Shows
Version 1Katie Scarlett on making everyday scenes colorful and getting past creative roadblocksKatie Scarlett is an illustrator, animator and graphic designer from Newnan, Georgia. Using vibrant colors and interesting perspectives, Katie brings a fresh way of looking at familiar settings. She typically illustrates scenes of home such as dining rooms and kitchens, and sometimes other spaces like landscapes and street scenes. She often incorporates the plants, furniture, and other decorations she has in her home into her work. Katie has worked with a wide range of clients including Microsoft, Urban Outfitters, Thrillist, The Washington Post and more. In this episode, we talk about how Katie got her start in design, themes...2025-07-2958 minVersion 1Aaron Nessel of Bushwick Yacht Club on overcoming life setbacks and making a powerful impact on your local communityAaron Nessel is the founder and one man show behind Bushwick Yacht Club, a Brooklyn-based lifestyle brand blending streetwear and community impact. Since its launch in 2020, Aaron has grown the brand into a multi six-figure business, spearheading everything from product design and digital marketing to guerilla campaigns and local collaborations. Bushwick Yacht Club is not just a brand for Aaron, it's a vehicle to give back to the less fortunate in New York City, with thousands of items of clothing and thousands of dollars donated to youth services programs, neighborhood organizations, and mutual aid groups. In this episode, we...2025-07-221h 10Version 1Lexi Brown on travel photography, film vs digital cameras, and filmmakingAlexis (Lexi) Brown is a photographer, filmmaker, writer, and community builder. Lexi first was recognized nationally at age 12 for her photography, and has been creating ever since. She built her foundation in classical music, studying opera at Manhattan School of Music while simultaneously building a career in visual art. She’s worked with clients such as Vrbo, Polaroid, Fujifilm, Lumix, travel agencies, tourism boards, and many more. She has combined both of her passions into a directing career, with her first film “Sunny Side Up” in the festival circuit. Her sophomore film will go into production in November of this y...2025-07-151h 11Version 1Emily Pavacic on fiber art, the intricacies of embroidery, and the meaning of hands in her artEmily Pavacic is a Queens-based visual artist, dancer, and educator whose artistic career has been shaped by her dual passions for the visual arts and dance. Her love of creating hand-stitched art began with an unconventional drawing assignment while studying at Adelphi University. Upon graduating, she decided to continue her studies and earned a Masters in Art Education from NYU- the prelude to a 9-year public school-teaching career. Inspired by the human experience and deep connections, her work is often described as tender and intricate. While Emily no longer teaches for public school, she has maintained a deep interest...2025-07-081h 15Version 1John Fabiano aka Wags Around the World on dog photography, global adventures, and pursuing a self-funded passionJohn Fabiano is the Founder of Wags Around The World, a photography project that explores the varying relationships between dogs and humans in different cultures. After working a career in sales, he left his 9-5 role to pursue his passion full-time. The project has taken him to 20 different countries to photograph dogs, including sled dogs in Greenland, herding dogs in Australia, and street dogs in India. In this episode, we talk about how being laid off led John to pursue his passion for dog photography full-time, teaching himself photography, adventures he’s had around the world with all types of...2025-07-0159 minVersion 1Anika of Ooh Baby on starting her own fashion line, the advantages of being self-taught, and positive affirmationsAnika Ignozzi is a self-made artist and fashion designer who launched Ooh Baby in 2018 at just 20 years old, after dropping out of college to pursue her vision. What began with a dream, naïve courage, and a clothing rack at a street market in Pittsburgh has evolved into a thriving brand rooted in creativity and self-expression. Each Ooh Baby collection starts with a painting—Anika’s artwork forms the foundation of the designs, brought to life through bold patchwork, vivid patterns, and vibrant color stories. Her mission is to create clothing that taps into your inner child and empowers self...2025-06-2451 minVersion 1Jesse Kearse IV on fine art photography, movement as inspiration, and creating his own styleJesse Kearse is a photographer originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He’s a graduate of Morehouse College, and has photographed musicians such as Anderson .Paak and J. Cole, events, and much more. His first solo show, “Nu Narratives” premiered in Manhattan this past February. In this episode, we talk about finding inspiration from movement and music, what his photography setup is, film vs digital, and what he wants to say through his work.
Follow Jesse on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessekearseiv/
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Follow Version...2025-06-171h 01Version 1Ginn Choe of “Bobby’s Triple Threat” on what makes a good cocktail, taste and flavor inspirations, and the art of mixologyGinn Choe is a bartender on Food Network’s show “Bobby’s Triple Threat,” where she crafts new custom cocktails and mocktails for Bobby Flay and chefs Michael Voltaggio, Brooke Williamson, and Tiffany Derry. She has over a decade of experience in New York City’s hospitality, nightlife, and cocktail programs. Since launching nightlife venue Chapel Bar and the beautiful fine dining experience of Verōnika, she has since launched a new cocktail bar called Era in Hell’s Kitchen.
Follow Ginn on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginndoll/?hl=en
Subscribe to Version 1's sub...2025-06-1055 minVersion 1Emily Roemer on design, finding inspiration everywhere, and overcoming imposter syndrome at Amazon and The New YorkerEmily Roemer is a graphic designer whose work has been on the pages of magazines, totebags, food trucks, umbrellas, matchboxes, posters, and much more. She’s currently the design lead of lookbooks at Amazon, and previously was the senior designer at The New Yorker. She has a BFA in graphic design from Louisana State Univeristy and an MFA in design from the School of Visual Arts. She’s worked with big names such as GAP, Hulu, James Blke, The Smithsonian, Soho House, and many more. In this episode, we talk about learning design in college, how The Beatles inspired her...2025-06-0358 minVersion 1Jack McGuire on songwriting, performing, and overcoming challenges while at JuilliardJack McGuire is a songwriter, composer, and sound designer who produces music under the names Wet Hands, Ranch Hands, and FCTRYDRM. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music (2018) and is originally from Ohio. Jack has worked on many different interdisciplinary projects ranging from live scoring new dance pieces, film scores, and immersive theatre. His work has been performed all over the world, from Lincoln Center in New York to Scotland, Australia, and Germany, and he regularly performs his music at venues and bars throughout the city. In this episode, we discuss challenges he faced while at...2025-05-271h 08Version 1Claire Akkan on creative writing about NYC, staying disciplined, and designing vintage bagsClaire Akkan (@claire.akkan) is a writer and designer based in New York. Claire has a background as a venture capital chief of staff and brand strategist. She is a Fulbright scholar and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Russian & Eastern European Studies and a B.A. in Humanities. She writes the Substack award-winning newsletter Cappuccino Thoughts and runs a sustainable luxury bag brand (@claireakkan.bags). In this episode, we discuss how she got started on Substack, not experiencing writer’s block, staying disciplined, and designing and repurposing vintage bags.
Follow Claire’s Cappucc...2025-05-201h 12Version 1Anjali Sundaram on creativity in cooking, experimenting with flavors, and food writingAnjali Sundaram (@cooking.4.1) is an NYC-based food writer and recipe developer, focusing on tips and methods for the solo chef. She loves to discover new flavor combinations and push the boundaries of home cooking, using her years of writing and videography experience to inspire people to love cooking for themselves. In this episode, we dig into how Anjali started cooking and developing her own recipes abroad, how she experiments with pairing different flavors, how she balances creating and working full-time, imposter syndrome, and how she takes the pressure off herself to always be posting that helps prevent burnout.
2025-05-131h 14Version 1Emmanuel Dzotsi on his love of storytelling, finding inspiration, and embracing challengesEmmanuel Dzotsi (@newsmanual_) is an award-winning journalist, podcast host, and producer for This American Life. He’s reported stories on everything from backroom deals for political power, the strange phenomenon of white people sending Black folks venmo payments as reparations, to vast money-making phone scams hidden in plain sight. He co-hosted the third season of Serial and the popular podcast about the internet, Reply All. In this episode, we talk about his diverse background and how that influenced his love of storytelling, his stints in filmmaking and politics before switching to radio and podcasts, what his creative process looks li...2025-05-061h 20Version 1Miles of The Tea Stand on growing community, building connections, and serving free tea around NYCMiles is the founder of The Tea Stand, a community project which serves free tea at public parks, food distributions, and local events around Brooklyn. With The Tea Stand, Miles seeks to create spaces for folks to connect with themselves, one another, and the natural world. On this episode, we discuss switching careers to be more in alignment with your values, growing a community, sustainability in keeping The Tea Stand going, the challenges around running a non-profit, and how The Tea Stand has impacted him and others.
Learn more about The Tea Stand: https://www.th...2025-04-291h 18Version 1Laura Lorena Barbosa on navigating the media industry, mental health, and powerful storytellingLaura Lorena Barbosa is an accomplished TV/film producer with over 12 years of experience at networks such as NBC News, Telemundo, CNN, and Al Jazeera. As the founder of The Creative Power Agency, Laura inspires others to reclaim their creative potential, crafting narratives that foster inclusivity and illuminate the beauty of humanity. We discuss hustling through journalism school at Penn State, how her background being an immigrant from Colombia influenced her love of storytelling, how important her support system is to her mental health, and starting her own creative agency.
Follow Laura on Instagram: https://www.instagram...2025-04-221h 21Version 1Rachel of Rachel Off Duty on finding fulfillment, working while traveling, and changing corporate cultureRachel is a career & travel expert, and the founder of Rachel Off Duty – a website for ambitious women seeking more adventurous lives. Based in Los Angeles but often workcationing around the globe, Rachel also works as a Travel Storytelling Consultant in the advertising space. We talk about finding fulfillment outside of corporate America, creating your own metrics for success, changing corporate culture, where she is most productive and creative while traveling, and how she manages working full-time, having her business on the side, AND traveling a lot.
Follow Rachel Off Duty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rac...2025-04-151h 09Version 1Eva Reign on career highs and lows, learning on set, and blending acting and journalismEva Reign is a Peabody and GLAAD Award-winning Brooklyn-based actress, writer and artist from St. Louis, Missouri. She is the star of Billy Porter’s directorial debut Anything’s Possible from Amazon Studios and MGM’s Orion Pictures. Her writing has appeared in Vogue, Vice, Them, The Cut, Byrdie, PAPER and Highsnobiety. On this episode, we chat about Eva’s creative process in getting ready for her role of Kelsa in Anything’s Possible, her experience with The Artist’s Way, getting over imposter syndrome on set, and how to navigate slower times in your career.
Subscribe to Version 1...2025-04-081h 17Version 1Alice Lemee on writer's block, making changes in her career, and creator gravityAlice Lemee is a self-taught writer who left her budding career in the music industry to pursue writing full time. She’s a writing coach and newsletter ghostwriter for seven-figure business owners, award-winning YouTubers, and TV anchors. We talk about making changes to be happier – whether that’s changing careers or changing services within her writing career, the advantages of being self-taught, how she gets past writer’s block, and what creator gravity is.
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Follow Versi...2025-04-011h 15Version 1Ryan Herrera on creative writing, balancing time, and beating writer's blockRyan Herrera is a creative writer who is pursuing his Masters in Writing at Johns Hopkins, and works in ad tech for his 9-5. He has experience writing across a wide variety of genres including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, humor writing, and journalism. He hopes to start writing his first novel upon graduating in 2026. We talk about how he makes time for creative writing while working full-time in advertising, how his identities play a role in his work, how he gets ideas, and much more.
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F...2025-03-251h 18Version 1Patrick Thomas on creativity in business journalism, why running leads to the best ideas, and writing a bookPatrick Thomas writes about agriculture and the food industry for The Wall Street Journal. He covers meatpacking companies, supermarkets and how American food is grown. He joined the Journal in 2018 writing about corporate breaking news and is a native of Omaha, Nebraska. He joins this episode of Version 1 to talk about what makes business journalism creative, how running leads to breakthroughs and how he takes hundreds of pages of notes and distills it down to an article.
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Follow Version 1 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/version1...2025-03-181h 01Version 1Eva Recinos on navigating rejection, creative nonfiction, and building a freelance careerEva Recinos (@evaiswriting) is an arts and culture journalist and creative non-fiction writer based in Los Angeles. She is the creator of Notes from Eva, a free monthly newsletter featuring opportunities for creatives. In this week’s episode, we talk about how she got her start freelance writing, how her career took a turn when she was rejected from a fiction workshop, and what structures help keep her creative and accountable.
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Support the s...2025-03-111h 02Version 1John Guilyard on failure as part of the process, finding confidence, and life as a fine artistJohn Guilyard (@mynameisgilly) is a multitalented artist and UX designer at Google. He shares how failure plays a role in his creative process, not getting into his university’s art program, imposter syndrome, and the role of AI in art.
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2025-03-041h 12