Imagine: How Creativity Works w/ Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer's new book Imagine: How Creativity Works has been getting a lot of attention (NYT, WaPo, SciAm Mind), not all of it good (Guardian, The Millions). In this podcast from the RSA we get to hear him talk about the book himself.

For those interested, I also included an interview from Slate and video/animation of this book's ideas from HuffPo.

Imagine: How creativity works

25th Apr 2012

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(full recording including audience Q&A)
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RSA Keynote

Shattering the myth of creative 'types', bestselling journalist and author Jonah Lehrer shows how new research is deepening our understanding of the human imagination, and considers how this new science can make us happier, our neighbourhoods more vibrant, companies more productive and schools more effective.

Chair: Ben Hammersley, technologist, writer and broadcaster. 

June Thomas interviewed Lehrer for Slate's book review podcast.

How Creativity Works: An interview with Jonah Lehrer

By June Thomas | Posted Friday, March 30, 2012

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Jonah LehrerPhotograph by Nina Subin.

In Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer explores some of the myths of creativity and discovers that it isn’t a gift possessed by a lucky few, but rather a variety of processes that everyone can learn to use more efficiently. This 32-minute conversation ranges from the origins of the Swiffer, why 3M is such an innovative company, what people who work alone can do to replicate the creative advantages of the busy workplace, to Steve Jobs’ views on proper bathroom placement.

The Afterword, which appears in the Slate daily podcast feed every other Thursday, features interviews with the authors of new nonfiction books. The show’s email address is slateafterword@gmail.com.

Podcast produced by June Thomas. The executive producer of Slate’s podcasts is Andy Bowers.

See all the pieces in the new Slate Book Review.

And finally, Huffington Post shared an animated passage from the book (on frustration as necessary for creativity) created by Flash Rosenberg.

Jonah Lehrer's 'Imagine: How Creativity Works,' Animated By Flash Rosenberg (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post  |  By Mallika Rao

It seems like everywhere you turn (on the internet), there's a thought piece, review or Q&A about Jonah Lehrer's new book, "Imagine: How Creativity Works." The 30-year-old science writer studied sexy examples of creativity (Bob Dylan) as well as unsexy ones (Swiffer) in his quest to understand that mysterious thing called inspiration, and his work seems to have touched a nerve. Now one of Lehrer's most provocative passages -- a defense of frustration as a necessary phase during problem-solving -- has been transformed into a short movie by animator Flash Rosenberg (side note: great animator name!). Which is great, because who doesn't love big thoughts expressed in drawrings? Rosenberg does the animation equivalent of liveblogging to a narration of Lehrer's words, and as expected, the story of Archimedes in the tub makes for righteous visuals. We've posted the whole thing below.

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