This is a rebroadcast of Episode 054 of the podcast, which got a copyright strike for some music (I think?).

That’s fine. My fault, I suppose. I’m not even sure what the music was because the original master mix moved around so much that the links to the source files are all busted up.

But, when I got notice of that Spotify was going to take it down, it was one of the most popular streams of the podcast, so I knew at some point, when I had some free time, I should rebroadcast it.

I didn’t have free time, to be honest. There were other things I should have been doing. But this conversation is important to me, so I did it anyway and the other things had to suffer for a few hours.

Dave is a long-time friend and collaborator, and I always enjoy our conversations. In our chat we get into the worlds of creativity he has explored, visual storytelling, and the immense power of imagination. If you’ve ever wondered how drawing and visual thinking could transform your ways of seeing, sense-making you’ll want to listen in.

There are a few things Dave brings up that resonate with me. He mentions anecdotally that most of us abandon drawing as we transition from childhood to adulthood. He brought me back to when I was eight or nine and thought drawing was the most fun. I can remember sitting on the floor with these big probably tabloid sized sheets of that sort of silky paper that came from somewhere — maybe my dad’s newspaper? — and just drawing entire worlds with weird contraptions, elaborate networks of pipe, little people involved in maintaining these contrivances..and just doing that for hours with a friend over for a playdate or whatever the heck.

For Dave, that magic never faded. He continued to draw into adulthood, eventually making a career out of it. He took his passion to art school and then into the world of illustration and infographics for newspapers and such. And then onto forming his own company, XPLANE, which was a pioneer in the field of visual thinking and visual storytelling for decades.

Dave sold the company and while he doesn’t have to work, he does.

Visual storytelling isn’t just useful for reflecting on the present, it is a critical tool for envisioning new territories and terrains like “the future”. Dave explains how sketches can articulate possibilities that don’t yet exist. In fact, it may be the most useful way to frame and discuss the new, unexpected and otherwise inexplicable. Visualization takes the abstract future and makes it something we can grasp, debate, and plan around. It turns what seems intangible into something actionable and exciting.