The Science of Creativity
How understanding the neurological and cognitive processes can help your creative practice
“[Creatives] need to intentionally decide to be open. Have to recognize it, name it, then do some intentional things to push yourself and take risks.” —Emily Willingham
Preview: Episode 59 The Science of Creativity with Emily Willingham
What’s actually happening in your brain that allows you to be creative? Amazing that it took us 59 episodes to ask this question! But this episode is exactly what we needed to hear. Through metaphor and clear language, scientist and writer Emily Willingham explains what the science community knows presently about the brain and creative process. For instance, when you’re at peak creativity, it’s the equivalent of a neurological cacophony! We talk about the the three key features of creativity, two kinds of thinking that go into creative process, plus the importance of flexibility, storytelling, openness and awe.
The business of Emily’s life has been writing and science. Her work as a research scientist led her to many cool things, including ultrasound and surgery on a spotted hyena, plastic casting of the inside of the mammalian penis, chasing tiny blazing-fast lizards around in the desert, and innumerable activities involving gonads. Her work as a writer has done the same, from stories about the black bears of Big Bend to how pregnant people will fare in a post-Roe nation. There are hundreds of adventures in between, some of them reflected in her stories published at places like Scientific American, the Washington Post, Slate, Vox, Wired, LitHub, Aeon, and others. Emily is the author of several books, including Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis, published in 2020, and The Tailored Brain: From Ketamine to Keto to Companionship, a User's Guide to Feeling Better and Thinking Smarter, published in December 2021.
What We’re Reading and Listening to:
Rosemerry:
I’m a big fan of the online poetry journal ONE ART, and in particular this week I was moved by “Our Shoes” by Sandra Kohler—how it explores our similarities and differences with such compassion and curiosity.
I used to be such an Agatha Christie fan, and though it’s been over thirty years since I read Death on the Nile it was so much fun to see the story come to life in the recent film by the same name. If you love a good who-dunnit, this one really satisfies and made me want to go read Agatha again …
Christie:
I can’t stop thinking about this puzzling and captivating essay, “The Way She Closed the Door” by Miriam Toews. It feels so rambly and stream of consciousness, and yet it has an irresistible forward motion that… I can’t figure out how she did it. I’m now reading Toews’s latest novel, Fight Night, and finding reflections of her essay in it.
On my sister’s recommendation, I just (binge) watched Somebody Somewhere on HBO and fell in love with Bridget Everett. She is an incredible actor, comedian and cabaret performer and the series, which is set in Kansas, is an exploration of characters navigating life in middle age and middle America. Jeff Hiller is fantastic as a gay man of faith and the organizer of an unconventional choir practice.
Synapse
We are perhaps like neurons
that never touch—
but that doesn’t stop
the chemical buzz,
the lightning charge,
the electric thrill
that leaps the gap—
and in that span
all meaning is made,
long red ropes of memory
twisting and knotting,
braiding, unbraiding,
and nothing
is ever the same.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
A Note About Paid Subscriptions:
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Starting this month, only our paid subscribers will receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support.
This week, we speak with Emily about “beditting” (editing in bed), how passion both helps and hurts a creative career, the benefits of making peace with deadline pressure, and how her own creative process was helped by the research she did on the science of creativity for her most recent book.
If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you can go now to our website, EmergingForm.substack.com or by clicking the button below. Thank you!
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
How do you invite yourself to be open when you feel shut down in your creative practice?
Share a recent experience of awe.