirations. Refill your creative fish pond with new ideas and fresh perspectives. Listen, then take it and make it! Learn more at thesparkfile.com.
Episodes
December 10, 2025 • 36 mins
Welcome to Season 7 of The Spark File podcast with Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien! On this episode, Laura and Susan discuss the wisdom of neuroscientist Dr. Dan Siegel and the fact that there is no such thing as Immaculate Perception. We only see what we believe. To truly see deeply, we must question everything we believe. Tune in to learn the inner workings of your own mind.
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August 24, 2025 • 27 mins
This week on The Town Hall Spark Sessions - a podcast collaboration between NYC's Town Hall and The Spark File, we welcome the iconic singer, songwriter, actress and composer, Sara Bareilles. With more than 15 million singles and 3 million albums sold in the U.S., she is one of the world’s leading popular musicians. Join us as we discuss how love and grief are interwoven and have sparked her creativity into a new album, the way tha...
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July 30, 2025 • 33 mins
This week on The Town Hall Spark Sessions, we welcome Melay Araya, Artistic Director at the Town Hall. In addition to her work as Artistic Director, Melay is a writer, archivist, and multimedia artist with three decades of experience. While providing extraordinary leadership at The Town Hall, one of New York City’s finest cultural institutions, Melay continues to study, compose, record, and perform.
Join us as we discuss how Melay...
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July 2, 2025 • 22 mins
This week on The Town Hall Spark Sessions, we welcome luminary actress and singer Laura Benanti. Best known for her revolutionary performance in the 2008 revival of Gypsy, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Benanti made her broadway debut at 18 playing Maria in the Sound of Music on Broadway. She has also starred in television and films, including ABC’s Nashville, NBC’s Supergirl, and HBO’s The...
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June 18, 2025 • 17 mins
This week, we welcomed the golden-voiced Sofronio Vasquez, winner of NBC’s The Voice Season 26. With his championship win, Sofronio became the first Filipino and Asian man to win a major singing competition in the United States. Join us as we discuss Sofronio’s thrilling rise in the music industry. He shares his secret to remaining positive and his tips and tricks for navigating what he calls “beautiful rejection.” We also chat abo...
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June 3, 2025 • 23 mins
In this week’s episode of The Town Hall Spark Sessions, we were thrilled to welcome Griffin Newman. For a decade, with his co-creator David Sims, Griffin has hosted the wildly popular podcast Blank Check with Griffin and David. Join us as Griffin discusses the Blank Check origin story, and how a film critic and an actor/comedian became longstanding professional podcasters. We chat about the show’s focus on individual director’s co...
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May 28, 2025 • 18 mins
In this week’s Town Hall Spark Session, we welcomed Sean Mayes, the visionary conductor and founder of Pops of Color, as he takes us behind the scenes of creating an orchestra that’s building bridges and breaking barriers. Join us as Sean shares how Pops of Color sparked from idea to inception. We discuss the impact of the orchestra’s unique programming, and Sean connects his work to Town Hall's remarkable 105-year history—as a ven...
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May 14, 2025 • 19 mins
For our second round The Town Hall Spark Sessions award-winning actor, writer, and singer-songwriter, Eisa Davis. In addition to co-writing the Warriors concept album with Lin-Manuel Mirana, she wrote and starred in Angela’s Mixtape, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Bulrusher. Join us as we discuss Eisa’s approach to her work, her early morning/late night writing process, and how she balances being an...
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May 7, 2025 • 23 mins
Surprise! We’re back, with some hot, fresh creative sparks for you—and this time, we’re at the Town Hall! In the first episode of The Town Hall Spark Sessions, we’re thrilled to feature a new conversation with Lin-Manuel Miranda about legacy, creativity, and the upcoming Spring Shout at the Town Hall—a benefit performance honoring him! As one of today’s most profound creatives, there is no one more deserving to be honored on the sa...
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May 7, 2025 • 4 mins
The Town Hall, New York City’s landmark cultural venue, is teams up with The Spark File, the acclaimed creativity podcast hosted by Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien, in this brand-new podcast series: The Town Hall Spark Sessions.
The Town Hall Spark Sessions will spotlight creatives, musicians, comedians, artists, advocates, cultural creators and conversation makers who have graced—or are about to grace—the legendary Town Hall sta...
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February 5, 2025 • 38 mins
After 20 spark-filled episodes, we’re wrapping up the season with a celebration! Join us as we look back at this remarkable season of spark, discuss highlights, and share just how we made this season happen. Bringing Season 5 of the Spark File podcast was a challenge. We were wrestling between our desire to make a perfect product and our hope to get as many sparks into the world as possible.
As we planned for Season 5, one thing b...
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January 29, 2025 • 37 mins
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January 22, 2025 • 42 mins
Recently, we learned that the beloved Blue Man Group will be closing their New York City and Chicago companies in 2025. This news was bittersweet, to say the least.
Blue Man Group has impacted each of our personal and professional lives in many ways; not the least of which was the 25 years Laura dedicated to building the Blue Man Group brand as the VP of Communications.
Learnings for our time and experiences with Blue Man Group h...
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January 15, 2025 • 32 mins
We know that writing a book is hard work—longform creativity takes patience, stamina, and an extraordinary drive to make it to the finish line. That’s why, this week, we’re celebrating our dear friend Jenny Clift, whose new book Thriving Artist: How Musicians, Performers, and Creatives Can Use EFT Tapping to Achieve Balance, Career Growth, and Success is released on January 15. We got a sneak peek at this incredible resource for a...
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January 8, 2025 • 37 mins
As the New Year barrels on, bringing an abundance of uncertainty with it, we wanted to return to a topic that has sparked us many times before: Making change.
In this week’s episode of The Spark File podcast, we reflect on the work of scientists and experts who study the circuitry of the brain, and offer some tangible tips for how to make change in your life.
We’ll also discuss some creative changemakers we know—passionate folks wh...
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December 31, 2024 • 32 mins
When Oxford revealed its annual “Word of the Year” earlier this month, we had some questions—and not just because “Brain Rot” is two words. The truth is, we scroll past hundreds of images, sounds, and writings every day, pumping into our brains faster than any information has ever moved before. We absorb things that are neither meaningful nor thought-provoking—information with no purpose other than to fill space and time. Join us t...
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December 24, 2024 • 44 mins
We have found that the more we tap into our creativity, the more we enjoy the holiday season. In this week’s episode of The Spark File Podcast, we explore creativity in the form of gift-giving. Join us as we discuss the history of giving tangible gifts and why the tradition continues. We’ll explore some of the incredible gifts given (and received!) by members of The Spark File community and touch on some of our favorites from over...
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December 18, 2024 • 43 mins
This week, we’re exploring an experience shared by more than half of the world’s population: Menopause. If you are thinking to yourself, “Oh, that topic isn’t for me.” We’re here to tell you the truth: menopause impacts everyone. If you have had a period in your life, or if you love a person who has had a period, this episode is for you. (Spoiler: that means it is for everybody.)
While the word itself might feel familiar, Menopause...
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December 11, 2024 • 36 mins
Like many artists, we deeply empathize with the world around us. It can be hard to manage all the tough feelings that come up. A lot is happening in the world—a lot to laugh about, cry about, shout about, and rage about. Sorrow can bring joy, anger can bring calm, and it can all feel impossible to face. And, like it or not, we believe there is one path forward: To get through it all, we’ve got to go all the way there.
This week’s e...
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December 4, 2024 • 36 mins
In our opinion, creating a connection with others is the most singularly powerful tool any creative has in their armory. Unfortunately, a lot of us find that it’s easier said than done.
This week, Susan and Laura explore Molly Beck’s book Reach Out: The Simple Strategy You Need to Expand Your Network. Join us as we discuss Molly’s research-based guidance and how it intersects with our practical approach to creative work. We’ll sha...
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