Susan Magsamen: Your Brain on Art and the Neuroscience of Creativity

The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

Srinivas Rao

Society & Culture

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Susan Magsamen, author of Your Brain on Art, explores creativity through neuroscience rather than philosophy or technique. Born to working-class parents who never attended college—her father worked his way up from nurseries to insurance executive—Magsamen learned management and relentless work ethic early. She explains how art and creative engagement physically change brain structure, why aesthetic experiences matter for wellbeing beyond productivity, and what neuroscience reveals about how humans process creative work. Her research-backed approach bridges the gap between artistic practice and biological reality, showing that creativity isn't mystical—it's measurable, trainable, and essential for cognitive health.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	As you probably notice, this month, we're bringing you our Life of Purpose series and revisiting
0:04.6	some of our most transformative episodes. Tune in to explore expert insights and practical
0:09.4	strategies on help, performance, and community well-being, all aimed at helping you achieve
0:14.4	personal and professional fulfillment. If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll not only get
0:18.5	recaps of the key ideas in each interview, but at the end of the series, you'll receive our free Life of Purpose ebook.
0:24.7	What you have to do is go to UnmistakableCreative.com slash Life Purpose. Again, that's UnmistakableCreative.com slash life purpose. I'm Sreeny Rao and this is the Unmistakable Creative Podcast, where you get a window into the stories and insights of the most innovative and creative minds who started movements, built thriving businesses, written bestselling books, and created insanely interesting art.
0:45.6	For more, check out our 500 episode archive at UnmistakableCreative.com.
0:56.8	Susan, welcome to The Unmistakable Creative.
0:58.0	Thanks so much for taking the time to join.
0:59.1	Thank you for having me.
1:00.6	I'm very excited to be here.
1:03.5	It is my pleasure to have you here.
1:07.7	So you have this amazing new book out called Your Brain on Art, which, as I mentioned before we hit record, immediately went into my top 10 book list for the year because it was one of my absolute favorite books. And I've read every book on creativity under the sun, but to look at it from a neuroscience perspective, I thought it was just absolutely brilliant. But before we get into the content of the book, I wanted to start asking, what did your parents do for work? And how did that end up shaping what you've ended up doing with your life and career?
1:28.6	So my mom was stay-at-home mom.
1:31.5	She had her first baby when she was 18 years old.
1:34.9	And then she had four more children in five years.
1:38.9	So she was a very busy working mom.
1:42.1	My dad first started working in nurseries, meaning flower nurseries,
1:48.5	landscaping nurseries, and really was very self-made, didn't go to college. Neither one of my
1:54.8	parents went to college. And he really wanted more out of life. And so he was told, somebody told him about this job where he could sell insurance,
2:07.0	where he could sell car insurance and life insurance.
2:09.7	And he got his first job with all state insurance.
	...

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