Natural Born Thinkers

Audiobooks are a wonderful way to develop children's creativity as they have to imagine the scenes that are being described.They are also a great way to get reluctant readers into storytelling and also help to develop children's emotional intelligence as they listen to how words are used.For each of the children's books I have written, I have created an audio component working with stage and screen actor Michael Maloney for stories which have been read in full.You can listen to my audiobook collection here, as a free resource, to ignite children's interest in storytelling and creativity!

As the founder of the Natural Born Thinkers Podcast, I try to live my most creative lifestyle daily.In addition to my problem-solving workshop business and podcast, I also write children's books where I can exercise my creativity freely.This very short episode of the podcast is a recording of a lullaby for my upcoming children's book of the same title, "Lily's Lullaby".The lullaby is about the magic of dreams and is designed to inspire children to fall asleep and receive their nightly dreams from dream fairies.The book, about an aspiring dream fairy called Lily, will be out Winter 2025 - my dream come true!

In this episode I am speaking with David Pearl, founder of the social venture Street Wisdom and author of the book, "Wanderful; Find wonder in the everyday, everyday!"This conversation is a gentle stroll through the idea and impact of wandering, that is to say, to go outside and wander with no other ambition than to let our feet take our brains for a walk.David discusses how we are built to wander and that in an increasingly screen-based and linguistic world, physically wandering in the city streets can provide us with a playground of creative opportunity.David shares how Street Wisdom walkshops, which are free for all, help you to go through the looking glass and into a world where extraordinary serendipities can be discovered if you are willing to simply slow down, awaken your senses and see!

We are said to be creative geniuses by the time we are 5 years old, yet this level of creativity has declined greatly by the time we are an adult.  As we consider how to live our most creative life, it is important to reflect on why our creativity may wane throughout childhood and if there is anything we can do to stop it?In this podcast I am speaking with American psychology researcher and scholar, Peter Gray about his book, "Free to Play, Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life".Our natural human instinct is to play and explore. This is how we learn not only skills and information but also who we are, what we believe and what we are passionate about.  Yet in today’s society, a lot of children’s freedom to play has been replaced with adult designed and monitored activity.  By removing the onus of control from children and constantly measuring them in environments where they all learn the same thing in the same way, are we necessarily helping kids develop the confidence and curiosity they need to solve their own problems and let their creativity thrive?This conversation offers a compelling argument that to sustain and develop our innate creativity throughout childhood, we need to give our children freedom to play!

When it comes to creativity, we often praise the idea that sparked the change, rather than the question that inspired it all!During this podcast, I am speaking with Warren Berger, journalist, author and questionologist, about the art of asking questions and how curiosity can unlock our creativity.In today’s modern world, our tendency is to rush to an answer rather than find a more beautiful question to solve for.Yet, where we can more confidently practice and express our curiosity, we have the potential to discover new possibilities.This podcast is an invitation to become a questionlogist and embrace the art of asking questions to ignite your creativity!For more information, please go to Warren's websites:https://amorebeautifulquestion.com/https://warrenberger.com/

In this podcast I am speaking with Ruth Churchill Dower, renowned author, advisor, educator and media commentator in the field of creative early years practice.  I was inspired to reach out to Ruth to understand if we truly are born to be creative and how our childhood may or may not influence our creative confidence in adult life.Ruth highlights how engaging in creative practice helps children to connect with their most authentic self and ultimately helps them to make sense of the world and who they are in it. Ultimately, a child's confident connection with their own creativity helps them to shape who they are and who they want to be in the future!However, to help our children achieve this, we as care givers must also be willing to embrace our own creativity. We must be willing to create conditions for possibility to emerge, for our children to fill, and go on the adventure of their design!It is clear that humanity faces many challenges in the world ahead and arguably, creativity is one of the most important tools we will need to thrive. Therefore, a focus on creating confident problem-solvers for the future is critical and is something we can nurture and unleash from the early years and beyond!

In this podcast I am chatting with Chris Barez-Brown and Jim Lusty from "Upping Your Elvis", an organization designed to help businesses and professionals get their energy right to unleash more creativity, performance and well-being!Through our conversation, we explore how our ancient make-up as humans is not necessarily geared to thrive in a modern world and we consider how we can navigate this environment by getting our energy right from a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. Chris and Jim also talk about their latest product called Talk It Out, an app designed to help people explore their subconscious to express what they are thinking, feeling and what really lights them up!  Where burnout rates and anxiety levels across the world are at an all time high, this app has the potential to make a real difference!At the end of the day, to Up Our Elvis, we need to more purposefully establish a routine that fires and preserves our energy so that we might live our most awesome and impactful life!

In this podcast I am speaking with Monica Parker about her wonderful book, The Power of Wonder.The chances are that we have all experienced wonder at some time in our life, but have we ever stopped to think about it's impact?Ultimately, wonder has the potential to make us kinder, more empathetic, more open, humbler and can even help us to improve both our mental and physical health.  Through our discussion, Monica reveals the wonder lifecycle i.e., the key states and stages we must go through to experience wonder. She also highlights the techniques we can adopt at each phase to more readily have wonder in our every day lives.As Monica’s book title says, wonder is the extraordinary emotion that will change the way you live, learn and lead. Take a listen to bring more wonder to your life today!

This podcast reveals the power of art and it's potential to help us live a more creative, connected and healthy lifestyle.Katherine Templar Lewis, (cognitive scientist, science communicator and founder of Kinda Studios), discusses neuroaesthetics, the science behind how humans respond to art.We explore what happens in our brains and bodies when we engage with art and the impact these reactions can have.We also consider what constitutes art and how we can more readily adopt "art time" in our lifestyle to realise its benefits.Ultimately, art invites us to be more connected with ourselves, each other and the world around us. Might this deeper sense of connection help to address some of the worlds biggest challenges?Take a listen to find out…

In this podcast I explore the “Art of Creative Rebellion” with John S. Couch and JC Caldwell.We discuss creativity from a spiritual, physical, emotional and intellectual point of view to help define what is a creative rebel and how can we unleash ours.Ultimately, we consider that a “creative rebellion” is a gentle movement that can be stirred where we dare to awaken our innate creativity and curiosity.Listen to this podcast to unlock your creativity and to curiously discover your bliss!For more information, you can purchase a copy of John’s book, “The Art of Creative Rebellion” from Amazon and can also visit his website: https://www.john-couch.com/