Episode 18: José Cotto - Creator, inspirer, and cultural entrepreneur across scales

Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan

Show Notes:

• Grew up knowing possibility and that people create things (8:30)
• Being around art, there was always another reality that could be made (9:00)
• How do you sit with tension? (10:00)
  • The thing that allows me to maintain balance in the present - keep moving at the pace that feels most fulfilling and productive in the moment
  • Find comfort in the tension
• Poetry is complex enough to hold the tension of human experience - pair with Brené Brown's thoughts (12:15)
• Love of poetry (12:30)
  • "Where the sidewalk ends" and "Falling up” - Shel Silverstein
  • Music - Nas (14:00)
  • A love for how people are able to communicate narratives
• Pedagogy (20:15)
• "The way that you move is going to get you to where you need to get” (22:15)
• Community empowerment (24:30)
  • Create. Inspire. Support.
  • What is it about the physical environment that is preventing people from being about to leave?
• Community is everything (30:00)
• What do you tell people to help them embrace the moment? (31:00)
  • Everything is designed and the built environment (31:00)
• Concept of scale (space and time) (32:15)
• The Bayou St. John, New Orleans (35:00)
• Human-level scale and humanizing things (35:30)
  • Everything is interconnected
  • Pair the discussion with David Krakauer thoughts on complexity
• Regaining lost focus (42:00)
  • Taking long breaths and breathing practice
  • “The thing that I value most is breathing” (42:30)
• Perspective on pandemics and COVID-19 (45:00)
• Lightning round (48:15)
  • Book: "Where the sidewalk ends" and "Falling up” - Shel Silverstein
  • Passion outside his work: proximity to social work
  • Making his heart sing: new series of drawings called Ancestors
  • Changed his mind about lately: “how much I need"
    • “The fastest way to have more is to need less"
• Human beings not human doers (55:30)
• Find José online:
  • Instagram
  • Twitter @jccotto
  • https://jccotto.com/
  • Ancestors series of drawings
• 'Five-Cut Fridays’ series
  • Jose’s list