Damon Davis reflects on how stories shape meaning, memory, and responsibility. Working across film, music, visual art, and public installation, Davis explains why he lets the story dictate the medium and how creative practice begins with close attention to place, history, and lived experience.

Throughout the conversation, Davis discusses subjectivity and fairness in storytelling, the implications of local work entering national institutions, and why art often becomes one of the lasting records of a moment in time. He shares how process, patience, and care guide his decisions, and why resisting labels allows the work to remain honest and grounded in context.

Rather than offering prescriptions, Davis leaves us with a way of thinking about creative practice that values intention over posture, meaning over speed, and the long life of work made with care.

0:22 — Introduction and Background

2:21 — Letting the Story Dictate the Medium

2:54 — Early Life, Family, and Creative Roots

4:59 — Process, Symbols, and Public Monuments

7:53 — Local Stories Going National

8:20 — Ferguson and Making Whose Streets?

10:53 — The Smithsonian and Art as Historical Record

15:06 — Art as a Tool for Truth and Authenticity

15:52 — Grief, Tropes, and Telling Difficult Stories

17:04 — Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Power

18:30 — Teaching, Stillness, and Self-Awareness

20:23 — Accolades, Ego, and Staying Grounded

22:29 — Relationships and Creative Fuel

23:48 — Activism, Burnout, and Branding

25:40 — Fatigue, Relevance, and Stepping Away

26:36 — Creating an Opera

30:16 — The Three Phase Creative Vision

33:00 — Being Unapologetically Creative

Filmmaker Charles Burnett reflects on a career shaped by community, history, and a deep sense of responsibility to tell stories often left unseen. Growing up in Watts and coming of age during a pivotal moment in American history, Burnett shares how lived experience, observation, and empathy became central to his approach to filmmaking.

In this conversation, Burnett discusses why he has always viewed film as more than entertainment, emphasizing storytelling as a way to preserve memory, reflect social realities, and give voice to everyday life. He speaks about his time at UCLA, the challenges Black filmmakers faced in gaining access and recognition, and how works like Killer of Sheep emerged from a commitment to authenticity rather than spectacle.

Burnett also reflects on legacy and what it means to remain creatively engaged over time, offering insight into the responsibility artists carry to their communities and to future generations through the stories they choose to tell.

02:10 – Early Life in Watts and Learning to Observe

04:30 – Community as a Source of Story

06:45 – UCLA and a Transformative Moment in History

09:10 – Access, Barriers, and Being Seen as a Filmmaker

11:45 – Film as Reflection, Not Explanation

14:00 – Rejecting Spectacle and Hollywood Expectations

16:10 – The Making of Killer of Sheep

19:20 – Everyday Life as Cinematic Material

21:40 – International Recognition and U.S. Resistance

24:00 – Preservation, Memory, and Cultural Responsibility

26:10 – Teaching, Mentorship, and Passing Knowledge Forward

28:15 – Legacy, Responsibility, and Closing Reflections

Daniel Nayeri explores how specific details in a story can reveal something universal. He reflects on his fascination with “welcome,” from inviting strangers into his home for dinner to the moment characters meet around a fire, and discusses the role of food in his life and how being a pastry chef shaped his sense of pleasure, honesty, and craft. Daniel also shares what readers have taught him about vulnerability, why trusting his own palate matters, and how children and adults bring different emotional tools to stories, showing how specificity and truth help readers see pieces of their own lives in someone else’s story.

0:41 Introduction of Daniel Nayeri and Everything Sad Is Untrue.

1:14 The idea of “welcome” and storytelling through food.

2:27 Shoes on or off? Cultural norms and politeness as storytelling entry points.

3:47 Hosting strangers: the publisher’s reaction and surprising outcomes.

4:38 Unexpected connections — photographers, dinners, and shared creative space.

5:05 Daniel’s philosophy: everyone begins with welcome, but it can be lost.

5:54 Campfire metaphor: the moment two strangers negotiate trust.

7:33 Visualization and metaphor: crafting scenes with all five senses.

10:02 Life as a pastry chef: honest reactions in an open kitchen.

11:40 Applying the pastry chef mindset to writing.

13:52 Entertainment vs. art: palate cleansers and deeper meaning.

14:48 Why art isn’t just “chocolate and cocaine.”

15:34 Cooking and fighting: Daniel’s primary metaphors for truth.

16:35 Mike Tyson’s “everyone has a plan until they get punched.”

18:18 “Trust your palate”: the chef’s lesson on honesty.

19:04 Why trusting your own palate matters creatively.

20:08 Writing for children: appropriateness and development.

21:26 Children’s emotional depth and articulation.

26:07 Emails from readers and the weight of their stories.

29:03 Seeing ourselves everywhere; anthropomorphizing the world.

29:35 Art’s purpose: inviting others in without dehumanizing them.

30:30 Being unapologetically creative as a primal human act.