Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders.

I'm Kelly Corrigan, and today I'm wondering what making things does to and for a person.

My thought partner is Ed Helms, actor, comedian, musician, and a guy with a very well-organized workshop.

This is the first episode in a new series called Wired to Create, made possible by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

Ed Helms is best known for his work on the office, the hangover, the Lorax, but he's also a serious

bluegrass musician, a former daily show correspondent,

a podcaster with a show called Snafu with Ed Helms, an author, and a man who spent the

pandemic building a tree house for his kids. Today we talk about flow, what it is, why it's so

elusive, and where Ed finds it most reliably. We talk about

why limitations might be the secret ingredient in all great creative work, what Owen Wilson

taught him about asking for help, and why he thinks making is always the point, no matter

the outcome. Here's my conversation with Ed Helms.

Okay, so I'm hot on this idea of making, and there's a reason in an AI world that I want people

to think about how much time they spend in a kind of creative making zone.

And so I've talked to a whole bunch of different kinds of makers.

And I wanted to talk to you because you do so many different types of making.

Like the whole banjo bluegrass thing, all the acting, all the comedy work, which

feels slightly different to me, the improv stand-up stuff.

And then the podcast, and then the podcast begat a book.

And so there's this range of activities.

And I wonder, when you think about flow and like when you're in the best mood and you're like in the zone, which of all your creative outlets is the fastest route?

Wow.

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