This week, Susan and Laura delve into the very best ways social media can be used - to inspire, educate and spread joy. We call this The Spark Side of Social Media. Listen and light yourself up with tales of legacy-worthy chocolate via @morticianinthekitchen, kneel at the alter of @andy_birkey's gothic woodworking, and marvel at the beauty of fore edge printing (did you know this even existed?!?) Turns out, good and meaningful things exist on social, when you know where to look! BRAVE Creat...
Dec 08, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Laura and Susan explore the inexplicable craving to consume pandemic-related entertainment during a pandemic - not entertainment about the current state of the world, no, we prefer imaginary pandemics dreamed up in the minds of fiction writers and TV writers like Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The End of October by Lawrence Wright, The Walking Dead and more. These are some of the works imagined by creative minds at a time when an actual pandemic was a scary but far-fetched i...
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back, Sparklers! All are welcome here. As long as no one is being a d**k, you are invited to be your real, open, authentic selves. This week on The Spark File, Susan and Laura get warmed up for Season 3! They share their gratitude and a mini-spark about indigenous food from The New York Times and an article about Sean Sherman, creator of The Sioux Chef. The Spark File is created on the lands of the Lenape. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us fo...
Nov 24, 2021•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the season 2 finale of The Spark File podcast, Susan and Laura celebrate the highlights of the past year - revisiting favorite sparks of inspiration, and recognizing the incredible achievements of the participants in The Spark File Select Group Creativity Coaching program. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and c...
Aug 30, 2021•47 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura got to spend extra time with their beloved Hunter Bell, Tony and Drama Desk nominee, Spark File Creativity Coaching client, and creative / writer / maker extraordinare! Tune in to feel the love and the belly laughs. Too much is never enough Hunter Bell. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify a...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura take a deep dive with Tony-award nominee (and Creativity Coaching Client) John Ellison Conlee, and discuss the creation of a life in addition to a career. Plus, in this very special episode, The Spark File debuts a short story written and read by John Ellison Conlee himself - Cup of Joe. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day v...
Aug 16, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode of The Spark File, Susan and Laura examine that deep seated fear that you're just not as good / worthy / capable as others think you are. Imposter Syndrome. Check out this episode and you just might find ways to let go of those coping mechanisms and start to believe in your own abilities. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtua...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura, still super sparked by the life-changing whole brain approach of Jill Bolte Taylor, take an even deeper dive into her work, applying her philosophies to our creativity. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creative vision, and chart a course for completion. LEARN MORE  ...
Aug 02, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura share sparks inspired by the bestseller Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. This exploration of grief led to a greater understanding of Mary Todd Lincoln, perhaps some tolerance and acceptance regarding her mental health, and introduced us to the phenomenal story of Elizabeth Keckly, former enslaved person who became a business owner and personal modiste to the First Lady. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spar...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast This week on The Spark File, Susan and Laura discuss The Brain of Jill Bolte Taylor - one hell of a managed mind! The woman who taught us to "Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space" is the source of this weeks creativity spark. Tune in to hear Dr. Bolte Taylor's story (as shared in her book My Stroke of Insight) and how we can all gain from her learnings (as shared in her book Whole Brain Living). If you've ever felt yourself battling between left...
Jul 19, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura serve up a single spark -- a spark 30 years in the making! Learn about the little card game that could - Canasta - and how it rose to fame, despite the Bridge Club establishment trying to keep it down! Friends and Foes, Joy and Pain, Triumph and Defeat intermingle at the card table. Plus a bonus mini-spark - did you know the Olympics once contained a competition for the ARTS?!? BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spar...
Jul 12, 2021•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join...
Jul 05, 2021•2 hr 41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura dig into the realities of living as a Highly Sensitive Person and/or an Empath (and how to know for sure if you are one!), Plus, Priya Parker's life-changing approach to bringing people together in The Art of Gathering. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creative visi...
Jun 28, 2021•2 hr 48 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura take a spin through some of the best advice they've ever received (including "don't pickle it!") plus, the very encouraging signs that people everywhere are entering the sixth stage of grief - finding meaning. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creative...
Jun 21, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Wanting to write about your lived experience, but worried about how the other key players in your life might react? This week, Susan and Laura offer up various ways you can approach it so that your creativity is free flowing and feelings don't get hurt. Plus, recent events stirred up some questions about the monarchy, so we unpack what it is and why it is. You can't tell the history of the world without the history of the various monarchies - warts and all. BRAVE Creatives! Your creati...
Jun 14, 2021•2 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, the documentary Made You Look sparks a conversation about the phenomenon of justification and how our brains work overtime when we've done something we shouldn't have, PLUS, the joy-filled approach to closet curation that promotes self-expression and creativity over consumption! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat ...
Jun 07, 2021•2 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura are thrilled to talk all things Broadway with someone who has loved theatre since birth, and spent their lives amplifying the joy of it - Paul Wontorek, Editor-in-Chief of Broadway.com! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creative vision, and chart a course for completion. ...
May 24, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura delve into EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) with Jenny Clift, Coach for classical musicians and stage performers. Jenny paves the way to wealth, success, balance, and inner peace using the scientifically proven power of tapping. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creativ...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura dig into two worthy explorations -- Do you know your Why? Do you know why your Why matters? So many ways to consider how we can act intentionally, on and with purpose. Plus, they revisit Twyla Tharp's classic book: The Creative Habit. Do you have a habit of creativity? If not, you know The Spark File feelings on it - better get one quick! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kic...
May 10, 2021•2 hr 54 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura have the honor of spending time with artist extraordinaire Dax Valdes of Hollaback, discussing their free bystander intervention trainings aimed at making the world a better, and safer, place for us all. Tune in to hear how you can make a difference in ending harassment in all its forms. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day v...
May 03, 2021•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura dive into two new sparks of creativity - the attention economy that will literally eat up all of your time (if you let it) and the Einstein Time concept that will allow you to make more time, if you need it! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify your creative vision, and chart a c...
Apr 26, 2021•2 hr 58 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura talk to poet, teacher, speaker Taylor Mali. Called "a ranting comic showman and a literary provocateur" by The New York Times, Taylor is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series “Def Poetry Jam”. He is a four-time National Poetry Slam champion, in fact, we've read one of our favorites Taylor Mali poems, “What Teachers Make” on a previous episode of The Spark F...
Apr 19, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Laura and Susan take a deep dive into the fascinating tale of betrayal, corporate espionage, and family feuds that resulted in the world's most famous breakfast cereals, and how the feedback process can work in service and support of the artist to the benefit of all. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identif...
Apr 12, 2021•2 hr 58 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura have a bloody delightful time talking with Sir Richard Eyre, whose creative work has spanned all manner of Arts -- directing theatre, film, television and opera, as well as writing books and plays. He has guided Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Dame Judi Dench and many more to some of our favorite performances. His insight from decades of experience is both practical and inspirational, and at 75, he is far from finished! BRAVE Creatives! Your ...
Apr 05, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Susan and Laura offer up two new sparks of creativity - the many ways we can be sparked to make art out of art, plus, a myriad reflections on the tumultuous past few weeks, and how reflecting might just put us on the path to healing. Tune in, get inspired, and then take it and make it! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat wil...
Mar 29, 2021•2 hr 59 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, the incomparable Susan Stroman sits down to share it all with Susan and Laura, including lessons learned from the lockdown, insights from her 5x Tony Award Winning career, as well as what it's all for. Spoiler Alert: the answer is love. From her work on The Producers, Crazy For You, Bullets Over Broadway, Contact, The Scottsboro Boys and so much more, Susan recommends that we fill ourselves up with the art of it all! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than eve...
Mar 22, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week on The Spark File, Susan and Laura explore how an Upper Limit Problem (as defined in The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks) might be keeping you from pursuing or completing your creative goals; AND file under "Insight from The Greats"-- storytelling secrets gleaned from the David Sedaris masterclass. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day vir...
Mar 15, 2021•2 hr 57 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Broadway performer turned meditation and mindfulness expert, Emily Fletcher gives us all the details on how learning to meditate makes us better at life. The mastermind behind Ziva Meditation, Emily has our mental support covered -- now including Ziva Kids! BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spark File 2025 New Year Creativity Kickoff January 1, 2025 from 11am - 6:30pm ET This one day virtual retreat will help identify and clarify y...
Mar 08, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast This episode of The Spark File is dedicated to the memory of one of our creative heroes, Sir Ken Robinson. Laura shares the tale of how Ken walked into her life and left an indelible mark on her creativity and on The Spark File company she and Susan are now building. Be sure to check out the Imagine If Festival going on now online at Imagine-if.com, celebrating the life and the legacy of Sir Ken Robinson. BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever. Join us for The Spa...
Mar 01, 2021•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Ryan J. Haddad, writer and star of Hi, Are You Single? (now playing virtually through February 28 at Woolly Mammoth Theater) shares secrets of storytelling via solo shows. His passion for centering "gay, disabled and arabic communities" is palpable and essential. Susan and Laura celebrate Ryan's message to us all - "You don't have to wait for anyone to approve. Your stories are compelling." BRAVE Creatives! Your creative work is needed now more than ever....
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast 
