072: The Importance of Mentors and Solidarity Among Creatives

Catalyst is a Creative Industries podcast, from Chapman University. Each episode features Chapman students who have completed a Podcasting course through the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at the university. Students who had no podcasting experience or technical ability in the genre before taking the course were able to contribute all the segments to Catalyst this season with the goal being that they will take this ‘hands-on’ experience and carry it over to the launching of their very own series. Each episode of Season 9 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.

In our second episode of season nine Carly Dinowitz conducts our first interview with Rose Costolo, a jewelry artist who created Costolo Studios, a luxury fine jewelry company specializing in both custom pieces & modern product lines. Carly leads a compelling interview where she and Rose discuss the importance of creative pathways, the influence of culture and cultural shifts in the design and making of jewelry and what the jewelry landscape is like in Los Angeles, one of the diamond capitals of the country. The two also discuss the influence and importance of mentorship, and Carly wraps up the interview by asking Rose to offer her insight into what makes a good creative.

Episode two concludes with an interview by Erika Nakamura of Tamar Herman a writer, editor, and consultant specializing in international music and the Asian pop market. She has written for Forbes, Billboard, and NBC News and made appearances in Vox’s Explained on Netflix and the YouTube Docuseries Kpop Evolution. Erika uncovers how  Tamar’s interest in Kpop fueled her passion for writing and how that passion evolved into a career in journalism. They touch Tamar’s career journey and how she was able to push for Asian music stories, pioneering this type of music journalism in American mainstream media. To end, they discuss the importance of helping out and building up other creatives as you progress in your own CCI journey.