Can outrage and anxiety power creativity or do they work against it? How can we learn to practice creativity in times that too often seem to reflect back to us the most fearful versions of our neighbors and ourselves?

Season two guests:

• Hannah Eko, writing MFA graduate
• Craig Hayes, junior studying English/creative writing
• Oronde Sharif, lecturer and director of undergraduate admissions in the Department of Africana Studies
• Ivette Spradlin, instructor in Pitt Department of Studio Arts
• Tahira Walker, former staff at the University Center for Teaching and Learning (now director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Bethany College)

Processing ... is a podcast produced by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Creativity and hosted by the center’s manager of operations, Shannon Fink. It questions, explodes, subverts and, in some cases, confirms what listeners think they know about creativity.

“Creativity calls us to take risks, to dare failure, to face the immense and potentially overwhelming possibilities of a blank page or canvas or computer screen, an empty stage, a bare square of soil,” said Fink. “It’s often uncomfortable at the best of times. And these, to state the obvious, are not those.”

This season, the podcast explores creativity in the context of COVID and social transformation to consider how creative makers work through periods of intense political and personal uncertainty.

Listen on Apple Podcasts.