The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Welcome to Syncreate, where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. Our goal is to demystify the creative process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative.
Creativity. It’s a word we throw around all the time, but what does it really mean? On the Syncreate Podcast, we share stories of the creative journey. We talk to changemakers, visionaries and everyday creatives working in a wide array of fields and disciplines. Our goal is to explore creativity in all its facets, and to gain a better understanding of the creative process – from imagination to innovation and everything in between.
The Syncreate Podcast is hosted by Melinda Rothouse, PhD. She helps individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life through coaching, consulting, workshops, retreats, and now, this podcast. She's written two books on creativity, including Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities (winner of a Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity and Innovation), with Charlotte Gullick. She's also a musician (singer-songwriter and bass player) and photographer based in Austin, Texas.
The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Episode 118: Creative Spark Series - The Power of Imagination with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
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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 preceded it, also includes insights from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.
For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to reflect on ways you may be limiting your own imagination, and how you can bring more playfulness and imagination into your day-to-day life.
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 10: Imagination and Creativity with Psychologist and Creativity Coach Dr. Diana Rivera, Episode 115: The Power of Play: Creativity, Play, and Embodiment with Dr. Tamara Russell, and Episode 116: Creativity, Power & Agency.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at info@syncreate.org.
Episode-specific hyperlinks:
Imagination: a Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin
The Syncreate book by Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
Show / permanent hyperlinks:
Melinda: Creativity and community are absolutely vital in challenging times. Creativity is also consistently named one of the top skills of the 21st century, especially with the advent of AI. Welcome to Syncreate, a show where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology and spirituality. We believe everyone has the capacity to create. Our goal is to demystify the process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative. What holds us back? Why do we get stuck? And how can we fully embrace our creativity?
We talk with visionaries and changemakers, and everyday creatives working in a wide range of fields and media - from the arts to science, technology and business. We aim to illuminate the creative process from imagination to innovation and everything in between. I'm Melinda Rothouse, and I help individuals and organizations bring their dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: I'm Charlotte Gullick, and I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. Melinda and I are the co-authors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate. At Syncreate, we’re here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you're not sure how to get it off the ground, visit us at syncreate.org. Our book, now available in both print and audiobook format, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help bring your work to the world.
Hello Syncreators! Welcome to the Syncreate podcast. We have one of our quickies, or our Creative Sparks to just give you a few ideas to think about, to kind of get your creativity juices flowing. Today, we're talking about the power of imagination, and we've had this, in different ways, on our various episodes. But we wanted to really, specifically talk about imagination. And I think for me, there's also like, the role of imagination right now in this moment.
And that, I guess, probably the baseline for me, is I want to make sure that in my own mind that I'm not limiting what I think is possible.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: Like, kind of is my imagination fed, nourished, flourishing or is it a little anemic right now? And can I do some things to kind of get it rocking and rolling, and thinking bigger? Because I think part of what's happening is divisiveness makes us think in like, limiting binaries, and how are we making sure that we have opportunities - probably not every moment - but, opportunities to think in transcendent ways, in like, what is possible? Is it always going to be either or are these third ways, and are we inviting the third way thinking into our lives?
Melinda: Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. I once heard, Heather Ash Amara, who's a spiritual teacher, talk about, you know, how generally we walk around and we have these kind of blinders on and, like, our sense of possibility is like, you know, the horse that has the things that can only see? Like, that's our sense of possibility. But in fact, there's this huge range of possibilities and we have to, I don't know, maybe like, make effort to remember that. (Laughter)
Charlotte: And, you know, it's more… there's so many implications for this. But thinking about like, our social media use. Are we looped into a… I always say it wrong… alogorithm. Algo - (Laughter)
Melinda: Algorithm. Alogorithm. (Laughter)
Charlotte: Alogorithm. Just reinforcing fear, or, you know, like -
Melinda: Definitely.
Charlotte: How do we make sure that the things that we're surrounding ourselves with aren't adding to that anemic imagination? I heard Ruha Benjamin speak and this - I got her book Imagination: A Manifesto - and she’s incredible. Really, really incredible. And one of her things is just looking at how technology reinforces disparities.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: And, like, inequity, and how, like, who gets represented in what gets perpetuated. And, you know, the thing that was really powerful that she talked about is social media use and how the companies don't care about us. And you know, said she thinks of social media companies like Big Tobacco, and that users get used. And so are we… and I've been really paying attention to this myself. I don't mean this like, “you shouldn't…” But I mean like, am I examining my own use, again in my alogorithms. (Laughter) You know, like, keeping me constricted, and what is possible.
She talks a lot about the role of play as it is linked to imagination. And how are we going to envision more just societies if we don't play? And this has so many implications, like for us right now. So, adults but like, children, and who gets recess time and who doesn't and how do we shrink imagination? And I don't know, it's just such a really powerful thing to be thinking about.
Melinda: Yeah. And I'll just share this. I was just having a similar conversation the other day with, somebody that we'll be having on the show, coming up soon, Dr. Tamara Russell, who's based in the UK. And she was - you may have seen this too - apparently there was a major article that came out that basically said how, you know, AI specifically, reinforces stereotypes and biases, and things like that.
And resumés that are fed into AI, you know, the ones with the different sounding names or female sounding names, you know, get deprioritized in these algorithms. And yet, all of these major companies are moving more and more to AI for their HR, you know, for hiring. So that's just going to continue, right? Unless we do something about it.
Charlotte: And that's the role of imagination, right? Like, how do we address something that is restricting imagination and restricting who is getting access to opportunity? Imagination is the way that we get there. And, you know, it's just like, a daily exercise. What do I imagine is possible? And noticing how grand or how small that imagination might be.
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: You know, this is a lot related to Afrofuturism and how people imagine the future. And a lot of the visual narrative is very white. And that it is… I mean, that word anemic comes to mind. That's very constricted. And I don't know if I'm going to say her name right. So, it's Nichelle Nichols who played Uhura in Star Trek, right. And she was the only black actor on the show, and she wanted to leave, and Martin Luther King counseled her to stay on the show because it was such a vital role she was playing that people could imagine black people in the future.
Melinda: In space. Yeah.
Charlotte: In space. Right. And I think that we are policing our own imagination too, and if we are, can we just build an awareness around not to be like, “Oh, you know, what have I seen today? On my screens? And how might I bust out of any particular ruts that I've been in?” Because that can lead to a limited imagination.
Melinda: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think, you know, on this conversation about like, you know, algorithms and AI and how they perpetuate certain inequities and things like that… you know, it's important to remember that no one's lives are more important than others. You know, just because you're a tech billionaire doesn't mean that you're better or more important than anyone else. And I think we've got that completely backward in our society right now.
Charlotte: And I think there’s another way that… think about where we could be paying attention. Imagine how we could pay attention. How often are we being sold a narrative that some lives are more valuable than others? Who will be in the future? You know who will get the water? Who will get the resources? And yeah, some people won't, but that's okay, because they're not the people who are really imagining what's possible. That's not it at all. It's who's controlling the resources.
Melinda: Right! And does everybody just sort of want to like, automatically buy into the future that Elon Musk is envisioning? I don't. (Laughter) You know? I think we need to put our imaginations to work here if we want to see something different.
Charlotte: Yes, absolutely. Oh, there's so many things! And I think that, you know, tech innovation is something too. It comes back to that idea of like, who is being imagined and what spaces? And, you know, I think that people may feel like, “Oh, you know, I'm just someone here, and I can't imagine what the tech billionaire is going to do…” But I think it's what it comes to… like, what do we offer ourself as a stimulus for a broad spectrum of humanity? How are our imaginations being engaged?
Melinda: Yeah. And even, again, we've been talking about this in the past few episodes around power and agency and empowerment. It's like, you know, where do innovations come from? They don't always come from the top down. Often, you know, new ideas or new patents or new inventions or whatever, come from people like, on the ground doing the work who think, is there a better way to do this? Like, is there a more efficient way to do this?
Or, you know, what if again? Like, this conversation about what if? What’s possible? And, you know, it might be that the next like, huge breakthrough comes from, you know, somebody in a humble place, in a humble situation who has a really great idea. And we need to hear those ideas. Just like, you know, it's akin to biodiversity, right? If we, like, kill the whole rainforest, we might miss the next cure for cancer, right? Like, we need everyone's ideas.
Charlotte: And if you only have one kind of tree, you have a very weak forest.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: Right. It's very vulnerable.
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: Also, it makes me think about like you were saying, like, humble might have humble origins, but also sometimes the people who are making solutions aren't actually talking to the users.
Melinda: Right! Yeah. (Laughter)
Charlotte: You know, like desire path. Is that what they’re called?
Melinda: This will be great! What is it?
Charlotte: Desire path. So, like, they'll create a new place and there will be paths, and then people don't actually use the walkways.
Melinda: Oh, yeah. (Laughter) They make their own paths, and then eventually they pave that.
Charlotte: Yes, exactly. Are you talking to the users? Are you imagining it from a user perspective? Or are you just managing it from a design perspective?
Melinda: Right. And that just makes it - this is kind of a random, but it's tangentially related - It's like, where did our roads come from in the past? And, you know, in the past, like, how did they get to be like… how did they get to be major thoroughfares? Well, first they were animal paths, and then there were people tracking the animal paths, and then they were like, dirt roads. And eventually they became super highways. Right?
Charlotte: And that's all about the people who, it’s based on user ability.
Melinda: Yes. Yes. And real-life use case. Yeah.
Charlotte: Yes. And that's how… we need to make sure we're talking to the real-life users as we imagine things.
Melinda: Definitely. So what's our Pro Tip? (Laughter)
Charlotte: Like, many of our Pro Tips, this is a reflection piece. Like, can you pay attention to where you might be limiting your own imagination? Just pay attention to your own thought to like, “Oh, that can't be done or that's not possible.”
Melinda: Or who am I to do it?
Charlotte: Right.
Melinda: Or who am I to say something?
Charlotte: And we're not saying that it's on you to change it, but just to notice the thinking and the thinking of nourished. Is it flourishing or is it a little tight and maybe understandably, maybe a little bit down? (Laughter) But how can we pump it back up so that we're imagining possibilities that are more equitable and, I guess, more full of life?
Melinda: Yeah, and more playful. I mean, I think that's something we also wanted to touch on today. Like, you know, play is so important for imagination. Doesn’t have to be so serious all the time. Right? And like, who gets to play? Who doesn't get to play? Think about the way children play and like, can we encourage ourselves to think about possibilities in a more playful way?
Charlotte: Maybe that's one of the things you could do. Notice your playgrounds.
Melinda: Yeah. What are your playgrounds?
Charlotte: And then if you're really into it and you’re able-bodied, maybe go for a swing.
Melinda: Yeah. (Laughter) I love a good swing.
Charlotte: Thank you for joining us today. Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under @sycreate. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And we're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin, with Charlotte joining us from the Hudson Valley. The podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios. Thanks so much for being with us, and see you next time.
