They are also a great way to get reluctant readers into storytelling and also help to develop children's emotional intelligence as they listen to how words are used.

For each of the children's books I have written, I have created an audio component working with stage and screen actor Michael Maloney for stories which have been read in full.

You can listen to my audiobook collection here, as a free resource, to ignite children's interest in storytelling and creativity!

In addition to my problem-solving workshop business and podcast, I also write children's books where I can exercise my creativity freely.

This very short episode of the podcast is a recording of a lullaby for my upcoming children's book of the same title, "Lily's Lullaby".

The lullaby is about the magic of dreams and is designed to inspire children to fall asleep and receive their nightly dreams from dream fairies.

The book, about an aspiring dream fairy called Lily, will be out Winter 2025 - my dream come true!

This conversation is a gentle stroll through the idea and impact of wandering, that is to say, to go outside and wander with no other ambition than to let our feet take our brains for a walk.

David discusses how we are built to wander and that in an increasingly screen-based and linguistic world, physically wandering in the city streets can provide us with a playground of creative opportunity.

David shares how Street Wisdom walkshops, which are free for all, help you to go through the looking glass and into a world where extraordinary serendipities can be discovered if you are willing to simply slow down, awaken your senses and see!

As we consider how to live our most creative life, it is important to reflect on why our creativity may wane throughout childhood and if there is anything we can do to stop it?

In this podcast I am speaking with American psychology researcher and scholar, Peter Gray about his book, "Free to Play, Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life".

Our natural human instinct is to play and explore. This is how we learn not only skills and information but also who we are, what we believe and what we are passionate about.  Yet in today’s society, a lot of children’s freedom to play has been replaced with adult designed and monitored activity. 

By removing the onus of control from children and constantly measuring them in environments where they all learn the same thing in the same way, are we necessarily helping kids develop the confidence and curiosity they need to solve their own problems and let their creativity thrive?

This conversation offers a compelling argument that to sustain and develop our innate creativity throughout childhood, we need to give our children freedom to play!

During this podcast, I am speaking with Warren Berger, journalist, author and questionologist, about the art of asking questions and how curiosity can unlock our creativity.

In today’s modern world, our tendency is to rush to an answer rather than find a more beautiful question to solve for.

Yet, where we can more confidently practice and express our curiosity, we have the potential to discover new possibilities.

This podcast is an invitation to become a questionlogist and embrace the art of asking questions to ignite your creativity!

For more information, please go to Warren's websites:

https://amorebeautifulquestion.com/

https://warrenberger.com/

I was inspired to reach out to Ruth to understand if we truly are born to be creative and how our childhood may or may not influence our creative confidence in adult life.

Ruth highlights how engaging in creative practice helps children to connect with their most authentic self and ultimately helps them to make sense of the world and who they are in it.

Ultimately, a child's confident connection with their own creativity helps them to shape who they are and who they want to be in the future!

However, to help our children achieve this, we as care givers must also be willing to embrace our own creativity. We must be willing to create conditions for possibility to emerge, for our children to fill, and go on the adventure of their design!

It is clear that humanity faces many challenges in the world ahead and arguably, creativity is one of the most important tools we will need to thrive. Therefore, a focus on creating confident problem-solvers for the future is critical and is something we can nurture and unleash from the early years and beyond!

Through our conversation, we explore how our ancient make-up as humans is not necessarily geared to thrive in a modern world and we consider how we can navigate this environment by getting our energy right from a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level.

Chris and Jim also talk about their latest product called Talk It Out, an app designed to help people explore their subconscious to express what they are thinking, feeling and what really lights them up!  Where burnout rates and anxiety levels across the world are at an all time high, this app has the potential to make a real difference!

At the end of the day, to Up Our Elvis, we need to more purposefully establish a routine that fires and preserves our energy so that we might live our most awesome and impactful life!

The chances are that we have all experienced wonder at some time in our life, but have we ever stopped to think about it's impact?

Ultimately, wonder has the potential to make us kinder, more empathetic, more open, humbler and can even help us to improve both our mental and physical health. 

Through our discussion, Monica reveals the wonder lifecycle i.e., the key states and stages we must go through to experience wonder. She also highlights the techniques we can adopt at each phase to more readily have wonder in our every day lives.

As Monica’s book title says, wonder is the extraordinary emotion that will change the way you live, learn and lead. Take a listen to bring more wonder to your life today!

Katherine Templar Lewis, (cognitive scientist, science communicator and founder of Kinda Studios), discusses neuroaesthetics, the science behind how humans respond to art.

We explore what happens in our brains and bodies when we engage with art and the impact these reactions can have.

We also consider what constitutes art and how we can more readily adopt "art time" in our lifestyle to realise its benefits.

Ultimately, art invites us to be more connected with ourselves, each other and the world around us.

Might this deeper sense of connection help to address some of the worlds biggest challenges?

Take a listen to find out…

We discuss creativity from a spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual point of view to help define what is a creative rebel and how can we unleash ours.

Ultimately, we consider that a “creative rebellion” is a gentle movement that can be stirred where we dare to awaken our innate creativity and curiosity.

Listen to this podcast to unlock your creativity and to curiously discover your bliss!

For more information, you can purchase a copy of John’s book, “The Art of Creative Rebellion” from Amazon and can also visit his website: https://www.john-couch.com/

In a world where we are "always on", are we necessarily creating the space we need to just be and allow our thoughts to wonder?

The neural networks in our mind are a "secret garden" of creative opportunity as they create the potential for random connections to spark across our memories, experiences, knowledge and beliefs.

This is where the opportunity for ideas come from yet, if we don't give ourselves time to get lost in and express the wilderness of our mind, are we losing touch with our creative potential and confidence?

Human creativity is literally in our nature! It has been found that neuronal arbours and plants grow according to the operation of the same mathematical laws*. In addition, our brains also need to "weed, prune and fertilise" in order to flourish!

Pia discusses how getting back to nature can help us rewild our imagination so that we might be able to restore our natural creative capability and create conditions for it to grow and ultimately take care of itself.

*Reference: The Well Gardened Mind, Sue Stuart-Smith

For more information about Rewilding Britain, as mentioned in the show, please visit this website:

https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/why-rewild/what-is-rewilding/an-introduction-to-rewilding/defining-rewilding

The friends behind Architecting Curiosity include, Pim Schachtschabel, Monica Canfield-Lenfest and Anthony Rocco.

During our conversation, we deep dive into Monica and Pim’s curious life journeys so far, as well as explore the principles of curiosity and how they fit into our every day lives.

Ultimately, through our discussion we reveal that curiosity is a superpower which is open to everyone!

For more information about my guests and to learn more please visit The Architecting Curiosity website: https://www.architectingcuriosity.com/

The focus of our conversation is exploring the practice of curiosity and the value that living a more curious lifestyle can bring. We explore the ideas and impacts of living a more curious lifestyle including how curiosity can help us discover more about ourselves, connect more deeply with others, create cultures and unlock new opportunities.

For me, curiosity is at the heart of enabling us to think differently so I invite you to embrace an inquisitive mindset and tuck into this edition of the Natural Born Thinkers Podcast.

For more information, please visit: https://www.architectingcuriosity.com/

Note: This podcast was recorded in summer '21.

Shelley's research centres around creativity neuroscience. Her book outlines the key network, processes and geography of the brain that are involved in creative thinking and also explains 7 key brainsets that we can engage to think creatively.

In summary, Shelley's book highlights that we are all wired to think differently. Each of us is blessed with a unique neural network that positions us to contribute creative ideas that no-one else can!

In this podcast, Shelley and I explore the creative brain and discuss how individuals can discover and build their nascent creative potential.

Please visit Shelley's website to learn more about her work and why not take "The Brainsets Quiz" to learn about your brain's creativity "hot spots"!

Cliff has over 20 years of experience in the music industry and has written over 1000 songs including a number 1 jazz hit for the artist Spencer and a track that was included in Keb Mo’s Grammy winning album, Oklahoma.  If anyone knows the art of songwriting and the lifelong gifts this practice can deliver, it’s Cliff!

We even go as far to write and perform a song on this podcast, to prove how each step of the song writing process sharpens your innovation skills and requires you to think differently about the challenges and / or opportunities you are facing.

My key takeaway from my time with Cliff is that, to pursue a more creative lifestyle you must have 3 key things:

1.    Practice i.e., a commitment to practicing the key skills needed for creativity

2.   Patience i.e., an ability to appreciate that good ideas take time and lots of them!

3.   Passion i.e., you need to be whole-heartedly committed to the dream you are chasing

Here is a link to Cliff's website

In this podcast I talk to Naomi Bagdonas, co-author of the immediate US national best-seller, Humor, Seriously: Why humor is a superpower at work and in life. 

Naomi discusses the neuroscience, mindset and techniques that enable humour and how humour can increase power, resilience, human connection and creativity. 

References:

• “Humor, Seriously: Why humor is a superpower at work and in life”, Naomi Bagdonas and Jennifer Aaker
• Website: https://www.humorseriously.com/

Olympic and National swimming coach, Chris Martin, provides insights into how the mind works in elite athletic performance and what lessons we can draw from this to help ourselves think more creatively on a daily basis.

References:

The Last Dance, Netflix Docu-series

The Inner Game of Tennis, W. Timothy Gallwey 

“Endure: Mind Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance”, Alex Hutchinson

In this conversation, I chat with management consultant and author, Chris Ertel. Chris talks about his book, “Moments of Impact” and provides a framework and insights into how to create more thoughtful meeting experiences that enable breakthrough and accelerate change.

References:

• Moments of Impact: How to design conversations that accelerate change, Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon
• The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born. It's grown, Daniel Coyle
• The Backwards Bicycle, Smarter Everyday, Destin Wilson Sandlin
• The Art of the Long View, Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, Peter Schwartz 
• “Where Good Ideas Come From, The Natural History of Innovation”, Steven Johnson 

In this podcast I talk to professor Clive Oppenheimer who has successfully navigated both the scientific and artistic world. Clive shares the key tools in his tool kit to unlock creative thinking including an insatiable curiosity, a keen eye for observation and the power of writing things down!

Clive’s story shows how deep knowledge can open up new opportunities if you have the courage to play with it in new environments.

References:

Clive Oppenheimer, University of Cambridge

“Eruptions that shook the world”, Clive Oppenheimer

“Into the Inferno”, available on Netflix

“Fireball, Visitors from Darker Worlds”, available on Apple TV

This podcast explores the idea of "inheritance" with co-founder of Inheritance Project, Mallory Combemale.

Mallory shares how we can use insights from our past experiences to better understand our current identities, including our approach to creativity. She also discusses the power of breathing and how the breath can unlock creative thinking potential.

References:

The Inheritance Project

Breath Connection

"The lies that bind: Rethinking identity", Kwame Anthony Appiah 

“The Body Keeps The Score”, Bessel an der Kolk

In this conversation, I talk with Dr Parmvir Bahia. We explore the key techniques used by scientists to unlock new discoveries, for example, the importance of asking questions, embracing failure and collaborating across cultures and disciplines.

Importantly, Parmvir highlights that creativity does not discriminate and when it comes to the world’s biggest challenges, all our voices and ideas matter!

References:

Scientists Inc.

Parmvir Bahia website

Parmvir Bahia on The Story Collider

2 Scientists Podcast