You can break the cycle of overthinking
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
In his new book, ‘Minor Black Figures,’ novelist Brandon Taylor explores this vicious cycle and what it does to our self-worth. His characters are artists hyperaware of how social media can make or break their careers - and how it affects the art they make too.
In this episode, Brandon joins Brittany to talk through what it means to make art in a world of critics - online and off - and the beauty of giving yourself grace.
This episode originally aired on October 15, 2025.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm going to be honest with you. |
| 0:04.5 | Putting out this podcast every week means this sometimes we can get stuck in the creative process, |
| 0:12.8 | agonizing over whether what we're making is good or right or meaningful, wondering what you all will think about every episode. |
| 0:21.6 | Maybe you've been there too, too paralyzed by a perfectionist complex, unable to get out of your own way. |
| 0:28.3 | If this sounds anything like the inside of your brain, well, this episode is dedicated to you. |
| 0:37.0 | Every time I've sat down to write and not been able to write, |
| 0:39.6 | it's because I've been thinking about what the 18 Internet Socialists who hate me |
| 0:44.4 | are going to say about this or that or the third. |
| 0:47.9 | Every year I get a little closer to throw in my phone into the sea. |
| 0:51.6 | It's got to go. |
| 0:53.2 | This is Brandon Taylor. |
| 0:55.0 | For you longtime IBM fans, you may have heard him on the show before, which means you also already know he's one of my favorite authors. |
| 1:03.1 | And his novel, Minor Black Figures, is all about the joys and the horror of creating. |
| 1:10.2 | Minor Black Figures is about a painter, Wyeth. |
| 1:15.2 | We encounter him at the start of the novel in 2022. |
| 1:20.2 | He's in New York. |
| 1:21.2 | He's in the midst of a really bad artistic block. |
| 1:25.3 | And his friends suggest that he go look at some art that they know he will hate. |
| 1:30.3 | And he does that. |
| 1:32.0 | And in the course of that evening, he meets another man, Keating, who he very quickly |
| 1:37.6 | discovers as a priest. |
| 1:38.9 | And then they spend the whole summer doing one of my favorite things to do, which is to |
... |
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