By Ethan Maurice | April 24, 2024
As a creative, if you ask me, one of the best things that happened last year was a book. The book is a collection of observations on creativity from music producer Rick Rubin. Rick has made brilliant albums with the widest range of the biggest musicians for nearly half a century.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being offers Rick Rubin’s remarkable view on creativity and reads not unlike the Tao Te Ching. Open to a random page in either and you will find an idea as simple as it is profound.
Yet somehow, the podcast interviews Rick has done since releasing the book hit me even harder. There are dozens, and it is possible that I have listened to every one of them.
There’s something in Rick’s feel, philosophy — the essence of the dude — that just resonates with me. It feels valuable to listen to someone embody simple-mystic-here-ness with little story between them and their experience.
I strongly recommend giving Rick Rubin a listen. And to point you in the right direction, here are my ten favorite Rick Rubin interviews on the internet:
1. On Being Podcast — Rick Rubin: Magic, Everyday Mystery, and Getting Creative
My favorite of all Rick Rubin interviews. Krista Tippett is a master interviewer. Edited down to one gem-packed hour, this is the place to start.
2. The School of Greatness — Rick Rubin: The Secret to Your Most Authentic Expression
This one’s a paradox. To me, the interviewer feels a bit confused and perhaps overly bold with his questions. This results in Rick really having to explain himself and paradoxically makes this interview one of the best.
3. Honestly with Bari Weiss — Rick Rubin Says Trust Your Gut, Not Your Audience
The best-produced Rick Rubin podcast interview. It’s littered with audio from many of the golden records he’s worked on.
4. On Purpose with Jay Shetty — Rick Rubin on: Why Unconventional Methods Lead to Success & the Secret to Genuinely Love What You Do
This conversation contained one of the most profound utterances on creativity I have ever heard:
“That’s the way I thought of it my whole life. My interest is in making something great…
And I came to realize recently, it’s all an offering to God.
Making an offering to God, you’re not thinking about, ‘oh, what’s the budget’ or ‘I hope this segment of the audience is going to like it.’ We don’t think like that. It’s a higher vibration.
We’re making the best we can make, to the best of our ability, out of love and devotion. That’s what it is. There is no, ‘I’m changing it for someone else,’ because it can’t be better than this devotional act that we are doing. There is no higher form.”
5. The Ezra Klien Show — The Tao of Rick Rubin
This interview gets at the “way of being” part of the title. It includes ideas on the artist as an antenna, cultivating awareness, and Rick’s simple take on taste. Rick also has a knack for explaining what some would call “woo-woo” in practical terms. I found the higher-selves-embracing visualization he explains he did before the interview particularly interesting.
6. People I (Mostly) Admire — Rick Rubin on How to Make Something Great
Rick is interviewed by Steve Levitt, economist and co-author of Freakonomics. They see and speak from such different perspectives, which makes their conversation particularly interesting.
7. Feel Better Live More — Rick Rubin On Creativity, Authenticity & Living A Meaningful Life
In this interview, we get to hear Rick’s wise and subtle influence at work. Dr. Chatterjee, having long ago suppressed his love of music to pursue medicine, seems to have it reawakened by the end of the podcast. Rick also gives maybe the best pitch ever for saunas here.
8. Huberman Lab — Rick Rubin: Protocols to Access Creative Energy and Process
Neuroscientist turned podcaster Andrew Huberman asks Rick Rubin questions from the comments section of their first interview. A useful one, as Rick gets asked common and widely applicable questions on creativity.
9. Tim Ferriss Podcast — Rick Rubin, Legendary Producer: Timeless Methods for Unlocking Creativity
Tim asks a bunch of practical questions in this interview and highlights a simple point from The Creative Act that has brilliantly guided my own creative work that I would like to offer to your attention:
“Look for what you notice but no one else sees.”
10. Tim Ferriss Podcast — Rick Rubin on Cultivating World-Class Artists, Losing 100+ Pounds, and Breaking Down The Complex
Lastly, an interview from 2015 — a time before Rick Rubin regularly did interviews and had yet to write The Creative Act. The gap in Rick’s ability to articulate the creative process he’s long been engaged in between then and now is striking. It’s curious how much writing about creativity seems to have helped conceptualize and distill his perspective.
P.S. Rick Rubin now has his own podcast: Tetragrammaton. It is fantastic. But I suggest starting with the above interviews as they require Rick to talk more than listen (which, perhaps unsurprisingly, he is also very good at).
