Making art in a noisy world

Monday, December 1, 2025

I enjoyed this hour-long chat with Panio Gianopoulos of Author Insider, but even better, several people have told me it was helpful to them.

The topic — “Making Art in a Noisy World” — could’ve been a subtitle for my book Keep Going.

Two recent conversations

Monday, June 16, 2025

I had two really nice conversations recently that I thought were worth sharing:

1. I talked to cartoonist Jason Chatfeld about attention, showing up, comedy, and how to keep going.

What started as a conversation about creative routines turned into a masterclass on attention management, the importance of play, and why treating your art like a comedy might be the secret to actually surviving as a creative person.

2. I talked to Marcus Goodyear and Camille Hall-Ortega of The Echoes Podcast about what it means to create something beautiful in the age of AI.

An excerpt that seemed to resonate with people:

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You can listen to our entire conversation here.

Nice News profile

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

A very nice profile of me over at Nice News covers a bunch of the stuff I practice and preach.

“It’s funny. I consider myself a deeply lazy person,” Kleon answered with a laugh when asked how he manages to be so prolific. “And that’s where the discipline comes in.”

He said that many people are intimidated by that word — discipline — but the way he defines it is simple, and comes courtesy of guitarist Robert Fripp: making a commitment in time. “Just showing up over and over again is kind of my way that I get over everything, over my laziness, over my apathy, over my despair at what might be going on in the wider world,” Kleon shared.

And showing up means just that. You just need to be there.

“If I had to boil down my message for everyone, it’s just to find a time and a place every day and go there and see what happens,” he emphasized. “If you could take 15 minutes every day and spend it doing something that you really wanted to spend time on, I think the compound interest of that over time is just amazing.”

(That excerpt led to today’s newsletter, “The subtle art of showing up.”)

Big thanks for Rebekah Brandes for her thoughtful questions and great writing.

You can read the whole piece here.

Interview with musician Walter Martin

Thursday, April 3, 2025

I had a super fun conversation with musician Walter Martin that you can watch on Substack.

~~I’ll be chatting live with musician Walter Martin on Monday, April 7th at 12pm central as part of “The Substack Sessions.”~~ (As a failed musician, I never expected to be on a list with some of these names, but there I am…)

Daily Stoic interview with Ryan Holiday

Monday, March 10, 2025

My friend Ryan Holiday and I had a fun chat about art, ambition, and why awful men need hobbies so they don’t spend all their time trying to ruin the rest of our lives. You can watch on YouTube or listen on the platform of your choice.