Five Things I've Learned — Essential Lessons from People We Admire.

Bestselling writer and teacher Steve Almond shares Five Things He’s Learned about failure’s essential role in success – and about the necessity of reframing our creative setbacks as opportunities for...

Writer and speaker Stephanie Land shares the Five Things She’s Learned about writing that breaks down walls and encourages empathy toward others – and about how you can claim and share your personal...

Celebrated writer and teacher Rebecca Makkai shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the issue she’s found most connected to almost early every problem on the page – and why improving the ability to...

Celebrated novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and professor Peter Orner shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how great writers create remarkable movement and energy within a single paragraph –...

Writer, poet, and minister Danté Stewart shares the Five Things He’s Learned about storytelling’s power and magic, and all that happens when readers encounter stories that help them get safely through...

Isabel Allende, one of the most widely read and acclaimed authors in the world, shares the Five Things She’s Learned about writing fiction, discovering your voice, and writing the work you were born to...

Award-winning author and teacher Ann Hood shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to bring the characters, conflicts, and plot points that keep you up at night from your heart to the page.

Novelist, memoirist, cultural critic, and screenwriter Matthew Specktor shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the powerful ways that the imagination can operate in nonfiction writing – and how reality...

New York Times best-selling author Cheryl Strayed shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to honor your desire to create and see your projects through – even when life’s demands make doing so...

Michael Ruhlman – best-selling writer of more than 30 books of non-fiction, fiction, memoir and cookbooks – shares the Five Things He’s Learned about writing and living well – while writing about...

Award-winning author and teacher Ann Hood shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to bring focus to a singular slice of your life in ways that produce the story that you want to read – and write.

New York Times bestselling writer Russell Shorto shares the Five Things He’s Learned about diving into your past and bringing the story you find there to life.

Best-selling author, editor, and Executive Director of Aspen Words Adrienne Brodeur shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how attention and patience shape and deepen a writer’s craft.

Benjamin Dreyer, author of the New York Times bestseller Dreyer’s English and the retired copy chief and managing editor of Random House, shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how you can make your...

Writers and teachers Laurie Stone and Richard Toon share the Five Things They’ve Learned about the ways that great writing delivers genuine pleasure for the reader – and the writer.

Journalist and author James Surowiecki share the Five Things He’s Learned about how to write about ideas – how to take complicated concepts and make them accessible; and how, in the process, to enlighten...

Grief expert and author Claire Bidwell Smith shares the Five Things She’s Learned about reconciling the anxiety and loss that accompanies grief – and about the writing process that can bring hope,...

Join celebrated novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and professor Peter Orner and discover the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways that great writers bind fact and invention to create something new:...

Poet, fiction writer, and essayist Kim Addonizio shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the opportunities that personal writing offers writers and readers – and about the strategies and approaches you...

Editor, writer, and publisher Brooke Warner shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways in which our intimate responses to change can positively drive our most powerful urges to write and create.

Award-winning writer and teacher Andre Dubus III shares the Five Things He’s Learned about writing, revision, and the glorious challenge of bringing your work to its fullest fruition.

Writer and Executive Director of National Writing Month Grant Faulkner shares the Five Things He’s Learned about what happens when you apply the principles and aesthetic of brevity to all your creative...

Peter Orner and Yvette Benavides share the Five Things They’ve Learned about the joys of returning to their favorite stories and short-story writers. They look at the works of three great masters, and at...

Novelist and host of “The Page One Podcast” Holly Payne shares the Five Things She’s Learned about a book’s critical first page – and about how you can ensure your opening paragraphs do all they can to...

Adobe Research Lab veteran Matt Strain share the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways artificial intelligence is helping writers find new ways to develop their ideas and cultivate their creativity.

U.S. Marine Corps veteran, writer, and teacher Phil Klay shares the Five Things He’s Learned about American citizenship – what it means, the obligations it places upon us, and the uglier way our shared...

Writer and teacher Maurice Carlos Ruffin shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how to make the most of your one opportunity to announce yourself to the world – and to set the tone for the writing life...

Culture journalist, author, and teacher Will Hermes shares the Five Things He’s Learned about telling someone else’s story – in ways that both preserve and pay tribute to their personal history.

Writer, author, and professor Roosevelt Montás shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the transforming power of the Great Books—and why the ideas and passions within these ancient sources still...

Best-selling writer Laurie R. King shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the essential elements of a great mystery, and the rewards they make possible for readers and writers.

Bestselling writer and teacher Steve Almond shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the powerful emotions that serve as the engines of our storytelling – and about the ways that these emotions show up...

Acclaimed journalist and author Susan Orlean shares the Five Things She’s Learned while writing her forthcoming memoir, and about the approaches sure to be of help as you share your own personal history.

Join best-selling author, essayist, public speaker, lyricist and libretto writer Adam Gopnik and discover the Five Things He’s Learned about the mysterious alchemy of rules, practices, and inner secrets...

Award-winning writer and teacher Andre Dubus III shares the Five Things He’s Learned about why writing happens best when we summon the faith and the nerve to get out of our own way – and free-fall instead...

Writer, editor, and educator Sarah Fay share the Five Things She’s Learned about what it means to write our stories of illness, injury, and recovery.

Best-selling writer and teacher Richard Panek shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the spirit of discovery and exploration – and the process by which great writing begins with something new and...

Celebrated writer and teacher Rebecca Makkai shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to navigate the joys and demands that come with creating art while at the same time keeping the people you love...

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George shares the Five Things She’s Learned about self-editing can help you to recognize what works in your own writing – and to fix what doesn’t.

Multi-award winning journalist and author Janine di Giovanni shares the Five Things She’s Learned about writing — and appreciating — narrative non-fiction and memoir.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cara Black shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that a strong sense of place anchors readers and draws them into the story.

In this free, 90-minute class, writer, editor, and broadcaster Alan Light shares the Five Things He’s Learned about our country’s complexities, possibilities, and limitations from some of our greatest...

In this free, 90-minute class, Dr. Jennifer Mercieca shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the increasing weaponization of our public discourse – and about steps we can each take today to rebuild...

In this free class, best-selling author and former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the coordinated forces working to end American democracy as we know it –...

New York Times best-selling author Cheryl Strayed shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to honor your desire to create and see your projects through – even when life’s demands make doing so...

Best-selling author, essayist, public speaker, lyricist and libretto writer Adam Gopnik shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the mystery of mastery – and about the ways that our humanity is...

Best-selling writer and poet Maggie Smith shares the Five Things She’s Learned about what it means to prioritize your creative practice in ways that allow you to stay productive and feel most like yourself...

Celebrated poet, writer, and professor Matthew Zapruder shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the practical and spiritual techniques that have helped him to keep the faith and to keep going as a...

Poet, author, actress, and director Amber Tamblyn shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to harness our emotions into the full force of our creative work — and how to put all that we’re...

Poet and writer Victoria Chang shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that following an unconventional path can be a surprising source of creative inspiration and innovation.

Writer, producer, and mother Julianna Baggott shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the good, beautiful, weirdly-efficient blur that can streamline your life and transform your writing.

Award-winning cartoonist Liza Donnelly shares the Five Things She’s Learned from a lifetime of drawing and writing, and from the fulfillment that comes with looking inward and observing of the world around...

Writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras shares the Five Things She’s Learned about writing and creativity – and about the artistic necessity to write from the emotional landscape of crisis.

Best-selling writer Daniel Handler shares the Five Things He’s Learned about Creativity – or the five things he had thought he’d learned, until life and experience suggested otherwise.

Writer, editor and performer Joe Randazzo shares the Five Things He’s Learned about cultivating creativity and collaboration – and about all it takes to consistently turn good ideas into great ones.

Celebrated poet, writer, and professor Matthew Zapruder shares the Five Things He’s Learned about honoring family as a source of creative inspiration – about being truthful in the service of mercy and...

Celebrated poet, writer, editor, and scholar Camille Dungy shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that creativity arises from the soil of our most fundamental relationships – with the land,...

Best-selling author Steven Johnson shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the critical tools innovative thinkers use to nurture their creative practice – and the five key questions consistently...

Acclaimed writers and interviewers Pico Iyer and Michael Shapiro share the Five Things They’ve Learned from their own experience — and from the experience of the many creative figures they’ve met —...

Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman shares the Five Things He’s Learned about this critical time in history from his years engaging with Russia’s military and political leadership.

Award-winning author and professor Nicholas Buccola shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the meaning of love from the life and thought of James Baldwin.

In this free class, best-selling author and former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the coordinated forces working to end American democracy as we know it –...

Writer, author, and professor Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. shares the Five Things He’s Learned about keeping connected to the voices and visions of our country’s past – and about James Baldwin’s America...

Entrepreneur, professor, MacArthur Fellow, and President Obama’s first appointment to the National Council on the Arts, Aaron Dworkin shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the life-changing power of...

Adobe Research Lab veteran Matt Strain share the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways artificial intelligence is helping writers find new ways to develop their ideas and cultivate their creativity.

Award-winning poet, essayist, and translator Jane Hirshfield shares the ways that poems’ original seeing can be invited, recognized, and worked with to open new depth, openness, and possibility – in words...

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Carl Phillips shares the Five Things He’s Learned about some of the less obvious – but common – ways in which patterns arise and contribute meaning in poems we love.

Acclaimed poet, fiction writer, and essayist Kim Addonizio shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the way that great poems work to surprise us, transcend time, and take us to unexpected places.

Poet, teacher, and Editor-in-Chief of Poetry magazine Adrian Matejka shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the complicated and animating process of turning a stack of poems into a cohesive poetry...

Award-winning poet, novelist, teacher, and scholar Kaveh Akbar shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways antiquity’s spiritual verse can help us to better understand ourselves – and to sit more...

Poet, novelist, songwriter, and teacher Joseph Fasano shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how poetry works – and how poetry helps us all become better listeners to the world around us, to the voices...

Celebrated poet, writer, editor, and scholar Camille Dungy shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that creativity arises from the soil of our most fundamental relationships – with the land,...

Poet and writer Victoria Chang shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that following an unconventional path can be a surprising source of creative inspiration and innovation.

Best-selling writer and poet Maggie Smith shares the Five Things She’s Learned about what it means to prioritize your creative practice in ways that allow you to stay productive and feel most like yourself...

Poet, author, actress, and director Amber Tamblyn shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to harness our emotions into the full force of our creative work — and how to put all that we’re...

Celebrated poet, writer, and professor Matthew Zapruder shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the practical and spiritual techniques that have helped him to keep the faith and to keep going as a...

Celebrated poet, writer, and professor Matthew Zapruder shares the Five Things He’s Learned about honoring family as a source of creative inspiration – about being truthful in the service of mercy and...

Poet, editor, and founder of Conscious Writers Collective Maya C. Popa shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that poets can bring desire to the page with heat, precision, mystery, and...

Critic, novelist, and memoirist William Giraldi shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the everyday anguish of America’s common strivers by reading one of our most revolutionary storytellers.

Film critic, author, and teacher Alissa Wilkinson shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how we develop our personal mythologies by studying and writing about Joan Didion.

Author, journalist, biographer, and singer-songwriter Sylvie Simmons shares the Five Things She’s Learned about Leonard Cohen – and all she still learns from him five years after he passed away.

Writer, scholar, and teacher Timothy Hampton shares the Five Things He’s Learned from a lifetime of listening to the greatest songwriter of our time: How some of Bob Dylan’s most famous songs work, and...

Legendary singer-songwriter Judy Collins shares the Five Things She’s Learned about Leonard Cohen – from her unique position at start of his music career to her current-day view of his enduring artistic...

Photographer, archivist, curator, and teacher Lewis Watts shares the Five Things He’s Learned about photography’s power to trace, preserve, and celebrate the people and communities of the African diaspora.

Multi-award-winning photojournalist Nicole Tung shares the Five Things She’s Learned about photos’ unique power to inform, to connect, and to document people’s lives.

Acclaimed music critic Anne Midgette shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the women whose important work provides new ways to understand and enjoy the pleasures of classical music.

Acclaimed teacher, scholar and public historian David W. Blight shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways that biography can help us better learn about thinking, writing, and living well.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland — alongside her special guest Penelope Tree—, shares the Five Things She’s Learned about documenting and sharing the lives of some of the...

Songwriter, singer, recording artist, and Grammy-winning record producer Joe Henry shares the ways he’s found that the process and progress of our lives – like Song – knows more than we do.

Acclaimed music critic Anne Midgette shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the women whose important work provides new ways to understand and enjoy the pleasures of classical music.

Singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter Robbie Fulks shares Five Things He’s Learned about some of the essential elements that enable music to communicate, cohere, and endure.

Singer-songwriter, troubadour, and author Mary Gauthier shares the Five Things She’s Learned about song’s unique power to bring hope in the face of deep trauma – inspiring lessons from her own life...

Writer, scholar, and teacher Timothy Hampton shares the Five Things He’s Learned from a lifetime of listening to the greatest songwriter of our time: How some of Bob Dylan’s most famous songs work, and...

Singer-songwriter Hayes Carll shares the Five Things He’s Learned about songwriting – through five great songs that helped give voice to his heartaches, joys, and aspirations.

Legendary singer-songwriter Judy Collins shares the Five Things She’s Learned about Leonard Cohen – from her unique position at start of his music career to her current-day view of his enduring artistic...

Author, journalist, biographer, and singer-songwriter Sylvie Simmons shares the Five Things She’s Learned about Leonard Cohen – and all she still learns from him five years after he passed away.

Doctor, educator, professor of medicine, and Pulitzer Prize Award finalist Louise Aronson shares the Five Things She’s Learned about improving our shared healthcare system, aging, and the decades of old...

Author and senior fellow at the Milken Institute Paul Irving shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how each of us can make the most of the unprecedented potential and possibility that awaits our...

Author and activist Ashton Applewhite shares the Five Things She’s Learned about ageism – and about cheering up, pushing back, and living the life you want to live.

Distinguished biologist, professor, and author, Steven Austad shares the Five Things He’s Learned from researching the lives of animals in the wild about human health and our own aging process.

Acclaimed scientist, professor, and author Dr. Nir Barzilai shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the scientific hacks that can improve your health, increase your life span, and make it possible for...

Distinguished scientist, researcher, and professor Gordon Lithgow shares the Five Things He’s Learned about scientists’ remarkable recent efforts to slow aging and improve our chances of a healthy late...

President and Chief Executive Officer of the Buck Institute Dr. Eric Verdin shares the Five Things He’s Learned about aging and immunity by studying Covid-19 – and all we can do to continue thriving in a...

Author, professor, and Director of the Aging Metabolism Emotions Center at UCSF, Elissa Epel shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that transforming stress can improve your health and add...

Internationally-acclaimed writer Rabih Alameddine shares the few things he’s learned about the elasticity of identity and imagination.

Award-winning cartoonist Liza Donnelly shares the Five Things She’s Learned from a lifetime of drawing and writing, and from the fulfillment that comes with looking inward and observing of the world around...

Internationally-acclaimed writer Pico Iyer share the Five Things He’s Learned about opening up space in our heads, and in our days.

Bestselling author, editor, and teacher Sari Botton shares the Five Things She’s Learned about getting older by inviting people to share their own personal experiences of aging.

Speaker, researcher, and UCSF Clinical Professor Andrew Penn share the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways that psychedelic-assisted therapy is revolutionizing medical treatment for hard-to-treat...

Bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims shares the Five Things She’s Learned about deepening her ability to love others, and the practical steps that help her build, maintain, and celebrate her most...

Acclaimed writer and historian Thomas Dyja shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how we can use our city’s structures and energies to improve our well-being and help create a better place for all.

Writer, editor, speaker, and broadcaster Pauline Frommer and Five Things She’s Learned about the ways in which new places and experiences teach us that the person we are at home isn’t the only being we...

Writer, author, and professor Roosevelt Montás shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the transforming power of the Great Books—and why the ideas and passions within these ancient sources still...

Writer, author, and professor Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. shares the Five Things He’s Learned about keeping connected to the voices and visions of our country’s past – and about James Baldwin’s America...

Acclaimed teacher, scholar and public historian David W. Blight shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways that biography can help us better learn about thinking, writing, and living well.

Award-winning author and professor Nicholas Buccola shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the meaning of love from the life and thought of James Baldwin.

Writer, author, and professor Myisha Cherry shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the essential roles that rage and anger play in public life – and in our principled responses to all forms of...

Singer/songwriter, producer, and author Allison Moorer shares the Five Things She’s Learned about sharing her family’s stories in prose and in song – and about all that taking ownership of our most...

Writer, speaker, and founder Nina Collins shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the richness and promise that shape the second half of women’s lives.

Acclaimed music critic Anne Midgette shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the women whose important work provides new ways to understand and enjoy the pleasures of classical music.

Celebrated poet, writer, editor, and scholar Camille Dungy shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the ways that creativity arises from the soil of our most fundamental relationships – with the land,...

New York Times bestselling author and Omega Institute co-founder Elizabeth Lesser shares the Five Things She’s Learned about what happens when women trust their instincts, dignify their values, and speak...

Editor and publisher Brooke Warner shares the Five Things She’s Learned during her nearly two decades of leading and championing women-only publishing about the ways that women writers work, collaborate,...

Bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims shares the Five Things She’s Learned about deepening her ability to love others, and the practical steps that help her build, maintain, and celebrate her most...

Acclaimed journalist and historian Carol Kino shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the rewards and challenges that shaped life for American women after World War II – and the lessons their struggles...

Academy-Award-winning writer and director Alexander Payne shares the Five Things He Thinks He’s Learned about writing, directing, and editing films — as well as the joys that he’s certain accompany a...

Acclaimed author and film critic Molly Haskell shares the Five Things She’s Learned about loving film and film criticism during the golden age of film appreciation.

Award-winning writer and director James Gray shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the personal and professional craft of moviemaking.

Celebrated film historians and writers Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson share the Five Things They’ve Learned about the people and values that shaped the movie business – and all they uncovered while...

Celebrated author Sam Wasson shares the Five Things He’s Learned about Hollywood’s second golden age, and the ways that those few gorgeous years in the late sixties and early seventies illuminate the...

Global-film community tastemakers Richard Peña and Phillip Lopate share the Five Things They’ve Learned about cinema’s rich history — and about the many ways to love the movies.

Photographer, archivist, curator, and teacher Lewis Watts shares the Five Things He’s Learned about photography’s power to trace, preserve, and celebrate the people and communities of the African diaspora.

Acclaimed historian and writer Catherine Grace Katz shares the Five Things She’s Learned about how to uncover and share the stories that challenge our ideas of history.

Award-winning poet, novelist, teacher, and scholar Kaveh Akbar shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways antiquity’s spiritual verse can help us to better understand ourselves – and to sit more...

Acclaimed teacher, scholar and public historian David W. Blight shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways that biography can help us better learn about thinking, writing, and living well.

Award-winning author and professor Nicholas Buccola shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the meaning and value of freedom by studying the life and writing Frederick Douglass.

Celebrated film historians and writers Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson share the Five Things They’ve Learned about the people and values that shaped the movie business – and all they uncovered while...

New York Times bestselling writer Russell Shorto shares the Five Things He’s Learned about how the Dutch founding of New York City shaped the world’s most dynamic metropolis – and continues to impact...

Global-film community tastemakers Richard Peña and Phillip Lopate share the Five Things They’ve Learned about cinema’s rich history — and about the many ways to love the movies.