The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 28 with Writer, Professor, and Filmmaker Adam Harrison Levy


The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 28 with Writer, Professor, and Filmmaker Adam Harrison Levy

Adam Harrison Levy (@AdamHLevy) is a Professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City as well as Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In addition, he writes for Design Observer and works as a freelance interviewer/filmmaker for the BBC.
Our conversation meanders and gets slightly meta. We acknowledge the odd circumstances of a professional interviewer being interviewed by an amateur, and of two Americans discussing their love for the BBC.
Read some of Mr. Levy’s articles and learn more about his film work via Adam’s profile on Design Observer.
Show Notes & Links

Video Filmmaking for the iPhone
Co-teaching w/a NYT Culture Journalist on Research and Writing
The MA in Design Criticism, aka “D-Crit”, is now more focused on research and writing
South Sudan is developing a logo and flag
Prescott did a Master’s in Graphic Communication at the University for the Creative Arts (UK)
Gobsmacked, a British term meaning “struck speechless”
Mad Men
George Lois
Steve Heller
Gay Talese
Prescott is an internet nerd, watches overseas programming via grey market websites and techniques
Country House Rescue (brilliant show on Britain’s Channel4, not the BBC, but still)
Zaha Hadid, British-Iraqi Architect
Horizon and Panorama, recurring BBC series
Imagine, another great series featuring such topics as “The Book” and The Chelsea Hotel
Port-forwarding and VPNs to get access to the BBC iPlayer
Selling the Sixties: How Madison Ave. Dreamed a Decade
BBC has to be “fleet and maverick” regarding graphics; Don’t overdue it
Simple title graphics
Cleatus, the dancing robot on FOX [American] Football Coverage
Stiff Upper Lip
The Scottish Referendum on Independence (spoiler alert: they voted “No”)
Simon Schama, a History of Britain
David Attenborough
The Story of Science
Isambard Kingdom Brunnel, 19th Century British Civil Engineer
The Bombing of Hiroshima, re-enactments created with student actors
Czechoslovakia (no longer a country)
Adam is the “intellectual content research” guy, not the technical video and sound guy
Chuck Close
The Beauty of Maps, BBC Four
George Elsey, worked in the Truman White House. Was standing next to President Truman on SS Atlantic when news of Hiroshima reached the Pres.
The Map Room in the basement of the British Library
The Domesday Book, 1086
Maps as political cartoons
Great British Railway Journeys with Michael Portillo
700 Photographs of post-bomb Hiroshima found on a street corner in Mass., written about on Design Observer
Don Levy (no relation) found the photos in a suitcase
International Center for Photography
The design of castle towers learned during The Crusades
Nijū Hibakusha, (literally “double bomb-affected people”), the term for those in Japan who survived both atomic bombings
The Writers’ Room, NYC
Email is bad for your brain, e.g. Phantom Blackberry
“Getting in The Zone is a weird sort of meditation” ← Click to tweet
Funions
Mind Like Water, as mentioned in Getting Things Done
Prescott and his friends were lifeguards as teenagers. They would use the time to ponder levels of Commandos

Tools

18th Century French table, which Adam uses as a desk these 20 years
Laptop
Pens and pencils, paper (pretty old-school, actually)
Totems (monkey holding a Mont-Blanc pen)
Brass date-changer

Techniques

Be “Tight and Loose” as an interviewer (almost a Zen practice)
Always have a point-of-view, which Adam calls “The Force of Will”
Hit the books, hit the phone, and do a pre-interview before turning up with a camera crew
Create a ritual with the passing of time, such as a physical calendar
Batch your email, especially when it’s from London and there’s a time-shift

Habits

Wake up early; not quite as early as Steve Heller
Meditate for 20-25 minutes; not quite the 5-hour Zen practice
Tea, and coffee only when I need a shot
Leverage “Crea