What does it mean to return to the rooms where your imagination first took root? In this intimate conversation, 24th US Poet Laureate Ada Limón joins Mia Funk to explore her retrospective collection Startlement: New and Selected Poems and her book on craft, Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry. Moving back to her childhood home in Sonoma Valley, Limón reflects on the simultaneity of aging, where forward momentum meets a deepening root system of memory, wonder, and past selves.

Emmy van Deurzen has spent five decades mapping the architecture of human existence. Born in the Netherlands in the shadow of the Second World War and trained in the radical psychiatric wards of France, she eventually founded the New School of Psychotherapy and Counseling to challenge the medicalization of mental health. In this conversation, she reveals how our crises are not diseases to be cured, but profound philosophical crossroads demanding our attention. Drawing from her lifelong work and her new book, Beginning to Live: The Art of Existential Freedom, she shares how early encounters with loss and the fragility of life shaped her understanding of freedom. We explore the necessity of emotional intelligence in an increasingly automated world, the dangers of outsourcing our ethical thinking to AI, and how tapping into the multiverse's vast networks of consciousness can help us fully inhabit the dance of life.

In this episode of The Creative Process and One Planet Podcast, author and filmmaker Chiara Barzini discusses her latest book, Aqua: A Story of Water and Lost Dreams. Journeying through the dried lakebeds of the Owens Valley and the dying shores of the Salton Sea, Barzini unpacks the historical water thefts that built Los Angeles and the environmental consequences of empire, hypercapitalism, and the AI boom. Alongside hosts Mia Funk and Virginia Moscetti, Barzini delves into the creative necessity of illusions, the stoic wisdom of the Etruscans, and what it means to make art on the edge of the apocalypse. It is a profound conversation about confronting our planetary reality while holding on to the dreams that keep us human.

In this episode of The Creative Process and One Planet Podcast, author and filmmaker Chiara Barzini discusses her latest book, Aqua: A Story of Water and Lost Dreams. Journeying through the dried lakebeds of the Owens Valley and the dying shores of the Salton Sea, Barzini unpacks the historical water thefts that built Los Angeles and the environmental consequences of empire, hypercapitalism, and the AI boom. Alongside hosts Mia Funk and Virginia Moscetti, Barzini delves into the creative necessity of illusions, the stoic wisdom of the Etruscans, and what it means to make art on the edge of the apocalypse. It is a profound conversation about confronting our planetary reality while holding on to the dreams that keep us human.

As the Chief Artistic Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Shanta Thake is breaking down barriers—both literal and figurative—to create a more inclusive cultural landscape. From transforming New York’s grandest plazas into welcoming dance floors to grappling with the complex history of San Juan Hill, she views the arts as an essential civic infrastructure. In this episode, we explore her journey from a theater intern to leading one of the world's most prestigious arts institutions, the intersection of technology and human creation, and why gathering together remains our most vital technology for the future.

In this profoundly moving episode of The Creative Process, we sit down with celebrated Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov and acclaimed translator Angela Rodel to discuss their International Booker Prize-winning novel, Time Shelter. We delve into the prescient themes of their work, examining what happens when a civilization facing a deficit of meaning attempts to retreat into carefully reconstructed decades of the past. They explore the crucial difference between personal nostalgia and collective propaganda, highlighting how the stories we tell ourselves shape our humanity. Beyond the novel, the conversation touches upon the musicality of language, the profound art of translation, and the intimate lessons learned during the final moments of a loved one's life. Georgi Gospodinov shares how literature slows down time and serves as a vital antidote to a polarized world, while Angela Rodel reflects on translating the subtle emotional atmospheres of Eastern Europe.

In this profoundly moving episode of The Creative Process, we sit down with celebrated Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov and acclaimed translator Angela Rodel to discuss their International Booker Prize-winning novel, Time Shelter. We delve into the prescient themes of their work, examining what happens when a civilization facing a deficit of meaning attempts to retreat into carefully reconstructed decades of the past. They explore the crucial difference between personal nostalgia and collective propaganda, highlighting how the stories we tell ourselves shape our humanity. Beyond the novel, the conversation touches upon the musicality of language, the profound art of translation, and the intimate lessons learned during the final moments of a loved one's life. Georgi Gospodinov shares how literature slows down time and serves as a vital antidote to a polarized world, while Angela Rodel reflects on translating the subtle emotional atmospheres of Eastern Europe.

We’ve been taught to think of cities as places where nature goes to die, but the reality is much wilder. In this fascinating conversation on One Planet Podcast, award-winning epidemiologist and author Dan Werb challenges our assumptions about urban life by introducing us to "synanthropes"—the wild animals that have adapted to thrive in human-modified environments. From raccoons picking complex locks in Toronto to giant Pacific octopuses building homes in discarded refrigerators off the coast of Seattle, Dan Werb reveals the hidden biodiversity surrounding us every day. Drawing from his latest book, Our Wild Familiars, Dan Werb explains how urban sprawl, climate change, and even our garbage are pulling species into cities, transforming our concrete jungles into unexpected sites of conservation. He also delves into the deep spiritual connections humans have shared with animals like ravens for millennia, the epidemiological risks of habitat destruction explored in The Invisible Siege, and why engaging with the mystery of an animal’s mind is more profoundly mind-expanding than seeking comfort in digital echo chambers.

We’ve been taught to think of cities as places where nature goes to die, but the reality is much wilder. In this fascinating conversation on One Planet Podcast, award-winning epidemiologist and author Dan Werb challenges our assumptions about urban life by introducing us to "synanthropes"—the wild animals that have adapted to thrive in human-modified environments. From raccoons picking complex locks in Toronto to giant Pacific octopuses building homes in discarded refrigerators off the coast of Seattle, Dan Werb reveals the hidden biodiversity surrounding us every day. Drawing from his latest book, Our Wild Familiars, Dan Werb explains how urban sprawl, climate change, and even our garbage are pulling species into cities, transforming our concrete jungles into unexpected sites of conservation. He also delves into the deep spiritual connections humans have shared with animals like ravens for millennia, the epidemiological risks of habitat destruction explored in The Invisible Siege, and why engaging with the mystery of an animal’s mind is more profoundly mind-expanding than seeking comfort in digital echo chambers.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS, SCIENTISTS & VISIONARIES · Anthology Guests Author of Various Works · From Extraction to Regeneration"We are living with an extractive mindset... And we need to change from that extractive mindset to a regenerative mindset."