The Definite Article: Recent Episodes
Robin Babb and Justin Smith
A weekly show about doing your best work, and not going crazy while doing it. Hosted by your friends Robin Babb and Justin Smith, The Definite Article is part productivity podcast, part artistic jabber, and part fart jokes. Follow @DefiniteA for updates and links to things we like.
Robin & Justin talk about what a good community can do for your creativity, and why it can be more meaningful to build your own community from scratch. Hackerspaces, social service houses, collectives, and our own little startups can all inspire us to do better work.
How do you keep doing what you love?
This week Justin & Robin dig into creative heroes. Do we put too much expectation on creative greats who are just as screwed up as the rest of us? Remember that a cape & red underpants don't make you Superman.
Robin & Justin are joined by Mike Rohde, author of The Sketchnote Handbook. They talk about sketchnoting, why mistakes are good, and the buffet is bad.
This week Justin & Robin ostensibly talk about learning. There's also Battlestar Galactica, airplane vodka, and a conglomerate of moms.
This week Robin & Justin are joined by PhD student Sam Spurlin to dsicuss meaningful work, habits, skills, and his new 99U article "It's Not About Productivity: It's About Living Purposefully."
This week Robin and Justin talk about knowing when it's time to quit--when to stop painting, when to end the line, when to hand in the letter of resignation. Protip: thinking like your audience can help a lot. Justin gets hopped up on energy drinks & raids the library in full Tusken Raider costume, Robin quits her job & avoids her lazy evil twin, and we set up camp with Dante in the middle of Hell.
This week Robin & Justin tackle stress--when it can be good, how you can use it to your advantage, and why it's important to buy the right size hamper if you don't want to bang your face against the wall.
Justin and Robin talk about creative influence, originality, and why it's ok to be influenced by your creative predecessors. We delve into Harold Bloom's essay "The Anxiety of Influence" and Larry McMurtry's inability to escape portraying the West Texas landscape he was raised in. Robin makes some useluss analogies that make sense to nobody but her.
Your hosts are introduced, and the meaning of "The Definite Article" is revealed. Plus discussions on democratizing content creation, why the right hat is the wrong focus, and whether your typewriter matters.
The Definite Article is a new independent show about the creative process hosted by yours truly and my fabulous friend and fellow Texan Robin Babb.
We'll examine the habits and lessons to be learned from the greatest who've come before us, look closely at the work of the best among us, and talk to the people building the future of creation and education. There's a lot of ground to cover, and we hope you'll join us in covering it.
There will probably also be fart jokes.
We record our first episode this week.