Carl Nordgren

In this show, I shared a series quotes from artists and thinkers that related to being creative, then added some of my thoughts. Here are a couple more. The first was too long for the radio format.

Last week’s show explored the brain and how it achieves a creative state. One point made and developed more fully here is that our brains are most creative when both hemispheres are working together.

This week’s guest was Juliet Gordy. We learned about her brand new company named Scivora. Scivora is an emotionally intelligent AI app that helps actors and teachers and professionals improve their presentations or performances.

I am finding it useful to think about today, the here and now, as the future that is present. It’s a notion that comes from my days teaching Creativity at Duke, 2002 to 2016. Early on I started asking students to think about their futures 20 years hence.

During the last radio show with Charles Johnson, founder of The Bump Serum, I asked him to find his creative and entrepreneurial types using this framework.

The past couple of shows I’ve been challenging my joyful and deeply held optimistic view of the natural human condition with research that reveals how we all quickly become blind to and blinded by our privileges—existing in a state of privilege inevitably distorts our views of how we got there and how we act, often radically. 

Last week’s show introduced the challenges of Privilege.  I am an ‘of the people, for the people, by the people’ populist in my heart and soul.

Fables are stories that distill complex truths into simple, memorable narratives. By using animals or everyday objects as characters, they bypass moralizing and allow listeners or readers to uncover lessons organically.

There’s something electric about entrepreneurs who build businesses born from personal struggle. They don’t just understand the problem — they’ve lived it, cursed it, and finally cracked it.