You don’t have to be a writer or “creative” type to channel authenticity and spontaneity in your life and work. A fascinating conversation with book & television writer Johnny B. Truant.

Watch our prior show on changing your life story, get Johnny’s book The Story Solution here, and check out his multimedia story studio.

Topics & Timecodes

00:00 Intro, how story is excavated vs created

04:19 Working with a partner, why planning too much sucks, mistakes evolve the storyline, why I don’t edit videos

12:34 The role of faith in the creative process, working with Tom Hinueber, why spontaneity shouldn’t be labeled as lazy

18:03 Left brain vs right brain, creating structure without over-planning, opening a hole in the universe

20:15 Channeling creative flow, pulling past experience into current endeavors, silencing the noise to tap into a deeper flow

25:50 Meditation & improv, medicine & feeling into the patient story, articulating the ineffable

33:27 Factors contributing to writer’s block, achieving a state of alert presence, mental illness, substance use & reality

38:09 False memories, The Mandela Effect, objective reality, Alt-Middle & holding strong views loosely, January 6th

49:13 Inhabiting different perspectives, flexibility in belief, role of social media in creating silos, corpus callosum analogy & synthesis between sides

54:58 The arbitrary nature of reality, forming identity around belief & questioning these beliefs, limitations of science, theories of reality 

1:07:15 Awakening after trauma, grieving the loss of identity, reality as a simulation, meta-storytelling

1:18:38 Glimpses into unfiltered reality & the unpredictable nature of mini-awakenings 

1:25:00 Psychedelics as a double-edged sword, meditation as a more predictable method, repackaging experience as a story

1:28:15 What parameters define “real”? Emotion, sensation & how we label perceptual filters, surrendering to unpleasant sensations

1:34:35 My trip to the dentist, surrendering without judgement, suffering is optional, Return On Luck (ROL)

1:41:14 The stories we tell ourselves, the delusion of separation, my retreat experience 

1:46:08 Stories as a trojan horse, disarming people with humor, why resonating with story matters

1:50:27 Using stories to reach others, empathy vs. compassion, identity development in teens & pre-teens