MAKE HUMAN

What if the thing you keep trying to fix is the most intelligent part of you? We tend to think of shame as a hot, exposed feeling. David Bedrick, author of The Unshaming Way and Maria’s own teacher, says most shame is invisible: it looks like performing well, calling ourselves anxious or shy or blocked, and asking to have our symptoms taken away before we’ve ever gotten curious about them.Waypoints[00:01:35] — Shame you can’t feel[00:12:20] — Nothing’s wrong with the bee[00:22:55] — Shy, or scared?.[00:29:30] — The story underneath the story[00:41:50] — Math is when numbers are angry at you[00:49:28] — The critic you don’t know is thereResources David Bedrick — davidbedrick.comThe Unshaming Way: A Compassionate Guide to Dismantling Shame by David Bedrick (North Atlantic Books, 2024)Deborah Keenan — poet and David’s former poetry teacher; her poem about trying to “be good”Cornel West — “I am because somebody loved me”CTAYOUR SECRET INVITATION HEREHave a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the showGot some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice for unblockingTheme song by deadmen

You are bored for a reason!Your contradictions were never a problem to solve!Maria shares a quick programming note — Make Human is taking July off and returning in August — and reads you two original meditations. Waypoints[00:00:00] — A summer pause, and two pieces to sit with[00:01:00] — Begging you to be weirder[00:02:30] — A genre of one[00:04:00] — Resist the flatteningCTAYOUR SECRET INVITATION HEREHave a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the showGot some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice for unblockingTheme song by deadmen

This episode is about the tension between the daily “job” of making vs. the need for a big transcendent “why”.Maria's producer Carin Huebner came to the conversation with a live wire. She'd finally gotten into the darkroom after weeks of circling it, and she made, in her own assessment, zero successful work. What happens next?In this episode Why the question "what is this for?" can be both essential and the thing that keeps you out of the roomErotic energy, Eros, and what it actually means to be a sub to your visionAnger as data — what it’s actually pointing toWhy most of us only ever get the next instruction, and how to stop making that wrongWaypoints[00:00:00] — Why Carin finally got into the darkroom[00:03:30] — The tension between the job and the why[00:10:30] — Both ends of the binary are forms of obedience[00:22:30] — Sub to the vision[00:25:00] — What actually is vision?[00:36:30] — Rules as permissionResourcesSally Mann — Art WorkSteven Pressfield — The War of ArtNathan Hill — Wellness Will Arnett — Is This Thing On? Hilma af Klint — referenced for automatic painting and receiving visionMichael Pollan — A World AppearsAnnie Dillard — The Writing LifeHave a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the showGot some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice for unblockingTheme song by deadmen

You already know what burnout looks like on the outside. But Amelia Hruby describes something subtler and more insidious: still doing all the tasks, still checking boxes, still showing up, and feeling absolutely nothing. If you’ve ever found yourself completing everything on the list and wondering where the desire went, you’ll love this episode on creative burnout, seasonal rhythms, and the hidden cost of saying yes.Amelia Hruby is a feminist writer, podcaster, and platform critic with a PhD in philosophy. She’s the host of Off The Grid and the founder of Softer Sounds, a podcast production studio she’s currently in the middle of sunsetting. Her new book, Your Attention Is Sacred Except On Social Media, is out now. Maria and Amelia discuss being alienated from your own creative impulse, and why the answer is rarely try harder.YOUR SECRET INVITATION HEREIn this episodeBurnout isn't always inertia Why consistency doesn't require disciplineSeasonal rhythms as a survival strategy, not a spiritual practice"Bridge desire" — Maria's term for the 70%-fit that turns the dial toward what you actually wantWhat makes something feel humanWaypoints[00:01:33] — The burnout practice[00:03:15] — When pleasure stops being accessible[00:10:45] — The sabbatical that became a sunset[00:29:45] — Consistency is desire, not discipline[00:50:00] — What makes it humanResources & mentionsAmelia’s website Off The Grid (podcast) — leaving social media, creative business, and platform alternativesYour Attention Is Sacred Except On Social Media — Amelia's new bookDana Amir — psychoanalyst; saturated vs. unsaturated stories in therapeutic relationshipHave a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the showGot some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice for unblockingTheme song by deadmen

What do you do when your work has nowhere to go? When the credentials keep accumulating and you still don't feel like enough? When the scroll takes you under and you don't know why you went in?In this first Listener Questions episode, Maria is joined by her producer, Carin, to answer real questions from real people who are trying to make things, live honestly, and not lose themselves in the process. Carin brings the follow-up you needed someone to ask, the real-life example that grounds, and the reminder that the questions in this episode are more connected than they look. You want to be in relationship. With your work, with the world, with yourself. This episode is about what gets in the way of that, and what you can do today.In this episodeWhy wanting an audience isn't ego and what it actually isWhat autoregulation has to do with your screen time problemWhy getting the credentials, the agent, the gallery slot won't scratch the itch and what mightOn finding form without a mapWhose voice is telling you you're not enough yet?Waypoints[00:01:00] — The photographer with a full hard drive[00:13:30] — On gatekeepers and house shows[00:16:30] — I need more qualifications before I can start[00:28:00] — The scroll problem[00:35:00] — How do you meet the form of your art?ResourcesSecret invitationBig Magic by Elizabeth GilbertThe War of Art by Steven PressfieldKate's episode of Make Human — referenced for its "most epic complaint story"The Dunning-Kruger effect Have a creative quandary? Submit a question to be answered on the showGot some creative resistance? Get your free audio guide to the Creative Resistance Practice for unblockingTheme song by deadmen