Spark & Fire: Fuel Your Creativity

Spark & Fire: Fuel Your Creativity

Every creative work you’ve ever loved has a hero’s journey behind it. On Spark & Fire, you'll hear creators tell the story of bringing one beloved work to life.  Iconic creatives — like Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, Pixar director Domee Shi, comedian Patton Oswald, musician Wynton Marsalis, and novelist Isabel Allende — share the endless iterations, the inevitable setbacks, and the breakthrough ideas along the epic process of creation. But this isn’t an interview show. It’s a story — told entirely in the artist's own words. With host June Cohen, co-founder of WaitWhat and the former executive producer of TED Talks. Transcripts and images for every episode are available at sparkandfire.com Sign up for the weekly Spark & Fire newsletter.

  1. 17 APR

    Introducing: Offsite Adventures

    From the team behind Spark & Fire, we're happy to share the first episode of Offsite Adventures, our newest show uncovering the gems, magical moments, and unique learnings in iconic business travel destinations. Three minutes before midnight in Times Square, one of the most trafficked commercial centers in the world momentarily transforms into a vibrant digital art installation, providing a refreshing pause for locals and tourists alike. It’s called the Midnight Moment, and you won’t believe how something so unexpected came together. In this episode, Janet digs into the history of this unique collaboration between the advertising and arts communities before experiencing it herself with innovative, boundary-breaking artist Shahzia Sikander. Offsite Adventures is a Masters of Scale Production presented in alliance with Capital One Business. Special thanks to Jean Cooney and Times Squares Arts and artists featured as part of the Midnight Moment episode:   Artist: Shahzia Sikander | Title: Reckoning | Video by Tatyana Tenenbaum  Artist: Nora Maité Nieves | Title: Eyes of the Sea | Video by Tatyana Tenenbaum Artist: LuYang | Title: DOKU: Digital Reincarnation | Video by Phatt Features Special thanks to composer Du Yun for music featured in this episode. See this story come to life in our video series on YouTube. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpUrWKdCjE See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    21 min
  2. 30/03/2023

    5 ways to handle creative conflict

    Creative conflict can destroy a work-in-progress — or it can push your work beyond good to great. What matters is how you respond. We’re going to hear from 5 creators in 5 very different fields who share actionable strategies (and great stories) about how to recognize, resolve, and harness conflict to create work that is visionary. Featuring “Frozen” songwriters Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez, actor and comedian Cristela Alonzo, choreographer Bill T. Jones, salsa legend Rubén Blades, and “Queen’s Gambit” producers Bill Horberg and Allan Scott.  Listen to the full episodes that inspired this mixtape: “Frozen” songwriters Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez: https://sparkandfire.com/frozen/  “Cristela” creator Cristela Alonzo: https://sparkandfire.com/cristela/  “Afterwardsness” choreographer Bill T. Jones: https://sparkandfire.com/billtjones/  “Pedro Navaja” songwriter Rubén Blades: https://sparkandfire.com/rubenblades/  “Queen’s Gambit” producers Allan Scott and William Horberg: https://sparkandfire.com/queensgambit/ Follow along (with transcript and photos) at sparkandfire.com/ Subscribe to the Spark & Fire weekly newsletter for images, stories and creative prompts: http://eepurl.com/hkmyMr See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    23 min
  3. 27/02/2023

    5 strategies for overcoming failure

    Failure is a normal part — even an essential part — of any creative journey. But that probably isn’t what you want to hear after experiencing failure yourself. It’s easy to just want to crawl into a hole for a while. Today on Spark & Fire, we’re going to crawl out of that hole long enough to hear from 5 iconic creatives who have learned how to overcome failure to create something truly great.  Featuring actor and writer Randall Park on Always Be My Maybe, novelist Ann Patchett on The Dutch House, songwriting duo Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez on Disney’s Frozen, producers Allan Scott and William Horberg on the hit series Queen’s Gambit, and singer/songwriter Ben Folds on the breakout album Whatever and Ever, Amen. Follow along (with transcript and photos) at sparkandfire.com/overcomingfailure Listen to the full episodes that inspired this mixtape: “Always Be My Maybe” writer and actor Randall Park: https://sparkandfire.com/randallpark/  “The Dutch House” author Ann Patchett: https://sparkandfire.com/annpatchett/ “Frozen” songwriting duo Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez: https://sparkandfire.com/frozen/ “Queen’s Gambit” producers Allan Scott and William Horberg: https://sparkandfire.com/queensgambit/ Singer/songwriter Ben Folds: https://sparkandfire.com/benfolds/ Subscribe to the Spark & Fire weekly newsletter for images, stories and creative prompts: http://eepurl.com/hkmyMr See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    28 min

About

Every creative work you’ve ever loved has a hero’s journey behind it. On Spark & Fire, you'll hear creators tell the story of bringing one beloved work to life.  Iconic creatives — like Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, Pixar director Domee Shi, comedian Patton Oswald, musician Wynton Marsalis, and novelist Isabel Allende — share the endless iterations, the inevitable setbacks, and the breakthrough ideas along the epic process of creation. But this isn’t an interview show. It’s a story — told entirely in the artist's own words. With host June Cohen, co-founder of WaitWhat and the former executive producer of TED Talks. Transcripts and images for every episode are available at sparkandfire.com Sign up for the weekly Spark & Fire newsletter.

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