Emmy van Deurzen is a philosopher, a therapist and a pioneer who has spent five decades mapping the architecture of human existence. Born in the Netherlands and trained in the radical psychiatric wards of France, she came to London in 1977 to work alongside R.D. Laing, only to realize the anti-psychiatry movement had kind of lost its way. She decided to build something new. Today, she's the founder of the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling and the leading voice of existential therapy in the United Kingdom and founded the Existential Movement.

Her work challenges the medical model of mental illness, suggesting instead that our crises are not diseases to be cured but philosophical crossroads to be understood. Her latest book is a distillation of that life's work. Beginning To Live: The Art of Existential Freedom is her first book written for a general audience, offering a guide on how to reclaim our freedom and find meaning in the face of suffering. Emmy van Deurzen, welcome to The Creative Process.

(0:00) The Paths to Freedom

(2:03) Emmy Van Deurzen, Philosopher, Existential Therapist, Author

(3:13) AI and Artificial Wisdom

(5:03) Practicing Freedom

(7:00) Finding Inner Peace Amidst the Ruins

(8:39) The Yellow Balloon

(11:17) Multilingual Roots, Language and Translation

(13:31) The End of One Love, The Beginning of a Love of the Arts

(16:11) The Art of Loving

(17:30) The Canvas of Life

(20:20) The Purified Essence

(27:46) The AI Dependency

(30:09) Radical Psychiatry, R.D. Laing and The Divided Self

(33:48) Awakening to Beauty

(37:18) The Art of Living and Existential Freedom

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

“Algorithms are deciding whether you are eligible for a loan, a job, an apartment or insurance. They determine what you see online, who reads your social media posts and who connects with you on dating apps. They may even decide whether you get arrested or go to jail. Your very life hangs in the balance of prophecies.”

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Carissa Véliz, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, about her new book, Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future—from Ancient Oracles to AI. Linking this work to her previous book, Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data, Véliz writes: “ surveillance and prediction are digital technology’s original sins.”

In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about how both massive and intrusive invasions of privacy at all levels of society and false claims to be able to predict the future erode democracy, are corrosive to ethics, and undermine people’s ability to think for themselves. Instead, we are conditioned to trust an unregulated band of “effective altruists” who claim to know better than we what kinds of lives we should prefer and the choices we should make. Véliz argues instead that we should embrace the uncertain to build resilience, to prepare for contingency but not be determined by what we cannot see, and to foster curiosity and imagination.

(0:00) Digital Technology's Original Sins
(3:46) How Books and Prophecies Choose Their Readers
(6:52) The Link Between AI, Mass Surveillance, and Profit
(9:48) Why Ethics Is the Hidden Foundation of Democracy
(14:53) The Future Tense as a Tech Executive Power Play
(17:21) Predictions as Speech Acts and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
(23:05) Artificial Intelligence as the Ultimate Bullshitter
(27:40) Effective Altruism, Utilitarianism, and the Dangers of Infinity

Episode Website

www.palumbo-liu.com
https://speakingoutofplace.com
Bluesky @palumboliu.bsky.social
Instagram @speaking_out_of_place

"I really do believe that the arts are critical to how we move forward together, and live performance in particular, I think, is a way of us practicing how to move across our ideological boundaries and find one another and imagine these new worlds together and create together."

Shanta Thake is the Chief Artistic Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts—the nation's largest performing arts complex. Before stepping into this role, she spent nineteen years at The Public Theater, shaping the city's cultural landscape through Joe's Pub and expansive community initiatives. Today, she is tearing down walls—both the literal barriers separating Lincoln Center from its neighbors, and the figurative ones that dictate who belongs in our cultural spaces. She views the arts not as a luxury, but as essential civic infrastructure. We are pleased to have Shanta Thake to discuss her journey, the power of radical curation, and the future of public performance.

(00:01) Art as the Oldest Technology

(07:50) The Gift of Pause

(09:55) Reimagining Lincoln Center

(12:19) A Collective Caretaking

(12:56) The Curiosity of Childhood

(18:02) San Juan Hill and The Wall

(20:39) globalFEST: Music and Connection

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast