The Science of Creativity
The Science of Creativity is a podcast hosted by Dr. Keith Sawyer, a leading expert on creativity, art, and design. The show explores insights and inspiration about creativity through stories of brilliant creators and world-changing inventions. Listeners learn about the latest psychological research and gain practical insights to enhance their own creative potential. Dr. Sawyer is a tenured university professor and author of 20 books on creativity, including his new book Learning to See.
Episodes
The Biggest Lessons About Creativity (Season 1 Finale)
This episode is the Season 1 finale of The Science of Creativity. Over the past year, I've released 52 episodes exploring the science of creativity through conversations with leading researchers, educators, artists, and performers, along with solo episodes on the creative origins of major innovations. In this final episode, I step back to synthesize the key insights from the season. Watch this epi
Group Flow: Why Creativity Doesn't Happen Alone
Watch the full YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/6VjbEBUkIFY Flow is often described as a deeply personal experience—a state of focus, immersion, and peak performance that happens inside an individual mind. But some of the most powerful creative moments don't happen alone. They happen in groups. In this episode, I introduce the concept of group flow—a shared state of optimal experience that em
Flow: The Most Misunderstood Idea in Psychology
Flow is one of the most influential ideas in modern psychology—and also one of the most misunderstood. Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2Zvcnl0Yi94 In this episode, I explain the core ideas from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, drawing on my experience studying with him as a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago. Flow is not about rela
Unlocking Creativity: The Power of Social Context
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pLLZZ2EhLaw In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Keith Sawyer sits down with Teresa Amabile, one of the world's most influential creativity researchers, to explore a deceptively simple question: How much does our social environment shape our creativity? Drawing on more than five decades of research, Amabile dismantles the myth that creativit
The Art of Creative Process
Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/X_zhPu3xCd4 In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Keith Sawyer speaks with psychologist and artist Aaron Kozbelt about what really drives creative achievement. Challenging the idea that creativity starts with a brilliant idea, Kozbelt argues that innovation often emerges from restructuring the creative process itself. Drawing on research in visual art
Creating Your Own Luck: The Power of Serendipity to Drive Creativity
Luck seems random and unpredictable, but Tina Seelig's message is that luck is something you can control and improve. And when you improve your luck, it will increase your creative potential. In this episode, we talk about Seelig's new book, What I Wish I Knew About Luck, and the mindsets and daily practices associated with luck and creativity. Winning the lottery is pure chance, but that's not th
Creativity Happens Backstage: Enhancing Creativity Through Collaboration, Constraints, and AI
How can you succeed creatively in an age of generative artificial intelligence? In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Keith Sawyer speaks with creativity keynote speaker and author James Taylor about his new book SuperCreativity. His guiding metaphor is the music concert. Sitting in the audience, we naturally focus on the stars playing on stage. Taylor played a critical role that remained
John Kounios: The Neuroscience of Creativity
In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Dr. Keith Sawyer interviews cognitive neuroscientist Dr. John Kounios, one of the world's leading researchers on insight, the "aha moment," and the neuroscience of creativity. Kounios—coauthor of The Eureka Factor—has spent decades studying how sudden breakthroughs emerge, what's happening in the brain when insight strikes, and how we can increase the
Inside the Creative Brain: How Your Mind Changes When You Create
In this episode, Keith Sawyer speaks with cognitive scientist Liane Gabora. Her work spans creativity research, artificial intelligence, cultural evolution, and complex systems. Dr. Gabora has spent decades developing computational and mathematical models to understand how ideas emerge, evolve, and spread—both within individual minds and across societies. The conversation centers on Gabora's resea
Exploring the Essence of Creativity in Science and Art: A Conversation with Arthur Miller
In this conversation, Professor Arthur I. Miller discusses artificial intelligence and creativity, including his book The Artist in the Machine. We discuss the essence of creativity, exploring its interdisciplinary nature and the connections between art and science. Dr. Miller emphasizes the importance of visual imagery in both science and art, and he identifies the key characteristics of highly c
The True Story of New Year's Resolutions: Babylon, Ancient Rome, Benjamin Franklin, and the Science of Resolutions that Work
Every January, millions of people make New Year's resolutions—and just as many abandon them weeks later. But where did this ritual come from? In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer traces the surprising 4,000-year history of New Year's resolutions, from ancient Babylonian vows to Roman civic promises, Christian moral reflection, early American self-engineering, and modern consumer culture. Along the wa
Inventing the iPhone: Myths, Mistakes, and Group Genius
You've heard about Steve Jobs, the Wizard of Cupertino. They say he invented the iPhone. Some people called him the iGod. But the iPhone was not created by a single genius, not Jobs and not anyone else. The real story is more surprising, and more interesting, than a myth about a single man. In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer reveals the true history behind Apple's groundbreaking invention. It was
Where Did Santa Claus Come From? The Secret History of Christmas
This is a special Christmas episode of The Science of Creativity. The creation of Christmas is an example of social innovation, a kind of collective creativity where everyone plays a role. Five hundred years ago, Christmas was a wild party, where young men got drunk and roamed in packs around town. Children didn't start getting gifts until about 200 years ago. The Santa Claus myth was invented, al
Dark Creativity: How People Get Good Ideas to Do Bad Things
In this episode of The Science of Creativity, Keith Sawyer talks with Dr. Hansika Kapoor about the psychology of dark creativity — how the same cognitive processes that generate brilliant ideas can also lead to deception, manipulation, or harm. Kapoor explains that creativity itself is amoral: it can be directed toward good or bad outcomes depending on intent and context. Their conversation spans
The Art of Motion: Capturing Life on Paper an Interview with Carol Fabricatore
Based in New York City, Carol prefers to leave the studio and seek out the immediacy of city life, whether sidewalks, parks, boxing studios, or Coney Island. In this conversation, Carol Fabricatore shares her extensive experience as a professional illustrator and how she teaches advanced MFA students to advance on their creative journey. She talks about the mystery of capturing motion and energy i
How AI Hinders Creativity in Education: Matt Worwood on The Convenience Trap
Matthew Worwood is a full-time Digital Media Design faculty member at the University of Connecticut. He has research interests in Creativity, Design Thinking, and Co-Creativity using Generative AI tools and Digital Media. Outside of his research, Matthew is an experienced learning experience designer who works closely with K-12 educators on professional growth and teacher creativity. He is co-host
Art, Design, and the Creative Process with Lorne Buchman
In this conversation, Lorne Buchman discusses his book Make to Know: From Spaces of Uncertainty to Creative Discovery. It's based on interviews he did with creators in a range of fields. These interviews connect with the same themes in my book Learning to See--powerful features of creativity like iteration, uncertainty, engaging with materials, and an improvisational dialogue with the unfolding w
Kara Rooney: Finding Your Voice as an Artist
Kara Rooney is a successful New York multidisciplinary artist who creates installation performances and videos, as well as sculpture, painting, and photography. She's had numerous solo and group shows and performances, with many in New York City but also in Mexico, Italy, and Czechoslovakia. She's a published critic with articles in the New York Times and catalog essays, and she's curated many exh
Steve DeFrank: Unlocking Creativity in Art Education
Steve DeFrank is a top New York painter with numerous one-person exhibitions and group exhibitions. His solo exhibitions include Clementine Gallery in New York, and the Clifford Smith Gallery in Boston. His group shows include the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery and The National Arts Club in New York, and many others. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, in The New Y
Scott Barry Kaufman: Inspiring Creativity
Scott Barry Kaufman is an influential psychologist, creativity researcher, podcaster, and best-selling book author. In this episode, we explore themes such as the messy nature of creative minds, the importance of incubation, and the role of daydreaming. We discuss the brain's imagination network and the balance between conscious and unconscious processes in fostering creativity. Scott emphasizes t
Kelly Leonard: Improv Comedy at The Second City
Kelly Leonard has been involved with improv comedy for almost 40 years. He's worked with actors and comedians including Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Keegan Michael Key, Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler. He started working at the Second City Theater in Chicago in 1988, eventually becoming producer in 1992, and later, taking on roles and titles including Executive Director, Executive Vice President, and Cr
Adam Green: The Neuroscience and Neurostimulation of Creativity
Dr. Adam Green is an expert in brain research and neurostimulation of creativity. He also studies how the use of AI influences creativity in the user. Spoiler alert: Using AI often reduces creativity. He's the Director of the Laboratory for Relational Cognition at Georgetown University, a founder and former president of The Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, and Editor-In-Chief at the Cre
Scott Thorp: Creative Thinking Strategies in Art and Design
Scott Thorp is an artist, writer and educator specializing in creativity. He's a professor at Augusta University, and is the Chair of the Department of Art and Design and the Associate Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research. Scott earned his MFA in multi-disciplinary art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. In addition to his artistic practice, he was a regular contributor to the int
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle: The Creativity Choice
Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, US News, Science Daily, and others, and she is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and Creativity Post. Zorana studies many aspects of the creative process, including idea generation but also creative mindsets, creative self-effic
Jonathan Feinstein: How Lives Unfold for Exceptional Creators
Dr. Jonathan Feinstein, a professor at Yale University, studies the developmental paths of creative individuals, including entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and scientists. His book Creativity in Large-Scale Contexts was published in 2023. He is also the author of The Nature of Creative Development (2006). His current work focuses on models of creative engagement, centering on guidance, learning,
Charna Halpern: Improv Comedy at Chicago's iO Theater
Everyone who works in television and movie comedy knows Charna Halpern. She's trained thousands of actors, writers, and producers at her Chicago theater, founded in 1981, called the iO theater. In this episode, Charna tells personal and funny stories about actors from Chris Farley and Neil Flynn to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Along with actor and director Del Close, Charna invented modern improvisat
Mark Runco: The Psychology of Creativity, Assessment, and Creative Potential
Dr. Mark Runco is a professor and is the Director of Creativity Research and Programming at Southern Oregon University. Over 35 years ago, he founded an influential scientific journal called The Creativity Research Journal and he was the editor of that journal until 2020. He's published books that are widely read by creativity researchers such as his college textbook, Creativity: Research, Develop
Steve Heller: Teaching Graphic Design
Steve Heller is arguably the world's best-known design educator, with over 200 books on graphic design, illustration, and political art. I interviewed him for my 2025 book Learning to See. His books include Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design; Teaching Graphic Design; and The Education of an Illustrator (with Marshall Arisman). He's spent most of his career at the School of Visual Arts i
Learning to See: Inside the World's Leading Art and Design Schools
The much-anticipated art and design book Learning to See was just published by MIT Press! In this episode, author Keith Sawyer talks with Amy Climer about his new book. Learning to See is an engaging and profound account of how professional artists and designers create and how they teach others to do it. Keith spent over ten years interviewing a hundred professors who've taught in 50 different col
The 2025 Creativity Conference, episode 2: Cutting-Edge Research from Top Psychologists
We're going to leave the podcast studio and travel to Yale University for the 2025 creativity research conference! This is the second of two episodes bringing you cutting-edge research from the conference. This episode has five interviews with leading-edge creativity researchers. There were over two hundred researchers at Yale, from around the world, including Japan, India, Europe, and South Ameri
The 2025 Creativity Conference: Cutting-Edge Research from Top Psychologists
We're going to leave the podcast studio and travel to Yale University for the 2025 creativity research conference! This episode has six interviews with leading-edge creativity researchers and the next episode has five more. There were over two hundred researchers at Yale, from around the world, including Japan, India, Europe, and South America. This is the official American Psychological Associati
Leidy Klotz: Creativity Through Subtraction
Dr. Leidy Klotz is a professor at the University of Virginia, and the author of the book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. In this episode, we talk about how his research contributes to our understanding of how to approach and solve problems and how to change and innovate. This is an insightful conversation between two psychologists who really love to study how people think and act! Dr. Klot
Amy Climer: Deliberate Creative Teams
Dr. Amy Climer is a thought leader in creativity and innovation. She argues that creativity emerges from a deliberate process. Creativity can be learned, practiced, and repeated. Researchers have discovered a lot about how to teach this effectively, and this is the theme of her new book, Deliberate Creative Teams. In Dr. Climer's view, creativity is an intentional, structured process. For over 20
Yoed Kenett: The Associations of the Creative Mind
Dr. Yoed Kenett studies the types of thinking and knowledge that support creativity. His research helps us understand the core mental processes of creativity, including associative thinking and question formulation. In this episode, we talk about the practical implications of his research and we show how that research can be used to enhance your creativity. He's done research at the Hebrew Unive
Adam Galinsky: How to Be a Creative Leader
How can leaders foster creativity in their teams? How can you inspire people to reach their potential? Today's guest, Dr. Adam Galinsky, has spent decades studying these questions, doing research in social psychology, leadership, and organizational behavior. His latest book, Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others, gives research-based advice for how to increase motivation, cre
Dr. Robert Sternberg: The psychology of wisdom, love, and creativity
Dr. Robert Sternberg, a professor of psychology at Cornell University, is one of the best-known psychologists in the United States. He's done groundbreaking research on the most important issues in psychology, including scientific studies of wisdom, love, hate, leadership, and of course, creativity. Dr. Sternberg is known for reforming college admissions requirements to include measures of creativ
Anna Abraham: Myths and Truths of the Creative Brain
Dr. Anna Abraham is a neuroscientist, a leading creativity researcher, and a professor at the University of Georgia. In addition to her cutting-edge research, Professor Abraham is the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, a research and outreach center at the University of Georgia. Dr. Abraham is doing cutting-edge research in some of the most important aspects of
John Hendrix: Translating What's Beyond the Drawing
John Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator. His latest book is a graphic novel called The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. In this episode, John and I talk about his new book and about his own creative process. John's work has appeared in numerous publications, such as Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Sto
The Creation of Christmas: Two Thousand Years of Collective Creativity
The perfect podcast for the Christmas season! This is a special Christmas episode of The Science of Creativity. Many of the traditions that we love—gift-giving, Santa Claus, kissing under the mistletoe—were invented across the generations, and are always evolving. This special holiday episode gives you the creation story of the secular, non-religious traditions that we celebrate at Christmas. The
Kit White: 101 Things to Learn in Art School
Kit White is the author of the international best-selling book 101 Things To Learn In Art School, which is based on his experience as a professor of art for 21 years at the Pratt Institute in New York. Many of the original drawings from the book are in the collection of the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, George Washington University. He's had more than 25 sol
Dr. Ellen Winner: The Psychology of the Arts
Ellen Winner is a retired Professor of Psychology at Boston College and Senior Research Associate at Harvard's Project Zero. She's one of the world's leading experts in the psychology of art. She's studied the development of artistic abilities in childhood; how to teach art in high school; and what goes on in the mind when people are making art and perceiving art. She's also studied giftedness, dy
Dr. Erica Halverson: How the Arts Can Save Education
Dr. Erica Halverson is one of the world's leading experts in arts education. She's a trained actor who's founded two successful acting programs for school children, one in Chicago and one at her current home, the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She's an expert in helping children realize their creativity. Her research shows that children learn much more from the arts than just painting or acti
Dr. Mike Sharples: Artificial intelligence and creative writing
Dr. Mike Sharples has been studying computers and creativity for over 40 years. He's an expert in education, technology, and innovation. In the 1970s, he was one of the first people to argue that computers might someday be able to write stories. We talk about his 2022 book Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers. He's a psychologist who studies how people create stories and how
Dr. Kenan Sahin on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Today's episode is about creativity and entrepreneurship. Our guest, Dr. Kenan Sahin, founded several companies that are known for their technological innovation. His first company, Kenan Systems, sold in 1999 for $1.54 billion in stock. When he founded it in 1984, he was a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and many of the early employees were MIT graduates with expertise in artificia
Messier: Build a Daily Creative Habit
Messier is a smartphone app designed with input from a team of scientific advisors including one of today's guests, Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, and also Dr. James Kaufman, who was the guest in episode 6 of "The Science of Creativity." In this episode, I interview Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle and co-founder Josh Seidenfeld. We talk about ways you can enhance your creativity through daily practice. Dr
Bob Mankoff, Cartoonist and New Yorker editor
For over 40 years, Bob Mankoff has been a driving force of comedy and satire at some of the most honored publications in America, including The New Yorker and Esquire. He has devoted his life to discovering just what makes us laugh and seeks every outlet to do so, from developing The New Yorker's web presence to integrating it with algorithms and A.I. For 20 years, Mankoff was the cartoon editor a
Josh Linkner: Author, Entrepreneur, Innovation Consultant
Josh Linkner is an innovation consultant, keynote speaker, venture capitalist, author, and entrepreneur. He's been a professional jazz musician since high school, he attended the Berklee College of Music, and he's performed over 1,000 concerts around the world. He's been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million. In this interview, we talk abo
James Kaufman, Psychologist and Creativity Researcher
Dr. Sawyer interviews the legendary creativity research Professor James Kaufman, of the University of Connecticut. Dr. Kaufman is an influential researcher who's published 50 books and hundreds of scientific articles. Dr. Kaufman talks about his new book, The Creativity Advantage, where he develops his theory of self-transformational creativity. This kind of creativity has immense benefits to your
Danah Henriksen: The Creative Power of Transdisciplinary Thinking
In this episode, Dr. Sawyer talks with Professor Danah Henriksen of Arizona State University. Dr. Henriksen and Dr. Sawyer are the co-authors of the book Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, published by Oxford University Press in 2024. Dr. Henriksen is an expert on creativity and teaching. She is a top scientist who does rigorous studies of creativity. She's published well over
Tony Wagner: Transforming Education
Today's guest is Dr. Tony Wagner, a globally recognized expert in education, creativity, and learning. Dr. Wagner was at Harvard for over 20 years and he's published seven books about education. In today's episode, Dr. Wagner provides profound insights into the U.S. educational system today. This is a wide-ranging conversation about teaching and about what schools can do differently to foster deep
The Creative Classroom: Innovative Teaching for 21st-Century Learners
How do you teach students how to be creative? In this episode, you'll learn what research has to say about teaching for creativity. The surprising message is that we need to completely change the way we think about teaching and learning. We need to teach creative knowledge instead of shallow knowledge. We need to move from instructionist methods to a new pedagogy called guided improvisation. This
Toy Story: How Toy Story Was Created
Toy Story is one of the best loved movies of all time. Released in 1995, it was the first fully digitally animated feature film. The Toy Story creation story is filled with surprising twists and turns. This episode reveals the secrets behind the movie, the paths not taken, the characters and events that never made it into the final movie. The initial script treatment was almost nothing like the mo
Monopoly: Invention through Collaboration
Monopoly is the bestselling boardgame of all time. In this episode you'll learn how Monopoly was invented. Until the truth came out, in the 1970s, we used to believe that a man named Charles Darrow created the game in 1934 in a burst of genius. But some dedicated sleuths discovered the real invention story. It's a fascinating story about the power of collaboration and social networks. You'll hear
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