Imagination State
Welcome to Imagination State, with Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer. This is a podcast about imagination: how it shapes our lives, our world, and our futures. You’ll hear from people on the frontlines of imagination: artists, writers, thinkers, activists - teachers of all kinds - who stand up to the forces that shrink our inner worlds, who open us to richer, more just futures, and who remind us that building imagination is also a form of liberation.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 57 minutes
- Episodes
- 26
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
Interruptions to move us beyond the familiar, with Professor Barbara Leckie
What might an imagination curriculum look like? How is learning the art of interruption a key part of that?
This week's guest is Barbara Leckie, professor at Canada's Carleton University, author of C…
Creating the environment for discoveries to happen, with César Jung-Harada
César Jung-Harada has a wildly adventurous life: He’s a justice-oriented philosopher-inventor traversing the world’s oceans to help humanity adapt to climate change. He has built oil-spill robots, sh…
Convening between and across worlds, with Daniel Tam-Claiborne
Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a writer, producer, and nonprofit leader whose work bridges cultures and builds belonging. His debut novel Transplants (Simon & Schuster, 2025), a finalist for the PEN/Bellwet…
The world beyond social media beckons, with Amelia Hruby
This week on Imagination State, we are joined by Amelia Hruby - feminist writer, podcaster, and creator of Off the Grid, a podcast and community for people reclaiming their attention from social medi…
Marcie Alvis Walker is writing goodness into the world
Why wouldn’t we want all stories together? We miss out when we’re segregated.
Marcie’s stories open the door to her home and her heart - and, somehow, to your own. She once wrote that newsletters are …
Goodbye Heart Gallery, hello Imagination State
Hello again, and a warm welcome to new listeners! This is the first episode of a new season and, in a way, the first chapter of an entirely new story. Old friends will remember The Heart Gallery; now…
Listening to the music of the landscape, with Professor Angela Impey
In this episode, we step into the world of ethnomusicology with Angela Impey. Angela is a researcher, author, and senior lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she ex…
Loretta Pettway Bennett pieces a Gee's Bend quilt full of community resilience and colorful coziness
In this episode launching on Juneteenth, come on a trip down the road from Selma, Alabama - home of the 1960s Selma Voting Rights Movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches - to the tiny little enc…
Marine Tanguy explores the sinister and heartening aspects of your visual landscape
Did you know that the average person encounters 10,000 commercial images in a day? That neighborhoods where people have lower incomes tend to have more advertisements for unhealthy foods and have mor…
Tara DePorte on envisioning enticing futures and meaningful climate opportunities
A recurring theme on the podcast is the climate crisis and the ways in which artists are addressing it in their work, whether they're focused on showing ways forward for society, making the issue mor…
Métis artist Christi Belcourt on how to "make things right" in Canada
This episode of The Heart Gallery will take you into the history and ongoing realities of Indigenous affairs in Canada. Recent years have shed light on a painful and violent history, as well as prese…
Beyond the crisis: Justin Cook on climate stories that truly captivate
In today's episode, Justin Cook takes us into the evolving world of climate storytelling where he's been a journalist and photographer covering "communities living along the edges in America" for the…
What good can a museum do for global society? With Pascal Hufschmid
In today's escalating humanitarian crises, the term itself is complex, influenced by various factors. The United Nations reports 235 million people needing humanitarian help, nearly double from a dec…
Lingering in the sun with Gaelynn Lea
For the 12th episode of The Heart Gallery, I am in conversation with Gaelynn Lea. Gaelynn, a violinist and songwriter who won NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016, has a unique perspective on the c…
Inclusive storytelling from Gaza and beyond with Patrick Gathara - Part 2
This is the second part of my conversation with Patrick Gathara. In this segment, we continue to dissect inclusive storytelling and its critical role in understanding humanity - both that of the worl…
Inclusive storytelling from Gaza and beyond with Patrick Gathara - Part 1
For the first episode of The Heart Gallery Season 2, I talk to Patrick Gathara, The New Humanitarian's Senior Editor of Inclusive Storytelling. Patrick talks about what inclusive storytelling look l…
Taylor Freesolo Rees on tuning into the heart
For the 10th episode (and the season finale!) of The Heart Gallery Podcast, I connect with my wonderful friend Taylor Freesolo Rees.
Taylor is a filmmaker, documentarian, storyteller and photographer…
Alisa Petrosova on weaving climate threads into mainstream stories
For Episode 9 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to climate story consultant Alisa Petrosova.
This episode explores how the film and TV industry is doing on climate messaging.…
John Kazior on nonhuman perspectives, greenwashing arts, & moving beyond consumption
For Episode 8 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to artist and writer John Kazior.
Today’s guest on The Heart Gallery sparks imagination incredibly well. He is John Kazior, an…
Gemma Lloyd & Lara Goodband on wild card witches, curating museum spaces in a changing climate, & the power of tears as big as plums
For Episode 7 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to curators Lara Goodband & Gemma Lloyd.
Lara & Gemma are curators of Earth Spells: Witches of the Anthropocene, happening now…