Welcome to Creativity in the Time of Capitalism, a Substack by designer, creative director, and entrepreneur, Miranda Bennett.

You can expect to read essays and interviews dispatched three times a month that are part memoir and cover all things culture, healing, and creativity, with an emphasis on the intersection of creativity and consumer culture. You are invited to reach out, to comment, to interact.

The complete site archive and full emails are currently accessible through paid subscription only (learn more about that here), with free subscribers receiving access to interviews the week that they go live, select excerpts, and articles. All subscribers will be receive fresh dispatches right in their inbox. I invite you to join as a member of a safe and sacred space that we are all invested in. That investment allows myself and my interviewees to feel safe sharing freely with this community. I know that it is no small ask that you hold a monetary stake in this project, and I thank you deeply for taking this chance on me and my words as we navigate this project together. 

Thank you so much for your support.

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Credits

The written portion of Creativity in the Time of Capitalism is copy edited by Kelly DeWitt Norman. The Creativity in the Time of Capitalism podcast is sound edited by Ryan Leyba.

A note on Paywalls

We have grown accustomed as a culture to the illusion of free content. We are regularly navigating spaces where the content that we consume distracts from the fact that, in reality, we are the products being bought and sold. The user-generated content that you upload to sites like Instagram (those pics of your friends, children, and recent meals) are vehicles to keep you and other users scrolling. They act as the window dressing, obscuring the advertising and data-mining that are the true thesis of those and so many other sites. 

I’m not here to collect your data, to sell your information to advertisers, or even to show you ads. The content on Creativity in the Time of Capitalism substack is not a Trojan Horse for other revenue streams. The premise of this site is storytelling and connection. Told with honesty and candor. A dedication to how we make sense of it all while navigating the wilds of late-stage capitalism, together. And how to stay true to our creativity and ourselves all the while.

From writing and editing to interviewing and transcribing, and all of the correspondence in between, a lot of care and effort goes into this project. I pay a freelance copy editor to ensure that this site is a space of quality and integrity. With all of that in mind, I think that this site should cost something. I am invested in it, and I want an audience that is also. 

In exchange for that investment, you can expect to receive authentic, intimate content, written with heart and candor. Interviews that are honest, raw, and deeply insightful. Essays written from a place of truth and vulnerability. I promise you that I will never phone it in, and will always strive to provide you words and ideas that are nourishing and deeply considered.

If you’re not ready to invest, feel free to remain on our free list for select excerpts and should this model change, you will be the first to know. If it is not financially feasible for you to invest at this time, please reach out to me, I reserve a number of complimentary subscriptions for anyone experiencing financial hardship.

If you would prefer to listen to the Creativity in the Time of Capitalism podcast, find that content for free (and possibly with ads) on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Thank you, once again, for being here. 

For a more in-depth introduction to this project, please read on.

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity” – Simone Weil (1909-1943)

First things first, thank you for being here and generously bringing your attention to my page. Thank you to your eyes for holding these words, and to your mind for pausing from all of the other big things to stay and consider these thoughts for a while.

Creativity in the Time of Capitalism is a project I began incubating in the Spring of 2023 as I transitioned out of my previous role of ten years, running an ethical and sustainable clothing brand called Miranda Bennett Studio (MBS). I’ll write more about that brand another time. The thing to know right now is that I left it feeling a lot of pain and confusion, the exact sentiment being best described as “what happened to me?”. That passive voice in itself speaks to the lack of agency that I was feeling at the time, despite seemingly running my own show. To begin to get to the root of that feeling, I started doing a few different things: walking for hours on end, starting a home garden, nourishing my body through a return to home cooking, and reading A LOT. I read about the origins of capitalism and our current turn towards neoliberalism; I read about trauma and the body, about healing and growing towards reciprocity and gratitude for the life in all things; I read about the creative process and how we can possibly nurture it in a society that seems to always demand more, more, more. I began connecting the dots and also, asking more questions. I spent a year jotting down notes and having deep conversations about what comes next with my closest people. While I still don’t precisely know where it is that I am headed, I do know that now, a little more than a year later, I feel a hell of a lot more whole than I did before. 

I have always loved writing, and interjecting more writing into my role at MBS became a balm to my spirit during uncertain times. Today, I feel nothing short of euphoric to endeavor to spend this time writing these posts (perhaps less so about sharing, that shit is scary). That I should spend my time this way still feels like an utter fantasy– writer cosplay, a dream come true. It is a vulnerable thing but it is also a deeply meaningful thing, and it is in that spirit that I am opting for quality over quantity and only offering full site access to paid subscribers. For your part here is vital, and being a paid subscriber also initiates you as a member of a safe and sacred space that we are all invested in. I know that it is no small ask that you hold a monetary stake in this project, and I thank you deeply for taking this chance on me and my words as we navigate this project together.