MAKE HUMAN

My producer asks the big questions w/ Carin Huebner

You want to make something big. Yet here you are with every practice and routine and productivity tool that signals you're trying, and somehow still not at the real thing. What is that? Carin Huebner is a visual artist, former spiritual director, and the producer behind Make Human. She's also a person who has, in tears at a creative salon she was hosting, said: I just want to make. I just want to make. I just want to make. She asked the questions in this episode. This is the foundation episode. We talk about what creativity actually is (not innovation, not art-making, not your output), why the shaming witness is the real engine behind most creative blocks, and what agency means when it isn't code for "your willpower just isn't strong enough." We draw the line between productivity and creativity. We went sideways and came back. We laughed. There were bears. There's a moment in here where Maria describes the thing that makes any transformative practice actually work: therapy, morning pages, a walk in the woods, a friend who just happens to have a lot of love in them. This may just be the foundation of what it is to Make Human. In this episode * Creativity vs. productivity and why that distinction is not about aesthetics * Shame: what it is, where it comes from, and how it kills the thing before it starts * What agency actually is when "you can create anything" starts to feel like a threat * Truth-telling as the first creative act * Your flavor of aliveness: the thing you bring to any room that isn't earned or performed * Inner work is not self-indulgent because have you ever been around someone at war with themselves? * Why makers need to have their say in what counts as human right now Waypoints [00:00:00] — What this podcast is for [00:03:00] — How Maria got here [00:13:00] — What creativity actually is (And what it isn't)  [00:16:00] — Agency without the toxic positivity [00:23:00] — Truth-telling as the first creative act [00:31:00] — Shame, blocks, and the eyes of love [00:46:00] — Your flavor of aliveness  [00:50:00] — Why make anything right now  Resources * Secret invitation [https://mariabowler.myflodesk.com/waitlist] * The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron — and the morning pages practice * David Bedrick's work on shame and the shaming witness  [https://www.davidbedrick.com/] * Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)  [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy] * The Zen Buddhist "maybe good, maybe bad" story [https://mindfulness.com/mindful-living/are-these-bad-times-or-good-times-the-story-of-the-zen-farmer] Have a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the show [https://forms.gle/1AgD5ew34V6uwzPY9] Got some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice [https://mariabowler.myflodesk.com/pyoc4s22gm] for unblocking

Welcome to the Make Human Podcast

The Make Human Podcast is for creatives and culture makers who don't simply want to make more things. They want to be more alive and make the world more alive in turn. There's a version of creativity that's been reduced to output: something to optimize, measure, improve. Then there's creativity as a way of being: a spiritual and social path that includes how you meet your everyday life, your inner life, and the world you're trying to shape. Here, we believe culture is what we make it through the way we live.  You'll hear conversations with creatives and culture makers, alongside solo episodes working through what it actually looks like to live creatively in this moment. If you're here to make something true, and to build a world you can be human in — follow along. Follow the Make Human Podcast wherever you listen. Have a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the show [https://forms.gle/1AgD5ew34V6uwzPY9] Got some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice [https://mariabowler.myflodesk.com/pyoc4s22gm] for unblocking Connect with Maria: mariabowler.com [https://www.mariabowler.com/]