Good, Thoughtful Hosts #314: Bonus Episode -- A Chat with Your Host + Favorite Childhood Creative Outlet

Episode #314 Transcript | Listen on SoundCloud

Producer 00:02
Welcome! This is Good, Thoughtful Hosts. Today’s special guest:

Sarah Steimer 00:22
I am Sarah Steimer, and I am the moderator, the host, whatever we want to call it, for good, thoughtful hosts, it’s always weird to say host of hosts.

Producer 00:31
And that’s why we call you the moderator, right? Moderator, yeah, moderate, but welcome as a guest once again on your own show another season down, right? This was a big one. Talking about inspiration was the buzzword this season. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Steimer 00:47
And, I mean, I of course, love talking to designers about design, but it was really cool to talk about creatives about inspiration. I’ll put it that way,

Producer 00:57
Yeah, totally. David shared some of his great takeaways in in the most recent kind of, we’ll call him that the season finale. And this is sort of a bonus or a post script episode here, right? But, and you, you of course, chimed in with your thoughts. But, like, Did you side from what you discussed with David? Did you have some big takeaways from the season favorite moments, big surprises, anything that was just like, I didn’t see that coming.

Sarah Steimer 01:22
Yeah, well, you know this, the people don’t know this, though, originally, we were going to try to talk to people who inspired other people. And as much as that was like a super cool idea, we quickly realized that not everyone is inspired necessarily by another person, and that inspiration comes from so many different places. So that was sort of like number one takeaway before the season even fully got off the ground. But that actually also ended up being kind of one of my big takeaways at the end, is that it’s the breadth and the variety of the answers that we got from folks was incredible. I mean, it certainly went outside of any, like, even just, you know, when Caitlin McCoy was talking about inspiration through systems and biomimicry, like, I never personally would have guessed that that could be something. So, you know, obviously, this, really, you know, we went from that to like David Lynch to just music, or it was just, I can obviously run down. There’s a million different things, but that was interesting, of course, but at the very end of this, what kind of kept creeping up for me personally was that what was wild to me was how we define inspiration in terms of Whether inspiration is creating a space for something to appear, or actively pursuing inspiration or, you know, it was just the the different reactions people had to that wound up being this additional layer that I really wasn’t anticipating.

Producer 02:56
Yeah, and I found it interesting helping with a little bit of the curation of the guests beforehand, and having some of those sort of preliminary conversations on. It seems like a fairly straightforward question to ask, like, what is inspiring to you? What inspires you? But one a combination of getting blank stares from folks on like, you know, being put on the spot for that, and then also like, like, you said a variety of answers, but also types and inspiration is a word that has crossed over to so many different things, like motivation, fulfillment, you know, the inspiration of joy, you know, all these different things. And so it was just such an interesting topic, though, to kind of really make people look inside themselves and boil things down, right, right?

Sarah Steimer 03:43
And that’s really well put too, because I think it kind of forced a little bit of this self-reflection for a lot of people, which I think is really fun, and it’s, it’s a type of question where, in a way, it sounds very like TED Talk, like, what’s what inspires you, but at the same time, we’re all inspired by something. And you do kind of have to take this beat and this pause. It’s funny, like I’ll talk to people sometimes, and you know, you might ask them a question. They’re like, what do you think? And I really hadn’t thought about it before this season at all, but to hear people really dig in and address this for themselves, especially, it’s kind of a fun, personal question, because it’s not I’m not asking anyone about their expertise, right? I’m asking people about how they can basically get the motor running behind their expertise sometimes, you know. So it’s a really different and unique way of asking people not just how they work, but how they tick.

Producer 04:44
Yeah, totally. It didn’t feel like a personal question when we first talked about making this season, but as it went on, certainly it could be more superficial, but people went personal places with their answers. And I thought that was really, really awesome.

Sarah Steimer 05:00
Yeah, totally. I mean, you can do like, the very Hallmark thing where it’s like, Who inspires you, like my mom, which, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that answer, but it does tend to be kind of like a knee jerk response. But when you really dig deep and kind of go like, Okay, how do I get myself, you know, into the kitchen tonight? How do I get myself to solve this problem at work? How do I get myself to, you know, maybe paint something and, you know, want to do that, that that takes it to a completely different place, I think.

Producer 05:29
Yeah. So we joked offline a little bit over the course of the season of people’s answers maybe being a little bit different than our knee-jerk answers to the same question, Did you did you have either a serious or a silly answer to the same question that you’ve been posing to folks this season?

Sarah Steimer 05:45
This is, this is such a difficult question, but it really kind of is, because every time I would talk to people, I’d be like, Oh my god, same, you know, with certain things. Like, you know, when, when Jill talked about, like, lifelong learning. Like, I get so amped to learn something new. And it really does kind of like, you know, for instance, I might get off the phone with someone I’m doing an interview with, and I’m just like, holy cow, this is so interesting. And just the conversation was motivating and inspiring enough for me to get excited about, let’s say, writing an article, right? And then, you know, I even talking to David about music, like, I love listening to music throughout the day. That is one of my favorite things in the world, um, but when you and I were joking offline a little bit, we’re both sort of like, well, what about like, motivation through something like, I don’t know, cooking or just hanging out with people. Like, don’t you get inspired by just hanging out with people? I don’t know if we just talked to like, a ton of introverts this season, but there’s so many times where I was like, Well, what about just like, you know, like having dinner with friends, like, just chat with people. Um, so honestly, I think that’s, I think that’s actually my answer. It’s, it’s, yes, it. I can pull from a lot of the responses that people gave us this season, but at the end of the day, truthfully, I think it’s interacting with people. You know, I I do love in my personal life, asking people questions like I actually have a little running list on the Notes app on my phone of just questions that I think are interesting to ask people, and I’m talking friends or people that I meet, whatever it may be, because i don’t know i I’m super curious about folks, and you never know, like they might tell you something. It could be as simple as, like, whoa. There’s a super cool place to swim in, Lake Michigan that you’ve never checked out, or you find out that, like, someone’s mom was like a low key celebrity, or maybe they appeared on a game show as a kid. And it’s just it’s so exciting because you get to, like, not only learn something about them, that maybe you also want to share something about yourself, or it might inspire you to have more conversations, or you see the excitement of them talking about the thing. It just to me, it’s sort of, I think of it as sort of like a shared inspiration, because you both have the opportunity to get pumped up on information, in a way.

Producer 08:15
I love that. That’s really cool. In a similar vein, I allow myself when I wake up in the morning before I exercise, I kind of just camp out on the couch while I’m, you know, gaining consciousness and motivation to actually go get the exercise. But I do something regularly that was not part of my planned regimen, which is a question invariably, about nothing of any kind of importance, pops into my head almost every morning on how to spell something, or the background on something, or whatever else. Thank goodness we have Google, right? If we were back in the dark ages of when I was actually a child, I don’t know what I would do. I guess I would be consulting Encyclopedia Britannica in the dark in the morning or something. But I love, I love that spirit of like, jotting down questions for actual people. Like, what a fun, what a fun way to keep track of things that you can eventually interact with people, especially for a podcast host, of course, but like for a human as well.

Sarah Steimer 09:09
Yeah, well, I mean, then I … that’s my question now for you, then is, you know, where do you gain inspiration? You know you you are a mover and a shaker. If I based on what I do know about you, Travis, do you how do you like to motivate yourself? How do you like to find inspiration?

Producer 09:27
Well, you know, I was trying to give I thought you might turn that back on me. And so I tried to give that a little bit of thought. I mean, obviously nobody said money this season, right? I mean, that’s what a pretty boring, superficial episode of somebody was like, I am wholly motivated by money only. And, you know, so luckily, we didn’t go there.

09:46
It’s not 100% wrong, though, right?

Producer 09:49
I mean, are we not motivated to go, you know, collect some money along the way so that we can go do some other fun stuff? It’s got a factor in there, but that wouldn’t be a very exciting episode. Yeah. I have found out about myself over time that I am very much like a helper. I come from a helper mindset. I love helping people with things. Sometimes that’s, you know, a simple, small lift on something. Sometimes it’s serious problem-solving. And, you know, I spend a lot of my time totally subconsciously trying to kind of put a smile on people’s faces, and so, you know, supporting them with what they need. Try to be a good listener, try to be a helper. And in a lot of cases, it’s just me being utterly silly. I tried to read the room. But, you know, in a lot of cases, it’s just telling really bad, poorly timed jokes and ruining all the punchlines and being real self-deprecating, because I just like to be around happy, friendly people, and I’ve found that in assisting other people, you know, that puts them in a headspace that they’re fun to interact with.

Sarah Steimer 10:54
Well, okay, so you just said two things that I really like. One, I first of all, it’s as someone who’s been helped by you, it is not gone unnoticed by any means. And I understand what you’re saying, though, too. When it comes to helping other people, it can be very in its own right, motivating and inspiring, because you kind of get someone maybe that extra inch, and it’s like, wow, you might have just taken a load off of them, or help them solve a problem, or whatever it may be, but I really like that you include humor in helping people, because I do think that that’s so underappreciated when it comes to doing a little something for someone. It really is like we take ourselves so seriously sometimes, and like to be able to, kind of, like, whether it’s kind of maybe poking a tiny bit of fun or thrown in, like, a, you know, I’ll use the phrase dad joke, but like, whatever, like, just like a goofy little joke, whatever it really can make, of course, knowing, knowing when is the right time, but like, I think it makes a huge difference. So I’m so glad that you really acknowledge the fact that helping can include lightening the mood.

Producer 12:07
Yeah, I think helping is such a broad, a broad category, you know, and influencing the mood of things subtly along the way can absolutely be an attribute. And I know a lot of people that do that, that do that, that I can kind of draw inspiration from in that regard as well.

Sarah Steimer 12:24
So well it makes it makes me think of, have you heard of this phrase pebbling?

Producer 12:29
Yes! We did just discuss that recently. I just, I was just chatting about that with somebody else the other day.

Sarah Steimer 12:34
Yeah, it’s so for those who don’t know pebbling, is this idea? So, um, penguins like to gift pebbles to one another. They just give them, like, beautiful little pebbles. And it’s the way that’s kind of made its way into the internet, for instance, is when people, for example, like, send each other funny little like reels or memes or whatever on Instagram, Tiktok or yeah, I’m I’m still off of Tiktok. I just wait for things to trickle down to and save my mom? Yeah, you know, I can only I’m not downloading anything else, but I, but that’s such a perfect example. It’s just like a little gift of humor. Like, here’s a little, like, boop, here’s like, your little joke for the day. Like, let me put on my clown nose for five seconds. And, like, hopefully this helps. But, yeah, I think that’s, that’s help. I think it’s help. It’s help.

Producer 13:22
I love it. So pivoting to what we did last season, you you took a moment after each episode was recorded to ask a bonus question of each guest that nobody has heard yet. It’s adjacent, but very apropos for this season, the question was along the lines of a favorite creative activity as a child. What a fun question to have asked.

Sarah Steimer 13:44
Yeah. And I mean, children need no source of inspiration. It seems they’re just kind of allowed to live freely in their imaginations. So it was, we had a lot of really good answers.

Producer 13:55
Totally. So let’s take a quick pause, and I’ll press play on their responses from the season.

Ross Hamand 14:07
The one thing that really stands out to me as being the most impactful, and what I think about most is I actually spent a lot of time in my dad’s workshop Working with him. I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my dad, but I also got to enjoy that physical and hands-on activity of creating something in the wood shop with him.

David Serna 14:29
So, my favorite childhood creative outlet, I think, would probably just be being outside. I grew up in Colombia in South America. And, you know, there was like a constant state of just, you know, wandering around. My brother was five years older than me, so he would kind of drag me around everywhere, but a lot of adventuring, kind of a lot of, like outside time.

Isaura Perez 14:56
I was a solitary child in terms. I always found. To try to find my own space, but within that, I did love to draw, and I did love to create stories, even playing with my toys, it was always a development of stories, of how they went on. I loved my brothers and sisters, but it was really definitely like best honed in whenever I was by myself,

Jimmy Talarico 15:26
Well, the first thing that comes to mind, and the one thing that I think really got me interested in creativity and in art and pulling things from my mind into the real world, was drawing. And I remember two things specifically. One was it was just the average weekday evening. I had one of my sister’s cosmetic mirrors, you know, it’s just on the table, and I was looking at my eyeball, and I grabbed just a piece of white notebook paper with the lines on it, and the pencil, and I just studied my eyeball and just drew it. And I was really happy with how it turned out. The other one was hiking in Montana. My dad moved out there. We had time to be alone, and I did my chores, packed to lunch, grabbed a notebook, headed into the mountains, and just sat under a tree and drew a picture of two cubs up in the tree. Those two that come to mind of most satisfying moments of expressing my creativity at that time. Episode

Kendra SantaCruz 16:28
I used to go to the library and literally fill up like a big grocery bag with 1213, books and read them in a week and go back the next week and fill up another bag. But I was also, whenever possible, I was a big crafter. I’ve done a little bit of a lot of different crafts, so that was a fun outlet for my creative side.

Charlie Deese 16:50
Oh, it’s so stereotypical architect, but I played with Legos a lot.

Darren Johnson 16:57
I would keep a sketchbook, and I like just doodling in there and drawing things. And I had aspirations of becoming like a cartoonist at some point, so I would come up with these silly little cartoons. And then I really enjoyed art class when I was in school as a kid.

Kaitlin McCoy 17:19
My favorite childhood activity when it came to creative things, I suppose would be drawing or doodling. Really could be anywhere as long as I had something to write with and something to write on.

Jill Lee 17:35
Coloring and drawing, whether with a blank piece of paper or like coloring book, and then also sewing and making clothes for my Barbies.

Sheri Blattel 17:49

As a kid, and I recently looked up the photograph of this… It’s vintage now, but it was a box of Crayola crayons. It was first developed in 1956 I think I got mine in 1968 and it had 96 colors in it and a sharpener. But my colors, and coloring and drawing were the things that I loved, and then secondarily to that were Legos. I love. I did love and will continue to love Legos.

Joel Anderson 18:23
I believe my parents gave me one of the greatest gifts that I didn’t know. It was a gift, and that was an unfinished basement. We would creatively turn that basement into anything that it could have been as kids. We turned it into a baseball field, a hockey rink. We turned it into an art gallery. We turned it into a magic show. I mean, just having a space like this, and it was just CMU block and a concrete floor, no window is really to speak of, and to be able to change that space around that was one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me, and I thank them for that.

David Koel 19:00
Without a doubt, my creative outlet was sketching and drawing cartoon strips and making books and things. I had an older brother who always wanted to go outside and play football and so forth, and I always just wanted to sit at the kitchen table and draw cartoons and things, and then I would staple them together and put a price tag on them, and I would sell them to my mom. So I was trying to be industrious at the same time.

Producer 19:29
Man, that’s fun. They, again, no surprise from a group that gave good, eclectic answers to the primary question that they would have good and fun answers to to the bonus question as well. But like also no surprise that an artistic bunch like this, that you’d get a good mix of of people who like to do artistic endeavors even when they were kids, right? But yet again, how about for yourself? Was there a was there a creative outlet that you undertook when you were a kid?

Sarah Steimer 20:02
Yeah, but what’s so funny is, as soon as I realized that this question was going to come back at me, I I really can’t think of one specific thing. I really, I don’t know like, like every other kid I loved, I did well. I don’t want to say rather kid, at least every other kid we talked to on this podcast. I love to draw all that. But I did like to read. I did love to draw. I did love to just kind of run around and hang out with my friends. Yeah, this is, I actually find this to be the harder question. I don’t know why, but yeah, I was, I was a little artsy fartsy kid. So I can, I could probably just leave it as a blanket statement like that. How about you, Travis?

Producer 20:41
As a kid who was not traditionally artsy fartsy, I loved being around kids that were. That was really wonderful. I was kind of the introverted, indoor kid a little bit, but perhaps to no one’s surprise, now, since I’m kind of Mr. A/V at work and at home, I never had any like fancy gear as a kid, I would take really terrible, blurry photos of nature, and, you know, wait for that, that moment of aha, when you get them developed in the photo booth, right? But I had a tape recorder, and I would record silly radio shows that were just atrocious. I’m glad I can’t hear them now. I’m sure I’d just be mortified by that, what I considered humor back then. And somehow, perhaps subconsciously, I made friends with kids whose parents had camcorders. I never, I desperately wanted one as a kid, but somehow it never made it onto my, my wish list for Christmas or whatever else, right? And so I always made friends with these kids that had camcorders at their houses. And so invariably, I would be videoing Hot Wheels and micro machine car chases and like, and just doing like ridiculous little vignettes and sketches and things like that. So I was totally the original audiovisual nerd before I ever had enough self-awareness to know that that was like a career path, or that is so very expensive hobby?

Sarah Steimer 22:01
Oh, no, that is so, so so cool. And by the way, listeners, Travis does the most amazing videos of his triplets, and these boys are gonna be stars. Uh, no, that’s, that’s really cool. And actually, when you first started describing that like, it made me think of one of my favorite things, if we’re allowed to, like, shift it into adolescence, is, yeah, I absolutely love, like many of us who are old, I absolutely love sitting there and waiting for my favorite songs to come on the radio and then, like, quickly hitting record and then making your little mix tapes and things like that. Like, that’s that totally did that. Oh my gosh. Love that so much. The youths will never know. But no, that’s so cool. And I love it that every one of the things that everyone clearly is kind of pointing toward is, you know, you get that little bit of a flash of what someone’s probably going to do or be later in life, which I think is so cool. So, yeah, I love hearing that about you, Travis. I think that’s, I think that’s awesome. And I hope, I hope those boys get a chance to kind of play around with all of your very expensive equipment?

Producer 23:05
Oh no, I will. We’re going to start them out, start them out slow. But yes, I’m going to have to, like, put all of my pride and my nervousness regarding expensive equipment to the side and just be like guys. You need to give this a try. Reminder to parents and anybody who influences young lives in this moment that, like, give young folks the opportunity to explore their hobbies. Don’t be super prescriptive on like, find the things that they like and then go adjacent to that, find the things that you like and teach them about that. Maybe there’s a spark there. Maybe there’s not. People kept purchasing me art supplies, and I was like, This is not for me. But nobody ever bought me a video camera. Not to say that art supplies cost as much as a video camera. However, it’s one of those things where you just don’t know what you’re gonna like until you until you start doing it. I didn’t find that out about myself officially until much, much later age.

Sarah Steimer 23:51
That’s such good advice. That’s really, really good advice. And it’s true. You really never know. You almost have to, like, just give kids, and I would dare say adults, to, like, a cornucopia of options, and basically go, like, be free, see what happens. Here’s what I enjoy. Maybe you like it too. But also, here’s a baseball bat, and also some crayons, and also a doll, and also 10,000 different things, because you really never know, and maybe they’ll actually be someone who makes found art with all of those things. So I think that’s really good advice.

Producer 24:21
So in the spirit of how you normally end your episodes, I will open this up just one more time and say, Is there anything else you want to talk about in regards to this subject, to this season, to anything coming up in the future? Back back to you on an open mic on how you might want to close out the season.

Sarah Steimer 24:43
Yeah, well, once again, I want to start by thanking you for all the incredible work that you do. Travis, it’s always such a pleasure to get to work with you in general. But you always polish everything up and come with, like, the best ideas, and you do all the legwork on, you know, finding everyone and talking to them. Them and kind of giving them the lowdown before we ever hit record. So I’m always incredibly grateful for that. And you are very funny, and I always appreciate it when you you bring that into our chats as well. I think I want to close on kind of pivoting inspiration into curiosity, like you’ve already talked about a little bit there, where people should have the opportunity to just try many things, something that a friend of mine and I talk about quite a bit is this idea of giving yourself a field trip, whether that is something that allows you to learn something new, or inspire you to do something, or just get you out of your home, or get you out of your regular routine. I think adult field trips. You can do it solo. You can do it with another person, a group. I have a friend who just joined a run club because she enjoys running, and was like, Oh, look, other people are also running, and now it’s like one of her favorite things that she does. And you don’t necessarily have to join a group or make it a regular activity, but I want to put a pitch out there for field trips and leaving your home, leaving your office, doing something a little different, because I I think there’s so much inspiration and so much curiosity out there that is just right for the picking. So that’s my final word.

Producer 26:20
I think that’s solid. That’s a really nice kind of extrapolation of what other people were talking about. I remember Joel and David and some other folks kind of saying, you know, try some stuff, right? Try and fail. And I think that’s right in line with with some of that advice is like, go out and do a little bit, give yourself, give yourself the time, the permission to to maybe not be so good at something, and to explore and find what’s you. I think that’s terrific. Yeah, and talk to people! And talk to people. Thanks for saying that to us.

Sarah Steimer 26:53
And talk to people, talk to people. I really… I cannot recommend that enough. It doesn’t have to be a stranger, but just talk to people. And it’s not always, but often, worth it.

Producer 27:03
Well, I’m going to turn it back around and say: Thank you, thank you, thank you. And also disperse the compliment you gave me and say Amanda Herzberg and Marni Moore, who we mention at the end of every episode, do as much leg work as I do in getting this thing set up and off the ground. But thank you for your hosting. You’re an insightful human. You have a mix of, you know, between guiding conversations and thoughtful and well-educated questions, personal insights, excellent use of metaphor and analogy. I have to say, I’m very cognizant of that. I’m just a lowly producer, but I actually love listening to this show, and I’m always pleasantly surprised by the subtle twists and turns that your conversations take.

Sarah Steimer 27:46
Oh well, thank you, and thank you to everyone who joined us. And I hope many new voices will join us next season. We don’t know what the theme is yet, but we all have ideas, so I’m looking forward to it. Thank you to you. Thank you to the team. Thank you to everyone. Yeah, signing off.

Producer 28:04
Thanks, Sarah.

Producer 28:12
Music for Good, Thoughtful Hosts was written, produced, and performed by Sam Clapp. Our moderator is Sarah Steimer. Editing by Travis Estvold. And a special thanks to our content development team, Amanda Herzberg and Marni Moore. For more information about the podcast, visit thoughtfulhosts.com. Thanks for listening!

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