Who Doesn't Have a Podcast or Two These Days?
"Join the club," they said. "It will be fun," they said.
kimchantment is meant to be its own thing but the name is a nod to a podcast called “The Enchant Me Podcast” that I did back in 2018. It was a 6-episode series that I created because I wanted to write about things that enchant me. I did it as solo venture, its premise is that I would pick one activity a week - a riff on the concept of the artist date* - and then write about how it enchanted me.
I also did another podcast, this one a 14-episode series called “Origins of the Muse”, and co-hosted with a work colleague-turned friend, where we talked about about growing up outside of Philly in the 80s and the movies, music, and books that influenced and inspired us.
I wanted to find a way to integrate these episodes into kimchantment, and after mulling over a variety of ways, I decided to just post them on their own pages here (although they can both still be found on podcast apps).
The Enchant Me Podcast Origins of the Muse
I hope to add to both of these, either as more audio episodes or as regular posts.
* The concept of the ‘artist date’ which is one of the tools for increasing creative capacity and inspiration found in the well-known book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. Basically, the idea is to take yourself each week on a one or two-hour ‘artist date’. The date can be any activity that interests you, or better yet, any activity that enchants you. In each episode I talked about a different date, why I picked it, whether or not it enchanted, and what ideas or inspirations it might have sparked.
Artist dates don’t have to be something traditionally ‘artistic’ like visiting a museum or a gallery. It’s really all about feeding your curiosity, your imagination and your creative spirit. It can be something as simple as visiting a new park or outdoor space, having lunch in a restaurant you’ve always wanted to try but never get around to, or going through that box of old family photos. Artist dates are referred to as “assigned play” in the book and if you approach it from that angle, it makes it easier to come up with different idea each week.
Artist dates are traditionally a solo event. While an Artist Way purist may disapprove, the dates and activities I talked about sometimes included others.