Hello, hello. This is Brooke DeVard and you're listening to the Naked Beauty podcast. It's

26. We made it. And I know a lot of us love the new year. It's a fresh start, a blank page.

But many of us, I'm raising my hand here, feel very tired,

disillusioned even, overstimulated. And just asking myself, is this really it? We're just going to go

full throttle into a new year. I actually sat down to record a very practical New Year's episode

about work ethic and work stamina and

discipline and goals and showing up even when you don't feel like doing the work. And yes,

all of those things matter. I would not have been able to build naked beauty without those things.

As I really started thinking about what I wanted to bring to this first episode of the year,

I realized that's not where I wanted to take this.

It's probably not what you need either. What I have needed, especially in moments of fatigue,

of doubt, of just too much like cultural noise and you're not sure where you fit in is perspective.

Not necessarily advice or specific hacks, but perspective from people that I truly admire.

So I am going to introduce you all to the people I return to when I need to remember how to live,

how to live more creatively, more courageously, how to be more in touch with myself,

how to live with pleasure and purpose. This is my creative board of directors. I believe

in having creative ancestors. These are people that you call on when you're tired of figuring out

everything alone. And everyone on my list is no longer alive, but their words and their choices

and the way that they move through the world still teach me how to keep on going.

These are people that I've been intimate with. These are creatives I've built intimate relationships

with through their work, through their words, through studying them, through learning about them,

through sitting with their texts at different points in my life. And I'm hoping that they'll

...