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The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox


The Busy Creator Podcast is a discussion program where creative professionals from across the spectrum share tools, techniques, and habits they use in their practice. Listeners are introduced to strategies and pro tips to be their most creative, productive selves.

Full website available at http://busycreator.com and http://busycreator.com/podcast/ for the show specifically.

Oct 20, 2014

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

The Busy Creator 28 w/guest 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

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 “Creative Distraction” to free your brain