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If you look back, can you remember a time where you felt really connected to the pulse of your creative path, like you felt grounded in it, you felt like you could. You were on the way to where you wanted to go. For me, I've been doing this for 20 years. I've been on this creative path and throughout that journey, there have been times where I felt squarely on the path and it feels really good and I feel like I'm getting somewhere and I can feel like this is where I need to be. And then there are times where I get really, really lost as a creative person. I always wanted to be someone that was continually finding my way back to my voice and my thread and what I wanted to be doing and not to just have like a few good moments and kind of lucky hits at the start and then be like a one hit wonder and then kind of fizzle out. I always wanted to refine myself and find new threads and just feel that sense of like, oh, I'm doing. I'm like digging into the real work. And I feel like over this 20 year period, I've been really lucky to start my career by trying to break in and getting some great clients like Nickelodeon and then moving into this podcast and getting some really great guests and speaking gigs at places like Sesame street and then move into making picture books. And all along that journey, there were times where there were those of breaking through. Then there were those times where I felt really lost and I nearly lost my way. And this episode is going to be three things that will help you find that pulse again today. And we're going to start with talking about why this has to do with creative nutrition. And we're going to end with our cta. It's called Fill your creative prescription. It's going to give you a way to act today to feel that pulse of your creative path again on the creative journey. It's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift off. Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk. 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I think that we often discredit or disconnect this brain body connection that our mood and how our outlook has a lot to do with what we're putting in our bodies and how we're treating our body and that our brain is part of our body. Now I'm not here or qualified to talk about depression. I think they're from my experience. And then from what I've seen in other people in the world, there's a lot of different types of depression. It's not always just what you're eating. And if you're moving and, you know, taking care of yourself and all that, there's a lot of other stuff going on there. However, I think it's so easy to miss that connection. And I think the same is true in your creative life. Your creative health is deeply connected to your consumption habits, your creative consumption. So your creative health and your consumption health of what kind of creative stuff are you taking in? They are connected. And so if you're feeling in a creative depression, if your creating is running dry and you feel like you're not where you need to be in the path, it might not be anything about what you're making. It might be something about what you you are consuming. I like this idea. You art what you eat. You have to get a balanced creative diet. And I'm really inspired by Cal Newport's analogy of saying that short form video content is like the ultra processed food that is designed to be hyper palatable and bring you absolutely no nutrition. Like, one of the questions I think a lot about when it comes to short form video is like, what is this in terms of like storytelling? Because now I like to just say there have been short form videos that have made me cry, that have moved me, that have informed me, that have made me cry, laughing. I've got a lot of value out of it. It's not like I'm just all anti short form video. However, I do think that they lack a lot of the nutrients necessary for experiencing a meaningful life and let alone creating meaningful work. I feel like our sense of meaning in life is directly tied to our consumption of stories that help us reframe what the heck we're doing here and what it all means. And when I look at short form video and I try to think about, you know, what most of it is, to me, it's at best kind of often just a part of a story. Kind of like an extreme version of tv. A great TV show might have an act one where they introduce the characters and the setting and the premise, and then a bunch of Act 2. Like for years, maybe 10 seasons of Act 2 where it's kind of perpetuating the problem and you're going through the conflict and nothing is resolved and you're kind of in that state of tension. And then a great show will pay off with an Act 3 that makes it resolve in a meaningful way. In A way that feels satisfying and surprising. However, a lot of TV doesn't do that because, you know, no judgment on the creative people. But just by the nature of the business, it is incredibly difficult to know, like, how long are you gonna have, when are you going to wrap it up, how can you make it satisfying, how can you keep them interested for long enough? All that kind of stuff. And what ends up happening is a lot of us are not satisfied with the way our favorite TV shows end because of that. So it's kind of a broken version of a story and then short form video. Is that on whatever extreme drug of choice you want to say, times a million, where there it's almost all. I don't know if it's just act two, it's just tension, there's no relief, or if it's just act three, it's all resolved. I don't know. It just feels incomplete in the same way that ultra processed food is incomplete. It's not giving you all the nutrients and vitamins, vitamins that you need to thrive and survive, but on a spiritual level or a psychological level or a philosophical level, that is what I think story and art and creativity is supposed to bring to us. And I strongly agree with and have experienced that. What I'm consuming has a huge impact on how I'm feeling and whether I feel connected and have perspective and feel primed to do the work that I need to do, which is kind of just surprising. It's not what I would have guessed I would have thought if I'm feeling out of sorts and off my path. It has everything to do with what I'm making and whether it's the right stuff to be making and very little to do with what I'm consuming. But I've found that consuming the right things give me the insights that I need and the inspiration and the provocation to act in the way that I need to act, to feel like I'm right where I need to need to be just a tiny little aside on this, because I want to. I want to frame this episode through the lens of creative nutrition, like making sure that you're getting the right kind of building blocks to edify your creativity in such a way where you feel like you're doing exactly the kind of things you need to be doing or you're at least digging into the good questions in your creative journey. However, I'm using that creative nutrition lens, but I want to just say that I'm also inspired by thinking of this in a deeper way than nutrition. I Like to think of it almost as a sacred relationship to consuming creative work, to engaging with it and participating in it. For me, I don't want to go, I don't want to go super woo woo here. For me, it's enough just to be aware that there's some deep connection between the things I'm experiencing as a human on the inside of me and the things that I'm encountering out in the world, including life, but also art, and that there's some kind of connection that I can't quite explain. And when I approach creative work, the creative work of other people with a kind of sacred reverence and I let it speak to my life, something incredible happens. I think that for me, I share concern with philosopher, modern philosopher Simon Critchley. He wrote a book called On Mysticism, I think in America and Mysticism in the uk. And this is a really interesting book. I believe he would call himself an agnostic, maybe even an atheist, at least at different times in his life. And one of the things that he talks about in this book that I want to touch on here because I think it's important for our conversation today to emphasize how serious of a deal I think this is, what we're consuming and how serious we take it. And he talks about how with the modern times, loss of religion. Now obviously there are a lot of religious folks still about, but generally as a culture in the west or in modern times, we've never been less religious. And a lot of us, even if we consider ourselves to be spiritual, we don't have a religious practice. And one of the things that he says falls away with that is a serious engagement with art, with story, through sacred texts, with art in the church or singing together. Like we don't have a space in our lives, most of us, where we are taking art dead seriously. And I think this is a major problem. It's definitely a problem. When I start disengaging with art in my life as a thing that is meaningful and essential to my path, I start losing my way. And I think this is just one of the keys. And I think we live in a time where, yeah, we still experience art, we still engage with story and movies and books and all that to some degree less and less so I think, by the way, because of things like short form video. But we kind of have split up the sugar and the medicine. It's no longer like the art is the sugar that gives some kind of medicinal thing to us that we need. And we've separated those out into where the religious Folks feel like it's all medicine. This is all literal, this is all 100% true. And it's exactly what you need to do. And there's no sugar to it, no fun to it, no fantasy to it. And then the other side is just pure entertainment. It's just pure sugar. It's if you go to the movies, if you read a book, do it purely for fun. It doesn't mean anything. It's not about anything. It's not related to anything you're actually experiencing. It's just a way to pass the time. I actually hate this idea of passing the time. I might be alone here. I love playing video games. I love engaging with art. I love all of that stuff. I even like doing things that feel meaningless as long as they're enjoyable, or connecting you with others. Wasting time, so to speak, but passing the time, like literally trying to just get through it. It just really bothers me, especially when it comes to how we think about the role that creative work plays in our life. And so for me, this is the shift of how could we take our entertainment, our art, so much more seriously and really let it speak to us and really not just consume it, but then wrestle with it, engage with it, converse about it, have different lens to think through, pull it into our lives as if it was the supplement that we needed right at this moment. That's what this episode is. We're going to give you three, and by we, I mean me. I'm going to give you three different types of media or art that you can pull into your path when you need them and kind of lay out. These are three different ways to engage and choose what you need to help you feel like you are back on the path today. Let's go. Okay. The first creative supplement that I think you need when you are feeling off your path is what I will call a priming supplement. And it's about feeling what matters. So if you're feeling off your creative path, you're just feeling in a ruth, the first thing that you can pull into is this priming material. So we're talking about movies, books, TV shows, art, any type of media that has some weight or substance to it, that can make you feel things. That's the kind of stuff we're talking about. And the first kind you can reach for is this priming material. Priming is an idea that I took from the acting world, where some actors, the way that they get into a scene is they will use media to prime. I can't remember who I heard say this. But someone was saying they would listen to Bon Iver before they went to do this scene so that they could cry like they're trying to prime an emotion. And you can do this in life. And I think that this is one way in which people don't take art as seriously as it needs to be taken. Because it is incredibly difficult to live your values. And I think one of the reasons, and when I say your values, what I mean is your beliefs, what you think actually matters. It is hard to live in a way that is aligned with what you really think matters in life because you often don't feel like it. And that is the beauty of creative work, of a great movie that, you know, makes you feel fresh. That thing that really matters to you, you can prime that emotion. Now, that works in life, let's say. Like, there are times when I think, man, I need to watch the movie about time. Because I need to remember that parenting and being a dad is like number one on my list. Like, this is a core value that I am just losing my sense of importance around. And when I watch that movie, if you haven't seen it, goodness gracious, a lot of people just think it's like a rom com, but damn, that thing will make me bawl my eyes out. And so I can prime that emotion if I feel like I need to get back in touch with that thing. That's freaking awesome. Powerful thing that art can do. By the way, there's a whole book called wonderworks by Angus Fletcher in which he has like, I think there's like 30 categories of these literary inventions with specific books that can prime a specific experience or feeling within you. Like, if you want to feel motivated, if you want to grow your self esteem, if you want to feel curious, like if you want to awaken that feeling, art can do that for you almost on command. It's an incredible fricking thing that we just do not take seriously. And this definitely applies to your creative path. If you are feeling unmotivated, if you are feeling like, beat up. One of the things that I. One of the priming the pump, priming the feeling that really works for me is this idea of reach for a movie or a TV show or a book that reminds you that you want to be the character that will fight when they get knocked down. They don't. You don't want to just get knocked down seven times. You want to get knocked down seven times and get up eight times. You want to unleash that. For me, it looks like sometimes when I'm running on the treadmill. I'll watch little music videos of different movies where the character is getting pumped up. That could be Marvel movies, that could be kids movies. But it's a priming of awakening the warrior, the fighter within me. Because it's so easy to just get for me. I'm just such a squishy, emotional dude. When the universe feels like it's pounding me and just knocking me down, my nature is to be like, okay, I guess everything in this world hates me and I should just give up. Whereas when I prime with those sorts of stories, I can find that part of myself that. That wants to fight, that wants to get up, that wants to be that type of character in the story that doesn't give up that easily. And the way I access that's a core value. Like it's a core value of mine to have that fight, to not just be a. Not being at the whims of what happens to me, but actually collaborating and pushing back and co creating, creating my life and not just taking the easy fixed path of wherever life takes me, but also creating and constructing new paths. I really believe in that. And so in order to feel that feeling that I need to act on that, to remember that that's what I'm going to go to. You see this with things like Memento Mori, this is what stoics do, where they reflect every day on their mortality, their own death. Stories can help you do that. Stories can give you everything that you get, all the positives that you get from experiencing mortality in your life without actually having to experience it. That's how powerful this is. So if you are feeling in a rut, figure out what kind of thing you need to pull into and then reach for something that will prime a feeling that aligns with your real values. Use. If you're not feeling them right now, you can think of these priming creative supplements, these creative works that you pull in to get your heart back into it as a creative defibrillator. This is. You know those pads that the doctors have that shock you back, that shocks your heart back online? That's what this is. It's to get your heart back into it. For me, recently, something that really did this was this movie, Wolf Children. It's an animated movie. And it just made me feel that faith that I had when I was younger of I'm going to figure this out or this is for a reason, or that we're working towards something that I can't even fully expect and help me remember what does it feel like when I assume that if I show up and do everything I need to do, that we're going to find a way. And it got me feeling that feeling again that there's some kind of intelligence or some kind of purpose to what I'm doing. And so when I need that again, when I've lost that, I can go back to that movie. Highly recommend. Has an incredible soundtrack. I can't remember the name of the guy who did it, but he also does this daily project where he plays piano and he opens the windows in his house in rural Japan and he just lets all the atmosphere in. So you can find the link to his Spotify page in the show notes. Just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. And I was just like, I had tears in my eyes most of the movie, and it really just filled me up in exactly the kind of way that I needed. Hey kids, it's Taco Tuesday again for the 800th week in a row. No, listen, I hate to admit it, but Sophie and I got into a real rut cooking and the kids were actively trolling us about it. But then we started getting some hellofresh meals and it has really helped us shake things up this year. So many dishes we've never had before or cooked, and all have been super tasty and easy to make. For me, it's all about the sauces. Last night I made the curried chicken and roast sweet potato jumble, and the sauce was so simple and so delicious. I love that I'm making something yummy and broadening my cooking skills and experience in general. A couple nights prior, we had the edamame stir fry with this amazing gochujang aioli. It was vegetarian, but super flavorful and filling and just I absolutely loved it. Nothing hits like home cooking. Go to HelloFresh.com Pep Talk 10 FM. That's HelloFresh.com Pep Talk 10FM now to get 10 free meals plus a NutriBullet Ultra plus two in one compact kitchen system. It's a $189.99 value on your third box. Free meals applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. Disclaimer must order the third box by May 31, 2026. Warmer weather is here. Time to break out those cooler clothes. But sometimes that's not so fun. 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Go to quince.compep talk for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Q U I n c e.com Pep Talk for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com Pep Talk. The second creative supplement that you might need is perspective and seeing the big picture. So for me, these types of creative works are the things I reach for when I need to zoom out. If you think of it like a dot to dot coloring page, it's kind of like when you're going about doing the work, you are like an ant searching a dot to dot for the next numbered dot and it's gonna. You have to go move around all you're just kind of like fumbling in the dark. But if you can take a zoomed out approach, if you can see the whole page like a kid does, you can kind of see like, okay, here's number one, there's two, there's three. You can start to even sense a pattern of how this is going to all come together. The bigger image, even before you finish it, you kind of get a sense of direction. For me, that's kind of like what archetypes do, you know, the archetype of the hero, the archetype of the queen, the archetype of the heroine, the archetype of the joker, the guide, all these different kinds of archetypes, those are just a few different ones that you see play out in story. But there are even just archetypes of place and thing. You know, the key or the sword or the garden or the mountain. Like these are all archetypes. For me, when I think of archetypes, I just think of like someone saying, you know, it's A thing. If it's a thing, then it's an archetype. It's like a known thing. When you can see the archetype, the bigger image, the bigger pattern in what you're working through, you can get an outside perspective and engaging with creative work. Finding creative work that helps you feel seen by yourself from the outside gives you that perspective. For me, a lot for a long time, especially in my 20s, the hero's journey, the hero archetype really resonated for me because I was trying to build my ego, I was trying to build my individuality and my sense of independence as a human and fighting that way and having to do it alone, all of that really resonated. Now, that doesn't resonate as much. There are still ways in which I can see myself in that archetype, but I might see myself more in the guide archetype doing this show, or in the heroine, the typical heroine's journey, which by the way, is not really anything about gender. It's just different forces within all people. The heroine is more like, we have to do it together. How am I going to find the people and the community that I need to contribute to and participate in and get supported by? And so when you are feeling out of sorts and feeling in a rut, one of the things you can reach for are the types of creative work that help you feel seen. For me recently, one that really, really just blew me away was this book, Piranesi. We had Jared K. Anderson on a few episodes ago, who is an author, and he recommended this book. He said if you like his book Strange Animals, you might like this book. I absolutely did. It's by Susanna Clark. And by the way, I'm giving you these examples, not necessarily because you're definitely going to take these recommendations, but they're just maybe that might be the case. Maybe you're looking for some curation in getting away from the ultra processed food that is the short form video, consuming your life by consuming it. And so I'm throwing these out there, but also just some examples of how this plays out in my life. When I read even just the premise of this book, it gave me something like, oh man, this is the kind of magic that I need in my life. And just to give you a little bit of background, it's about a character named Piranesi who lives in this mansion that is never ending. And there are three floors. The bottom floor is full of water and sea life. The middle floor is where he mostly spends his time. And he lives in these Halls that are lined with all these different kinds of statues. And then the third floor is mostly full of clouds. And he's never got to the end of this thing. That's where you find him. I'm not gonna say much more. I'll say one other thing. There's one other person living in the house called the Other. And I won't say anything else other than it just blew me away. And it gave me a piece that I needed to feel back on my path. And that was just this feeling of it's not just. There's not just pre rational thought and post rational thought. There's also this idea of transrational thought. It was a great reminder of that helped me feel that fresh, this idea that I could look at my life through. Yes, literalism and rational thought and logic and everything is just what it seems to be. This kind of materialist way of moving through life, life. But I can also see the symbolic lens. I can see the symbolic questing overlay of moving through life through making meaning and creating meaning and seeing meaning and finding meaning in the signs and symbols and engagement with my path. And they don't have to negate each other. I can actually see my everyday and my external world as having a deep connection with my internal world. And that's this symbolic lens that you find in things like Jungian thought, but then also through the religious traditions in varying degrees, maybe especially more in the past, a more literal translation of that. But it helped me feel fresh. It helped me feel inspired to see myself from a distance and see, like, where am I in this path? Oh, I'm at this point where I need to figure out how to hold the tension of these two things if I don't have to just see everything as literal. I can also be romantic about how I'm moving through life. I don't know if that makes sense to you. I kind of just did this weird little aside that maybe went way too deep, too quick without more explanation. But I hope it gives you a taste of what it feels like. If you can look for a painting that has a symbol that you feel seen in, you feel like, that's me, that can give you a taste of that archetype, a taste of stepping back and seeing the bigger picture of the.to.that you're working on. And so as you engage with a movie or a book or a painting, you can ask yourself if you're feeling especially seen by it, because you've never seen this thing for the first time. And you're just Kind of like reflecting. Oh, that made me really feel seen. You can start to see, well, what made me feel seen? Why did I relate to this? And what in my life am I going through or have I gone through? Like what.in the.to. that I hit before that this is referencing or what is it reference to the one I'm looking for next. This is a different way to seriously engage with creative work. Like it matters because it fricking does. I'm getting pissed off because this is where for me, this is where the juice is. This is where meaning comes into my life, is through creative work and kind of this reverence for how it really does matter in my everyday. So I hope that makes sense. What you're looking for is stuff that you know you're reflecting on. Okay, I engage in this and it made me feel really seen. Why? Was it something from my past? Is it something from my present that I'm going through, something that I'd like to experience in the future. I'm trying to move towards something that's telling me where I could go next. Or think about stuff that you've already experienced or consumed that made you feel like that and maybe revisit them, especially ones that really hit you recently. What was the last thing that you consumed? A book, a movie, a podcast, an audiobook, whatever it is that made you feel like, oh man, good lordy, that is where I'm at. And then take a step further than just feeling it. Really interested in. I've probably talked about this a few times on the show. I can't remember. I'll try to find it. I don't know if I can. I haven't been able to find it for a while. But there was a study that I read where they gave kids this Clifford the Big Red Dog book and it was about a three legged dog that wasn't included in the dog pack. And eventually they learned to include him. And if they ask kids like what is this about? They'd say you should include three legged dogs. And if they explained to it, well, yeah, it's really about that. But also people that are different and anyone that's different, like you shouldn't make them other and outsider like you should should bring them into your pack. That once they explained it, once they just went from feeling it, they felt it by engaging in it. And that's the sugar, that's great. But then the medicine is in the reflection, in the taking seriously of it, in the there's something real that we need with this. And so Talking about it, reflecting on it, journaling about it. If you felt seen by something, this is something that can give you the perspective you need from the outside to help you find your way to the next dot. The third and final one is provocation. Move yourself to create. This is the type of work that you need to consume that inspires you to act, to create, to make, because you feel challenged to participate. You know, for me, as a dad, when I ask my kids, do you want to go to the park and throw the football? Do you want to go ride our bikes? Whatever. Like, one of the things I'll do is just start doing the thing. I'll just start throwing the football. I'll just start riding my bike, like, that kind of thing in front of them. Because we have this thing where we see that person doing it, and we're like, oh, I remember that. I like to do that. I want to do that. And some art that I turn to. To consume, to help me get out of a rut is that type of stuff that reminds me of, like, oh, that's the thing. I fricking like to do. Something that did this to me recently was this song from Lizzie McAlpine. My daughter, who is 17, who has great music taste, got me into Lizzie McAlpine, who is just a phenomenal songwriter. And one of my favorite songs of hers is called Drunk Running. And in that, she has this perfect metaphor that I don't even really want to ruin for you, if you like. Like. My only issue with Lizzie McAlpine is that she just sings too well. And most of the music I like is from singers that are just not that good. But I do really, really like it. And I just think she is a phenomenal songwriter. And in that song, Drunk Run is. And there's a turn of the metaphor. There's a turn of this analogy, which is exactly what I try to do in most episodes of this show, where you kind of line up. This is the thing, the analogy that I'm talking about, and this is the thing that I'm talking about. And I'm gonna use the exact same language for these two things to make that analogy come to life. And you feel it, and it hits you. And about half she sets something up at the beginning of the song, and she pays it off in the middle. And to show you, like, what this metaphor is of drunkenness, addiction, that kind of thing in her life, and you just feel it fresh. And it just challenged me. I was reading about provocation and to provoke. And the Latin root word is about challenging. And that's the idea that it's when you see something creative that's just so good, that's so much in the kind of vein of the stuff you want to do that you're like, you know what? I need to get my butt into gear and sit it down into a chair and make something. That's the third one. If you are in a rut, you might need a provocation supplement. You need to consume something that reminds you of, like, why it's so good to be making stuff, to create stuff, to do art, to wrestle with the work the way that you like to wrestle with it. And for me, you know, this was something that happened in a song. I'm not a musician. It was still doing it for me. And so you might have something that's done this for you in the past, recently that you could go revisit, or you can go search out stuff that you think might do this for you. For me, one of the ones that works for me really well is either stand up comedy or listening to Mike Birbiglio's show. Working it out just the way they talk about it, talk about storytelling and joke writing, it always makes me want to write. There's a couple screenwriting podcasts that do a similar thing for me, too. And it's all about the stuff that you're consuming that provokes you, that challenges you, that makes you remember, like, ooh, yeah, that's what's so good about this. And that doesn't always come from just sitting in a chair or sitting at the easel and be like, remember you like this. No, sometimes you need to be provoked by the stuff that you're consuming. And so go search that out. All right. You know, we don't want to leave you just feeling jazzed out of your frickin mind. We want to inspire you to act and do something that will make a difference in your creative journey today. This is our creative call to adventure. It's called fill your creative prescription. You got a prescription. And the cure is more. Not cowbell, but provocation, priming, perspective. Which of these three do you need? Reach for them. You can just kind of do an internal diagnosis, little audit of yourself, of, okay, do I need the priming of just getting my heart back online? What is something that I could turn to or consume? Or could I ask a friend who has similar taste or has better taste than you and say, hey, what book should I be reading? If I want to cry, if I want to laugh, if I need to prime, like, remembering that people matter, life matters, that sort of thing. What do you need to prime to. To bring? And it might be something that is the kind of topic that you explore in your work, that you could feel it from, feel how much it matters to you through the lens of someone else's work. So that is the priming second one is perspective. Do you need to find archetypes, story archetypes, place archetypes, character archetypes, thing archetypes that make you get an outside perspective of what you're going through. So you can be like, oh, I'm in the belly of the whale. Oh, I'm in. The allies are showing up. Or I need to look for the allies. Am I in the place where I need the guide? Am I in the place where I need to be the guide? Am I in the place where I need to offer a counter perspective and actually play the villain in your family roles? Because it's time for you to be the person that's standing up for yourself. That's not me. What archetype do you need to reach to? Where do you need to see yourself? Do you need to reach for a perspect, creative supplement, a piece of creative work that can help you see yourself from the outside? Or the third one is the provocation. Do you need to consume something that just reminds you of the craft and how good it is to wrestle with the stuff that you like to make? Maybe there's a painting that's just so messy and so textural and so thick, just comes off the walls that you're like, oh man, I want to get my hands dirty in the paint. Again, like, this is about craft. This is about being challenged. Of like, oh, I want to participate. Like I'm not going to let them have all the fun. That's the third one. Okay, just pick, just do a little diagnosis, which one do you need today? And then go give yourself some permission to consume something that is more creatively edifying than scrolling the doom that is 247 on your phone. I'd like to end by just saying that. Like my friend rapper Andy Mineo says, being lost is part of the journey. So if you're feeling lost, don't be down and out. There's actually an archetype for that. There's an archetypal phase of being lost, of the dark night of the soul. Like that is part of it. It's always been part of all of the highs have always been preceded with those sorts of of distraught lows. And so it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. It might just mean that you need to now reach for the thing that you need, the elixir that you need. And it might be one of these three things. This could be a new type of episode that we might explore doing every once in a while on this show. I might call them art what you eat podcasts, or creative supplements or creative nutrition, creative diet, even something in that zone, but something about I want to make part of this podcast not just about creating things, but also consuming creative things. Really enriching creative things. As you could tell in this episode, I'm so freaking passionate about taking the consumption of creative work as a sacred, serious, essential matter. And I've always felt that way, but it never has felt as important as it has felt recently. When none of us are having these shared experiences at the movie theater, none of us are watching the same things none of us are. We're losing our ability to engage with deeper stuff and we are just filling our minds with slop so often. And I'm mad at myself for that first and foremost. And I'm trying to make it a creative discipline to make sure that I'm getting that stuff that is going to make me the creative I want to be, but also the person I want to be. That's how I how essential I think consuming the right sorts of creative things really are really is. I don't know where I was going with that sentence, but R is I couldn't remember the tense. Massive thanks to all of you for showing up. If you want to prime your creativity, provoke your creativity every single week. If this is something you want to make a part of your everyday life, sign up to our newsletter@andyjpizza.substack.com we will send you an email once a week that will remind you and give you the link to the latest podcast so that you can feel the what matters to you. So that you can act on what matters to you. That's why we do it every week so that it's consistent in your creative journey. Thanks to Sophie Miller for being an editor and producer on the show. Thanks to Connor Jones of Pending Beautiful for audio edits, video edits, sound design and animation. Thanks to Yoni Wolf of the band Y for our theme music and soundtrack. And thanks to all of you for listening until we speak again, Stay pepped up. Do you want the truth about the organic food on your plate? Then check out the chart topping Real Organic podcast, recently named one of the best climate podcasts by earth.org it's hosted by Dave Chapman and me, Lynley Dixon. Each week we feature eye opening interviews with farmers, scientists, authors and journalists to uncover the forces reshaping the food system from why corporate lobbying is redefining what organic means to how organic farmers are fighting back. So don't miss it. Follow and listen to the real Organic Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wondered what businesses are doing and should be doing to tackle climate change? Then check out the award winning and chart topping podcast Climate Rising, produced by Harvard Business School and hosted by ME, Professor Mike Toffel. 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