The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Theatre, Dance, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Social Justice, Spirituality, Feminism, Tech, Sustainability

Mark Greaney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and has spent his career exploring the technical and human complexities of the modern thriller. A student of international relations and political science, he has spent the last two decades at the intersection of deep-state espionage and the high-tech future of warfare. He is the creator of the Gray Man series, a motion picture starring Ryan Gosling, and was entrusted to carry forward the Jack Ryan universe created by the late Tom Clancy. To get the details right, Mark doesn’t just sit at a desk; his writing is built on a foundation of immersive experiential research. He’s traveled to dozens of countries, trained with SWAT teams, and even flown in Navy fighter jets.
His latest book, The Hard Line, brings his protagonist back to a landscape of old conflicts in Northern Ireland and forces him to confront a father he hasn't seen in twenty years. It’s a story about the blood we share and the blood we shed. It arrives at a moment when the boundaries of global conflict are being redrawn by AI, disinformation, and a shifting geopolitical order.
(0:00) The AI Arms Race
(1:42) Maladaptive Daydreaming
(2:34) Following Your Passion
(3:05) Collaborating with Tom Clancy
(3:38) The Weight Of Grief
(6:03) The Reality Of Consequences
(7:26) The Value Of Outsider Perspective
(8:30) The Weaponization Of AI
(9:00) The Erosion Of Truth
(11:05) The Erosion Of Institutions
(13:14) The Media And Complexity
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

We look to the arts to help us make sense of the world. Today on The Creative Process, we bring together twelve writers. We hear from Booker Prize winners, Paul Lynch, discussing "cosmic fiction", and Yann Martel on the necessity of magical thinking. We’re joined by Andre Dubus III and Megan Abbott, who share their thoughts on memory and family; while Siri Hustvedt, Etgar Keret and A.L. Kennedy explore the ordinary madness of grief. We listen to the novelists Katie Kitamura, Intan Paramaditha, and Liz Moore reflecting on displacement, trauma and the liminal state—and find a connection to the natural world with T.C. Boyle, and Ada Limón.
(0:00) Andre Dubus III –(Bestselling Author of House of Sand and Fog)
(0:55) Etgar Keret (Celebrated Author · Filmmaker) (5:08)
(3:03) Paul Lynch (Booker Prize-winning Author of Prophet Song)
(4:12) Megan Abbott (Bestselling Author of The Turnout)
(5:53) Katie Kitamura (Author of Audition · Intimacies)
(8:02) Liz Moore (Bestselling Author of Long Bright River)
(9:10) A.L. Kennedy (Award-winning Author of Day · Alive in the Merciful Country)
(10:14) Siri Hustvedt (Author of Ghost Stories · What I Loved)
(13:10) Yann Martel (Booker Prize-Winning Author Of Life Of Pi · Son Of Nobody)
(14:27) Intan Paramaditha (Author of The Wandering)
(16:18) T.C. Boyle (Bestselling Author of Talk to Me and Blue Skies) (20:27)
(17:46) Ada Limón (24th U.S. Poet Laureate · Author of The Hurting Kind)
To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews.
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
IG @creativeprocesspodcast

After 40 years of reporting on the world's most pressing ecological crises, you might expect Fred Pearce to be a cynic. Instead, he’s one of our greatest advocates for hope.
If you follow the news about the environment, it’s easy to feel a sense of impending doom. We hear about accelerating extinctions, collapsing water cycles, and climate tipping points. But my guest today, environmental journalist Fred Pearce, says that if you look at the "ground-truth"—the stories of nature and people he has encountered—there is a surprising, even radical, case for hope. His work has taken him to more than eighty countries, from the logging concessions of Borneo to the radioactive exclusion zones of Chernobyl. He is the environment consultant for New Scientist and a regular contributor to The Guardian.
In his latest work, Despite It All: A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls, he challenges the prevailing narrative of environmental collapse. He argues that the "population bomb" is being defused, that we are approaching "peak stuff" in developed nations, and that nature possesses a staggering capacity for resilience that we often ignore. He says that a "Good Anthropocene" is not only possible but is already beginning to take shape through a combination of ancient wisdom and modern technical fixes. We’ll talk today about his life as a journalist and why pessimism may be the greatest enemy of progress.
(0:00) The Radical Case for Climate Optimism
(2:46) Traveling the World to Find Environmental Resilience
(5:08) Fixing the Anthropocene and Escaping Despondency
(10:22) Indigenous Wisdom and Local Stewardship
(15:28) Rewilding and Trusting Nature's Adaptability
(21:10) The Renewable Energy Transition in China and Beyond
(23:56) Peak Stuff and Redesigning the Cities of the Future
(34:01) Defending Democracy and Environmental Protestors
(36:12) Drinking Radioactive Vodka in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone
(41:29) When the Rivers Run Dry and Water Scarcity
(50:37) Why the Population Bomb is Defusing
(55:36) The Origins of an Environmental Journalist
(1:03:15) The Future of Journalism in the Age of AI
(1:13:27) Generational Hope and the Next Industrial Revolution
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Today, on Earth Day, we explore the Living World—a reality where we are not merely on a planet, but are a moving part of its very metabolism. We travel from the High Sierras with Paul Hawken to the forests of Costa Rica with Thomas Crowther. Guided by Merlin Sheldrake and David George Haskell, we explore ecology, policy, and music with guests Paula Pinho, Hans Bruyninckx, Bill Hare and Alice Schmidt. Alongside Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Tom Chi, Erland Cooper, Rebecca Tickell and Britt Wray, we ask what happens when we stop trying to dominate and start trying to collaborate with the Earth?
(0:04) TIOKASIN GHOSTHORSE (Founder, First Voices Radio)
(2:05) PAUL HAWKEN (Founder, Project Regeneration, Project Drawdown, Author) (24:25)
(4:57) THOMAS CROWTHER (Founder, Restor, Co-chair UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration)
(5:51) MERLIN SHELDRAKE (Biologist, Author, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds)
(8:23) DAVID GEORGE HASKELL (Biologist, Author, How Flowers Made Our World)
(10:43) HANS BRUYNINCKX (Fmr. Director European Environment Agency)
(11:39) REBECCA TICKELL (Director, Kiss the Ground) Soil Health, Bio-sequestration (26:27)
(13:32) TOM CHI (Founding Partner At One Ventures, Author, Climate Capital)
(14:44) PAULA PINHO (Chief Spokesperson, European Commission)
(16:08) BILL HARE (Founder,CEO of Climate Analytics, Physicist)
(18:03) ALICE SCHMIDT (Global Sustainability Advisor, Author)
(19:18) ERLAND COOPER (Composer) Earth as Collaborator
(22:38) BRITT WRAY (Author, Generation Dread)
To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews.
Episode Website

Today, on Earth Day, we explore the Living World—a reality where we are not merely on a planet, but are a moving part of its very metabolism. We travel from the High Sierras with Paul Hawken to the forests of Costa Rica with Thomas Crowther. Guided by Merlin Sheldrake and David George Haskell, we explore ecology, policy and music with guests Paula Pinho, Hans Bruyninckx, Bill Hare and Alice Schmidt. Alongside Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Tom Chi, Erland Cooper, Rebecca Tickell and Britt Wray, we ask what happens when we stop trying to dominate and start trying to collaborate with the Earth?
(0:04) TIOKASIN GHOSTHORSE Founder, First Voices Radio
(2:05) PAUL HAWKEN Founder, Project Regeneration, Project Drawdown, Author (24:25)
(4:57) THOMAS CROWTHER Founder, Restor, Co-chair UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
(5:51) MERLIN SHELDRAKE Biologist, Author, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds
(8:23) DAVID GEORGE HASKELL Biologist, Author, How Flowers Made Our World
(10:43) HANS BRUYNINCKX Fmr. Director European Environment Agency
(11:39) REBECCA TICKELL (Director, Kiss the Ground) Soil Health (26:27)
(13:32) TOM CHI Founding Partner, At One Ventures, Author, Climate Capital
(14:44) PAULA PINHO Chief Spokesperson, European Commission
(16:08) BILL HARE Founder/CEO, Climate Analytics, Physicist
(18:03) ALICE SCHMIDT Global Sustainability Advisor, Author
(19:18) ERLAND COOPER (Composer) Earth as Collaborator
(22:38) BRITT WRAY Author, Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis
To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews
Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod IG @creativeprocesspodcast