500 Words

500 Words is an ongoing conversation with creative people. We've profiled composers, photographers, and labyrinth makers. As we prepare our next short run of fiction for the web, we're featuring short-form conversations between father and son. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to 500 Words.

In this episode of Now Here’s Something, Bodhi and I go deep for three minutes about the dilemma we all face now: screen or paper. If you’re just joining me on the 500 Words journey, I’m posting a podcast as I work up the next numbered series of very short short story posts written exclusively for this newsletter. If you want to receive the posts in the order they are created, consider subscribing. Bodhi is my youngest son. He is eight. There have already been two fiction series posted on this blog. The first, Wait, Wut, was about adapting to the impossible conditions imposed on us by the pandemic. The second, The Counter Narrative, was a series of posts written from some time in the future. Each post is 500 words long or pretty close to it. 

Hello! During the last few months in this space, I’ve been posting a series of short-form stories from the future. I need to give the time machine a little rest (those things can overheat if used every day) and I need a little time to write up the ideas for the next short-form series. So, during this period of incubation and fermentation, I’d like to present a podcast. Bodhi, my youngest son, and I have recorded some blips that I hope you will enjoy. The first one asks the important question, “Are cats worth it?” The name “Now Here’s Something” comes from what Bodhi says when he wants to redirect the conversation from a topic that is blah to a topic that is interesting to him. In the podcast he plays a 20-year-old. He is eight years old in real life. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

Sure, I write short-form essays for the web right here on 500 Words. I’m working on one today to share with you. I’m also the co-founder of a futurist network called FutureX. This week, we’re hosting an event about the future of school and work online. Spending so much more time on screens might be going well for you — or not. We’ve assembled an all-star group to discuss what’s coming next in school and work and answer your questions. It’s free. Click here for more information and to register. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

Editor’s note: This is a guest podcast by Bodhi Schneider. He is eight. He’s also my son. He wrote the script and composed the music. How the climate crisis affects the food chain Hello, I am Bodhi Schneider and I’m gonna teach you how the climate crisis affects the food chain.First, do you know what climate change is? If you don’t hear is what it is: climate change can do a lot of damage. it is caused by greenhouse gases which include carbon dioxide and methane. These gases trap heat inside of the air and causes earth to warm up. Now, since carbon dioxide and methane trap heat inside of the earth it can melt ice caps …-cracking noise … and warm weather patterns permanently. That’s what climate change is.And how that affects the food chain? Well, imagine three fish. fish1 fish2 and fish3. If fish1 dies out because of the hot weather.-blazing sun noisefish2 has nothing to eat therefore fish2 starves to death. And since fish3 can’t eat fish2 Fish3 also starves to death. That’s how the climate change crisis affects the food chain. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This week's call is with Vikram Chandra, novelist, software developer, and deep thinker about the creative process. I first discovered his work when I read his bestseller Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty, a book about the creative drives and lives shared by writers and coders. One of the book's most mind- blowing sections (I am re-reading it this week) is about the precision of Sanskrit as a language. In 500 BCE, a scholar named Panini wrote a grammar of Sanskrit that fit in just 40 dense pages. His work has influenced Western grammatical theory for centuries, and that theory "became the seedbed for high-level computer languages," as Vikram points out in his book. You can draw a line connecting Sanskrit with how computer programs are conceived and written. That was my point of entry into his work, but I wanted to interview him because he wrote something that terrified me. I learned from reading a blog he wrote that he doesn't outline his long, complex novels. He writes with purposeful ambiguity. As you begin, you know very little about what the book is. But the thoughts and visions persist, which means that this character and her world have some kind of special energy for you, and you want to know more about this character, what her situation is. - Vikram ChandraThis means that he may spend years writing his way into a story, leaving big plot holes, learning about the characters as he goes, until the novel comes into focus. This seems like a scary way to write, but it has successful practitioners. His first novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, won the 1996 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Sacred Games is a literary novel that is also a crime novel, a detective story, and a thriller. It has a hundred characters. It became the first original television series from India on Netflix. So feeling along in the dark might be a good way to write a book. Novelist E. L. Doctorow described his writing process like this: “You know the headlights are on in the fog and you can see just so far, but you realize you can drive the whole way like that.” Joan Didion wrote something like, I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what I think it means. I can keep throwing quotes at you all day. They will do nothing to push back my terror of wading into a long book without an outline. On the call, Vikram and I talk about his discovery process and my planning process. Since he is the rare person who values purposeful ambiguity and also has an engineer's mind, he is working on a kind of super-software for writers that keeps track of who, what, where, and when. You can use kind of hacky solutions like the old-time honored index cards on the wall, your hand drawn or a software based timelines. But the problem is again that none of this knowledge is attached to the text. And so that's what I obsessed about for nearly a decade and discovered that it's actually a pretty hard problem, attaching facts to text, which has a very honorable and long effort.  - Vikram ChandraHis answer is called Granthika, which is in beta now with an official launch coming in October. You can try it out. Here’s the link: https://granthika.co Easily as mind expanding as Sanskrit grammar forming the conceptual basis of computer programming languages, Granthika is an AI word processor that tracks and corrects continuity errors in your timeline, characters, and events. It's an editor by your side who constantly tests your story's factual correctness. As Vikram suggested in our call, "if you move the inquest up before the murder, it tells you" and you can fix it. Learn more about Granthika. Read the blog that got me terrified about feeling you way through writing: Finding a Book: The Writer’s JourneyCheck out Vikram Chandra's books on his website. Thanks for listening,Lee A technical noteA reminder, On a Call With … is just a phone call. Actually, a Zoom call. But it’s not a fancy podcast with all the fancy studio equipment. It’s meant to be informal and easy to do. If you want to hear some fancy studio stuff with engineers, multiple cities synced up, location recording, custom music, and all of that, have a listen at this link. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

In this special on-location edition of the podcast, Ady Floyd, a senior research manager at Trendhunter, shares her ideas and tips about creating a keynote speech. With 20,000,000 monthly views, TrendHunter.com is the world's largest, most popular trend community. The Toronto-based group leverages big data, human researchers, and AI to identify consumer insights and deep-dive opportunities for the world's most innovative companies. In exchange for recording this podcast and writing about them, the Trendhunter folks allowed me to experience their Los Angeles Future Festival in person. I interviewed Ady just after she delivered her keynote on future trends in retail. She shares her tips about how to develop a keynote, how to polish your ideas, and her best piece of advice for anyone considering giving a keynote. For my audio geek friends reading and listening, this is a location recording, so there’s a little background noise at the start. Thanks for listening,Lee Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This week's' conversation is with Adrian Fisher. This is a man who believes in the power of the rough pencil sketch. He believes in having control, but not. My art form is parallel rows of things. -- Adrian FisherHe is a maze designer. I can't seem to get enough of interviews with people who design and construct mazes, so you'll indulge me? Thanks. I think there is a parallel between creating mazes and writing stories and almost got Adrian to go along with the idea, but not quite. He was helpful, though, when I told him about the time I had an anxiety attack while in a corn maze, offering the wise explanation that I am a modern person who expects everything to work like a computer. This is true. It's like playing chess with me except that I have to play all my moves in advance as the chess player, as the designer, and then I must lose. I must lose just before you've had enough. Because I'm here to entertain you. One thing to remember as you listen: This is a Skype, not a phone call. So it has the usual Skype blips and dropouts, which is why I don’t usually use Skype for podcasts. Adrian joined me on the call from his studio in Dorset, England, so Skype was the best way to go. Since 1979, Adrian and his company have designed and created more than 700 full-size mazes in the grounds of palaces, castles, stately homes, zoos, wildlife parks, amusement parks, children’s museums, science centers, malls, universities, schools, city centers, and farms. He has written six books about mazes. The Queen visited a maze he made to commemorate the Beatles.Adrian has also created rides and puzzles for iconic visitor attractions across the globe including Legoland, Tussauds and the London Dungeon. He has made the tallest maze in the world, up the side of a building, and some of the largest corn mazes.I want to make you the hero of your own story. Thanks for listening, Lee ---I'm preparing something new for this email, for subscribers only. I'm calling it cycles and it will come out on Wednesdays. I'm thinking of it as a workout for your creative self, helping you do better, deeper stuff. You’ll be able to be part of conversations with other subscribers. Still incubating, but it should arrive in your inboxes in a couple of months and cycle through the year. See you next week. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This week's phone call is with David Tolzmann. David is the founder of The Labyrinth Company, which designs and builds walkable labyrinths in all media. He’s designed and crafted labyrinths in churches, medical centers, hospices, friaries, retreat centers, and schools, and for spiritual counselors, businesses, and individual homeowners all over the world.He made his first labyrinth nearly 25 years ago because a church group asked him to recreate a version of the world’s best-known labyrinth. “They thought I was an engineer and they were trying to recreate the labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral which is very complex. But it happened that I knew the labyrinth and I was able to help them because I am mathematically inclined. I'm not an engineer, but I must have given that impression.” he said. I have a friend who calls a labyrinth a left-brain jamming device. Your left brain gets involved in solving a puzzle that doesn’t exist. — David TolzmannA labyrinth is a single path to the center of a pattern. There is no puzzle. But when you walk the path, the logical side of your brain gets busy, leaving the other side of your brain to explore spirituality, creativity, and nonlinear thinking. That’s the “pop psychology” version of what’s going on, as David puts it, but it captures the process well enough. He believes walking a labyrinth is a superior form of meditation for Westerners. The first labyrinth design, the Seed Design, was discovered in Pylos, Greece. It dates to around 1200 BCE. “There was a transaction about goats, and on the back of the tablet is a labyrinth doodle.” This simple starting pattern has been transmitted to our time. It's in every culture. It's in the American Southwest. It's in China. It's in India. It's in South Africa. The same design all over the place.Thanks for listening,Lee Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This week’s interview is with Christina Dunbar, who has said, “Our culture is starving for story, for vulnerability, for truth telling, for personal story. Story creates meaning and we have a lack of meaning right now in the world.”Christina Dunbar is a storyteller, director, and producer of women’s stories for stage and film. She is star of the one-woman show, Dirty Me Divine. Christina is the founder of RED, a circle for performing artists, and creator of She Takes The Stage, a one-of-a- kind program that guides women to hone their message through their personal story and share it at a live theater show. Christina has taken artists, authors, lawyers, and coaches through her story workshops, public speaking trainings, and creative retreats, and is passionate about supporting women with a message to take the stage. When you share your story you begin to own the story, it doesn't own you. -- Christina Dunbar Her one-person show has eleven characters in it, so of course we talk about her creative process, the work-outside-the-work that an artist has to do, like being in nature, doing yoga, recharging, and what sort of magic happens when she makes a safe space for women in her workshops. If I come off that stage and I've been sweating, I've been crying, I've been laughing, I've been feeling, and I just really feel used up by life in that performance, that to me is very, very satisfying. Thanks for listening,Lee Schneider “On a Call With …” is now available on Apple Podcasts. If that’s where you listen and share your podcasts check it out here. You can work with me.I produce great podcasts. I record in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York, and can work on site or remotely. Got an idea for a show? Let’s build it from the idea up. Got a show ready to launch? Let’s talk about production. Soon I will start teaching my media course for USC and my calendar will fill up fast, so now’s the time to sign up with me and get some ideas flowing. When I consult, the first 25-minute session is free. One more thing. The Haven Chronicles is an amazing science fiction podcast that has hooked me. The writer-producer-director joined my podcast network FutureX. I wanted to know about his creative process, so I interviewed him for Cult/Tech on Medium. Give it a read. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

Sound Designer Jeremy J. LeeThis week's call is with Jeremy J. Lee, a sound designer. He's worked in theater productions and we talk about his adventures in podcasting. He's really proud of the sound design work he did for a podcast called Video Palace that was written and produced by the folks behind Blair Witch Project. Like that movie, Video Palace uses the concept of "found footage," media materials that seem like they were discovered out in the world, but were actually created in a studio.  Jeremy did the sound mix and additional sound design for an animated short called Z- Rider which will be out soon.  I worked with him on my podcast Privacy Pod. While I recorded all the actors in a studio, Jeremy created the audio world, making studio recordings of actors sound like they delivered their lines in a parking structure, layering in subtle touches like the squeak of a chair against the floor or the clatter of an audio cassette box. Things that never happened in the studio are part of your listening experience now, thanks to sound design. In the call, Jeremy and I talk about how he creates worlds in audio. There's a lot of sort of back of the brain thought that happens with these projects. You read the script and you take your notes and while you're sleeping the back of your brain is thinking about stuff. - Jeremy J. LeeJeremy talks about how daydreaming is a huge part of designing something, the results of his hearing test with an audiologist, and how audio helps us experience the emotion in a scene. If you’re curious what Foley is in a movie, we go there too. If after listening you want to keep digging into audio, Jeremy recommends a podcast called Twenty Thousand Hertz. It’s all about recording sound. Since this is a show about audio I should mention one more thing: When you listen you’ll notice that it sounds like either I have a cold or I was phoning in the interview from a Jules Verne submersible cruising twenty-thousand leagues under the sea. It's only a cold.  But it does sound like I am in a submersible. Thanks for listening,LeePS. Listen to Jeremy's sound work on Privacy Pod.  Here’s a link to Jeremy’s website. Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This week's interview is with Bobbi Lane, who has said memorably, "If you don’t have a concept then you don’t have a picture." What she means is that all the photographic technique in the world isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t have an idea for your image. Bobbi is an award-winning commercial photographer specializing in creative portraits on location and in the studio. Her corporate and editorial work includes corporate websites, annual reports, and hundreds of environmental portraits for a wide variety of magazines. She's also an amazing teacher of photography and was once my teacher. It’s easy to shoot a million pictures in digital but that doesn’t mean that you have to.  -- Bobbi LanePhotographs nowadays live amid a vast ocean of their fellow images. We consume them like potato chips, quickly flipping to the next set on Instagram. This has changed the way we consume images but not the way we make good ones. As Bobbi explains to her students, the path to making a memorable image is to be aware of everything in the frame. Don't rely on post-production too much -- get the image you want when you snap the shutter. You have to love your project. If you don't love it, why shoot it?Bobbi is a Fujifilm X Photographer and does presentations for Fuji around the country. She teaches at the International Center for Photography in New York City, Los Angeles Center of Photography, and the Light Factory in North Carolina. With her husband, Lee Varis, she teaches daylong workshops at Hunts Camera just outside of Boston four or five times a year.On the call, Bobbi and I talk about her trips to Venice for Carnival -- this year was her eighth trip. She does a regular series of photo travel tours. This summer she's taking a small group to Tanzania during the wildebeest migration. In September she's headed back to Iceland for her second photo trip. Next January she will be returning to Myanmar for her second trip. In February, she'll be back in Venice.She and Lee have a website (http://bobbiandleesphotoadventures.com/) and it lists all their upcoming workshops and events, and has a variety of image galleries about places they've been. Her Instagram is worth a look. It has a pretty rad icon of her holding a falcon. Thanks for listening,Lee Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This week's call is with Daniel J. Coplan. He wears many hats as producer, director, writer, editor, and actor in his films. He's pretty much built his own genre which might be described as enlightenment noir. He works in the thriller mode and adds Buddhist character revelations and plot points. One of the things I learned over the years is the only way I was ever going to break out was if I really used my own voice and my own unique perspective to tell stories. - Daniel J. CoplanHis next film, 8 Winds, goes into distribution in November. He's been the writer, director, and star of Echos of Enlightenment, the writer and star of The Dragon Gate, and his documentary credits include The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille and The Dream Factory, with Sean Connery, Marlo Thomas, and Eli Wallach. Dan has written a novel called Let It Be and you can catch him singing Wayfarin' Stranger in his music video. Dan and I talk about how he has persevered in a business which is not for the faint of heart. Also how films evolve through the creative process. You don't make one movie. You actually make four movies. There is a movie that you write. Then there's a movie that you shoot. And then there's a movie you edit. And then after all that there's a movie that the audience sees, which is completely different.Thanks for listening,LeeHey, what is this thing? You’re reading 500 Words. It’s a weekly email about living a creative life.Email me anytime. I respond to subscribers faster than mere mortals, so if you’re reading this on your email, just hit reply. (Thanks for subscribing!) Say hi on Twitter. I’m @docuguy. I have a Skillshare course for creators called Social Media Skills for Content Creators. Also, if you don’t already, subscribe to this newsletter. You’ll get a post like this once a week on Sundays. And if you liked this week’s post, why not forward it to a friend? Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This is Episode 03 of On a Call With, a mini-podcast about creativity. Subscribers will have access to the complete archive online. If you’re curious about subscribing to this email, here’s how.On a Call With Animation Writer Matthew MalachI’ve known Matthew Malach since we worked together in New York on an animation series called ThunderCats. We went on to write scripts together, many of them comedies, some for live action television, and others for animation, including an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that the story editor said was "the worst ever written." We both survived the experience. Matthew has written many animation shows including The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, X-Men: The Animated Series, and Peter Pan and the Pirates. Matthew worked at E! Networks for more than a decade as a staff script editor. He is currently doing storyboard revisions for a new animation project and he is also an animatic editor at Nickelodeon. An animatic is kind of a movie made out of the storyboard. Matthew takes the storyboard panels and turns them into JPGs to make a flip book of the story. (I didn't know this; I had to ask Matthew what an animatic is.) If you put your heart into [your writing] that's gold. If you can turn the simplest thing, the simplest job, into your gold then you can spread it around. That can be your best work. Everything can be your best work if you are present to it and if you are there during the act of creation. -- Matthew Malach A reminder, this is a phone call, not a fancy podcast like the sort I usually produce. I added some touch tone effects at the beginning to remind everyone of this. Also, since digital phone calls just end with no sound of the phone hanging up, for this episode, I'm testing out a new ending. Let me know what you think of it! Thanks for listening, LeeYou can work with me.I produce podcasts. I record in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York, and can work on site or remotely. Got an idea for a show? Let's talk. I also consult on podcast production and promotion. Hey, what is this thing? This is 500 Words. It’s a weekly email about living a creative life. Some weeks you’ll get a mini-podcast like this one. Other weeks I write a 500-word essay. Email me anytime. I respond to subscribers faster than mere mortals, so if you’re reading this on your email, just hit reply. (Thanks for subscribing!) Say hi on Twitter. I’m @docuguy. I post to Ello. I have a Skillshare course for creators called Social Media Skills for Content Creators. Also, if you don’t already, subscribe to this newsletter. You’ll get a post like this once a week on Sundays. And if you liked this week’s post, why not forward it to a friend? Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This is Episode 02 of On a Call With, a mini-podcast about creativity available exclusively for subscribers to this email. But wait — because I’m feeling good today I’m making this episode available to everyone which, by the power vested in me, I can do from time to time. Subscribers will have access to the archive online. If you’re curious about subscribing, here’s how.On a Call With Mixed Media Artist Karen KinneyKaren Kinney is a mixed media artist whose work has been in numerous solo, group, and juried exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. In addition to her installation and mixed media work, she is also an advocate of public art and beautifies communities through mural painting. Learn more about her at karenkinney.com and you can follow @karen_e_kinney on Twitter and InstagramI interviewed Karen over the phone from Mexico where she has been living and working. To satisfy my audio geek soul, I added some touch tone effects at the beginning to remind you that this is indeed a phone call, not a podcast done in a studio like most of my other productions. As I assembled the interview, I noticed that cell phone calls just end, with no hang up sound whatsoever. So that’s how this podcast ends. When the Analog Revolution starts and people crowd the streets demanding relief from the digital age, their list of demands might include bringing back touch tones and the sound of a phone disconnecting at the end of a call. Maybe. “Amazing how many innovative ideas get trapped right in our own heads before they ever have the chance to see the light of day.”In the call, Karen and I speak about the challenges and accomplishments of painting freehand on a wall and the secret to creative freedom. (Hint: Give yourself permission.) Her quote (above) about innovative ideas really rang true for me. Thanks for listening,Lee About On a Call With… This podcast is literally a phone call. It’s more notebook than book, more jam than song, more of a sketchbook than a painting. I offer it to you to help get inside how people live their creative lives and hear their story in their own words. Since it’s a phone call it’s easy to do, both for me and for the guest.You’re reading 500 Words. It’s a weekly email about living a creative life.Email me anytime. I respond to subscribers faster than mere mortals, so if you’re reading this on your email, just hit reply. (Thanks for subscribing!) Say hi on Twitter. I’m @docuguy. I post to Ello. I have a Skillshare course for creators called Social Media Skills for Content Creators. Also, if you don’t already, subscribe to this newsletter. You’ll get a post like this once a week on Sundays. And if you liked this week’s post, why not forward it to a friend? Get full access to 500 Words at 500words.ink/subscribe

This is Episode 01 of On a Call With, a mini-podcast about creativity available exclusively for subscribers of this email. As I post more episodes you’ll always have access to the archive online. On a Call With Composer Joel GoodmanJoel has scored more than a hundred films and TV productions that have received five Oscar nominations, 20 Emmy Awards, and 30 Emmy nominations. You’ll be hearing his music in my upcoming podcast drama Privacy Pod, which, by the way, is casting now. You can experience Joel’s music in films like Being Elmo, many episodes of American Masters and American Experience, Obit, and also Outside the Bubble: On the Road with Alexandra Pelosi. Joel answers my questions about how he starts his workday, why bike rides are important, his sources of inspiration, where creativity comes from, and why he loves composing music. Creative work is life-affirming for him. The podcast is eleven minutes long, suitable for listening to while you are waiting for brunch to start. About On a Call With… This podcast is literally a call. Like, a phone call. Editing: minimal. Underscore, promos, and stings: None. It’s more notebook than book, more jam than song, more of a sketchbook than a painting. I offer it to you to help get inside how people live their creative lives and hear their story in their own words. Making it a phone call makes it easy to do, both for me and for the guest.Thanks for listening,Lee