Podcast Recommendations about Creativity and Sharing Stories
I’ve been listening to a wide variety of podcasts on my daily walks, many of which relate to themes of creativity, the writing journey, and storytelling that touches the heart. These are three of my recent favorites:
Krista Tippett interviewing children’s book author Kate DiCamillo. Kate shares about her challenges learning to read and the moment, when she was reading Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear, that it all came together for her: “you really feel like you’re going to come out of your body and lift off…. like you walk through a golden door into a room of light.” I love that description of realizing what it means to be able to read: that world upon world has suddenly opened up.
They also discuss Kate DiCamillo’s response to another writer’s question about what we owe the very young: to tell the truth or preserve their innocence? Kate responded by sharing about her experience asking children if they knew the book Charlotte’s Web, and if they knew it, did they love it, and also, did they cry? Most of the children admitted that they cried, but that they still loved the story. Many chose to reread it, not because they thought it might turn out differently but because, as one child said, “I knew that a terrible thing was going to happen, and I also knew that it was going to be okay somehow. I thought that I couldn’t bear it, but then when I read it again, it was all so beautiful. And I found out that I could bear it.”
So, Kate’s ultimate response to the first writer’s question for all writers who feel called to the sacred task of telling stories for the young is another question: “How do we tell the truth and make that truth bearable?”
Kate Bowler interviewing Susan Cain about her most recent book, Bittersweet.
In this interview, Susan Cain shared her fascination with the phenomenon that something about listening to beautifully sad music allows us to feel both joy and sorrow simultaneously, which points to “a deep truth…. that’s what life is. It’s both those things. There’s this understanding that there’s something in the bittersweet longing that unlocks our deepest state of creativity and connection.” I think of all those children going back to read Charlotte’s Web over and over. Kate Bowler ends each of her podcasts with a blessing, which this week includes these words: “These transcendent moments filling us with awe conspire to break our hearts, God.” I love that.
Linda Sivertsen interviewing authors Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Patchett during the height of the pandemic:
In this conversation, these writers discuss finding the courage to share their stories: “The courage is in bringing it because you want to bring it. You want to offer the gift and whether or not anyone picks it up or accepts it… that’s the scary part….” I can relate to that!