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No Time to be Timid — Season 3
R. Eric Thomas: Seizing Unexpected Creative Opportunities
R. Eric Thomas is a creative powerhouse. First, he’s masterful on stage not only as a storyteller, but also as the long running host of The Moth StorySlams in Philadelphia. Second, he writes for every possible medium — he’s a television writer for shows airing on Apple TV and FX; an award-winning playwright; and the author of several books, including the national bestsellers Here For It, or How to Save Your Soul in America and his latest book, Congratulations, The Best is Over!
Many people first learned about Eric from his daily humor column on Elle.com “Eric Reads the News.” And as of July 1, he’s writing the nationally syndicated advice column “Asking Eric.”
Here’s the thing: Eric’s incredible career journey started with a Facebook post that went viral. But he’s no overnight success. He was able to capitalize on that opportunity because he’d been preparing for years.
Sy Montgomery and Howard Mansfield: Creating a Writing Life
My neighbors, the NYTimes bestselling author Sy Montgomery and acclaimed author Howard Mansfield, have been married for 37 years. In that time, they’ve built and sustained a writing life that’s produced about 40 books between them. And even though they’re a unit, they’ve dedicated their lives to separate creative interests. Sy writes on behalf of animals — she’s best known for her books The Good, Good Pig and The National Book Award Finalist, The Soul of an Octopus — and Howard writes about architecture, preservation, and history in his quest to understand the soul of American places.
And while they live in the same home, they usually don’t know what project the other one is working on.That’s because they give each other the space, support, and feedback that each other needs to do their best work. In a rare combined media appearance, Sy and Howard share how we can treat the artists in our lives and model how to pursue our own creative efforts.
Nora Fiffer: Bringing Big Creative Ideas to a Small Town
You know the saying, “bloom where you’re planted”? My guest, Nora Fiffer, embodies it. She’s an actor, director, and producer in both theater and film and like me, she lives in rural New Hampshire. She moved here from Chicago about eight years ago, and since she’s arrived, she’s co-founded the award-winning Firelight Theatre Workshop, which is now in its seventh season; produced two short films using local talent; and is set to release her first feature film, Another Happy Day, this fall.
Nora also embodies the eighth principle of the No Time to be Timid Manifesto, “Constraints are opportunities.” Like most of us, Nora has limited space, resources, and most of all time, because in her case, Nora’s raising two children. Still, Nora brings big creative ideas to a small town. So fair warning, if you have any excuses for not stepping into your creative practice, Nora’s probably going to shoot them down.
Radha Agrawal: Creating Community with a Global Dance Movement
There are few individuals in the world who can convince people to get out of bed and start dancing at 6:00 am completely sober. Radha Agrawal, the co-founder, CEO and Chief Community architect of Daybreaker, the global morning sober dance and wellness movement, is one of them. And for the past 10 years, a half a million people across 33 cities and five continents have joined her. And here’s the thing. Radha — a social entrepreneur whose mission is to bring more joy and belonging to the world — started out as an investment banker. Believe it or not, there’s a much straighter line between where she started and where she is now than you might think. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of building an intentional community, Daybreak’s upcoming Purple Tour targeting the swing states, and her newest project, The Belong Center.
Laura Wilson: Revealing Our Shared Humanity through Photography
At 84 years old, Laura Wilson could run circles around most of us. She throws herself into her creative projects — which often take years to complete — with high energy and optimism. She moves quickly, never dallying when pursuing her creative work (a missed opportunity to photograph John Updike still stings). And her work reveals the humanity and stories behind individuals, communities, and events that we rarely see — cockfighting, cowboys, drug smuggling searches, debutantes, world-famous authors, and reclusive religious groups. In our conversation, we talk about working with famed photographer Richard Avedon, the keys to her decades-long career, and her induction into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame (at age 79).