Author event! Kelly Corrigan, Claire Corrigan Lichty & Jennifer E. Smith
[0:00]was something that sometimes gets mischaracterized as an optional, luxurious, nice
[0:07]to have, which is actually according to people that's smarter than us, and much
[0:12]more informed, totally essential for individual being and societal progress.
[0:16]So we think that the future belongs to makers. We think we can be active,
[0:22]imagine the future is in that itself, a creative act. And so we thought we
[0:27]could make a event on a maker mindset. And that is, I can construct. Hi! This is a total maker.
[0:37]This guy is more like a maker. Yeah, this is just every shadow of everybody else's audience.
[0:45]So, the maker mindset says that I can construct and deconstruct and reconstruct a world around me.
[0:52]that I can self-have on this moment in society through creation and creation.
[0:59]And when we're talking about making it to super broad definitions, what Marianne has
[1:04]this kind of specific way she likes to make. So Marianne likes to hide away, she likes to be unobserved,
[1:11]she likes to have freedom to make a mess. She likes to be very flexible with what an object can be
[1:18]and what an object can be used for. And she likes to make things that are good, things that are shared,
[1:25]and some things that are permanent, and maybe end of SQL, some things that are impermanent.
[1:30]Everything we're in shared tonight comes from great sources. So there's something at the
[1:36]Department of Defense of Creative Services, which is a way to treat PTSD through mask making.
[1:41]There's something from state of children that would be in huge investment from the heart program
[1:46]to see arts. And then through my high-pass in the PBS show, I have gotten a talk to Francis Collins,
[1:52]the great former director of the NIH about music and well-being, Denise Hope of Challenge Success,
[1:59]Alice Walton, Crystal Bridges, and then our former student general, Be back for me.
[2:05]And our biggest influence by far is what come to your brain on our five students in
[2:09]maximum and obviously you should. I will say as someone who's gently kind of famous for not
[2:16]having an attention span, I was wrapped. I read the whole thing in one study. And so Susan
[2:23]is a neuroscientist of Johns Hopkins and Ivy Rensa Design group at Google, and they came to
[2:28]illustrate this book that focuses on all the different ways that your brain can benefit from
[2:34]individual work parts. And one of the most striking things that we heard from Susan and Ivy
[2:40]is they speak to school superintendents like by Batchin and Batchis of 5th, and they're really
[2:45]trying to get this back into the school curriculum. All the arts, you see me baked into our day
[2:50]at chorus as part of my school at play instrument, at the chat class, at digital Mac, where we
[2:55]were selling and cooking. And it was when you put it in the school today, what you're saying
[3:01]is like an educated person should be able to do this range of things. And then it became something
[3:08]that was like a blue card name produced a wake up and that's a huge loss for all of us.
[3:14]But anyway, what Susan and Ivy say to the superintendents is, quote,
[3:17]did I get something they need to be healthy? Is it form of abuse and neglect? The biology is that
[3:23]clear. And when we frame neuroesthetics as baseline, not luxury, table stapes, not extracurriculars,
[3:30]legislation whole problem. Legislation that takes us backwards to a time until a max shot class
[3:35]choir in orchestra were built into the daily lives of children. Okay, so we have a six-part case
[3:41]for making, you know, we can get going there to Jenny. I'll take the first one, which is make for the
[3:48]neurochemical bubble bath, which is to say free non-toxic access to serotonin and dopamine and
[3:56]organ apron. It's when you are making, you're getting like a bolus from your internal pharmacy.
[4:02]Making also often involves monotasking just so rare and a monotasking lowers yourself.
[4:12]And this is what the GOD has discovered in their creative forces programs that when they take the
[4:18]measurements of people going through the program, the times when they feel the most relaxed and their
[4:22]shoulders drop is when they're in a creative experience. So the second point is to make for the
[4:33]myelination. So I don't know if you guys remember the last time you were in a paper aisle,
[4:38]but all of our brain cells are these neurons that have this long portion called the axon,
[4:43]and it's surrounded with a layer of insulation, just like any other thing that conducts electricity,
[4:48]and it's called your myelin sheet. And then actually I think we're going to talk about myelin.
[4:53]Yeah. And that's what the actual kids book is about.
[5:00]But your myelin sheath is a sensation which helps your neurons fire faster and helps
[5:06]decrease the space with your synapses. And they've actually found that people who are engaging
[5:12]in the creative acts on a regular basis have thicker of myelin sheaths. And that's a science
[5:17]course of me. To make for the flourishing. So, manual work forces around me with the physical
[5:25]like sheaths have to deal with like this spine of kale or guitar players have to deal with
[5:30]the cows is under fingertips or when I was when I have some things you have to like understand the
[5:36]nap and the fabric. Or if we're building a house now and all these woodworkers are bringing the
[5:42]wood to the site so that they can let it shrink as well in the weather and like it just. But being
[5:48]in contact with physical world makes us curious about how things are made and it's proof
[5:55]that we can understand the world around us and the things that we're dependent on and feeling
[5:59]like you have some understanding of the things that power around you is very relaxing. It's an
[6:10]anxiety. Make for society and make and support those who make for society. So, students with
[6:20]access to arts education are five times less likely to drop out of school. There are four times
[6:24]more likely to be recognized for high achievement. They score higher on SAT skills and proficiency
[6:29]tests in literacy writing and English skills. They're less likely to receive disciplinary interactions
[6:38]and speaking of societal progress when the arts are equitable they find that the disparity
[6:45]high concerns and blowing from the students' strengths. And so, I'm guessing most people here are
[6:50]not selling high school, but one more thing about where we're putting our money about public support
[6:58]systems that support making an arts. There's also a ton of community available and making. So,
[7:05]there's a lot of life based on their security, working and singing, dancing and grooms,
[7:10]and trips to wire for awe and wonder. So, karaoke, kootie catchers, and Denise Pope is so interesting.
[7:20]She's a G.H.A.'s edge cakers and she has a single challenge success and she's trying to
[7:26]ask people and hire zip codes to reconsider what success looks like for your children.
[7:32]And one of her big, so that it's not just pointed towards where you go out. And one of her big
[7:38]ideas is making time for PDF, just play time, downtime, and time to time. And lastly, make for
[7:46]the EQ, for your emotional intelligence. The artist, one of the most effective MVP building pools
[7:52]that we have, how else would we transport to the world? By reading a book or like,
[7:58]I'd be moved by art and there's no other way to inhabit the life of the other. And it really helps
[8:04]straws off closer. Okay. So, very quickly, what counts when we're talking about making,
[8:11]just in case you're thinking like I don't really like to paint, coding, building, mosaics,
[8:16]knitting, sewing, writing, performing, carpentry, robotics, drawing, doodling, cookie baking,
[8:21]gardening is like off the charts. And when you look at the physiological benefits,
[8:25]it's number one. It's like the delivery of the physiological benefits is so immediate,
[8:31]music, and skits. But even more than those hobbies really like, oh, these people came and they
[8:39]told me I got to go like make an hour to go garden every day. And like, you all see, that seems
[8:46]like a busy productive crowd. And I think that one of the things that Susan and I really focus on
[8:51]is what they call small C creative acts, which are ways to turn things that we view as chores
[8:57]into creativity by means of intentionality. And so they talk about reducing that friction,
[9:07]so thinking about like when you're making your bed instead of doing this and then you have to
[9:11]do every day, doing it as a creative act. And when you're putting away things, making a meal,
[9:17]or putting things on a plate, just having intentionality in those moments to really try to,
[9:23]obviously, to have intentionality at all times is deeply exhausting. But to find times throughout
[9:29]the day to really walk into having being intentional in this small C creative things.
[9:36]And I think it's, I think that monotasking helps. Like if you have that note in your mind that
[9:42]you could turn a chore in a small C creativity and then you have the idea of monotasking like I'm
[9:48]just going to clean these dishes right now. And then you could sort of trigger some kind of
[9:52]of sensory appreciation for the smell of the dish soap and what the warm water feels like on your
[9:57]hands. Like it can turn into a little bit of a moment.
[10:00]The final thing that we want to say before we pass it to Jenny is, or just open it up for
[10:06]conversation, is my favorite thing that we learned from Susan and Ivy, which is that
[10:13]the same like physiological package of goodies is available via beholden.
[10:22]So beholden is very specific, focused act, and it's ever available to you.
[10:30]We could all be beholden now, you could pick anything in this room to get off on somebody's
[10:35]jacket.
[10:36]And so the trick of beholden is to sort of bring your senses to bear.
[10:43]So it's like really noticing like the stitching on the edge of your jacket, or the placement
[10:47]of the buttons, or how there's a button here.
[10:49]This leaves kind of larger, oh, and this kind of matches your collar, and your hair
[10:54]color, and your jacket kind of goes together.
[10:56]But really like falling all the way into the act of noticing.
[11:01]So our favorite example is that Claire and I were driving around doing all these readings
[11:07]with a book first came out in June, and we were listening to this song by the band,
[11:12]Cake, you know, Cake, and we were really beholden.
[11:16]Listen to my microphone, listen to how he changes the words on the third verse, listen
[11:22]to the bridge, it's so interesting, it's so different, and this is why he's so great.
[11:26]And the exact lyrics and the iteration and the internal rhyme, I mean really, really
[11:34]applying ourselves, our full intellect, the appreciation of this object, this song.
[11:41]And Claire was like, oh my god, we're doing it, we're holding it now.
[11:43]It's like, I know, and I feel it.
[11:45]Like I feel like T-thryme and I, when I'm beholden, to the indication that you're doing
[11:51]it right, is that you'll feel a little high.
[11:54]And it's not toxic, so now it's just about, okay, so Jenny, I love all that.
[12:01]I mean, so I think, obviously, I was thinking when you're working on that list, how
[12:05]few of those things to make are things that I'm able to do, like, I can draw a penguin.
[12:11]I can only bake a slice and bake cookie, I'm not a maker, except for obviously writing,
[12:17]and so much of writing is beholden.
[12:19]And so I think it's just, I think, like the idea of, you know, I have a three-year-old.
[12:25]So I'm constantly thinking about how much, hey, how much I multitask and be, how much
[12:30]I don't want him to grow up in this multi-tasking brain situation that we've all kind
[12:35]of found ourselves in.
[12:37]And so I think focusing on crafts and how you do something, and these are, you know,
[12:45]I say to Kelly, this is before this, that this is the first picture book event that I've
[12:49]done in a while, where they're okay.
[12:50]So I'm used to talking about this book and these books with like five and six and seven
[12:56]year olds.
[12:57]So it's a different audience.
[12:58]I won't do all the silly voices for you guys, but I think that might, what is this just
[13:06]thing?
[13:07]What are you just saying?
[13:08]What are you just saying?
[13:09]What are you just saying?
[13:10]What are you just saying?
[13:11]I think that so much of writing and being a writer is about beholden, and I feel very fortunate
[13:18]that other things that I can make it to, you know, books, and kind of the reason that
[13:21]I'm here with you guys is I've known Kelly for a really long time because I used to work in
[13:24]publishing, and I've been writing for a very long time.
[13:28]I've written, you know, adult books and YA books, and to get to do picture books where
[13:33]you are thinking so much about little kids and little brains and little humans is like
[13:39]a real gift.
[13:40]Like, at all.
[13:41]I've been publishing for like almost 20 years, different books, and I have not found as
[13:47]much joy by miles and anything I've done, and if I had books been into movies, I've
[13:52]written for teens.
[13:53]I've like been on tour and countries all over the world, like nothing has brought me
[13:57]as just the joy as writing these picture books and getting talked to little people about
[14:00]them.
[14:01]I and I are not, you know, I don't have as much of a scientific story behind mine, but
[14:07]my, the creature of habit is, it came about, you know, I, I've written two picture books
[14:15]and I have a third one coming out soon, and I just got the first copy of this comes
[14:19]out in the early November.
[14:20]I brought it here, I'll be here for the hiccups, and I had it in my house because I've
[14:24]been reading it to my son, and a friend was over and she kind of gave it a quick
[14:27]move through.
[14:28]And it's, it's a just spoiler alert, but the cure for hiccups is patience.
[14:32]And, um, and it is about like sitting and being still, and my friend was like, wow, is
[14:36]every picture picture book you write, like sort of like, like a soothing message to yourself
[14:40]and I was like, yes, it actually, and so, you know, creature of habit is, um, it's
[14:46]about dealing with change.
[14:47]It's about a creature who lives on the island of habit and does the same thing every day
[14:49]at the same time, and then one day another little creature kind of sails up and acts as
[14:54]a world of balance, and another spoiler alert, I'm a creature of habit, um, there's
[14:58]a sequel called the creature of habit.
[15:00]tries as best which is very much about how anything you try that's new is at first not fun
[15:05]and uncomfortable and you want to stop and you know and then this one's about patience and I
[15:11]think you know the inspirations for all three of them are different but the you know they all
[15:18]do have like a sword similar theme which is that you do kind of have to sit and be with yourself
[15:22]and be okay with yourself and and learn things the hard way sometimes to get through those things
[15:28]so um I think these are really fun to write um I am so happy to be here on young Kelly for
[15:35]20 years we just figured out about what and I'm so happy to be clear because every year
[15:38]stories of the person she was a little little. Did she get any edited my second book which is
[15:43]fun to learn but yes so she was a full-clared just said I can't believe that her get away with
[15:48]the line um there's no helmet hard enough to protect her from her own recklessness.
[15:55]So my mother wrote about me in the published and then I really went to college just
[16:01]let me know. Oh just put it in for therapy.
[16:04]I'm so happy to be here and talk to you guys about. I would say you might do and noticing
[16:15]and it's like the whole holding idea that writing really begins with opinions and ends with
[16:20]the whole thing like it is like an observational art but today our cousin was in town and I
[16:28]walked around with three-year-old who just walked one block and we just noticed a lot. We
[16:33]noticed like almost an hour and when you're when you're doing it that all sorts of things are here
[16:39]I mean there were a hundred things to touch, smell, like break-offs you know see if the flower would
[16:48]like rub a color onto your hand try to eat it. It is so incredibly antithetical to the
[16:59]pace at which we live our lives and the slow down like the transition into that zone is really
[17:06]hard to make. It's really like that there was a minute where I was like not making it
[17:12]and kind of my phone was like kind of burning a hole in my pocket and or you have nothing to do
[17:17]and you're sort of like hurrying a little person along and then realizing like why? I you know
[17:22]you're just used to moving at such a best case that it's hard to kind of slow slow that piece and
[17:27]I you know writing again is the only form of making that I'm really any good to go around the
[17:32]patients for but it is like one of the only times where my brain has to be forced to do something and
[17:37]even then it's like I have to use all the bells and whistles to block the internet on my computer
[17:43]because otherwise you know yeah I do because otherwise you know I keep I use all the tricks I
[17:48]have like a timer that I have to use it but it's hard our frames are just hardwired now to be
[17:53]everywhere and it's it's I think between being a writer and wanting to as much as possible like hang
[17:59]on to my my brain because that's what what it is all about and then having a kid it's it's yeah
[18:06]you will like it's it feels really important as you guys are talking about the actual science
[18:10]behind it all to find ways to exercise that like anything else you exercise and practice
[18:16]and what's I feel it I mean I don't have any children but I babysit three points and they're
[18:23]five four and two so it's like there's there's so much going on but I feel like one of the things
[18:31]so I look at this family of the summer and let's babysit down the weekends and then have this
[18:35]chart up and on the chart it has like TV days in dessert day so it's like Monday nothing day Tuesday
[18:43]dessert day we're good you know and I was like I've I was talking with the parents I was like I've
[18:47]been trying to follow it never once occurred to us that like this is something we follow like
[18:54]we would ever follow but I feel like when you're taking care of something else you realize like
[18:58]most of the time the same things are good for both of you and so it's been like one of
[19:02]my favorite things to do maybe sitting is what's for hour which is like you're not allowed to
[19:07]talk with us for a while respond to if you do and like we're like just doing art and I'm a
[19:12]terrible artist but it is like so nice that I get those moments where like I'm getting the benefits
[19:19]of getting to like do what's like your version of making that's like wanting you like this
[19:27]both of you well you I would like to say we're eating probably like pets are on hair
[19:30]colors and like this I don't know what are your face right I'm I write I just stand up comedy which
[19:36]is a fun for me they think this you also get attention and I write a lot as well but I'll do
[19:52]like I love doing things that I thought out I think that it's like good good for me
[19:58]yeah I don't know
[20:00]Yeah, during the finals we met from a get dressed and we would buy like modeling
[20:05]fight and I make like noses on the side.
[20:07]So I don't know if I'm telling you how it's dark right if they were like, you know,
[20:11]it's not our masters.
[20:12]And that's it for the list of all three things.
[20:15]Yeah.
[20:16]One of our friends we checked with us and his, he had, like, listen to the podcast we did
[20:23]this season at Ivy, and he said his, who's like, I told the rest of it to be my
[20:28]making is tying flies for like five years.
[20:33]And like our other friend was like, it's a barbecue like I really care about the barbecue
[20:38]and I'm so loved and I'm on a task because I think that like the important part is
[20:44]mono tasking.
[20:45]Yeah.
[20:46]And like being intentional more than like being good or feeling like you have to fit into
[20:53]this.
[20:54]And interesting to that you, I think it's interesting to have things that you do for work
[21:01]or pay or to share to make permanent and then to have a set of activities that you do
[21:07]that you just paint right over the next day.
[21:08]So I paint all the time many times a week at the same thing.
[21:12]So they just disappear on me and try again the next day.
[21:17]I don't have any aspirations around it, it's only just to see if I can figure it out.
[21:22]It's like I waited to somebody trying to like hit a little ball into a cup.
[21:27]I believe they called golf.
[21:30]Like it's just nonsense.
[21:31]It's a total nonsense thing to do with your time as is mine.
[21:36]It was like I realized that I was allowed to spend time this way and that it was because
[21:45]I felt like it was so supportive of my actual job and I hate to say that I hate to make
[21:50]it like a tool like that but there's no question that on a day that I painted or puzzled
[21:56]like I have and I was supposed to go like, I'm a little calmer.
[22:01]I can stick with a thought longer.
[22:03]I can let these perfectly like I almost have like imagination stations.
[22:08]Like I'm my own Montessori kid and so I'll be over here working on the draft and then
[22:14]I'll peter out or finish a little section and then I'll go over to another section of
[22:20]our kitchen and I'll pay for a puzzle and I feel like they're complimenting each other
[22:26]in a way.
[22:27]So I think it's especially wonderful to find ways to be creative that have no outcome
[22:35]or but there's no valuation.
[22:38]The thing that Claire said about Marianne liking to be unobserved is like that desire
[22:44]to just disappear into your work and try to connect to the low state, it's not bringing
[22:52]like the ideas of an audience which I think is really cool.
[22:56]I think there could be a lot of discovery there for you.
[22:59]Yeah.
[23:00]Yeah.
[23:01]It's like again, this is no one has read this yet but the like it is there's a whole sequence
[23:06]in the book of like it's a little girl with hiccups that you try, you know, like training
[23:12]one upside down and doing heart oils and eating women's and everything in her
[23:15]grandmother who's being like you just sit and then there's finally like the moment
[23:19]where she's still and that's what it is is like, you know, still this is when when
[23:26]things keep moving when you can slow down like your heart and your breath that you
[23:32]don't think so.
[23:33]I think at any age it's a good lesson.
[23:35]Yeah.
[23:36]It's like a Ruby.
[23:37]That's the reveal.
[23:38]It's creating the conditions for the reveal of the discovery.
[23:41]The other thing I'd say is that and this is so clear on the research is that, you know,
[23:48]when you're having trouble dropping into some sort of creative project, there's there
[23:53]were two pieces of advice.
[23:54]One was to find a sensory cathedral in one of both which is nature number one but there
[24:01]are other places.
[24:02]And in fact, I grew up Catholic and I'll tell you that they're brilliant at creating
[24:07]a sensory experience inside of all to ceiling, lowered lights, the smell of incense,
[24:14]organ music, changing together.
[24:16]Like all of that is driving your biggest nerve and which creates calmness, which creates
[24:23]openness, which creates potential.
[24:25]And then when I first tuned into this research, I feel like you can also kind of create
[24:31]a sensory cathedral.
[24:33]Like everybody has a sense of hand on their house at this point, even Claire has a sense
[24:37]of experience.
[24:38]She's no funny.
[24:39]And you know, you can lower your own lighting and we had like craft night last night,
[24:45]Claire's apartment and therefore I was hating and we've turned on music and this is the calm
[24:51]down.
[24:52]It's not that hard to trigger.
[24:55]It's not that hard to make five moves and like totally change your...
[25:00]environment in your space and make it way more conducive for a great myelination
[25:05]which was the other name of the book. The five-year-old set probably wouldn't have quit.
[25:12]You don't know. You never know. You never know. You never know. You never know. You never know. You never know. You never know. You never know.
[25:15]You try for a sequel. Do you have too many questions? Do you want to talk about what you're making?
[25:20]Yeah. I'm just really curious because I went to a group of thinking for a big
[25:25]audience with you in 2015. There were a lot of them doing assets. I'll say that.
[25:30]This was good. But I wanted to play film because it did put people into this other
[25:38]to that sensory space. I think we were at a resort and some people were touching the fur
[25:44]and hiring the highest sense. And you know, I got in another setting.
[25:48]This is the first time we've had this question. So I'm here.
[25:51]And actually in another setting, it reminded me of something. It is quite a simple pleasure
[25:58]to stroke a burn and see how soft it is and watch its tiny little pearls unfold and those are
[26:03]really small little things. And as I was, you know, I was not tripping, but I will show you.
[26:09]I wish I could. But anyway, that they're like, oh God, you must have been your extra on this
[26:17]one. But I was like, no, I'm really not. But I had this memory of being in high school and being
[26:22]in ratchered by nature. And I remember someone down right, snacking that out of me and saying
[26:28]simple pleasure is for simple life. And I wanted to bring that up because I thought I really
[26:36]didn't realize how much that had been happening about that ability to simply absorb
[26:42]and to do it without the fear of judgment. As you said, it made the community of safety
[26:48]without being watched by me or, you know, by being in whatever your creative zone ends at that
[26:55]moment. And so it just, it made me think about how many two different moments that this teenage
[27:00]self-judging the simplicity of it. And then these adults who had rebound this childlike joy
[27:06]in this moment and those two things collided together, meaning really people are about what
[27:10]you're talking about and the sort of neuroasticity that you've been in your experience when you
[27:15]are putting yourself into this experience. Yeah. I think that parents who say, wow, have kids who
[27:22]say, wow, I think if you're like walking around in the world and you say, look, look at that,
[27:27]look at that, look at those things over the windows. They're so cool. Look at how that I want to
[27:31]stand. And I'm slow. I mean, she says there's just always something to notice. There's
[27:36]only something to admire or be curious about. And you can absolutely model that a lot of them.
[27:43]I'd also think, just like speaking from my own high school experience that year, I was like very
[27:49]booked. Like there's not a lot of space for like, you know, I'm just going to go wander around the
[27:55]park and like, that's going to be my day because it was, you know, and there was like,
[28:00]realistic there was space. And I was like, well, I can't. I got to study time to take six, eight
[28:04]I dropped out of drama because I needed to take another science class for her. I work in the
[28:10]entertainment industry now. But I think that there is this like when you're in this space where
[28:17]like, you kind of are being like, you're getting a grade every week, multiple times a week,
[28:22]you're like getting feedback back on your work. And I feel like it is a space where you're like,
[28:28]there's so much judgment and so much figuring out who you want to be. And like, you don't even
[28:33]have a full brain yet chill out. And so I think that like, really, I wish I had made more space
[28:39]for myself than I would say in high school to be like, I'm just taking a hobby and yeah,
[28:46]not need to be watched. You know, I value it. Yeah, you're just not trying to happen to team. You're
[28:53]wearing clothes in your girlfriend. You're looking at you. Because you hear that you taking a quiz,
[28:58]you're wearing your college essay. And it's constant evaluation. Good. Bad. Okay. Very good.
[29:04]Oh, starter. I mean, it's like, think about that. We did not go through that as well.
[29:10]Um, I want to, so I graduated from school last year. Yeah. And that was, um, I quit throughout high
[29:16]school. I created the idea of making, because I'm a very great person. I'm great that I did making.
[29:23]And so like freshman year, I started like a slime business. Well, that was like a thing.
[29:28]Yeah, terrible. All these different things. But yeah, and I also found, um, and that led to where
[29:37]I am today, which is podcasting. Um, I found a way to combine by internet addiction and
[29:45]by creating. And so, and, and I still do this to this day. It's kind of embarrassing. I have
[29:50]been making fan of it for four years. Um, what's a fan of it? It's like making shortcut videos.
[29:57]Oh, send this now. I'll send you some good ones. Yeah.
[30:00]I think we all want to know.
[30:02]It's a very gensy term, you guys, that makes sense.
[30:06]Some of you have been noticed.
[30:07]It's basically short cut videos that
[30:12]are made with different effects and different sounds
[30:15]that are very appealing and quickly process them
[30:20]to let the it's good for TikTok, like, you know,
[30:23]people that are quickly, but to make them
[30:25]is actually a very long process and it's very creative
[30:28]that it takes, like, I'm a big Gilmore Girl fan,
[30:32]so I made one of the Gilmore Girl scenes edits that
[30:34]are, like, bold, different clips from different characters
[30:38]and with different sounds.
[30:39]It's almost like a sizzle reel that is, like,
[30:45]specific to a TV show.
[30:46]Or a movie show.
[30:47]Or, like, an art actor.
[30:49]I have to send her a girl's hand.
[30:51]I have to say that Jenny, when she was an editor,
[30:54]she edited me, but she also edited Lauren Brane.
[30:58]That's actually how I found out about this event.
[31:00]Oh, Lauren, we're at an area of my audio room.
[31:04]Yeah, I signed on.
[31:06]That's actually her time.
[31:07]I'm a few more fans.
[31:08]She's probably my true guest, so my question is, well,
[31:11]is there a big event again?
[31:12]Yeah, and she's, yeah, I love, I'm actually,
[31:15]do you guys know about fanfests?
[31:17]You've got to go to fanfests.
[31:18]It's four Gilmore Girls fans in Connecticut every year.
[31:22]And actors from the show were there
[31:23]in this year, Kelly Bitch, today's big acid,
[31:25]and it's amazing.
[31:27]It's the first.
[31:29]Yeah, no, it's the first.
[31:31]OK, it was yeah, it was yeah, it was, yeah, it was, yeah.
[31:35]Yeah.
[31:36]This is an awesome experience.
[31:38]I mean, making it something that every human should have,
[31:42]young or older.
[31:44]And I know any private school arrangements
[31:47]have been having paper states and our teacher
[31:49]and probably draw a teacher in the separate music
[31:51]teacher, but go to South LA.
[31:54]And it's not there.
[31:55]Or if it's there, the art process, draw this line this way.
[31:59]And then draw this line that way.
[32:00]And there's this risk of the benefits
[32:03]of this being a luxury good.
[32:05]And the question is, what are your ideas
[32:06]and how to spread that as far as possible?
[32:08]OK, so I'm so glad that you asked this,
[32:10]because you are sitting next to someone.
[32:12]Oh, is the fact that you didn't do it.
[32:13]You said this up?
[32:16]Yeah, so Aaron, we stand up and introduce yourself
[32:19]to tell him about what you do.
[32:21]And he's kind of just doing it.
[32:22]Really, Kramer, I would have said in my opinion,
[32:25]if they have two daughters, I'm on the board of the Rediscover
[32:30]Center.
[32:31]Jumping is our executive director.
[32:33]We put real tools in the hands of kids
[32:35]and we make the perfect stuff for cycle materials.
[32:38]And we can bring that for 20 years.
[32:41]And we have two full-time locations down
[32:43]over in schools.
[32:44]After schools, we did all kinds of programming.
[32:48]We can have events.
[32:48]Oh, it is full, OK?
[32:49]It is.
[32:50]70 schools.
[32:52]We're in 40, and I'm not 30 kind of district trips.
[32:57]So we've been in the business of making for years.
[33:00]I grew up with Thursday night being my favorite night,
[33:03]because that was when people would crash out on the streets.
[33:05]And I was constantly collecting, taking things apart
[33:08]and building real character.
[33:11]So I've kind of recreated my youth and organization
[33:17]with kids in a certain degree in school,
[33:19]but Jonathan, we started our summer school program
[33:22]back in 2011.
[33:24]So the people want to go to a website
[33:26]to learn more.
[33:27]What's the website?
[33:28]Rediscover center.org.
[33:30]Rediscover center.org, and they can donate through that.
[33:33]Oh, yeah.
[33:34]So we take material all the time with that fundraiser
[33:36]or that pedaglonious sponsoring on the number 13.
[33:39]And then we take those resources and we'll work with schools
[33:43]up on all home and drive and take their views.
[33:47]And we'll work down in South LA.
[33:49]And yet there's many materials and really
[33:52]create a free experience, it's just a little bit
[33:54]experiences into the hands of kids that have
[33:57]are in school for that message.
[33:58]That's not what I see.
[33:59]So cool.
[34:00]We used to go to the creative reuse in Oakland.
[34:04]And yeah, I was just, they just turned the corner.
[34:06]And there's like a barrel of plants.
[34:09]Yeah, it's like $45,000, but that was it.
[34:13]I just wanted to chime in.
[34:14]So I have three kids.
[34:15]They're now five, nine, 11.
[34:17]And so we've been there a few times
[34:18]when you guys do like the one off days in Boston.
[34:21]It's not much fun.
[34:23]And the fact that they get to use the food gun.
[34:25]And I'm not supposed to be the same.
[34:28]So I just want it.
[34:29]If anybody has youngish kids, go there.
[34:33]It's awesome.
[34:34]So that's so cool.
[34:35]Yeah, it's so cool.
[34:36]That was serious.
[34:37]Like, we're always looking for new ideas for how
[34:39]do you get that?
[34:41]How do you get a superintendent to listen to you?
[34:43]How do you get a parent who thinks I need my kids
[34:46]to pass these tests in order to get to the next thing
[34:50]to give their kids enough time to get into this close age
[34:54]to make something?
[34:56]Well, we'll clear out this local now-see of a campaign.
[35:00]I think the big thing that Susan, I'd be coming to you in there about your brain on art,
[35:07]which would be the first book I would recommend to such superintendents and parents is that
[35:12]you really do see that when you are investing in the, not that this is a reason to do it,
[35:18]but when you are like investing and making time for the art that you are performing better on
[35:23]tests, you are more creative and I think that's a big thing, but then I also really believe
[35:31]that like when you're applying to colleges, they're like really there's this pressure of like
[35:38]oh you have to take all these science classes and whatnot, and I think that that's less and less
[35:43]the case than the more important thing is like having passion and that when you have a kid
[35:49]who's applying is like yeah I guess I'll time to the engineering school because I read
[35:53]somewhere that if you applied to the engineering school you have a better chance at getting in the
[35:56]school versus a kid who's like I obsessed with this. One thing I've been marking on for four years
[36:02]and really have that depth in something they're passionate about like fundamentally that will
[36:08]be a better applicant, which again like I can't believe I'm like this is how I'm getting to go.
[36:13]I think that I just I don't think that it's this zero-sum game the way that like we've been
[36:21]touched. Believe it is, but I also know it's like so much easier because I've been done.
[36:25]We talked about therapy and the thing that she told me that was so good.
[36:29]Yeah, I mean one of the things that my therapist just told me.
[36:32]Because that's like another angle. Yeah, it's like look there's a amount of practice,
[36:36]there's a lot of people who are walking around anxious every day.
[36:40]And so you want to know what to ask for. You want to know why it's hard to read.
[36:44]And you know, like this is the solution to many, many crowds like you've
[36:48]heard in this space. Um, yeah, so maybe it's time to tell the people,
[36:56]sorry. But we're being recorded here.
[37:04]Yeah, but just right now.
[37:10]But one of the things my therapist told me is the opposite of an anxious mind is in noticing
[37:17]brain because it really grounded in reality. And I think that like with I think it's great that
[37:25]people have so much access to talk therapy and it's becoming destigmatized.
[37:30]But I think that sometimes it's being viewed as a one-off solution. And I think that
[37:36]it's not necessarily always the best or not in its in and of itself is not always the best
[37:42]solution. And I think like real mental health help does involve a whole array of things and
[37:50]like low-income is all requires like you or if you make like that helps lower your
[37:56]cortisol. And I think that there's just a like my therapist would give me like homework.
[38:02]I'd be like, yeah, you need to go for the walk. And like you should go for a walk and think about
[38:05]your problems. And I'm like, like my gym coach could have told you that. Just like walk it off.
[38:11]But it really does help. But I think that's
[38:14]there was this great story I read in lost connections by Johan Hari, which is a really great book
[38:19]to go ahead and it's about the rise of depression in these nine ways that we used to connect
[38:24]it to the earth and one another and results. Everybody's etc. That we are no longer.
[38:30]And there was a therapist there in London who said every minute you spend between the cherry
[38:35]up to spend in our community garden. It's on the backside of the building. So you come up to
[38:39]see me and then you go down the back stairs and you work in the garden for one hour.
[38:43]And you know, sure enough, people meet each other in the garden. People are seeing progress in
[38:49]the garden and they give away all the food and people who need food. So they're like being the
[38:54]givers instead of the takers, like the shift in their identity. I mean, that was like, oh my god,
[39:01]that is the answer. It's like minutes where your nervous system is calmed per day. Like just
[39:09]however you can get a calm nervous system, get it. And it might not be the tap three answers that
[39:17]everybody's giving us. It would seem that any break from technology would allow these things and I
[39:27]am looking at the creature of habit in the maker. I feel like technology is such a habit that we
[39:33]have allowed ourselves to fall into and how do you break the habit of technology? Well, let me say
[39:43]my editor and producer in this home in Taming 7 who went to American Thummets 2 to 1 Oscar for their
[39:50]first film. And it's now my podcast producer. So good, that is it. Anyway, she,
[40:00]Um, she loves editing and she does it all with technology.
[40:03]It's all street based.
[40:04]She puts on these two chat phones and she's inside the file
[40:08]and she's just, it's like a little surgery for her.
[40:10]And she's like, that is the calmest,
[40:12]making experience.
[40:13]So there's tons of ways to technology.
[40:16]I mean, also she'll be fine, it's mostly fine flow,
[40:19]but social media's not gonna help me.
[40:21]Although I must say I'm watching a lot of reals
[40:23]of people painting.
[40:25]Yes.
[40:26]And I just does something good for me.
[40:29]But I know what you're saying.
[40:30]I do think that there's a shift at least in my generation
[40:34]where more and more of my friends are like,
[40:36]I don't wanna bring my film.
[40:37]I was just trying to film my coworkers
[40:39]about my age, who was just celebrating Russia in the New Year.
[40:44]And she was like, it's, she's like,
[40:46]I just love when there's a Jewish holiday
[40:47]because I just can't bring my film with me.
[40:49]That's like, you can't reach me for two days.
[40:51]And I think that there's this expectation
[40:53]of like always expecting people to be reachable.
[40:56]Like, I texted you two days ago.
[40:57]Why haven't you texted me back?
[40:59]And there's an expectation of always like,
[41:01]needing to respond quickly and needing like this,
[41:05]the life the fullest and say, I'm like, yeah,
[41:07]I'm so happy when I'm feeling like,
[41:10]I feel like people expect so much access to me.
[41:13]And I've become a favorite woman of like,
[41:16]everyone I need to contact is with me right now.
[41:19]Like there's no reason why I would need to have a film.
[41:23]Like, yeah.
[41:24]And I think when you're talking about, you know,
[41:26]kids especially in kids' books,
[41:27]like obviously not to be the person who's an author
[41:30]and a book start talking about our reading is good,
[41:32]but really, really good.
[41:33]And I, you know, I recently was visiting my sister
[41:38]and she was trying, you know, she is boys
[41:39]or even 10 who are, you know,
[41:42]she's really foster reading,
[41:43]but they're just, some kids just really love to read
[41:46]and some that's the kind of work it in.
[41:49]And she tears through so many books a week.
[41:52]And then I noticed when I was there,
[41:54]she was reading our Kindle app on our phone.
[41:56]I was like, they are only seeing you on your phone.
[41:58]Like, they don't really are reading a book.
[42:00]And it's just that's so different.
[42:01]And like, the visible acts of like,
[42:03]there are studies that just like kids with books
[42:05]in their house, like our, like become better readers
[42:09]just from like the physical, like having the books
[42:12]in their house.
[42:12]And so modeling it for kids.
[42:15]And then foster paper kids.
[42:16]And I think like, as there is hopefully a course correction
[42:20]in terms of phones, a social media for, you know,
[42:23]younger people, like some of that is like putting a book
[42:26]in their hands.
[42:27]And it's just, I've written picture books, middle grade,
[42:31]young adult, you know, all the way to adult.
[42:33]And so I've spent a lot of time with little kids,
[42:37]you know, in between kids and teens.
[42:39]And the kids who are reading are all right, like the kids,
[42:43]you know, there is, and whether it's graphic novels,
[42:45]whether it's pictures, whether they're reading,
[42:47]things are younger, like in the same way
[42:49]that there's like no guilty pleasures, you know,
[42:51]if you want to watch a video on painting,
[42:53]if you want to, like, let kids read, you know, what they want.
[42:56]And, but it really, like I do think, you know,
[43:00]not to be Pollyanna Shabbat,
[43:01]but that is an antidote to a lot of the technology problems.
[43:06]But again, you're all in a book star on the evening.
[43:07]So you're probably the same thing.
[43:09]I just want to go back to something you were talking about
[43:14]earlier because it ties in to everything that we're talking
[43:18]about, which is the process of slowing down.
[43:22]And I think, like, when this lovely person just
[43:25]asked about breaking the addiction,
[43:28]that that is a part of it that we don't
[43:31]educate on, that that space, when you put the phone down
[43:35]and you try to calm yourself, is very difficult.
[43:39]We're not built for that kind of discomfort anymore
[43:42]because we've been in the feedback loop of avoiding it
[43:44]for our tech addiction.
[43:46]So that's a piece of education, which is not sexy.
[43:50]But I think we're going to be really useful
[43:52]in helping people build the strength to slow down.
[43:56]For sure.
[43:57]And I mean, you have to tip your hat to John Hite.
[44:01]Yes.
[44:02]Yes.
[44:02]I just generate shit.
[44:04]And in particular, to his chief of steps,
[44:06]it's from Alexa Arnold.
[44:08]And she is the reason why they are passing things
[44:13]state by state by state.
[44:14]And that's like 18 states now and said no, 22 states now
[44:19]have said no funds in schools, spelled about no sell.
[44:24]I think it was the name of it.
[44:25]And they wrote the legislation and they're
[44:27]passing it in all these states.
[44:28]I mean, that's a huge favor you're
[44:30]doing to parents and even to kids,
[44:32]because everybody's trying to fit in and everyone's
[44:34]trying to belong.
[44:35]And nobody wants to be like the bitchy mom
[44:37]who's, you know, like, out there with their posters.
[44:41]Like, no more hotels.
[44:43]So when they make the big decision for all of us,
[44:46]and we all just have to obey, like, that's the rule,
[44:50]I mean, I used to say to the girls that we didn't have Disney.
[44:53]We didn't have Disney channel.
[44:55]Yeah.
[44:56]I was told to be a student.
[44:57]And you survived.
[44:58]And I survived.
[44:59]And then I...
[45:00]When I got to middle school, I had to go back and watch all the shows.
[45:03]I had to go back and watch them, like, left out.
[45:05]But I watch him on 10 as a kid, too.
[45:07]I know the theme song.
[45:08]Look.
[45:09]But I think all those that technology has,
[45:12]there's, like, as Jean-Louis talks about,
[45:13]there's a dopamine hit to those things.
[45:15]And it's not, there is a dopamine hit to making something
[45:18]or reading a book or doing slower-based things,
[45:20]but it's a slower thing.
[45:22]And I also think our brains now are so into multitasking
[45:25]that it's almost like, it's almost like going to the gym,
[45:28]you almost have to, like, I'm going to read,
[45:30]I'm, you know, my whole life,
[45:32]I'm going to have to, like, a massive reader and bookner
[45:35]and I love it.
[45:36]And then I'm a single mom of a toddler.
[45:38]And I have the last three years of not had as much time
[45:40]to read as I used to.
[45:42]And as I've gotten in the last, like, you know,
[45:44]six months or years, I've started to kind of inch my way back into it.
[45:47]I actually can't believe I used to be an editor.
[45:49]I used to read, like, three manuscripts a night.
[45:51]And now I'm like, I will read for 10 minutes
[45:54]and then I'm fine myself, reach you for my phone,
[45:56]and be like, oh, the dishwasher, I should go and load that.
[45:58]And I'm just all over the place.
[46:00]And I have literally started setting a timer
[46:03]and increasing it for like one minute.
[46:05]At the time, it's like going to the end,
[46:07]like, I have to, like, build back up to being able to do that.
[46:10]And so I think that's something that's just
[46:12]keeping on with all this stuff.
[46:13]Like, I couldn't probably, right now,
[46:15]with something new, go out to the garden for an hour.
[46:19]I would be like, you know, but like, even if you,
[46:22]there, anything you can kind of build on
[46:24]and then start in a foundational place
[46:26]and with any of these kinds of things to make up.
[46:31]And any final thoughts?
[46:33]I don't know what time it is.
[46:34]If no idea.
[46:35]We have some for one more.
[46:36]If no, there's one more.
[46:37]Or we can save it.
[46:40]Yeah.
[46:41]So it's more, like, a statement.
[46:43]And that was the other question.
[46:44]But I love that, like, you've still, like, illustrating books
[46:47]and that using AI, I think.
[46:50]Yeah.
[46:51]Yeah.
[46:52]These minds illustrated actually by somebody who's
[46:55]wonderful in the U.S. and I know he is a scrunch.
[46:58]You know, I think, I must speak for everybody.
[47:01]You hear probably we're all on the same page
[47:03]or go, you know, AI and create, like,
[47:06]it's so important to support people who are, you know,
[47:10]illustrating their own pictures, writing their own books
[47:12]and in the kind of bookstores you sell them.
[47:15]And yeah, I think it's very, very, very important.
[47:19]Yeah, I do the books of like sorting or cycling.
[47:22]You know, something with a fun creative job.
[47:25]You know, I'll end by saying that I also
[47:28]want to shout out to George.
[47:30]So, yeah, our illustrator, George.
[47:32]And this is the first kid's book he ever has.
[47:35]It was his dream to illustrate a kid's book.
[47:38]And you can probably see more than him,
[47:40]but I do just want to give him some luck.
[47:42]Amazing.
[47:43]He's an elementary school teacher and Connecticut.
[47:45]And his wife had just read Tell Me More,
[47:47]more, which is a book I wrote for adults in her book club. And he had that had an illustrator,
[47:52]agent for six years, and he had no nibbles. And then he got an email that said, Kelly Corrigan picked
[47:59]you. And he went and woke his wife up to do his life.
[48:05]So the last thing to say about it, like in AI world and making is the robots haven't beat us
[48:13]on hands yet. Like, hands are still very special and wonderful things. And, and then
[48:21]Bob Shen as well. Yes. Yes. And so, yeah. So put a little, a little emotional, a little manual
[48:29]together, right? A little manual together. And you get something that is fundamentally uniquely human.
[48:38]It's actually to feel better, better, and better over time to feel the raw and feel like artisans
[48:45]just for writing our own senses. You know, but truly. So yeah, so enjoy your making.