“It felt like I was building myself.”

Lynn O’Brien is a musician, a board certified musical therapist and someone dedicated to being a positive force in the world. She uses multiple instruments and looping devices to create written and improvised songs for audiences large and small. And she writes custom songs for weddings and other private events.

In this conversation, Lynn talks about her comfort with communicating through music. She talks about growing up in a family that volunteered in hospice and that was full of music. Lynn also talks about her journey to becoming a board certified music therapist, the work of balancing a career as a therapist and as a musician and the experience of moving her focus to putting all of her creative energy into making music.

“The good news is that I don’t think I would have done much differently.”

Andy Sturdevant is an artist and writer living in Minneapolis. He has written about art, history and culture for a variety of Twin Cities-based publications and websites. Andy also writes a weekly column on neighborhoods, art, history and architecture in Minneapolis-St. Paul for MinnPost. His first book, Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow, was published by Coffee House Press in 2013.

In this episode of the podcast, Andy talks about the times when he feels like a writer and the times when he feels like a fine artist. He talks about studying painting in college and wanting to be a filmmaker. Andy also shares stories of creating weird projects with his siblings while growing up and how his parents encouraged them all to be creative and strange.

"I was tired of being the grumpy op-ed guy."

Sam L. Landman is a digital copywriter by day and an actor, playwright and ne’er-do-well by night. He’s half of the comedy duo known as Pommelhorse and as an actor he's worked with various theater companies around the Twin Cities including Loudmouth Collective, Park Square and Torch theater. He spent years on his Regret-A-Day blog and in 2015 wrote a one act play every week and posted them on his One Act A Week tumblr.

In this episode of the podcast, Sam talks about his one act a week project, recovering from a heart attack, how he reacted to unemployment and how much wanting to think of himself as a writer drove him to write more. Sam also talks about letting jealousy fuel his productivity, how he chooses who to collaborate with and why he loves the nerdy things he loves.

Sam also talks about the distinction between theater performers and comedy performers, how he thinks about stand up characters versus characters in a play and what his marriage means to his work.

“Most people are waiting for someone to tell them what to think about everything, and so, why wouldn’t I just tell the people that I’m interacting with that they should think this is awesome?”

Zach Coulter is a writer, comic and digital project leader and web developer.

In this wide ranging conversation Zach talks about spending years developing himself as a stand up comic. He talks about the process of writing, collaboration and reading an audience. He also talks about still thinking of himself as a comic but transitioning to a focus on working in digital storytelling and design.

Zach talks about deciding to start a family and how that led him to evaluate where he could but his creative drive and ambitions and still be present. Zach also talks about wanting to find ways to constantly learn new things, his confidence about becoming a father and the idea that each person is writing his or her own story with various plot lines that can go surprising places.