Categories: Articles

Lewis Hyde On Creativity And Culture

Episode #487 of Six Pixels of Separation – The Mirum Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

I was searching for a book to ignite my creativity (or access new areas of thinking). A book that would help me think in a different way. I just wasn’t “feeling it.” I turned to Seth Godin, and asked him what I should be reading. I think he was disappointed to learn that I had never heard of Lewis Hyde and his book, The Gift (which was published in 1983). It became the proverbial rabbit hole for me. I devoured The Gift, then moved on to Hyde’s other books (Trickster Makes This World and Common As Air), and then became interested in the many articles written about him. Hyde is a scholar, writer, critic of culture and teacher. He taught writing at Harvard University, and then he became the Luce Professor of Arts and Politics at Kenyon College in Ohio. Since 2006 he has served as the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon, and a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center. Thinking he would never agree to a podcast, I took a shot… and here we are. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation – The Mirum Podcast #487.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.