#87: Favorite Reads of 2025 | Part 2 (with Andrew Drake)

What does it take to see the world around you the way an artist sees it? In this episode of Always Choose Orange, I chat with visual artist Nasir Young about how skateboarding transformed the way he moves through cityscapes and how that way of seeing laid the groundwork for his detailed oil paintings. His work documents the small, often overlooked wonders of urban life, including brick walls, corner stores, and gas stations.We talk about:Always having a handful of projects to work onHow to tell intriguing visual stories without including a single personTitling your work to evoke curiosity and meaningStudio routines (including scheduling time to read manga)Oh, and by the end of the episode, don’t be surprised if you never look at vans the same way again.Website: http://www.nasiryoungart.com    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nasiryoungart/

With 2025 behind us, my brother Andrew and I check in with each other to talk about some of the most powerful, entertaining, and interesting books we read in the second half of the year. Between the two of us, we read a lot of books (probably too many) so these were, for us, the best of the best.We use the following questions as a guide:Which book surprised you the most?What is the most ambitious book you read this year?Which book had the best prose?What is one book that made you cry?Which book impacted your life the most?What was your personal favorite? As we answer these six questions, we venture down a few side streets and touch on a variety of topics such as goal setting, purple prose, contemplative prayer, and even Count Dooku's journey to the Dark Side. If you enjoy the written word and enjoy stumbling across new books, chances are, you'll find something here you'll love!

What does it actually take to build a sound slowly and deliberately? In this episode of Always Choose Orange, I talk with electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist Ankurana about the long, unglamorous reality of developing a musical voice — years of experimentation, hundreds of abandoned ideas, and learning when to stop adding and start listening.We talk about:Learning music production the hard way (after years of trial and error)Using nature and field recordings as musical materialWhen to strip ideas back instead of adding moreThe subtle details most listeners never consciously noticeWe discuss the value of building cohesive bodies of work in a time when music is often consumed in fragments, as well as why Ankurana still thinks in terms of albums, arcs, and emotional continuity rather than isolated tracks. Bandcamp: https://ankurana.bandcamp.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ankuranamusicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/_ankurana_/SoundCloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/ankurana

Any Austin changed the rules of gaming content on YouTube. So what happens after that?In his return to Always Choose Orange, Austin reflects on the growth and influence of his channel over the past year. We talk about the benefits and challenges of bringing on additional team members, the one thing he believes should be the true goal of time management, and how he uses the rise of imitators as competitive fuel rather than a distraction.During the second half of our conversation, I ask Austin a series of questions submitted by his audience. We examine how his videos evolve from draft to draft, a specific moment in Mega Man 2 that has stuck with him since childhood, and the likelihood of ever seeing another episode of Eggbusters.To wrap things up, we do a career retrospective using the presidents on Mount Rushmore as a loose metaphor for key milestones in his YouTube journey. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@any_austinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/any_austin/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/any_austinTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@any_austin

Henry Lien is a speculative-fiction writer who was born in Taiwan and currently based in Hollywood, California. Henry is well known for his middle-grade fantasy series Peasprout Chen, a genre-bending saga that blends martial-arts action, figure skating flair, and sharp coming-of-age dynamics — a mashup that one reviewer memorably described as “Hermione Granger meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets the Ice Capades meets Mean Girls.”  In addition to Peasprout Chen, Henry writes short fiction (appearing in publications such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction), essays, and non-fiction that explore Eastern storytelling traditions, identity, culture, and creativity. His latest book, Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling, was released earlier this year and explores Eastern narrative structures, mythic traditions, and cross-cultural storytelling techniques through the lens of film, literature, and video games.Before devoting himself full-time to writing, Henry worked as an attorney and fine-art dealer. Today, he also mentors emerging writers — teaching creative writing at institutions like the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program — a role for which he’s been recognized with a “Outstanding Instructor of the Year” award. In our conversation, Henry and I talk about what it was like to leap headfirst into writing at age 42, including his formative time at the Clarion Workshop where he directly learned from renowned authors George R.R. Martin, Kelly Link, and Chuck Palahniuk. We explore some of the concepts from his new book, including the East Asian four-act structure (kishōtenketsu), the way values shape narrative, cultural appropriation, and the differences between a typical Western story and a typical Eastern story. We also touch on the importance of outlining your writing and the use of circular narrative structures in the level design of the Metroid games. Website: https://henrylien.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/henrylienauthor/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HenryLienAuthor Resources mentioned by Henry:Powers of Ten™ (1977)https://writingtheother.comWriting the Other by Nisi Shawl & Cynthia Ward

You know what they say, “you can’t spell artificial without art!” …What? What do you mean you haven't heard that? I'm sure someone, somewhere has said it… Anyway, in today's episode, we explore a provocative idea put forth in Carl Wilson’s book Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey To The End of Taste that in a sense, all authenticity in art is a kind of performance. If we adopt that perspective, it raises a lot of questions, including: how do I make art with conviction while simultaneously making it for an audience? Using examples from punk and emo concerts I went to in high school and college, as well as my personal experience making music of my own, we stumble through some possible answers.

Have you ever been in a meeting that just as easily could have been an email? Have you slogged through a personal development book only to realize that the whole thing could've been summed up in a few tidy bullet points? With the advent of LLMs such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, it's easier than ever before to access information in a fraction of the time. And many times, that's a great thing. But everything comes with a cost. In today's episode, we examine that cost and segue into a set of practical questions you can ask yourself whenever you're struggling to bring a creative project to life.

After a two month hiatus, Always Choose Orange is back with a new episode! But here's the question —  what exactly is it? A quiet manifesto? A book review for three Pulitzer Prize-winning meditations on the human experience? Or, is it merely a Trojan horse I'm using to transport some really great Ursula K, Le Guin quotes into your ears? Whatever it is, come ready to explore a way of reading that brings you deeper into the small, beautiful moments of your own life. Media mentioned in this episode:Paul Harding: A New Way To Think About Writing | How I WriteWhat Makes a Story | Ursula K. Le Guin

We're a little more than halfway through 2025 and it’s time for a six-month reading check-in! In this episode, my brother Andrew joins me to discuss six books that affected us during the first half of the year. We use the following questions as a guide:Which book surprised you the most?What is the most ambitious book you read this year?Which book had the best prose?What is one book that made you cry?Which book impacted your life the most?What was your personal favorite? Beyond simply talking about the books we selected for each category, we also explore larger aspects of both reading and creativity in general. One of the books sends us down a tangent about the role of questions in podcasting and therapy. We also talk about the dangers of emulating popular art without truly understanding what makes it great. I then dismount my high horse and let Andrew fire off some stray shots at the Fourth Wing series before we land on a few things that we think make for an engaging memoir. Material Referenced in the Episode:How J Dilla’s Timefeel ACTUALLY WorksDragon Ball GT: What The Hell Happened? You can purchase Andrew's debut poetry collection here: The Fire of Love: A Compilation of Spiritual Love Poetry: Volume One by Andrew Drake FOR EXCLUSIVE CREATIVITY TIPS, MUSINGS, AND EXERCISES, SUBSCRIBE TO THE ALWAYS CHOOSE ORANGE NEWSLETTER: https://www.alwayschooseorange.com

Andrea Burgay is a visual artist from Syracuse, New York, currently based in Brooklyn. Her practice centers on collage, sculpture, and mixed-media assemblage, often utilizing found and vintage materials to explore themes of transformation, decay, and renewal. Through layering, tearing, and reassembling paper, books, and ephemera, Andrea creates works that reflect the passage of time and the interplay between destruction and rebirth. In addition to her studio practice, Andrea is the founder and editor of Cut Me Up, a participatory collage magazine and curatorial project. Each issue features original artworks intended to be deconstructed and transformed by readers into new pieces, fostering a collaborative and evolving artistic dialogue.In this episode of Always Choose Orange, Andrea and I explore her creative rituals (including the reason she makes sure to start each day decisively), her approach to building series like Requiems and Reliquaries, and how she structures her studio environment so that she doesn't experience creative block. Andrea also shares some great entry points for people to dip their toes into the incredible world of modern collage. To top it all off, we talk about a few of the wildest and most experimental Cut Me Up submissions as well as some "inside baseball", including the type of glue Andrea uses to keep her pieces together. Website: https://www.andreaburgay.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreaburgay/Cut Me Up Magazine: https://www.cutmeupmagazine.com FOR EXCLUSIVE CREATIVITY TIPS, MUSINGS, AND EXERCISES, SUBSCRIBE TO THE ALWAYS CHOOSE ORANGE NEWSLETTER: https://www.alwayschooseorange.com