421: The Creative Cure — Strengthening Our Health and Well-Being with Daily Doses of the Arts, as taught by Daisy Fancourt
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Shannon Ables
4.7 • 944 Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Art—alongside diet, sleep, exercise, and nature, is the forgotten fifth pillar of health." —Daisy Fancourt, author Art Cure: How the Arts Save Lives
Pleasure reading – mandatory. Listening to your favorite music – a have-to, not a want. Dancing – required participation. Viewing something of beauty – a daily must-stop and do.
Each of these and so many more examples of the various forms of art that we may enjoy, often are presented as discretionary, or if we have time, or if we have money. But the truth is, just as professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London Daisy Fancourt writes, we would be best advised to view them as necessities for living well.
In Art Cure, Fancourt writes to underscore how important the arts are, and reveals how varied and different forms of art can be. We're talking about how they improve our health, something we seem to be obsessed with as a culture, but as a culture often overlook the most enjoyable forms of becoming and maintaining good health.
In today's episode, we'll explore what the arts consist of so you can find your choice of art, the many health and life benefits, and explore in detail how you can incorporate art daily into your life.
Let's get started.
Find the Show Notes for today's episode on The Simply Luxurious Life blog - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast421
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the simple sophisticate, where in 2014, this podcast premiered, and now in its 12th season, |
| 0:10.0 | the show continues to focus on the same principles it was founded upon, the art of living a life of quality over quantity. |
| 0:18.0 | Topics range from creating an everyday life you love living, strengthening mindfulness |
| 0:22.9 | practices, building a capsule wardrobe, preparing seasonally delicious meals, traveling and exploring |
| 0:29.2 | France and Britain, and living life to the fullest as you courageously honor your true self, |
| 0:34.8 | because living well really is quite simple once we know the skills of |
| 0:39.3 | cultivating contentment. I'm your host, Shannon Ables, and whether you're listening while |
| 0:44.7 | you're on your commute, exercising, working in the garden or art studio, in route or returning from |
| 0:50.4 | that dream destination, or sitting down and savoring a hot cuppa or a cafe au lae thank you for |
| 0:57.1 | tuning in let's get started welcome to the 421st episode of the simple sophisticate and today |
| 1:05.4 | we are going to talk about art but maybe not in the way that many of us understand art. In fact, well, in actuality, |
| 1:14.4 | we perhaps have limited our definition of what art is. And most importantly, what we're going |
| 1:19.6 | to talk about today is how art can be the medicine we are seeking to live a healthier |
| 1:26.3 | and more elevated or higher quality way of life. |
| 1:31.4 | I'll get into all of that in just a moment, but first, this episode's Petit Pleasure is a novel. |
| 1:38.7 | A novel I whizzed through and couldn't put down, in fact, woke up in the middle of the night to finish it, |
| 1:45.8 | and I'm so glad I did. The loss of sleep that particular night was definitely worth it. I'll share |
| 1:51.2 | with you what the book is and what it's all about at the end of our conversation today. Now to our |
| 1:56.1 | topic for today's episode. The Creative Cure, Strengthening our Health and Well- well-being with daily doses of the arts, |
| 2:03.9 | as taught by Daisy Fancourt. Quote, art alongside diet, exercise, sleep, and nature is the forgotten |
| 2:13.4 | fifth pillar of health. Now, this quote comes from a new book that just came out titled |
| 2:19.5 | Art Cure, How the Arts Saved Lives, and it's written by Daisy Fancor. It came out in January, |
... |
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