Episode 151 with Steve Callahan, author of sometimes I go away, Dead Reckoning Collective’s latest collection of poetry is a relentless exploration of creativity — not as a gentle muse that occasionally visits, but as a force that demands engagement, discipline, and honest labor.
The conversation explores how ideas arrive, asserting that creativity is a process of dictation and translation: ideas may flash into the mind from mysterious, — even mystical sources — but it is the maker’s responsibility to wrestle them onto the page, to shape and refine them through persistent work. We dissect the mechanics of creativity, drawing parallels between poetry, film, and military service, and emphasizing that the act of making — whether it’s a poem, a screenplay, or a new life after service — requires not just inspiration but the courage to execute, to risk failure, and to keep pushing until the work stands on its own legs.
We challenge listeners to consider the transcendentals — goodness, truth, and beauty — as the pillars that must anchor any creative act. Art is not just self-expression but a responsibility: to communicate with clarity, to wrestle honestly with one’s own moral injuries, and to offer the audience something that is not only aesthetically compelling but ethically resonant. Through candid discussion of military transition, moral injury, and the ongoing challenge of contextualizing painful experiences, the episode insists that our duty as artists is to bridge the gap between the ineffable and the tangible, to translate private wounds into universal language, and to do so with integrity, humility, and a relentless commitment to the good, the true, and the beautiful.
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Intro Song composed and produced by Cleod9.
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