173: Laura Holson on Inviting Creativity Back Into Your Life

Overview

What does it mean to live a creative life? And how can creative pursuits support us in being ambitious and living sustainably?

Over the course of the podcast, I’ve had multiple guests who have shared how fostering creativity, innovation, and visual thinking can boost our ability to see and enact new or different ways of working and living.

My guest, Laura Holson, helps me continue that conversation, offering insights on integrating creativity into our lives, why so many of us come back to creative pursuits in midlife and beyond, and how creative practices sustain us for the long term.

Listen below or on your favorite podcast player.

More About Our Guest

Laura Holson is an award-winning former writer for The New York Times and founder of The Box Sessions, a series of immersive creative gatherings. She chronicled the intersection of money and power in Hollywood and Silicon Valley for the Times for more than two decades and was awarded a National Magazine Award for public service reporting. She is a gifted storyteller and keen observer of culture and human behavior. A decade ago, she started a creativity salon that became the foundation for The Box Sessions, which bring together filmmakers, musicians, writers, storytellers and artists. She completed her Master’s in Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and her Bachelor’s in Art History from the University of California in Santa Barbara. Laura was awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship where she studied filmmaking and voiceover at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She currently lives in Northern California.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How Laura defines creativity (and why it’s not limited to arts)

• How following her creative impulses helped Laura in her previous careers

• The positive impacts of creativity on health, wellbeing, and resilience

• The power of being in creative communities

• Why it is never too late in life to embrace creative pursuits and simple ways to incorporate it into your day

Learn more about Laura Holson:

• Website

• Instagram: @lauramholson

Resources Mentioned

• Write. Draw. Sing. Build. Here’s How. - Stanford Center on Longevity

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert

• Rx Creativity for Health, Life (and Fun) - Stanford Center on Longevity

• Forget a Fast Car. Creativity Is the New Midlife Crisis Cure. - The New York Times

• From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, Arthur C. Brooks

Thanks for Listening!

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