"Within society, we seem to have separated the arts out, so they're not so much a part of our daily lives. Often there's something that we feel we should do as a kind of leisure activity or hobby if we have enough time or if we have enough money to engage in them. And this is so fundamentally different to how humans engaged with the arts. When we look back thousands of years, it just was part of the everyday, and I feel like that's a major loss within contemporary societies."

Daisy Fancourt is a Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology at UCL and the author ofArt Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health. A pioneer in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, she directs the WHO Collaborating Center on Arts and Health, where her research influences global health policy and the integration of the arts into medical care.

(0:00) The Healing Power of the Arts: Longevity, Immunity & Wellbeing

(1:17) Singing to Daphne: How Daisy used singing to comfort her premature daughter in the ICU

(2:47) The Story of Russell: How a stroke survivor used art classes to reclaim his life, health, and identity

(5:23) A Planet of 8 Billion Artists: Tracing the evolutionary origins of creativity back 40,000 years

(8:58) Psychoneuroimmunology. Defining the biological mechanisms: how art reduces inflammation and cortisol

(12:42) Art & Longevity. How arts engagement can slow biological aging and alter gene expression

(18:24) Safeguarding Creativity. Why we should use AI for routine tasks but protect the human joy of the creative process

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Did you know that visiting a museum can lower your cortisol levels? Or that singing can bond a group faster than almost any other activity? We tend to think of the arts as entertainment, but science tells a different story. Today, we explore why creativity is hardwired into our biology and how it can be used to treat everything from postnatal depression to stroke recovery.

Daisy Fancourt is a Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology at UCL and the author of Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health. A pioneer in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, she directs the WHO Collaborating Center on Arts and Health, where her research influences global health policy and the integration of the arts into medical care.

(0:00) The Healing Power of the Arts: Longevity, Immunity & Wellbeing

(4:14) The Story of Russell: How a stroke survivor used art classes to reclaim his life, health, and identity

(9:01) A Planet of 8 Billion Artists: Tracing the evolutionary origins of creativity back 40,000 years

(15:30) The Chemistry of Connection. Why singing evolved before language and how it accelerates group bonding

(20:32) Psychoneuroimmunology. Defining the biological mechanisms: how art reduces inflammation and cortisol

(25:57) The Professional Paradox: Balancing the wellbeing benefits of art with the pressures of a creative career

(30:03) Predictive Coding & Play: Why the human brain needs improvisation and why we shouldn't outsource creativity to AI

(33:26) Singing to Daphne: How Daisy usedsinging to comfort her premature daughter in the ICU

(37:55) World Health Organization, Public Policy & Social Prescribing

(46:04) Art & Longevity. How arts engagement can slow biological aging and alter gene expression

(58:17) Finding Artistic Reverence in Nature

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“People today are so used to Basquiat's prices being extraordinarily high and rising that it's almost hard for people to understand that wasn't always the case. In the year he died, 1988, a terrific painting by Basquiat might have sold for $30,000. Relative to his other artistic peers, like a great Julian Schnabel painting that cost $800,000. After Basquiat died, some speculative capital entered his market, and his prices did pop, but in the early 1990s, his prices fell apart, and for much of the first half of the 1990s, his work was selling for 80% off what it had been selling before. Auction houses didn't want to include him in their auctions. There was a really good chance he was going to be remembered, but certainly not become a great star. Three key figures believed in him and proceeded to buy almost every available Basquiat in the first half of the 1990s. They were also just passionate believers in his work. But for those three people, it would have taken much longer for Basquiat to achieve acclaim, if ever.”

Today, we’re joined by someone uniquely positioned to unpack the art world’s inner workings and to help us understand one of its most mythic figures — Jean-Michel Basquiat. Doug Woodham is the author of the new biography, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon, the first major life study of Basquiat in over twenty-five years. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews — from family and friends to collectors and curators — Doug traces the rise, fall, and resurrection of an artist who redefined what it means to be a cultural icon. Before turning to writing, Doug served as President of the Americas for Christie’s, one of the world’s leading auction houses. That role gave him an insider’s perspective on how value is created — and mythologized — in the modern art market. In this conversation, we’ll explore not just the man behind the legend, but the powerful machinery that turned Jean-Michel Basquiat into one of the most recognized and commercially successful artists in the world.

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Images courtesy of Doug Woodham and Thames & Hudson. For image credits, see Episode Website.