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How to begin: Susan Orlean on "The Orchid Thief"

How to begin: Susan Orlean on "The Orchid Thief"

FromSpark & Fire: Fuel Your Creativity


How to begin: Susan Orlean on "The Orchid Thief"

FromSpark & Fire: Fuel Your Creativity

ratings:
Length:
46 minutes
Released:
Jan 5, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

How do you move past that "wobbly moment" in your creative journey? Just move. From the moment she heard about it, Susan Orlean knew she had to tell the story of "The Orchid Thief" – a wild, true story of obsession set in the swamps of Florida. But somewhere deep in the telling, she risks losing her own footing. Spark & Fire follows Susan as she pursues the story that "set her brain on fire," pushing past a creative crisis to write the magazine article and then book that in turn inspired the film "Adaptation." She tells her story in her own incisive, honest and very funny words – with insider details you haven’t heard, and actionable advice for anyone at any stage of their creative journey.Susan Orlean is a journalist and nonfiction writer who became a staff writer at the New Yorker in 1992. Her works of literary nonfiction include The Orchid Thief and The Library Book. She has a wildly entertaining Twitter feed: @susanorleanFollow along (with transcript and photos) at http://sparkandfire.com/orchidthief/Subscribe to the Spark & Fire weekly newsletter for images, stories and creative prompts: http://eepurl.com/hkmyMrSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Released:
Jan 5, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (37)

Creativity. It’s as mysterious and elusive to humans as love. We stalk it. We crave it. We try to bring it out in ourselves. Every creative work you’ve ever loved has a hero’s journey behind it. Whether it’s a book or a building. A movie, a mural, a musical. It starts with a spark. Then: Endless iteration. Inevitable setbacks. Magical people who appear to help. And the breakthrough idea — that takes on a life all its own. On Spark & Fire, for the first time ever, you’ll hear what was happening in the mind of a creator as they brought their iconic work to life. But this isn’t an interview show. It’s a story — told entirely in the artist's own words — against the backdrop of originally composed music of the prepared piano. In Season One, you’ll hear from Yo-Yo Ma on the Silk Road Project, director Rian Johnson on making Knives Out, Isabel Allende on The House of the Spirits, Kemp Powers on Pixar’s Soul, architect Thomas Heatherwick on The Vessel, choreographer Bill T. Jones on Afterwardsness, book designer Chip Kidd on the cover of Jurassic Park, executive producer Kamilah Forbes of the Apollo Theatre, Susan Orlean on The Orchid Thief and more.With host June Cohen — cofounder of WaitWhat, former executive producer of TED Talks and co-host of the TED conference — in her first hosting role since TED.What really happens on the road to success? You’re about to find out. Let these epic stories spark your own creative journey. Spark & Fire is a WaitWhat original series.Episode 5 of Spark & Fire, "Turn crisis into art: Tony-winner Bill T. Jones on Afterwardsness, his pandemic masterpiece," has been nominated for a 2021 Webby Award as one of the five best individual podcast episodes produced in the past 12 months.https://linktr.ee/SparkandFire