Daily Creative with Todd Henry
Todd Henry
Formerly The Accidental Creative.
Being a creative professional should be the greatest job in the world. You get to solve problems, express yourself, bring something new into the world and you get paid to do it. What's not to love. Yet every day, creative pros face, tremendous pressure and uncertainty. The temptation is just to play it safe, surrender to distraction and settle for less than your best daily creative is about making sure that's not your story.
Each episode focuses on a topic relevant to creative pros, like how to come up with ideas under pressure, or how the collaborate when you're overwhelmed, or how to lead your team and help them discover motivation.
It's time to fall back in love with your work.
Listen to Daily Creative wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe in the Daily Creative app at dailycreative.app.
Being a creative professional should be the greatest job in the world. You get to solve problems, express yourself, bring something new into the world and you get paid to do it. What's not to love. Yet every day, creative pros face, tremendous pressure and uncertainty. The temptation is just to play it safe, surrender to distraction and settle for less than your best daily creative is about making sure that's not your story.
Each episode focuses on a topic relevant to creative pros, like how to come up with ideas under pressure, or how the collaborate when you're overwhelmed, or how to lead your team and help them discover motivation.
It's time to fall back in love with your work.
Listen to Daily Creative wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe in the Daily Creative app at dailycreative.app.
Episodes
Mentioned books
19 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 37min
Human Fracking and the Design of Creative Freedom
Peter Schmidt, program director at the Struthers School of Radical Attention and co-editor of Attensity, explores how platforms mine and fragment our attention. Cassie McDaniel, VP of Design at Medium and seasoned product designer, reveals how organizations can protect messy creative work with trust, constraints, and relational leadership. They examine attention extraction, design ethics, and structures that enable creative freedom.
4 snips
Mar 18, 2026 • 31min
Unlocking Everyday Genius: From Memory Palaces to Getting Outside
Nelson Dellis, six-time USA memory champion who teaches the memory palace, and Dr. John LaPuma, physician and author who studies how indoor life and screens harm cognition, discuss memory training and environment. They explore mnemonic techniques, why imagery beats raw data, and simple nature-based practices like 17 minutes outside to restore focus and creative clarity.
33 snips
Mar 10, 2026 • 17min
Feeling Overwhelmed With Everything? Me too. Here's What to Do Next.
A survival story about Shackleton frames how to reframe goals when plans collapse. The conversation explores how overwhelm crushes creativity and turns action into busywork. Practical moves include focusing on a single manageable target, naming the fear behind the stress, and protecting a short pocket of uninterrupted time to regain clarity.
36 snips
Mar 3, 2026 • 27min
Why The Best Ideas Come From a Marketplace of Ideas
Susan Riley, founder of the Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM and author of Creativity’s Edge, reframes creativity as the human edge. Jason Wild, innovation practitioner and co-author of Genius at Scale, shares lessons from leading innovation in tech. Emily Teddards, co-author and leadership researcher, explains activating collective genius. They discuss democratizing innovation, the ABC framework, creative conflict, and why creativity resists automation.
Feb 24, 2026 • 22min
The End Of History Illusion
Liz Tran, founder of AQ Learning Lab and author on Agility Quotient, coaches leaders to navigate change and uncertainty. She explains AQ versus IQ/EQ. The conversation covers the end of history illusion, why change feels faster now, four AQ archetypes (Astronaut, Neurosurgeon, Novelist, Firefighter), and why durable, transferable skills matter more than technical identity.
Feb 17, 2026 • 8min
Seeing The Here and Now
A cinematic Lincoln scene sparks a lesson on noticing decisive moments right in front of you. Talks about how comfort and confirming data blind leaders to urgent openings. Explores signals that announce opportunity: persistent tensions, inner convictions, and converging resources. Warns that succeeding at the wrong goals can lead to failure and calls for bravery to act when the window is open.
37 snips
Feb 11, 2026 • 28min
What Do You Do When You're (Actually) Working?
Rebecca Hinds, meetings expert who treats meetings as products, and Jen Fisher, former Deloitte well-being officer and author on hope in organizations. They challenge the calendar status quo and outline meeting resets and the rule of halves. They reframe hope as an actionable strategy and warn that misaligned incentives erode well-being. Short, practical ideas for reclaiming focus and meaning at work.
22 snips
Feb 3, 2026 • 21min
Ecosystems Of Brilliance
Daniel Coyle, author and researcher of community-driven creativity and author of Flourish, explores how real brilliance emerges from intentional relationships. He discusses the myth of the lone genius, the practices of making meaning and group flow, designing playful “beautiful messes,” and why neighborhood-level communities solve big problems. A practical call to strengthen your creative circle.
113 snips
Jan 27, 2026 • 38min
The Compounding Advantage: Leveraging AI for Smarter Creative Work
Aden Bahadori and Brett Granstaff, creators of Tachi AI who build film-editing tools to automate rough cuts. Christopher Mims, technology journalist and author exploring practical limits of AI. Vasant Dhar, AI researcher and author focused on decision-making with machines. They discuss how AI streamlines tedious creative work, the compounding advantage of consistent AI use, and why human framing and expertise remain essential.
26 snips
Jan 20, 2026 • 27min
Stop Renting Your Creative Process
Greg Hawks, an author and speaker on workplace ownership, shares insights from his book, *Act Like an Owner*. He explores the nuanced differences between 'owners', 'renters', and 'vandals' in organizations. Hawks discusses the dangers of offloading creative processes to technology and how that can dilute our unique voice. He highlights the importance of emotional logic in decision-making and offers strategies to cultivate a more engaged and accountable work environment. Reducing toxic behaviors is critical to enable all team members to reclaim their ownership.
