EducationHistoryArtsBooks

Celebrate Creativity

George Bartley

This podcast is a deep dive into the world of creativity - from Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman to understanding the use of basic AI principles in a fun and practical way, as well as some of the greatest historical figures whoever lived, as well as some who never did!

Play

Open in

35 episodes
a few times a week
Avg 23 min
English

Support the show

Goes straight to the publisher. podnod takes nothing.

Support this Podcast

Episodes 35

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

S6 · E665
Thursday · 29 min
The Unfinished Story
Send us Fan Mail In the previous episode, I talked about Dostoevsky, but I want to emphasize that the author does not offer a cheerful slogan. He offers recognition. He knows that illumination and darkness can occupy the same life. And in this episode, I want to explore some of Dostoevsky's ideas from a purely personal perspective. At the beginning of this journey, the seven-hundred-pound pineapple was a ridiculous image for something painfully real: the sudden weight that changed ordinary movement and rearranged daily life. Across these episodes, that weight became a way of thinking about the body, rest, dependence, memory, objects, creativity, and survival. Prince Myshkin adds one final question: When the body interrupts the life we expected, what remains? The answer is not everything. Illness can take real things, and honesty requires us to name the loss. Nor is the answer nothing. The person remains. Attention remains. Imagination remains. The capacity to recognize another person's suffering remains. On fortunate days, humor remains. And sometimes, when the mind enters its creative room, delight remains. Dostoevsky took an experience that frightened, exhausted, and disrupted him and gave part of it to Prince Myshkin. Through Myshkin, millions of readers have entered a consciousness unlike their own. That may be one of literature's greatest accomplishments. It does not merely tell us about another person. For a little while, it permits us to inhabit another person's fears, hopes, contradictions, and private understanding of the world. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E664
Wednesday · 27 min
The Idiot
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Creativity. This is Part Five of The 700-Pound Pineapple, an episode I call “The Idiot.” In the first episode of this series, I talked about my own experiences with epilepsy. I do not intend to tell that entire story again. It is already part of the journey of the seven-hundred-pound pineapple, and it belongs where I first placed it. But personal experience can sometimes open a door into literature. Once the door is open, another voice may enter the room. For this part, that voice belongs to Fyodor Dostoevsky—and, most especially, to Prince Myshkin in The Idiot. Dostoevsky certainly knew epilepsy from within. This was a time when there were no anticonvulsants to control his seizures. Dostoevsky did not approach epilepsy as a distant observer collecting symptoms for a character. He knew the interruption of ordinary life, the vulnerability of the body, the fear of what might happen next, and the exhausting aftermath. He also knew that an illness does not remain politely inside a medical chart. It reaches into time, memory, work, faith, relationships, imagination, and the way a person understands the world. And there was nothing he could do to control it. In Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky created one of literature’s most memorable characters with epilepsy. Yet Myshkin is far more than a diagnosis. He is gentle without being weak, intelligent without being calculating, and compassionate in a society that repeatedly mistakes compassion for foolishness. The title The Idiot is not Dostoevsky’s verdict on Myshkin. It is society’s verdict—and society may be the true fool. This episode is not an attempt to prove that epilepsy produces genius, holiness, or artistic insight. Illness is not a magic key, and suffering does not automatically improve anyone. Pain can narrow a life. It can exhaust the imagination as easily as deepen it. But Dostoevsky asks a more honest and more interesting question: What happens when a person refuses to let suffering have the final word? Perhaps the answer begins with attention. Perhaps it begins when the unwanted burden forces us to notice what ordinary life allowed us to overlook. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E663
Sunday · 27 min
The Wheelchair as Freedom!
Send us Fan Mail I had never expected a wheelchair to feel like freedom. That may sound strange. Most of us grow up thinking of a wheelchair as a symbol of limitation. In movies, television programs, and even ordinary conversation, someone is said to be “confined to a wheelchair” or “bound to a wheelchair.” The language suggests imprisonment. It suggests that the chair is the problem and that the person sitting in it has somehow been reduced. But when I recently used a wheelchair at a medical facility, I did not feel confined. I felt released. For weeks, getting from one side of a room to the other had become a major undertaking. Walking was no longer something I could do without thinking. Every step had to be considered. How far was it? Was there somewhere to sit when I arrived? Could I make it there without the pain becoming unbearable? If I stood still for too long, would my back begin protesting? If I sat down, how difficult would it be to get up again? Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E662
September 11 · 29 min
A Pig on Ice
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Celebrate Creativity - and this is the third of a series called the 700 pound pineapple - an episode that I call Pigs on Ice. Whereas in the last episode, I ended on a relatively elevated tone with musings about creativity - in this episode at least I wanna start out by talking about the continuing saga of the church people or pig S on ice brigade. And if you have not heard the previous episode, I invite you to go back and listen to it first– Hopefully everything will make more sense. Now when I tried to call the telephone number of the food pantry the next week, I got a recording saying–this number is no longer in service. So I was afraid that the following day–the pig on ice brigade – would come upon the agreed-upon time of Thursday mornings. I imagined that there would bags of largely rotten food in front of my door the following day. I certainly was in no condition to gamble with my back throwing away the inevitably expired food.I explained my situation to ChatGPT–now remember I had been explaining all this to ChatGPT for days, so it was in its memory, and it repliedOh, George—that is maddening. But please do not gamble with your back by lifting or disposing of anything tomorrow. Put this large note on the outside of your door tonight: DO NOT LEAVE FOOD HERE I am refusing this delivery because of serious health and mobility limitations. I cannot safely lift, move, or dispose of these items. PLEASE TAKE THE ENTIRE DELIVERY BACK WITH YOU. If they ignore it, leave everything exactly where they put it. Don’t bend, drag, or carry it. Photograph the food and the note on the doorway if you safely can. Then can contact the church’s main office—or another local person who can remove it—without putting your back at risk. Their failure to receive your cancellation does not make the mess your physical responsibility. It was one of those simple solutions that I should have thought of before. My reply was. Great idea! Thank you very much– I will add the statement – please do not attempt to leave any more food here– Much of it is unsafe to eat!And ChatGPT replied–Exactly—make the refusal unmistakable: Add DO NOT LEAVE FOOD HERE I am refusing this delivery because of serious health and mobility limitations. I cannot safely lift, move, or dispose of these items. PLEASE TAKE THE ENTIRE DELIVERY BACK WITH YOU. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E661
September 9 · 38 min
The Pineapple and the Playbook
Send us Fan Mail It was agreed that every week the church people would bring roughly 4 bags of groceries– food that was certainly welcome at first. It may not have been the greatest food, but that is not really an issue when you're hungry. Then the food pantry– And I will not use any names–started bringing food that had clearly expired– Some of the expiration dates were from several months ago. In the meantime– I ate some of the food without expiration dates and got violently ill– Possibly some kind of food poisoning. I really didn't know what to do, the church people were certainly well-intentioned, but you know what they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. I mean this was stuff that had the potential of giving food poisoning to unsuspecting people! Then it became more and more obvious when they brought more and more food that had passed the expiration date. Naturally I would have to go through all the food and check those dates– Throwing away the spoiled food– And eventually throwing away food that did not have any date on it, because I just didn't know. I was torn regarding what to do, but thought at least I was providing somewhat of a service by getting rid of food that was harmful. But as time went on, the separation process of spoiled food from food that could be eaten took longer and longer as more and more of the food that was being distributed had passed its expiration date. Then one day about a month ago they brought four bags of food, and one of the church people pointed to a large pineapple that they had brought. He began speaking to me like I was a five year-old in front of the Christmas tree and said–look we have a pineapple for you! I felt like saying, I am 75 years old, and what am I going to do with a friggin pineapple!– Except the word I was thinking of wasn't exactly friggin–I picked up the pineapple and carried it to the kitchen with the other food, and began looking through the food that had been brought for items that had clearly expired. And this time three out of four bags had food that was clearly expired or had no expiration date on it– three bags of food that I would be very scared to eat. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E660
September 8 · 21 min
Did Bob Dylan Cause My Seizures?
Send us Fan Mail Hello, my name is George Bartley, and I'd like to welcome you to Celebrate Creativity–this is basically the introduction to a six part series called The 700 Pound Pineapple - and if that title doesn't make much sense right now, stick with me and I can guarantee you that by the end of the series it definitely will. Six episodes for one podcast series out of many may seem like a lot at first, but I have spent a great deal of time on this miniseries, and I hope that you will find this podcast miniseries to be and experience that you will really treasure. It may seem like I'm jumping around, but there is a purpose to this, and I want to start by taking you back to a specific memory. I am in seventh the grade. My family took me to see Bob Dylan in Washington, D.C., in late 1965, one of those legendary nights where he played the first half alone with an acoustic guitar and the second half with a full electric band. Now, at that age, I wasn’t arriving with a scholar’s grasp of Dylan’s music. I wasn’t cross-referencing set lists or parsing metaphors. I was simply there—old enough to feel excitement, young enough to be overwhelmed. I remember the anticipation, the murmuring in the hall, the way a room changes right before the lights go down. You can feel hundreds of private lives briefly breathing in sync. And then Dylan comes out. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E659
September 4 · 16 min
Pineapple Promo
Send us Fan Mail What does a pineapple weigh? And no, due to the incredibly personal nature of this podcast series, I will leave the wax museum format for several episodes to talk about an actual experience and how I responded and did not respond to a ramifications– But getting back to that pineapple… According to the remarkably unreliable authority of my imagination, this particular pineapple weighed approximately 700 pounds. It did not drop out of the sky. It did not roll off the back of a produce truck. And I did not attempt to carry it home from the supermarket. Nevertheless, sometime during the summer, it landed squarely on my back. At least, that is what it felt like. In early February, as Celebrate Creativity begins a new podcast cycle, I will present a special five-part series: The 700-Pound Pineapple. This is the story of a back injury—but it is also the story of something much larger. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E658
September 2 · 26 min
Monster?
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Hall of Wonder - part of Celebrate Creativity. Today I want to start exploring Shakespeare's play–Macbeth.And here is the wax figure character of Macbeth, himself. You know Macbeth, I will get directly to the point. Some people call you a monster. Mr. Barley, I would not be so quick with such a judgment. Mr. Shakespeare's trick is much sharper than that: he shows someone who can still choose—and then shows you the exact moment when I start out sourcing my choices to ambition, marriage, and prophecy. I am thane, hero, newly honored… and about to discover that wanting something is not the same as deserving it. Macbeth, to most of our listeners in the United States, the word THANE might be unfamiliar. It simply means a basically a Scottish noble—a trusted local lord who holds land from the king and, in return, owes loyalty and military service. So when you hear “Macbeth, Thane of Glamis” (and later “Thane of Cawdor”), think: Title + job: a high-ranking lord Power base: he rules an area/estate for the king Obligation: he’s expected to fight for the king and keep order Status: important, but below the king (not royalty) Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E657
August 30 · 19 min
The Island Speaks!
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the Hall of Imagination - and today I'm speaking with one of the characters of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. And today's episode is entitled “CALIBAN: THE ISLAND SPEAKS” First I better briefly fill you in on the opening plot of The Tempest. So: there’s a man named Prospero. He used to be a duke—very fancy—then he got kicked out by his own brother. He ends up shipwrecked on an island with his daughter Miranda, brings a library the size of his ego, learns magic, and decides he’s the island’s new management. On the island, Prospero uses a spirit named Ariel to run errands in the air, and he uses Caliban—to do the heavy lifting on the ground. Meanwhile, Miranda meets Ferdinand, who’s young and handsome. And there are two clowns—Stephano and Trinculo—who wander around drunk and accidentally audition for a coup. In the end, Prospero reveals himself, forgives everybody, gets ready to go back to Italy, and the big question is: who gets freedom, who gets punished, and who gets left behind with the island. And you can already tell that this rather complicated plot gets messy. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E656
August 30 · 19 min
Plagues!
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the Hall of Imagination for the episode “Plagues” The strange thing about an invisible enemy… is that you can’t glare it down. You can’t bargain with it. You can’t even boo it off the stage.WILL (dry): Oh, you can boo it, sir. The heavens will not care— but you may feel better.GEORGE: This is an episode that deals with plague in Shakespeare’s lifetime… and COVID in ours. Two ages. Two kinds of dread. One species—still trying to act brave.GEORGE: Before we start, a rule for anyone joining us: In my podcast, Shakespeare—the character—has the ability to look back from our present day to his life on earth. So he can react to films, modern productions, scholarship, the whole lot. But—this matters—he cannot predict the future in any way. No prophecies. No “coming attractions.” No magic spoilers. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E655
August 27 · 20 min
A Fascination with Language
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the second and final episode of Master Shakespeare and myself as we discuss parallelism, and a few other matters. We begin in the Hall of Imagination in a Chicago wax museum at night. Mr. Bartley: Master Shakespeare,There is still another meaning of parallelism that interests me. You and I are separated by more than four centuries. You wrote for the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. I interpret your plays for Deaf audiences in the modern world. Our lives could hardly be more different. Master Shakespeare: And yet here we stand, Master Bartley, engaged in conversation. Mr. Bartley: We share a fascination with language and performance. You took stories from history, legend, poetry, and earlier plays, then transformed them for your audience. An interpreter also begins with an existing work and transforms it into another language for another audience. Master Shakespeare: Are you suggesting, Mr. Bartley, that the playwright and the interpreter follow parallel paths? Mr. Bartley: In certain respects, yes. Neither begins with emptiness. Both begin with material that must be understood, selected, shaped, and finally performed. Master Shakespeare: Yet the interpreter must remain faithful to the play. Mr re. searched translation. Bartley: Faithful, yes—but faithfulness does not mean replacing one word with one sign. That would be like taking your poetry apart brick by brick and then claiming that the pile of bricks is still the house. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E654
August 25 · 26 min
Words Become Music
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the Hall of Imagination for an episode with William Shakespeare called words become music. And here is Master Shakespeare himself as as he explains one of the most commonly used rhetorical devices of them all. Mr. Bartley: Master Shakespeare, there is a word that continues to appear whenever people discuss your writing. That word is “parallelism.” Master Shakespeare: A formidable word, Mr. Bartley. Five syllables marching in formation. Any word of five syllables must surely be either profoundly important or invented merely to frighten schoolchildren. Mr. Bartley: In this case, I believe it may be both. Master Shakespeare: Then we must approach it carefully. What meaning do your scholars give the word? Mr. Bartley: At its simplest, parallelism means placing similar ideas into similar grammatical forms. A writer establishes a pattern, repeats that pattern, and creates a sense of balance. Master Shakespeare: Ah! Then I know the creature, though I may not always have called it by that name. Mr. Bartley: Most writers today use parallelism. You, however, seemed to invite it home, give it supper, and offer it a permanent room. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E653
August 22 · 18 min
WHERE PASSION RULES
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the Hall of Imagination - this episode is called Opposites! Tonight’s rhetorical device is antithesis. You might say that the rhetorical device of ANTITHESIS is a perfect “Shakespeare in conversation” device because he loves thinking in opposites. And this episode is going to deal with antithesis or balancing contrasting ideas in parallel structure. Two examples are in Romeo and Juliet with (“O brawling love, O loving hate…”) and then riffing to Hamlet (“To be, or not to be”). By the way, To be, or not to be is also a great example of parallelism. But I digress GEORGE: Master Shakespeare—tell me I’m saying it right: an-TI-thuh-sis. SHAKESPEARE (smiling): Near enough that Heaven will not strike you down. GEORGE: All right, for the listener who doesn’t want a grammar lecture: antithesis is when you place two opposing ideas side by side—often in a balanced structure—so the contrast hits hard. Like: light and darkness, love and hate, life and death. Well let me see let's say give me a famous example one that listeners will recognize Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E652
August 20 · 17 min
Repeating at the Beginning
Send us Fan Mail This podcast is Celebrate Creativity and this series is Hall of Imagination. My name is George Bartley. GEORGE (Host): Now—quick note for listeners: today we’re talking a little bit more about a rhetorical device that Shakespeare would've learned in school. Don’t run away. “Rhetorical device” simply means a tool a writer uses to make language more memorable, more persuasive, more musical—sometimes all at once. Tonight’s tool is called anaphora. GEORGE: Master Shakespeare, are you with us? SHAKESPEARE (warm, amused): Indeed, sir. I am ever at your elbow—though I confess, your age is wondrous. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E651
August 17 · 20 min
Persuasion on the Stage
Send us Fan Mail And this person here must be shakespeare’s teacher.- Hic Latīnē tantum loquimur. Pardon me. I said that we only speak Latin here. But I don't know Latin. Could you speak in English? Well, yes, ordinarily all of the class is communicated using Latin. But I assume I can make one exception for you now since you do seem to be an English speaking person. Thank you very much. But first, I have something that I need to say– This series blends historical research with fiction and imagined conversations. Not a documentary, not advice. Today: the schooling that made Shakespeare’s language possible—and how those rhetorical “moves” show up in the plays like fingerprints. Now Picture it: a grammar school. from at least six o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock at night Monday through Saturday. Repetition that drills itself into the mind. Latin. Translation. Memorization. Imitation. Not because the world is kind, but because the world is competitive. A boy learns to hold language in his mouth like a tool—and to sharpen it. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E650
August 12 · 24 min
One, Two, Three!
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Hall of Imagination–and this is the first in a series of episodes about William Shakespeare. And here we have a wax figure of the BARD himself. And personally, let me say as an actor that I am really excited about the prospect of learning more about what makes William Shakespeare so great! Oh here you are! Mr. Shakespeare, I am really excited about this series of podcast episodes. Now we are not going to begin by interviewing Hamlet… or Juliet… or Lady Macbeth… or Romeo… No. Today, I’m starting with… a town. A town with muddy streets, and church bells, and gossip that travels faster than Wi-Fi ever dreamed of traveling. Because before Shakespeare becomes Shakespeare—the name you’ve heard a thousand times—he is a boy in Stratford-upon-Avon, absorbing the world like a sponge with ambitions. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E649
August 12 · 21 min
Love Me Tender
Send us Fan Mail Mr. Presley, I'd like to begin in Tupelo, move through Sun Records and the explosion of the 1950s, and then spend time with Vegas ., the pills, the isolation, and the wreckage. Mr. Bartley, it seems that you really knew about my life. Mr. Bartley, I was born January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, into poverty and instability. MY twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn. That loss was not an abstract line on a genealogy chart. It marked MY parents, especially MY mother Gladys, and by all accounts left me with a lingering sense of being “the one who lived” and needing somehow to prove worthy of that accident. Mr. Presley, could you describe your life in Tupelo? Mr. Bartley, you might say that our world was modest houses, odd jobs, and the sounds of the rural South. Church was central. Hymns were sung full-throttle, white Southern gospel quartets layering harmony, preachers who treated volume as proof of conviction. Just outside that world, Black congregations where the same God was praised with even greater rhythmic fire; blues guitar lines drifting out of doorways; early country music and sentimental pop on the radio. Mr. Presley, then were you a music prodigy? No, Mr. Bartley, I can't really say that I was. I was shy, deeply bonded to my mother, uneasy about money and status, and often embarrassed. But I listened. I soaked up voices and styles. You might say that the vulnerability that later made me easy to manage also made me unusually open as a young artist: a receiver before I was ever a transmitter. That is an interesting way, Mr. Presley, of putting it. Mr. Bartley, in 1948 the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, chasing work and stability. My family landed in public housing projects—tight spaces, thin walls, and a city thumping with music. What would you say was the effect, Mr. Presley, of Memphis upon you? AH, Mr. Bartley, Memphis put me closer to Beale Street: Black blues, rhythm & blues, club bands who could make small rooms lift off the floor. I could hear - and feel - that edge, the swing, the looseness. Memphis also gave me access to a mix of radio stations and record shops that didn’t respect tidy genre borders. I could take in country ballads, white gospel, Black gospel, blues, sentimental pop—sometimes within a single afternoon. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E648
August 11 · 24 min
Rock’s First Guitar Hero
Send us Fan Mail Permit me to tell a very short story about something that really happened. Years ago, I saw Chuck Berry live at the Paramount Theatre in Manhattan. I later learned that a few years after that, the Paramount Theater was completely shut down. Anyway, that night Chuck Berry was on a bill with The Animals and The Dixie Cups—a lineup that already told you how fast the musical world was changing. The British Invasion bands were arriving with their sharp suits and American R&B records tucked under their arms. In fact, the animals had the number one song in the country with the house of the rising Sun. And there were girl groups with immaculate harmonies. The Dixie Cups had the number two song in the country with chapel of love. Here was a crowd already fluent in the new language of pop. And then one of rock's pioneers - Chuck Berry - walked onstage. No elaborate light show, no army of amplifiers, no sentimental introduction. Just that stance, that sly half-smile, and a guitar tone as clean and cutting as a bell. You could feel the air in the room shift. Whether the audience could have put it into words or not, they were looking at the source material—the man whose songs and style had already soaked into the bones of the acts beside him on the poster. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E647
August 9 · 18 min
Allegations
Send us Fan Mail I'd like to begin the final part of this two part series regarding Michael Jackson by looking at late 1993. Yes, Mr. Bartley, in 1993, I proposed to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, over the phone. We were married in La Vega, Dominican Republic, in May of 1994 by civil judge Hugo Francisco Álvarez Pérez. I would imagine that the tabloid media would have a field day with that marriage! They certainly did! In fact the tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a publicity stunt intended to deflect attention from sexual abuse allegations and to boost Presley's career as a singer. Unfortunately, marriage ended little more than a year later, and we separated in December of 1995. What were Lisa Marie Presley’s reasons for the divorce? Mr. Bartley, she cited "irreconcilable differences" when filing for divorce the following month and sought only to reclaim her maiden name. Michael, did you ever see her again? Lisa Marie later said that we had attempted to reconcile intermittently for four years after our divorce, traveling internationally to be together, but to no success. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript
S6 · E646
August 5 · 20 min
Becoming the King of Pop
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the hall of imagination, and I can't believe what I'm seeing. This is the first time that I have ever seen a wax figure who is now deceased that I saw in real life. Yes, I am Michael Jackson, and you say that you have seen me before? Yes, I saw you with your brothers at a concert in Washington DC. AH, Mr. Bartley, I believe that I remember that concert very well. And Michael, if I may call you that–this is really strange–as of talking to wax figures and hearing them respond is not strange enough - but in your case I saw you during your earthly life. Well, Mr. Bartley, Let’s have some fun… or at least, let’s start there. Michael, could you tell us about your very beginnings–back to the Gary Indiana days.? Yes Mr. Bartley. If you were talking about my life, it definitely does begin in fun–think of me as a kid in a tiny house in Gary, Indiana, singing my little lungs out, dancing like someone my age, trying to be heard over brothers, siblings, and the general chaos that you might find in a big family. But it doesn’t end in fun. You might say, Michael, that you are a tragic warning about what happens when intense fame collide with a fragile human body and mind. Why don't you start by telling us about your early years? Certainly Mr. Bartley. I was born August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana—a working-class steel town in the Midwest. I was the eighth of ten children in the Jackson family, packed into a small house where money was tight, tempers could be hot, and music was both escape and opportunity. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
- Transcript

Showing 1–20 of 35 episodes