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    SuperCreativity Podcast with James Taylor | Creativity, Innovation and Inspiring Ideas

    In the SuperCreativity™ podcast, creativity expert and innovation keynote speaker James Taylor interviews leading thinkers, innovators and performers and has them reveal their strategies and techniques to help you unlock your own creative potential. If you enjoy listening to conversations with creative thinkers, innovators, entrepreneurs, artists, authors, educators, and performers then you’ve come to the right place. Each week we discuss their ideas, life, work, successes, failures, creative process and much more. As a leading creativity and innovation keynote speaker James teaches and interviews creative leaders including Seth Godin, David Allen, Jonathan Fields, Amy Edmondson, Amanda Palmer, Chris Guillebeau, Tommy Emmanuel, Eric Ries and Donald Miller on subjects including; how creativity works, the creative process, what is creativity, how to generate ideas, creativity exercises, creativity research, creative block, creative personality types, theories of creativity, creative thinking, educational creativity, divergent thinking, organizational creativity, creative cultures, and innovation. His work builds on other leading creativity experts including Julia Cameron, Sir Ken Robinson, Michael J Gelb, Eric Maisel, Scott Barry Kaufman, Twyla Tharp, Todd Henry, Jeff Goins, Richard Florida, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Steven Pressfield, Tina Seelig, Josh Linkner and many others. James Taylor shows us how we can all learn to be more creative.
    enJames Taylor366 Episodes

    Episodes (366)

    Daniel Pink: The Power Of Regret – #315

    Daniel Pink: The Power Of Regret – #315
    Daniel Pink: The Power Of Regret – #314

    The Power Of Regret

    Regrets, I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention. These lines from the Frank Sinatra hit 'My Way' can often be heard at funerals across the Western world. And according to one study of the common emotions that people feel each day, the two mentioned most often were love and regret. So it's surprising that while there are over 200,000 books on Amazon with love in the title there are only 30,000 with the word regret. So what is this thing called regret and how can looking backward in our lives help us move forward. That's what our guest today will help us explore. Daniel Pink is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books including Drive, To Sell Is Human, A Whole New Mind, and his latest, THE POWER OF REGRET. These books have sold millions of copies around the world, been translated into forty-two languages, and have won multiple awards. His ability to combine deep research and inspire audiences has led Daniel Pink to become one of the top keynote speakers and foremost business minds of our day. Welcome to the show Daniel Pink.  
    1. You call the idea of one having 'no regrets' as 'a delightful but dangerous doctrine'. Why do you believe this?
    2. You have a background in politics and before we came on the call today I was watching a politician apologize for something he claimed he had no knowledge of happening and wasn't responsible for. So can we only truly feel regret for those situations that we are directly responsible for? For example, can I feel regret for actions my great-great-grandfather took?
    3. I was reading a blog post recently written by a palliative care nurse. She was recounting the most common regrets that patients share with her in their final days. In your book you describe the four most common categories of regrets, we have in our lives. What are those?
    4. Someone was telling me the other day that elephants, dogs, and rats display emotions of regret. For example, elephants cover those animals and humans with branches that they have killed in rage. Do you think that other non-humans, like machines with artificial intelligence, could learn to regret their decisions? I'm thinking here of the concept of 'reinforcement learning' in where a computer uses feedback from its actions and experiences to improve its algorithms.
    5. In your book 'A Whole New Mind' you explored creativity. Which ideas and techniques in that book did you use when writing 'The Power of Regret'.
    6. In creativity, we often hear of the concept of creative pairs. Jobs & Wozniak, Lennon & McCartney. In your creative work who is that person that helps you take your work to a higher level and how do they do that?
    7. For the Power of Regret, you undertook extensive research and I'm assuming this required a team of people. Can you tell me what regrets you have had when it comes to creating with a team, and how reflecting on this has improved your decision-making in future projects?
    8. How do you keep your thinking fresh? What influences do you try to surround yourself with?
    9. Do you use technology in any ways that either free up your time for creativity or help you to augment your creativity? How so?

     

    Natalie Nixon: The Creativity Leap - #314

    Natalie Nixon: The Creativity Leap - #314
    Natalie Nixon: The Creativity Leap - #314

    Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work

     

    I'm James Taylor and you're listening to the super creativity podcast a show dedicated to inspiring creative minds like yours. Natalie Nixon is a creativity strategist, global keynote speaker, and author of the award-winning The Creativity Leap: Unleash Curiosity, Improvisation, and Intuition at Work. As President of figure8thinking, she advises leaders on transformation by applying wonder and rigor to amplify growth and business value. Her clients have included Comcast, Citrix, living cities, VaynerMedia, and Bloomberg, and as a hybrid thinker. Now to talk about what hybrid think is a hybrid thinker. Natalie consistently applies her background in cultural anthropology and fashion. Her Curiosity has also led her to live around the world and work as a professor. And as an early-stage investor to social impact ventures. It's my great pleasure to have Natalie Nixon on the show with us today.

    Maxine Bedat: Fashion Industry’s Impact On Climate Change- #313

    Maxine Bedat: Fashion Industry’s Impact On Climate Change- #313

    Maxine Bedat: Fashion Industry’s Impact On Climate Change- #313

    I’m James Taylor and you’re listening to the super creativity podcast a show dedicated to inspiring creative minds like yours. This month witness cop 26 in Glasgow a summit that brings the world together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. To mark the occasion, we decided to record a special series of the super creativity podcast that will focus on sustainability and climate change. For this series, I’ll be joined by a co-host for the first time ethical futurist, lawyer, engineer, actor, jazz singer, and sustainability keynote speaker Allison burns. Together, we’ll be having conversations with leading thinkers on topics as diverse as sustainable food, fashion, and ESG. Those environmental, social, and governance issues affect business today. Our guest this week is Maxine Beda, the founder, and director of the new standard institute a think and do tank dedicated to turning the industry into a force for good. She is a former lawyer and the co-founder of the ethical fashion brand, ZD. She is also an ambassador at the Rainforest Alliance and has spoken at the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, and the Clinton Global Initiative. Her groundbreaking book unraveled chronicles the birth and death of a pair of jeans, and at the same time, exposes the fractures and global supply chains and our relationship to each other, ourselves. And the planet. Enjoy the show. So Maxine, fantastic to have you with us today. 

    Tony Milligan: Animal Ethics- #312

    Tony Milligan: Animal Ethics- #312

    Animal Ethics

    Tony Milligan is an author and academic whose main research area is ethics with a particular focus upon otherness are the humans are the creatures are the places, and how the shift between here and there alters our sense of what matters. In addition to his books on space ethics, including the ethics of space exploration, and nobody owns the moon, his other writings have looked at the topic of animal ethics. He believes his work on space exploration is actually closely connected to an understanding of what it takes to be human, what it is like to see ourselves as part of a moral community, and the associated duties that we may have to humanity. He is currently a senior researcher in philosophy of ethics with the cosmological visionaries project at King’s College London. In addition to his own books, he has also been published in a number of academic and popular journals, including philosophy ratio, the Journal of Applied Ethics, think, and philosophy now, please welcome onto the show. Tony Milligan.

    Naomi Shragai: How To Thrive At Work – #311

    Naomi Shragai: How To Thrive At Work – #311

    I’m James Taylor and you’re listening to the super creativity podcast a show dedicated to inspiring creative minds like yours. You’ve probably don’t realize this but every working day you replay and reenact complex dynamics and relationships from your past. Whether it’s confusing an authority figure with the parent avoiding conflict because of a past squabble with siblings, or suffering from imposter syndrome, because of the way your family responded to success when it comes to working, we’re all trapped in our own upbringings and the patterns of behavior we learned while growing up. In her debut book, The Man Who Mistook His Job For His Life fantastic title, business psychotherapist Naomi Sugai will make you reevaluate how you think about yourself and your working life. Naomi has more than 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist and family therapist in private practice and now specializes in helping businesses and individuals resolve psychological obstacles that cause work-related problems. As a freelance journalist, she has also written for the times the Guardian and since 2008, has been a regular contributor to The Financial Times where she writes predominantly quite psychological aspects of working life. Please welcome to the super creativity podcast, Naomi Shragai.

    Robert Siegel: Embracing Digital Disruption – #310

    Robert Siegel: Embracing Digital Disruption – #310

    Embracing Digital Disruption

    Now, we’re all told we need to embrace digital disruption to thrive in the 21st century. But how can legacy companies and new startups blend both digital and traditional business functions to achieve long-term competitive advantage? That’s the question my guest today set out to solve in his new book, The brains and brawn company, venture capitalist and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecture, Robert Siegel shows that while important digital is only part of the answer, it’s not never the only part the only answer. In fact, many, many large companies are successfully countering young upstarts in new creative ways while startups are learning a thing or two from the legacy businesses, Robert Siegel has done extensive research on companies such as Google Schwab ABN Bev stripe, and Survey Monkey. It’s my great pleasure to have him on the show today. Welcome, Robert.

    Jordi Casamitjana: The Ethical Vegan – #309

    Jordi Casamitjana: The Ethical Vegan – #309

    This week sees the start of COP26 in Glasgow, a summit that brings the world together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. To mark the occasion we decided to record a special series of the SuperCreativity podcast that will focus on sustainability and climate change. For this series I’ll be joined by a co-host for the first time, Ethical Futurist, lawyer, engineer, actor, jazz singer, and sustainability keynote speaker Alison Burns. Together we’ll be having conversations with leading thinkers on topics as diverse as sustainable food, fashion, and ESG, those environmental, societal, and governance issues that affect business today.  

    Our guest this week is originally from Catalonia but is now a resident in the UK. Jordi Casamitjana is a vegan zoologist specializing in animal behavior, who has been involved in different aspects of animal protection for many years (working for organizations such as The Born Free Foundation, Wild Futures, The League Against Cruel Sports, CAS International, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and PETA UK). In addition to scientific research, he has worked as an undercover investigator and animal welfare consultant. Some of his professional achievements include the closure of several zoos, securing the first successful prosecutions of illegal hunters under the Hunting Act 2004, and his participation in the banning of bullfighting in Catalonia. Jordi, who has been vegan since 2002, recently become well-known for securing the legal protection of all ethical vegans from discrimination in Great Britain in a landmark legal case that was discussed all over the world. Jordi is also an author of a novel titled “The Demon’s Trial” under the pen name J.C. Costa in which he explores many of the dilemmas animal protectionists face. He is also the author of Ethical Vegan: A Personal and Political Journey To Change The World. In our interview, we discuss the future of plant-based foods, sustainable diets, and Jordi’s love of wasps!

    Enjoy the show.

    Tim Hannigan: Travel Writing – #308

    Tim Hannigan: Travel Writing – #308

    The Travel Writing Tribe

    Travel can be one of the greatest things you can do to spark your creativity and curiosity. I spent much of the Pandemic lockdown reading books about countries that I wanted to visit when the world opened up again. That’s how I discovered today’s guest. Tim Hannigan is a writer and academic, and the author of several narrative history books, including ‘A Brief History of Indonesia’ and the award-winning ‘Raffles and the British Invasion of Java’. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leicester and has led various workshops on travel writing and creative non-fiction as well as designing and writing the travel writing module for the Open School of Journalism. In his latest book, ‘The Travel Writing Tribe’ Tim sets out in search of this most venerable of genres, hunting down its legendary practitioners and confronting its greatest controversies. Is it ever okay for travel writers to make things up, and just where does the frontier between fact and fiction lie? What actually is travel writing, and is it just a genre dominated by posh white men? What of travel writing’s queasy colonial connections? In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss travel, creativity, and ecotourism.

    Enjoy the show.

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/travel-writing-308/

     

    Dan Breznitz: Innovative Cities – #307

    Dan Breznitz: Innovative Cities – #307

    Professor Dan Breznitz is known worldwide as an expert on rapid-innovation-based industries and their globalization, as well as for his pioneering research on the distributional impact of innovation policies. He is a University Professor and Munk Chair of Innovation Studies, in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy with a cross-appointment in the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto, where he is also the Co-Director of the Innovation Policy Lab. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research where he co-founded and co-directs the program on Innovation, Equity, and the Future of Prosperity. In today’s episode I talk with Dan Breznitz about his latest book Innovation In Real Places – Strategies For Prosperity In An Unforgiving World and the lessons leaders, politicians, and policymakers can learn from innovative places as diverse as Shenzhen in China, Brenta in Italy, and Tel Aviv in Israel.

    Enjoy the show.

     

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/innovative-cities-307/ ‎

     

    Tamsen Webster: How To Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible - #306

    Tamsen Webster: How To Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible - #306

    You have a terrific idea—an amazing product, an incomparable service, a bulletproof business model—and you know it is so powerful that it could change a life, a market, or even the world.

    There’s just one problem: others can’t or don’t see its power… yet. That's what my guest on today's show can help you with. 

    Tamsen Webster has spent the last twenty years helping experts drive action from their ideas. Part message strategist, part storyteller, part English-to-English translator, her work focuses on how to find and build the stories partners, investors, clients, and customers will tell themselves—and others.

    Tamsen honed her expertise through work in and for major companies and organizations like Johnson & Johnson, Harvard Medical School, and Intel, as well as with startups that represent the next wave of innovation in life science, biotech, climate tech, fintech, and pharma. She’s a professional advisor at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and a mentor for the Harvard Innovation Labs. She’s also served for over eight years as executive producer and idea strategist for one of the oldest locally organized TED Talk events in the world (TEDxCambridge).

    In our discussion, we talk about how to make your big ideas irresistible and storytelling for non-storytellers. Enjoy the show.

     

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/how-to-make-your-big-ideas-irresistible-306

     

     

    Jeff DeGraff: How To Develop A Creative Mindset – #305

    Jeff DeGraff: How To Develop A Creative Mindset – #305

    My guest today believes that it is time to rethink the way we make innovation happen. He argues that innovation doesn’t come from an algorithm; it comes from the personal creativity of individuals. And creativity is not a gift for the chosen few—it is a process that can be learned. Jeff DeGraff is the Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He teaches MBA, EMBA, BBA, and Executive Education courses on leading creativity, innovation, and change. Jeff’s mission is “the democratization of innovation.” and he brings innovation to a global audience through his books, his public television program (Innovation You), columns (Inc.), and radio program (The Next Idea).

    In his new book The Creative Mindset, Jeff and his co-author Stanley DeGraff introduce six essential creative-thinking skills: Clarify, Replicate, Elaborate, Associate, Translate, and Evaluate, or CREATE. Sequenced as steps, these skills simplify and summarize the most important research on creative thinking and draw on over thirty years of real-world application in some of the most innovative organizations in the world.

    In our discussion, we talk about cognitive range, creative renaissance, and how to develop a creative mindset. Enjoy the show.

     

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/how-to-develop-a-creative-mindset-305

    Marcus Whitney: How To Claim Your Creative Power Through Entrepreneurship – #304

    Marcus Whitney: How To Claim Your Creative Power Through Entrepreneurship – #304

    When Marcus Whitney moved to Nashville in 2000, he was a college dropout with a one-year-old and a baby on the way. He waited tables and lived in a week-to-week efficiency hotel. From the outside, Marcus looked like the furthest thing from a budding entrepreneur. But inside, he knew entrepreneurship was his path to a better life. Two decades later, Marcus has founded two innovative companies in the healthcare space, exited a tech marketing company, and co-owns Nashville’s new Major League Soccer team.

    In his new book Create and Orchestrate, Marcus walks you through his unlikely journey from waiting tables to building companies. He demystifies much of what keeps people from pursuing entrepreneurship and explains why it’s the only vocation that allows you to control your time by using your creativity. When you control your time, you can claim your full power by matching up what you’re great at with the problems you see in the world.

    In our discussion, we talk about Creative Power, entrepreneurship as a vehicle for your creativity, and the three values for being a successful creative entrepreneur.

    Enjoy the show.

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/how-to-claim-your-creative-power-through-entrepreneurship-304

     

    Rita McGrath: Business Strategy Seeing Around Corners – #303

    Rita McGrath: Business Strategy Seeing Around Corners – #303

    Paradigm shifts in business, known as inflection points, can either create new opportunities or present new threats. Those leaders who can “see around corners” and spot these inflection points before they happen, can position themselves for success. Columbia Business School professor and innovation keynote speaker Rita McGrath’s latest book ‘Seeing Around Corners” shows how you can anticipate, understand and capitalize on the key inflection points in your industry. 

    In our discussion, Rita McGrath and I talk about the dangers of leader isolation, how companies like Adobe use little bets and the Kickbox concept to spark innovation, and why many big company innovations flop. We also discuss ‘webs of inclusion’ and the future of executive education. Enjoy the show. – Business Strategy: Seeing Around Corners

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/business-strategy-seeing-around-corners-303

     

    Professor Gerd Gigerenzer: Heuristic Decision Making - #301

    Professor Gerd Gigerenzer: Heuristic Decision Making - #301

    Numbers don’t lie - but they often mislead us. From health risk to financial decisions, it can be hard to understand statistics because they are often presented to us by ‘experts’ who misinterpret the data. In his book Risk Savvy, Professor Gerd Gigerenzer shows us all how we can make better decisions by becoming better-informed citizens and able to judge risk for ourselves.

    Professor Gigerenzer is Director of the Center for Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and former Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several bestselling books on heuristics and decision making including Reckoning with Risk.

    In our discussion, we talk about heuristics and how your quest for certainty can hold you back from taking creative risks. Professor Gigerenzer also shares why intuition or ‘gut feeling’ has such a bad reputation in the business world even though it is essential for successful decision-making in times of uncertainty.

    Enjoy the show.

     

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/heuristic-decision-making-301

    Josh Linkner: Creativity VS Innovation - #301

    Josh  Linkner: Creativity VS Innovation  - #301

    Instead of shooting for a $10 billion IPO or a Nobel Prize, the most prolific innovators focus instead on Big Little Breakthroughs – small creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. By building a daily habit of creativity, organizations not only enjoy a high volume of small wins, but the daily practice of micro-innovations is the fastest route to discover the massive breakthroughs we seek. In his new book ‘Big Little Breakthroughs, innovation keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling author Josh Linkner shows how ordinary ideas can fuel extraordinary results.

    Josh is a Creative Troublemaker who passionately believes that we all have incredible creative capacity. He has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million. Today, he serves as Chairman and co-founder of Platypus Labs, innovation research, training, and consulting firm. Josh is also a passionate Detroiter and a great jazz guitarist.

    Josh and I discuss the difference between creativity and innovation, how the creative process works, creative problem solving, and the three types of innovation. Enjoy the show.

     https://www.jamestaylor.me/creativity-vs-innovation-301/

    Steven Kotler: The Art of the Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer. - #300

    Steven Kotler: The Art of the Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.  - #300

    What does it take to accomplish the impossible? What does it take to shatter our limitations, exceed our expectations, and turn our biggest dreams into our most recent achievements? These are the questions that our guest today has sought to answer in his new book The Art of the Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

    Steven Kotler is a New York Times-bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, and one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of nine bestsellers including The Future is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman and Bold and Abundance which were co-authored with Peter Diamandis. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and has appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME and the Harvard Business Review.

    Steven and I discuss extreme innovation and the role that motivation, learning, creativity and flow play in it. He also shares his perspective on the ROI of reading books and his Five Not-So-Easy Steps for Learning Almost Anything. Enjoy the show.

     

    https://www.jamestaylor.me/the-art-of-the-impossible-a-peak-performance-primer-300

    David W. Galenson: Old Masters and Young Geniuses #299

    David W. Galenson: Old Masters and Young Geniuses  #299

    When in their lives do artists produce their greatest creative work? By examining the careers of great painters, poets, novelists, and movie directors my guest today offers a profound new understanding of creativity. Using a wide range of evidence, Professor David Galenson shows in his book ‘Old Masters and Young Geniuses’ that there are actually two fundamentally different approaches to innovation; experimental innovators and conceptual innovators.

    David W. Galenson is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago; Academic Director of the Center for Creativity Economics at the Universidad del CEMA, Buenos Aires; and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

    David and I discuss why some creative artists achieve success early in their lives while for others it requires decades of painstaking frustration and experimentation. We also learn how your most creative work may be ahead of you. Enjoy the show. - Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity 
     https://www.jamestaylor.me/old-masters-and-young-geniuses-the-two-life-cycles-of-artistic-creativity-299

    Heidi K. Gardner, Ph.D: The Power Of Smart Collaboration - #298

    Heidi K. Gardner, Ph.D: The Power Of Smart Collaboration - #298

    Studies show us that companies earn higher margins, inspire greater client loyalty, attract and retain the best talent, and gain a competitive edge when their people collaborate across functional boundaries. Yet most firms have carved up their highly specialized, professional experts into narrowly defined practice areas, and collaborating across these silos is often messy, risky, and expensive. These are just some of the challenges addressed by Harvard University Professor Heidi K. Gardner in her Washington Post bestseller Smart Collaboration - How Professionals And Their Firms Succeed By Breaking Down Silos.

    Heidi K. Gardner, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession and Faculty Chair of the school’s Accelerated Leadership Program and Sector Leadership Masterclass. Previously she was a professor of Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School and has been named by Thinkers 50 as a Next-Generation Business Guru.

    Today we talk about the power of smart collaboration, complex problem solving, diversity and inclusion and the two types of trust.

    Marcus du Sautoy - The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation In The Age of Artificial Intelligence.

    Marcus du Sautoy - The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation In The Age of Artificial Intelligence.

    What does it mean to be creative? Is creativity uniquely human or artificial intelligence be considered creative? These are just some of the topics explored by Marcus du Sautoy in his new book The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation In The Age of Artificial Intelligence. 

    Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the Oxford University, a chair he holds jointly at the Department of Continuing Education and the Mathematical Institute. He is also a Professor of Mathematics and a Fellow of New College. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016 and Esquire Magazine chose him as one of the 100 most influential people under 40 in Britain. In 2009 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Faraday Prize, the UK’s premier award for excellence in communicating science, and in 2010 he received an OBE for services to science. 

    Technology has always allowed us to extend our understanding of being human. But will artificial intelligence actually enable us to create in different ways? And could recent developments in machine learning also mean that it is no longer just human beings who can create art? Marcus du Sautoy and I discuss this and more.

     

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    The Power of Lifelong Learning - Tom Vanderbilt #296

    The Power of Lifelong Learning - Tom Vanderbilt #296

    For many of us, the last time we learned a new skill was during childhood. Today we live in an age that looks up to any kind of expertise but looks down on the beginner. Upon entering adulthood and middle age, we begin to shy away from trying and learning new things, instead preferring to stay with the tried and tested.

    Tom Vanderbilt is a writer who covers the worlds of design, technology, science, and culture. A contributing editor of Wired (U.K.), Outside, and Artforum, you may have read his articles in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, or The New York Times Magazine. In 2008 his book Traffic, which looked at why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us), became a New York Times bestseller. His latest work is called Beginners: The Joy And Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning and seeks to explore the curious power of lifelong learning.

    In the book, he asks the question: why are children the only ones allowed to experience the inherent fun of facing daily challenges? In fact, it is just possible that we could all benefit from embracing new skills, even if we’re initially hopeless? In the book Tom sets out to find the answer, setting himself the goal of acquiring several new skills under the expert tuition of professionals, including drawing, juggling, surfing and much more. Malcolm Gladwell said that ‘Beginners belongs on the list of books that have changed the way I understand my own limitations.

    Tom and I discuss the value of having a beginner’s mind, Takumi’s, traveling on a journey of not knowing, and why having intellectual humility opens us up to new experiences.