The monkey podcast is here!

Today I launched the first episodes of the Shut Your Monkey podcast. And with it, the Shut Your Monkey podcast newsletter. And with them, this Shut Your Monkey podcast newsletter blogpost.

If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, then skip all the rest of this for now and just go to iTunes and grab it.

If you forgot to subscribe to the newsletter or it ended up in your spambox, here’s what you missed (better sign up for future issues as they will be even more awesome).

First it was an irritating voice in my head. Then it was a blog post. Next it was a book. Now it’s a podcast. And a newsletter. What next?

It seemed like a simple idea, right? Pick a few pages from my book, Shut Your Monkey: How to Control Your Inner Critic and Get More Done, read ’em into my computer each week, post it online, and call it a podcast.

But no.

Thanks to the monkey’s perfectionist meddling, I had to get fancy. I had to get all slick and get theme music and guest stars and turn a little side project into the StarWars/TonightShow/CollectedWorksOfFreud of podcasts. Then I had to rewrite it, remix it, design logos and endless fiddly bits that threatened to delay the release until well into the fourth term of the Trump presidency.

But finally I shut my monkey and got it done — and it’s gonna be awesome.

I have already lined up an amazing roster of guests to talk about the creative process and the inner critic. Designers (Stefan Sagmeister), novelists (Jonathan Carroll), poets (Todd Colby)  artists (Sabrina Ward Harrison, Lisa Congdon,Michael Nobbs), self-help gurus (Karen Salmansohn, Jen Louden, Patti Digh),  not to mention all sorts of psychologists, creativity coaches, business coaches, and loads of other wise and insightful folks — you’ll hear them all in the weeks ahead

And I am also collecting Monkey Tales, stories from all sorts of people about about the challenges the monkey brought them and how they dealt with them. Real stories, real moving. If you have a monkey tale you’d like to share, just visit my website and click the red tab on the right to record it. That would be great.

There’s a bunch of other treats and stuff too, some of which is in the current episodes, some of which is coming up, and lots of other stuff I haven’t dreamed up yet but will if I ever stop fiddling with the layout of this newsletter.

Today: 

I am kicking things off with a bit of a splash: the first three episodes are launching together and you can hear them right now. After this I’ll post one new episode every Friday, starting on May 20th. That should keep your monkey busy.

The first three episodes of the Shut Your Monkey Podcast are on iTunes and will soon be on all the other places you subscribe to podcasts (as I figure out what they all are).

To hear them, you can can either:

• Subscribe directly from your podcast app by searching for ‘Shut Your Monkey’.

• Or you can click this link and it will take you to the iTunes page.

• Or you can visit monkeypodcast.com (yes, I bought the URL before anyone else could snap it up) and you can listen to the episodes right in your browser.

In other SYM news:

— the first run of the print books sold out but my publisher tells me a warehousefull of new ones are just back from the printer.

— the ebook version is now available. It’s a handy thing to keep on your phone and flip to when bananas start to fly.

— I am giving my first big talk about the book at the HOW Design Live conference in Atlanta on May 22nd. It’s a little daunting figuring out how to present the monkey to thousands of designers but the presentation is coming along well and I feel prepared. My monkey is very not happy.

— Various foreign versions of the books are being made. For example, yesterday I learned there’s to be a Russian audio version. (обезьяна is ‘monkey’ in Russian, if you were wondering).

I hope you subscribe and enjoy the podcast. And that your monkey hates it.

If you have the time, drop me a line and tell me what both of you think so far.

XO

Danny