Truth is Golden Ep. 23 - Start with Why w/ Stephen Shedletzky
During the summer break, I will be sharing the last three episodes of Truth is Golden, my previous podcast that’s been discontinued a few years ago. I still believe to this day that this content is evergreen, hence my ongoing effort to republish it so that people can learn from creatives about what makes them tick and how they’ve become successful.
In this episode, I had the pleasure to talk to Stephen Shedletzky, former Lead Igniter at Simon Sinek's Start With Why and one of the nicest, most genuine human beings I have ever met. We talked about the importance of purpose, culture and of course, Rock'n'roll.
Shed has since written a book and started his own consultancy, continuing to inspire leaders to foster productive cultures.
Check it out below.
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About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
Truth is Golden Ep. 22 - Not Just Numbers w/ 5468796 Architecture
This interview was initially published in June 2020.
I had the pleasure to interview Saša Radulovic, Johanna Hurme and Colin Neufeld, the partners at 5468796 Architecture as part of our Truth is Golden series. I was impressed to discover, in the course of my research for this interview and after talking to the 3 partners how approachable, genuine and friendly they were, on top of being some of the most innovative and creative architects alive today.
After doing the interview, I had the pleasure to meet Saša and Johanna by chance while they were in town and they proved to be just as nice in person over a drink.
If you want to know where the future of Canadian Architecture is headed, do yourself a favour and listen to the interview below.
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About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
Credits: ©2020 Revelateur Studio Inc.
Post-Production: Ryan Aktari
Music: Bounce Trio, Star Animal, © 2014, All rights reserved.
Truth Is Golden ep. 301 - In Praise Of Craft w/ Fraser Greenberg
This interview was initially published in February 2019.
Fraser Greenberg and I spoke at length about his Toronto upbringing, how he stumbled into family business and transformed it to thrive an ever-changing market as well as his latest endeavour, the coffee shop Milky’s in Toronto’s West End. What struck me about Fraser is the consistency with which he bring passion, purpose and an amazing sense of craft to everything he touches. A fascinating guest with great ideas, check out Fraser’s interview to learn more about him.
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About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
Credits:
Post-Production: Ryan Aktari
Music: Bounce Trio, Star Animal, 2014.
Organ & Keys : Matthieu Marthouret
Ténor Sax : Toine Thys
Drums : Gautier Garrigue
Composed by Toine Thys (copyrights SABAM).
Buy it on BandCamp :
https://weseemusicstore.bandcamp.com/album/small-streams-big-rivers
More info and music here :
http://www.youtube.com/user/weseemusic
http://www.matthieumarthouret.com
Truth Is Golden - 208 | Para-Architecture w/ Nic Granleese
Photo courtesy of the guest.
This podcast was initially published in November 2018.
Aussie architect and internet entrepreneur Nic Granleese, did his interview with us during his last visit in Toronto. He talked about his shoeless upbringing in rural Australia and how during a sabbatical early on in his career, he decided to hop on his motorcycle, quit architecture and become a photographer. Subsequently, his path led him to create bowerbird, a growing online platform that links architects with publications. Listen in to hear Nic speak about his path.
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About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
{PODCAST RERUN} Truth Is Golden - 207 | Bewildered by LA w/ Frances Anderton
PODCAST ALERT! Check our latest interview with the funny and articulate France Anderton, host of DnA on the radio station KCRW in Los Angeles.
Photo courtesy of the guest.
A brief 2022 take on this podcast: When I started podcasting 5 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but on the technical side, I sucked and I was also terrified to record myself for the public to hear. “What are they going to think of me?” was a constantly recurring mantra in my head and I would routinely get the jitters in the hour leading up to an interview.
Four years on, I feel much more positively about the whole endeavour, but if I ask one thing of you is this: don’t judge the execution too harshly and instead focus on the content of the conversations. I think after all these years they still hold tremendous value.
For the last episode of our series on LA creatives, I interviewed Frances Anderton, former host of the NPR radio show Design and Architecture on the Los Angeles radio station KCRW. Frances talked about her upbringing in the UK, her early aspirations to be an architect, how she fell in love with broadcasting and Los Angeles in the early 90’s, as well as living in a Frank Gehry-designed 1960’s apartment building.
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About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
{PODCAST RERUN} Truth Is Golden - 205 | Loosen Up a Little w/ Paul Petrunia
A brief 2022 take on this podcast: When I started podcasting 5 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but on the technical side, I sucked and I was also terrified to record myself for the public to hear. “What are they going to think of me?” was a constantly recurring mantra in my head and I would routinely get the jitters in the hour leading up to an interview.
Four years on, I feel much more positively about the whole endeavour, but if I ask one thing of you is this: don’t judge the execution too harshly and instead focus on the content of the conversations. I think after all these years they still hold tremendous value.
In episode 206, the third instalment in our series on LA creatives, Paul Petrunia talked about his upbringing in the Canadian prairies, how Arthur Erickson influenced him to be an architect, his ill-fated career as a teen ballet dancer and his cultural confusion as an expat torn between American and Canadian cultures. Going back to the early Internet days when he started a dot-com business in the middle of the lake late 90's boom to today and his life as the man behind the popular Architecture website archinect.com.
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About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
Credits:
Post-Production: Ryan Aktari
Music credit: Bounce Trio, Star Animal, 2014.
Organ & Keys : Matthieu Marthouret
Ténor Sax : Toine Thys
Drums : Gautier Garrigue
Composed by Toine Thys (copyrights SABAM).
Buy it on BandCamp :
weseemusicstore.bandcamp.com/album/smal…big-rivers
More info and music here :
www.youtube.com/user/weseemusic
www.matthieumarthouret.com
www.facebook.com/MatthieuMarthouret.Music/
{PODCAST RERUN} Truth Is Golden - 205 | Less Is More Or Less w/ Dan Brunn
A brief 2022 take on this podcast: When I started podcasting 5 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but on the technical side, I sucked and I was also terrified to record myself for the public to hear. “What are they going to think of me?” was a constantly recurring mantra in my head and I would routinely get the jitters in the hour leading up to an interview.
Four years on, I feel much more positively about the whole endeavour, but if I ask one thing of you is this: don’t judge the execution too harshly and instead focus on the content of the conversations. I think after all these years they still hold tremendous value.
Dan Brunn’s early life in Tel Aviv, subsequent move with his family to Southern California at age 7 and his later nomadic lifestyle as an adult certainly did not make his life easy, yet set the stage for a highly creative and driven character to develop. Someone as uncompromising as he is a kind soul who wants to do good in the world. Dan is a young(ish) architect based out of LA creating buildings inspired by the Bauhaus aesthetic he grew up around in Tel Aviv, but also influenced by Southern California modernism. We chatted about what moves him, his very early love for architecture, his influences as well as his love of cars, music, food and travel. Listen in to hear Dan speak about his work and life.
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The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
Credits:
Post-Production: Ryan Aktari
Music: Bounce Trio, Star Animal, 2014.
Organ & Keys : Matthieu Marthouret
Ténor Sax : Toine Thys
Drums : Gautier Garrigue
Composed by Toine Thys (copyrights SABAM).
Buy it on BandCamp :
weseemusicstore.bandcamp.com/album/smal…big-rivers
More info and music here :
www.youtube.com/user/weseemusic
www.matthieumarthouret.com
www.facebook.com/MatthieuMarthouret.Music/
{PODCAST RERUN} Truth is Golden - 202 | We're All Going To Die w/ Stefan Hunt
A brief 2022 take on this podcast: When I started podcasting 5 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but on the technical side, I sucked and I was also terrified to record myself for the public to hear. “What are they going to think of me?” was a constantly recurring mantra in my head and I would routinely get the jitters in the hour leading up to an interview.
Four years on, I feel much more positively about the whole endeavour, but if I ask one thing of you is this: don’t judge the execution too harshly and instead focus on the content of the conversations. I think after all these years they still hold tremendous value.
In episode 2 of our second season, Stefan Hunt, recounted his -short- life story, from a typical western childhood in New South Wales, Australia, to his early foray into film making, crossing the US at 18 with no money, a bieber haircut and a drive to surf all 48 states, including the 20+ landlocked ones. His first film, self-described as “cringeworthy”, got him some attention and eventually led him to become the multi-talented professional filmmaker, artist and storyteller he is today; all the while continuing on his literally off the beaten path journey. Listen in to hear more about how one can be a highly creative, decent and compassionate human being at the same time.
About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice make a go of a career at it. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. In short, we want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative vision and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
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![[PODCAST] Truth is Golden Ep. 309 - Creative Being w/ Tiffany Pratt](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5301319be4b0cb0fd9a8d98a/1610415718918-Z1JMQ39OYF29ABS876J9/iu.jpg)
[PODCAST] Truth is Golden Ep. 309 - Creative Being w/ Tiffany Pratt
Tiffany Pratt is a creative force of nature and self-described fairy godmother of glitter. In this interview, she peels back the curtain and lets us take a peek into her wild, crazy, colourful world.
Without further ado, check out our final Truth is Golden episode for yourself, it'll be worth your while.
Listen to it here.
About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
![[PODCAST] Truth is Golden Ep. 308 - Under The Influence Of Terry O'Reilly](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5301319be4b0cb0fd9a8d98a/1605150413164-QHS7UJQI2WLBLBBDQJ3Y/terry-o-reilly-in-the-terstream.jpg)
[PODCAST] Truth is Golden Ep. 308 - Under The Influence Of Terry O'Reilly
Lining up podcast guests can be quite the ordeal. Sometimes it literally takes years before busy people accept an invitation if they reply at all.
Terry O'Reilly, arguably someone who's in really high-demand was such a guest. His wife and producer, albeit a lovely person, kept telling me that it may or may not happen a number of times until I decided to give up. Low and behold, about 6 months after I threw in the towel, I received an email asking "are you still interested in interviewing Terry?"
Needless to say, I put my little bruised ego aside and quickly obliged. The moral of the story is that persistence is key and sometimes, even after you give up, things will still happen.
At the end of the day I hold no grudge with Terry or his producer wife, they were just safeguarding his time for the important work he does and ultimately I'm glad it worked out because this is one of my favourite interviews to date.
Without further ado, check out the penultimate Truth is Golden episode for yourself, it'll be worth your while.
Check it out here.
I want to give a special shout-out to Natasha Lebel, who initially turned me onto Terry long-time podcast "Under the Influence" to which I took an immediately liking and have been a rabid fan of ever since.
About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
[PODCAST] Truth is Golden Ep. 307 - Start with Why w/ Stephen Shedletzky
When I started this podcast almost 3.5 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing, nor how I would accomplish it. All I knew was that I had a burning desire to talk to creatives about their lives, work and accomplishments.
Today, this is one of the things I'm the proudest of and despite all its imperfections, it's been amazing to be able to get into the heads of so many really smart and deeply engaging guests.
Sadly this is coming to an end, as I feel that I've exhausted the potential of this format and it's time to kill it before it becomes stale.
Fear not, there are still two interviews with incredibly interesting guests to be released after this one, but I have stopped recording new ones and will instead focus on the other RVLTR podcast: Single Serves, which is not showing any signs of slowing down.
In this episode, I had the pleasure to talk to Stephen Shedletzky, Lead Igniter at Simon Sinek's Start With Why and one of the nicest, most genuine human beings I have ever met. We talked about the importance of purpose, culture and of course, rock'n'roll.
Check it out below.
About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
How Harley Davidson killed itself
Photo by Javier Aguilera
In this amazingly produced short documentary by our friends at Fortnine (whose content is always the perfect mix of informative, entertaining and funny), we learn that HD is dying a slow death, that might have been precipitated by COVID.
After decades of ignoring an ever-changing marketplace and stubbornly refusing to engage new audiences, the company now finds itself with a dwindling customer base and no other demographic interested in their products.
The lesson is this: markets change all the time and seemingly at a constantly increasing rate. For any company that wants to be in it for the long haul (yes, that include architects and designers) one would be well advised to pay attention to where the market is going and follow it, or better yet, try to predict where it will go and get there ahead of the surge in demand.
We can help you with that, especially in these times of ongoing crisis.
If you like what you see, click “>>subscribe” at the top left of this page, to get our daily (or weekly) updates straight into your inbox. You can also write me a little love note here. I truly enjoy having conversations with you about what I write.
Sidewalk Labs is gone... What now?
Sidewalk Labs has left the city and while some have lamented their departure, I for one, am delighted that after much debate over the extent of Alphabet's reach, through their subsidiary Sidewalk Labs, they have decided to leave, using the COVID-19 crisis as a lame attempt to hide the fact that the opposition they were facing was growing by the day.
I wrote about the issue before and explained why it was a dangerous proposition to leave a company like google in charge of such a large project and with insufficient accountability regarding the collection and usage of private data.
This is an amazing opportunity for the city to go back to the drawing board and rethink their whole approach to city building and at the same time make sure that the whole process is more democratic.
We often hear about governments abusing their powers and wasting taxpayers money, but a worrying trend over the past few years has emerged from the "capitalist" -in name only- side of the aisle where too many tech companies are slowly but surely turning into surveillance apparatuses that would give Jeremy Bentham wet dreams if he were still alive.
This is not a problem that is going to be solved overnight, so stay tuned for more articles where we discuss this issue with experts on city-building, starting with Naama Blonder and Howard Tam.
If you like what you see, click “>>subscribe” at the top left of this page, to get our daily (or weekly) updates straight into your inbox. You can also write me a little love note here. I truly enjoy having conversations with you about what I write.
[PODCAST] Truth is Golden Ep. 306 - Not Just Numbers w/ 5468796 Architecture
I had the pleasure to interview Saša Radulovic, Johanna Hurme and Colin Neufeld, the partners at 5468796 Architecture as part of our Truth is Golden series. I was impressed to discover, in the course of my research for this interview and after talking to the 3 partners how approachable, genuine and friendly they were, on top of being some of the most innovative and creative architects alive today.
After doing the interview, I had the pleasure to meet Saša and Johanna by chance while they were in town and they proved to be just as nice in person over a drink.
If you want to know where the future of Canadian Architecture is headed, do yourself a favour and listen to the interview below.
About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth, so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
The Final Frontier
Photo by SpaceX
Gene Rodenberry called it decades ago before space exploration was even a real thing. Space is now officially the true final frontier. Burt Rutan, arguably the most creative aerospace engineers of all time has been talking about it for a couple of decades.
Since man went to the moon, the exploration of the unknown doesn't excite humans as much as it once did and save for one or two industries, innovation and progress has pretty much come to a halt across the board. Buildings are pretty much the same they were 50 years or even 100 years ago, without any major breakthrough in how they're built and operate. Cars haven't fundamentally changed for 50 or 60 years. These have gone through minor incremental improvements over time, but the basic recipe remains the same. I can go on and on about many other industries.
Now that space exploration has been taken over by private entrepreneurs, there is hope that we could return to the kind of adventurous expeditions that inspire our youth to more than just looking forward to the next navel-gazing tiktok video (I just want to puke thinking about this).
If history is any indication, the stuff that's discovered from these imminent voyages should inspire more than just another butt-ugly, derivative parametric design.
Plus, it's fun to think about what martian architecture would look like.
If you like what you see, click “>>subscribe” at the top left of this page, to get our daily (or weekly) updates straight into your inbox. You can also write me a little love note here. I truly enjoy having conversations with you about what I write.
93%
©2017 rvltr - Architect: WeissAU
That's the proportion of homes, built in North America, for which no architect was involved at all. Some architects, Like Kevin Weiss, have the talent to conceive of homes that address that fact while providing their clients with solutions to their problems.
House 93 is the result of that. Even thought it's been around for a few years, I'm still amazed to this day about how clever the final result is. That's a textbook case of turning a major challenge into an opportunity.
Read more about the house on WeissAU's page.
I hope you take as much pleasure reading my writings as I do writing them because they are created for your enjoyment!
Click “>>subscribe” at the top left of this page, to get our daily (or weekly) updates straight into your inbox. You can also write me a little love note here. I truly enjoy having conversations with you about what I write.
Get the bully out of the sandbox
Credit HH Photo
In the current so-called housing "crisis" that is hitting many major cities around the world, it often seems that capitalism is to blame for all those ills. I think this is a short-sighted view that fails to address a few issues:
There are major cities around the world where this is not nearly as much of an issue. Tokyo has found a solution to its housing problem by adopting much-relaxed zoning regulations for housing, that allows for it to go up quickly without red tape.
We have an incentive problem: politicians are elected by city residents. When in a country like Canada, nearly 70% of households own their homes, they have every incentive to fight tooth and nail against increased density, most of the time based on unfounded fears about the negative impact of such developments. Since politicians are cowardly re-election plotting rent-seekers, they tend to not go against the majority in their constituencies, when it comes to make courageous urban planning decisions and allow future residents (who have no say because they don't yet live in the city) a shot at having decent life opportunities. Margaret A., I thought you'd be smarter than that.
We have an urban planning problem: in a city like Toronto, it is absolutely mind-blowing that it is considered normal to have entire neighbourhoods of single-family houses in the downtown core, which were suburban 100+ years ago when they were built, yet do no correspond to the needs of the city anymore.
It's a bit ironic that Canada is founded on the values of acceptance, openness and multi-culturalism and yet, it seems that these principles don't apply at the scale of the block, where it's more like a sandbox to which the local bully won't give you access and cry to his parents that it's unfair he can't play alone anymore when all you want to do is jump him and help him make a sandcastle.
The problem is not the lack of solutions, as we've demonstrated, it's that the culture needs to shift. Maybe if we adopted the "you can't say you can't play" mantra, we might just change that culture.
I hope you take as much pleasure reading my writings as I do writing them because they are created for your enjoyment!
Click “>>subscribe” at the top left of this page, to get our daily (or weekly) updates straight into your inbox. You can also write me a little love note here. I truly enjoy having conversations with you about what I write.
Truth Is Golden ep. 305 - Good Fucking Design Podcast w/ Jason Bacher
One founding half of GFDA and certified foulmouth, Jason Bacher is a talented designer, dedicated teacher and all-around decent human being. We talked about his humble beginnings selling wallpaper and how that eventually led him to found Good Fucking Design Advice with his long-time friend Brian Buirge. We also talked about failure, the strangeness of moving to new cities, firing your mother twice and the value of standing out using unbridled profanities.
About the podcast: The intent behind our podcast series "Truth Is Golden" is to look at renowned creatives and their work with a critical eye. We aim to ask deep questions in order to peel back the layers of marketing, clever one-liners and sexy branding. We want to show the world what it truly takes for genuinely creative forces to find their own voice build a career on what is very often nothing more than a drive to do things differently. We want to hear about the successes, the failures, the inspirational stories and the lessons gleaned from all of it. We want the truth so that we can inspire other people to fulfill their own creative aspirations and in the process contribute to making the world a better place.
The second greatest drummer of all time
At the risk of sounding insensitive, I usually don't get too interested when celebrities die. Part of the reason, it seems, is that unless it's someone whose work I appreciate and am familiar with, I just don't feel any connection with them, even though it's always sad when someone dies. However, I am really not interested in the celebrity fame game. Plus, for every one of them that dies, how many complete strangers have died in absolute anonymity? Instead, I like to think nice thoughts for all the people who die whom we will never know about.
There are a few exceptions. As you may know, Neil Peart recently died of cancer and I felt pretty sad when I learned the news. Not only was he an essential part of the greatest Canadian band of all time, but he was also a fellow motorcyclist who travelled the world on two wheels.
A few years ago, I read his memoir "Ghost Rider" which is the story of how he healed his broken heart after losing his only teenage daughter in a car accident and then his wife 10 months later, whom he claimed "let herself die of sorrow". The story of his grief and eventual newfound appreciation for life was one of the most touching non-fiction books I have ever read and shaped how I was to deal with my own grief after my mother passed away a few years later.
I'm not sad so much because he passed away, as I had no personal connection to the man, but I am certainly sad to see such a raw, creative powerhouse disappear, because we lost someone who genuinely brought something honest and valuable to the world, and that's a great loss.
In times where all we hear on the news (even for someone who doesn't watch the news like me) is doomsday scenarios, crises and petty politics, it is refreshing to come across someone who loved life so much that he was able to pass down something positive to the world, and for that, I am sad.
RIP Neil.
Single Serves ep. 105 - Johnson on Creativity and Innovation
Beck Johnson is our guest on the latest Single Serves podcast. Our conversation on creativity and innovation is one of my favourites to date as she is an engaging speaker and a wealth of knowledge. Enjoy!
Check it out below.