The Spark File with Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien

This week, Susan shares a spark so vast, we give it all our attention - Performance Anxiety. If you've ever felt tormented by fear, panic or anxiety related to your chosen profession, please do not miss this episode! Susan and Laura go deep into the prevalance of performance anxiety, what it feels like, who experiences it, and potential solutions to keep it at bay so that you can go on shining your light with ease.

Co-hosts Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien serve up some delicious creative sparks in the form of little-known controversies surrounding the beloved Little House on the Prairie series and its author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. We also explore the Mokita -- the truth everyone knows but no one will talk about -- how it defines our work cultures and how it can be used to great dramatic (or comedic) effect.

Words and language have real power. In this episode, Susan and Laura explore the amazing works and incredible life of someone who managed to harness that power to the benefit of so many: Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning author and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As they pull back the curtain to look at her work and creative process, Susan and Laura discuss Toni’s ability to center her own world in her writing, the ways in which her philosophies apply directly to their creative work, and exactly how carrot cake fits into it all.

When Oxford revealed its annual “Word of the Year” earlier this month, we had some questions—and not just because “Brain Rot” is two words.
The truth is, we scroll past hundreds of images, sounds, and writings every day, pumping into our brains faster than any information has ever moved before. We absorb things that are neither meaningful nor thought-provoking—information with no purpose other than to fill space and time. Join us this week as we discuss the impact of this so-called Brain Rot. We explore the impact of AI “Slop” on our brains (yes, that’s really what its called!) And, we share some old-school knowledge about the importance space for creation.
What if we thought of the contents of our brain more like Primordial Soup than slop? Primordial Soup refers to the primitive water bodies on the earth that were so rich in organic matter that scientists believe the first life forms evolved out of them.
What if we were filling our brains with such substantive, enriching, inspiring content that creative life was overflowing? Creative life was consistently pouring out of us?
The way we see it, this is a bit of a “use it or lose it” situation. We’ve each only got one brain, so let’s do our best to keep it healthy and looking straight ahead toward those big creative goals.
Join us in setting the intention for mindful making in 2025!
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Here at the Spark File, creativity is a way of life and a way of being in the world.

In this week’s episode of The Spark File Podcast, Laura digs into Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. A profoundly successful American record producer, Rubin is the co-founder of Def Jam recordings, founder of American Recordings and former co-president of Columbia Records. He is someone who has spent his life making things—and, like us, he believes creativity is so much more than one project: it’s a whole way of being!

Join us as we discuss how to break down barriers to the act of creation, making it more attainable in aspects of our lives. We’ll hit the highlights of Rubin’s musings, and share some of our thoughts on the power of infusing your life with creative energy.