Episodes

  • Who Told You You Can't Sing? | Indre Viskontas, Neuroscientist

    Who Told You You Can't Sing? | Indre Viskontas, Neuroscientist
    Oct 21 2026
    Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SNNmTEUHDzAListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033WXTU8zVolaWr23weegHListen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-freak-out/id6794541000Who told you that you couldn't sing, and how much of that judgment have you mistaken for a fact?Neuroscientist and opera singer Indre Viskontas joins Marco Palou (Baby Yors), author of HOMO ARTIS, on Don't Freak Out.NEW BOOK: HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is OUT NOW.Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H8SR2NMRGet the book and the first 4 chapters free: https://homoartis.comWhile making art together in Oakland, Indre and Marco explore the judgments that silence us, the fear of creating, and what learning means when AI can do more of the work.In this episode:- Finding your voice after rejection- Why picking something up quickly isn't always lasting learning- Maria Callas and the power of an imperfect voice- Creativity anxiety and the difference between fear and ability- Writing, handwriting and finding something of your own to sayAbout Indre ViskontasIndre Viskontas is a cognitive neuroscientist, opera singer and opera stage director. She is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of San Francisco, where she directs the Creative Brain Lab and studies memory, creativity and the factors that help or hinder creative work. Her career also spans musical performance, opera direction and public science communication. She is the author of How Music Can Make You Better and has created or hosted podcasts including Inquiring Minds, Cadence and Radiant Minds: The World of Oliver Sacks. She holds a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA and a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.Indre: https://www.indreviskontas.com/Creative Brain Lab: https://www.indreviskontas.com/viskontas-labHow Music Can Make You Better: https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/how-music-can-make-you-betterAbout Don't Freak OutDon't Freak Out is a podcast about being human in the future that came. Each episode, artist and author Marco Palou sits down with a poet, scientist, composer, founder or performer and makes something with them while they talk: a drawing, a watercolor, a page of play-doh. The conversations are about creativity, technology and the parts of us no machine can do, and every guest finishes the same sentence before they leave: "Don't freak out..."About Marco PalouMarco Palou is an Argentine artist, author and director working across music, film, visual art and writing. Born in Jujuy, he left Argentina for New York at 18 on a ballet scholarship and has built a career without a traditional job, through brand partnerships, creative collaborations and work released on every platform. He records and performs music as Baby Yors, runs Amarte Labs and Palou Press in Los Angeles, and hosts Don't Freak Out. His book HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is out now.Website: https://homoartis.comMarco Palou: https://marcopalou.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcopalouBaby Yors: https://www.instagram.com/babyyorsSubstack: https://marcopalou.substack.comFollow Don't Freak OutInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dontfreakoutpodcastSubstack: https://marcopalou.substack.com/s/dont-freak-outYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgR6xuA9wYeFjXXZAsKKfwProduced by Amarte Labs LLC Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr
  • EP 11: When Freedom Becomes a Trap | Fred Turner, Stanford Professor

    EP 11: When Freedom Becomes a Trap | Fred Turner, Stanford Professor
    Oct 13 2026
    Watch on YouTube · Listen on Spotify · Listen on Apple PodcastsWhat if the dream of being completely free is making it harder to live together?Stanford professor Fred Turner joins Marco Palou (Baby Yors), author of HOMO ARTIS, on the Don't Freak Out podcast.NEW BOOK: HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is OUT NOW.AmazonGet the book and the first 4 chapters freeSubscribe to the podcast on SubstackIn Oakland, a trip through Fred's CD collection becomes a question about everything Spotify never suggests. Milton's devil helps explain why a feed can be beautiful and impossible to leave. And the communes Fred thought would offer relief after a book about war lead him to a surprising answer: his idea of utopia is a hospital. From ChatGPT to Burning Man, they ask what freedom needs if we're going to share a world.In this episodeWhat Fred stopped hearing on Spotify, and how John Cage changed his earsMilton's devil and the feed that keeps us hungryWhy feeling seen by ChatGPT can confuse a product with a relationshipShowing the creative process, performing authenticity, and deciding whom to trustQueer media cultures, self-presentation, and the freedoms they opened up"Rule by cool" in communes, and why Fred argues that freedom needs institutionsBurning Man, Google, and why Fred's idea of utopia is a hospitalAbout Fred TurnerFred Turner is the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication at Stanford University, where he studies media, technology and American cultural life. His books include From Counterculture to Cyberculture, The Democratic Surround and Echoes of Combat. With photographer Mary Beth Meehan, he coauthored Seeing Silicon Valley: Life Inside a Fraying America. His research connects subjects as varied as communal living, digital utopianism and Burning Man. A former journalist and Guggenheim Fellow, he continues to write for publications in the United States and Europe. He earned his doctorate in Communication at the University of California, San Diego.Fred TurnerBooksStanfordMentioned in this episodeJohn Milton, Paradise Lost; T.S. Eliot; W.H. Auden; Sylvia Plath, Winter Trees; Ernest Hemingway; John CageWhole Earth Catalog; Howard Rheingold and the WELL; RuPaul; Joshua Gamson; Burning ManAbout Don't Freak OutDon't Freak Out is a podcast about being human in the future that came. Each episode, artist and author Marco Palou sits down with a poet, scientist, composer, founder or performer and makes something with them while they talk: a drawing, a watercolor, a page of play-doh. The conversations are about creativity, technology and the parts of us no machine can do, and every guest finishes the same sentence before they leave: "Don't freak out..."About Marco PalouMarco Palou is an Argentine artist, author and director working across music, film, visual art and writing. Born in Jujuy, he left Argentina for New York at 18 on a ballet scholarship and has built a career without a traditional job, through brand partnerships, creative collaborations and work released on every platform. He records and performs music as Baby Yors, runs Amarte Labs and Palou Press in Los Angeles, and hosts Don't Freak Out. His book HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is out now.WebsiteMarco PalouInstagramBaby YorsSubstackFollow Don't Freak OutInstagramSubstackYouTubeProduced by Amarte Labs LLC Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • EP 10: The Only Instrument Made Out of Human | Pamela Z, Composer & Media Artist

    EP 10: The Only Instrument Made Out of Human | Pamela Z, Composer & Media Artist
    Oct 7 2026
    Watch the full conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T8Xv8dTqWkMListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033WXTU8zVolaWr23weegHApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-freak-out/id6794541000Why does a distorted voice disturb you when a distorted violin only sounds interesting?NEW BOOK: HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is OUT NOW.Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H8SR2NMRGet the book and the first 4 chapters free: https://homoartis.comSubscribe to the podcast on Substack: https://marcopalou.substack.com/s/dont-freak-outMarco Palou, author of HOMO ARTIS, sits down in Oakland with composer and media artist Pamela Z. While they work with clay, Pamela talks about making music from voices, lists and the imperfect timing of machines. She recalls the Tower Records catalog that became one of her favorite pieces, and the piece she could no longer perform when a laptop replaced her rack of digital delays. The conversation moves from those happy accidents to deep fakes, AI slop and the peculiar sympathy she feels for a driverless car.In this episode- Why altering a voice feels different from distorting another instrument- The catalog page that became Pop Titles You, and why she prefers lists to rhymes- Studying opera while playing clubs, with one teacher's encouragement- What became easier when her gear became a laptop, and what she could no longer perform- The musical accidents she misses from old digital delays, and how she recreates their imperfect timing- What tech did to the word "multimedia", and why she dislikes "creative" as a noun- Deep fakes, AI slop, feeling sorry for Waymos, and the ChatGPT rewrite that called SoMa "trendy hip"Mentioned in this episodePop Titles You, Baggage Allowance and Pamela's piece 85 for Pauline OliverosKGNU Boulder and her program The Tuesday Afternoon Sound AlternativeMax/MSP, the Lexicon 32-second delay, Pro Tools, FileMakerBang on a Can All-Stars and Steven Schick; Ensemble for These Times; Roomful of TeethComposer Tina TallonBoots Riley, I Love Boosters (the tipping-building joke)The Millennium Tower, San FranciscoAbout Pamela ZPamela Z is a composer, performer and media artist whose work brings together the human voice, live electronics, sampled sounds and video. Through real-time vocal processing and controllers activated by physical gestures, she creates layered performances that move between experimental vocal techniques and operatic singing. Her practice includes concerts, multimedia productions and sound and video installations. She has written scores for dance, film and ensembles including Kronos Quartet and Eighth Blackbird. Her work has appeared at MoMA and the Venice and Dakar biennales. Her honors include the Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the MIT McDermott Award. She studied music at the University of Colorado Boulder.Pamela Z: https://pamelaz.comSimultaneous (album, Other Minds Records): https://www.otherminds.org/recording/simultaneous/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PamelaZedFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamelazedAbout Don't Freak OutDon't Freak Out is a podcast about being human in the future that came. Each episode, artist and author Marco Palou sits down with a poet, scientist, composer, founder or performer and makes something with them while they talk: a drawing, a watercolor, a page of play-doh. The conversations are about creativity, technology and the parts of us no machine can do, and every guest finishes the same sentence before they leave: "Don't freak out..."About Marco PalouMarco Palou is an Argentine artist, author and director working across music, film, visual art and writing. Born in Jujuy, he left Argentina for New York at 18 on a ballet scholarship and has built a career without a traditional job, through brand partnerships, creative collaborations and work released on every platform. He records and performs music as Baby Yors, runs Amarte Labs and Palou Press in Los Angeles, and hosts Don't Freak Out. His book HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is out now.Website: https://homoartis.comMarco Palou: https://marcopalou.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcopalouBaby Yors: https://www.instagram.com/babyyorsSubstack: https://marcopalou.substack.comFollow Don't Freak OutInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dontfreakoutpodcastSubstack: https://marcopalou.substack.com/s/dont-freak-outYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFgR6xuA9wYeFjXXZAsKKfwProduced by Amarte Labs LLC Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • EP 09: If You Are Breathing, Help Someone | Jane Hirshfield, Poet

    EP 09: If You Are Breathing, Help Someone | Jane Hirshfield, Poet
    Sep 23 2026

    Watch on YouTube:

    What does a poet who spent three years in a Zen monastery know about not knowing?

    HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is OUT NOW.

    Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H8SR2NMR

    Get the book and the first 4 chapters free:

    https://homoartis.comhttps://poetsforscience.org

    Subscribe to the podcast on Substack: https://marcopalou.substack.com/s/dont-freak-out

    Marco Palou, author of HOMO ARTIS, sits down in San Francisco with Jane Hirshfield, poet, co-founder of Poets for Science and author of The Asking: New and Selected Poems. On this episode of Don’t Freak Out, a podcast about being human in the future that came, Jane reads four poems, explains why she starts every poem without knowing what it will become, and lands on the two words she would give anyone who is freaking out: help someone.

    You’ll learn:

    * Why “don’t know mind” is where all the possibility lives

    * What three years of monastic silence did to her relationship with music

    * When a meal, a paint color or a dovetail joint stops being practical and becomes art

    * Why a poem doesn’t fix grief but changes your relationship to it

    * What happened when her students asked her to stop saying “hit the bell”

    * Why the difficult emotions are information you can’t afford to suppress

    Poems read in this episode, all from The Asking: “My Life Was the Size of My Life” · “I moved my chair into sun” · “Late Prayer” · “The Weighing”

    About Jane Hirshfield

    Jane Hirshfield is the author of ten poetry collections, including The Asking: New & Selected Poems, Ledger, and The Beauty, long-listed for the National Book Award, plus two essay collections, Nine Gates and Ten Windows, and four books of translation. The Washington Post has placed her poems “among the modern masters,” and her work has been set to music by John Adams and Philip Glass. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2012 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019, and received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in 2026. In 2017 she co-founded Poets for Science, the traveling installation housed with the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and launched at the first March for Science in Washington. She trained for years in Soto Zen, including three at Tassajara, and lives in the Bay Area.

    Jane Hirshfield on Substack:

    The Asking: New & Selected Poems: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/715681/the-asking-by-jane-hirshfield/

    Poets for Science:

    https://poetsforscience.org

    Poets for Science Gathering, Kent State University, November 12 to 14, 2026: https://connect.kent.edu/register/poets-for-science-gathering

    Produced by Amarte Labs LLC



    Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • EP 08: Creativity Is Survival | Daniel Lismore, The Man Who Lives as Art

    EP 08: Creativity Is Survival | Daniel Lismore, The Man Who Lives as Art
    Sep 15 2026

    What does it cost to be fully visible? For the season finale, on the day HOMO ARTIS publishes, Daniel Lismore answers with his life.

    Marco Palou, author of HOMO ARTIS (out today), sits down with his friend Daniel Lismore, the British artist who lives as a living sculpture: every day, an assemblage of chainmail, beads, couture, and found objects collected across decades, each one carrying a piece of his life. Daniel appears in the book. It felt right to end the season with him. This is Don't Freak Out, a podcast about being human in the future that came, where every conversation happens while making something with our hands.

    They talk about what it takes to get dressed when the outfit is your life's archive, the armor that is also a magnet, what daily abuse costs and why he gets dressed anyway, why AI can generate the image of his work but never the life inside it, and creativity not as decoration but as survival.

    That's season one. Thank you for being here.

    Follow Daniel: https://www.instagram.com/daniellismore

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniellismore

    Daniel's site: https://www.daniellismore.com

    HOMO ARTIS: A Manifesto for Creation in the Age of AI is OUT TODAY.

    Get the book and the first 4 chapters free: https://homoartis.com

    Watch and follow Don't Freak Out: https://dontfreakout.us

    Instagram: https://instagram.com/dontfreakoutpodcast

    Say hello: hello@dontfreakout.us

    Produced by Shira Chait and Marco Palou

    Cinematography and stills by Raul Seca Jr.

    Production design by Teresa Guerrero C.

    Color corrected by Shira Chait

    Post production by Amarte Labs



    Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    59 mins
  • EP 07: Your Brain Didn’t Come With a Manual | Heather Collins, PhD, Neuroscientist

    EP 07: Your Brain Didn’t Come With a Manual | Heather Collins, PhD, Neuroscientist
    Sep 8 2026

    Is AI making us dumber? A neuroscientist with more than fifty peer-reviewed papers has a one-rule answer: your brain reserves the right of a first draft.

    Marco Palou, author of HOMO ARTIS, sits down with Dr. Heather Collins, cognitive neuroscientist whose research runs from Alzheimer's disease to what space does to astronauts' brains. This is Don't Freak Out, a podcast about being human in the future that came, where every conversation happens while making something with our hands. Today: origami, and a Muppet named Bobby.

    They talk about brain gain versus brain drain, how to make AI a thinking partner instead of a replacement brain, breaking a chatbot of its flattery, why your working memory holds about four things, what nine months in space does to a skull, the 100-millisecond first impression and why everyone remembers the meat dress, and the science of Touchies, the memory-holding objects from HOMO ARTIS, which a neuroscientist validates in real time.

    Her closer: it's gonna be okay, because now you know how to take care of your brain.

    Pre-order and get the first 4 chapters of HOMO ARTIS free: https://homoartis.com

    Watch and follow Don't Freak Out: https://dontfreakout.us

    Instagram: https://instagram.com/dontfreakoutpodcast

    Say hello: hello@dontfreakout.us

    Produced by Shira Chait and Marco Palou

    Cinematography and stills by Raul Seca Jr.

    Production design by Teresa Guerrero C.

    Color corrected by Shira Chait

    Post production by Amarte Labs



    Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    49 mins
  • EP 06: What Gets You Cast | Kate Geller & Stephanie Holbrook, Casting Directors

    EP 06: What Gets You Cast | Kate Geller & Stephanie Holbrook, Casting Directors
    Sep 4 2026

    An actor lost a role after one meeting because he’d changed his face. Two Hollywood casting directors explain what they were actually looking for.

    Marco Palou, author of HOMO ARTIS, sits down with casting directors Kate Geller and Stephanie Holbrook, taped the morning after the Oscars awarded casting for the first time in history. This is Don’t Freak Out, a podcast about being human in the future that came, where every conversation happens while making something with our hands.

    If you act, this is the other side of the room: what they’re reading in your eyes before you say a word, why your charisma doesn’t survive a self-tape, what fillers and facelifts are quietly doing to careers, why wrinkles get you cast (“you earn every part of your face”), and the walk-in feeling they can’t resist: “you’re a weird soul, I love you already.”

    Plus: the 1,000-kid search that found one gymnast with the spark, the Oscar tears the morning this was taped, and the question AI can’t answer: how do you replicate the spark of life with science?

    Listen anywhere

    Spotify:

    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id6794541000

    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dontfreakoutpodcast

    Substack: https://marcopalou.substack.com/

    Watch their picks: Nine Days and The Outside Story.

    Pre-order and get the first 4 chapters of HOMO ARTIS free: https://homoartis.com

    Watch and follow Don’t Freak Out: https://dontfreakout.us

    Instagram: https://instagram.com/dontfreakoutpodcast

    Say hello: hello@dontfreakout.us

    Produced by Shira Chait and Marco Palou

    Cinematography and stills by Raul Seca Jr.

    Production design by Teresa Guerrero C.

    Color corrected by Shira Chait

    Post production by Amarte Labs



    Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    56 mins
  • EP 05: The Electricity Moment | Michelle Schneider, Future of Work Futurist

    EP 05: The Electricity Moment | Michelle Schneider, Future of Work Futurist
    Aug 25 2026

    Will your job exist in five years? A major study finally gave an honest answer, and it came with a disclaimer you have to hear: if we achieve AGI, disregard everything you’ve read here.

    Marco Palou, author of HOMO ARTIS, sits down with Michelle Schneider, futurist and future-of-work author who spent twenty years inside Google, LinkedIn, and TikTok before leaving Big Tech to study the transformation from the outside. This is Don’t Freak Out, a podcast about being human in the future that came, where every conversation happens while making something with our hands. Today: a Brazilian flag and a sticker box.

    They talk about the contradicting jobs studies, the AI health agent she built from her lifetime of medical exams with no coding background, humans leading agents and the one-person unicorn, why AI’s productivity boom hasn’t arrived yet (the electricity lesson from 1882), and the Austin school where AI teaches academics in two hours a day and kids get paid to learn.

    Her closer: the future of work is not in our hands. But your future is only in your hands.

    Pre-order and get the first 4 chapters of HOMO ARTIS free: https://homoartis.com

    Watch and follow Don’t Freak Out: https://dontfreakout.us

    Instagram: https://instagram.com/dontfreakoutpodcast

    Say hello: hello@dontfreakout.us

    Produced by Shira Chait and Marco Palou

    Cinematography and stills by Raul Seca Jr.

    Production design by Teresa Guerrero C.

    Color corrected by Shira Chait

    Post production by Amarte Labs



    Get full access to Marco Palou at marcopalou.substack.com/subscribe
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    44 mins