Summer Fridays: The art of paying attention (w/ Wendy MacNaughton and Laurel Braitman)

August 28, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In one of the quietest moments of this conversation, artist Wendy MacNaughton describes what she was trying to do with her book How to Say Goodbye: create a reading experience that mirrored being inside a hospice home. Quiet, slow, intensely focused. The book has maybe 200 words in it, and lots of white space. That white space, she says, is the point. It is the same thing drawing does for her—a way to stop, slow down, and look closely at something she would otherwise be afraid to look at. That is the core of what she and writer Laurel Braitman are after, both in their own work and in the community they started together called Attention Club.

Drawing and writing as tools for looking

MacNaughton and Braitman met through the live storytelling project Pop-Up Magazine in San Francisco, and their friendship grew out of a shared conviction that the creative process is not about producing polished work but about using simple tools—a pencil, a prompt, a question—to force yourself to pay attention. MacNaughton says her job as a facilitator is to “swing the spotlight onto something we might otherwise not pay attention to.” She does this by asking a thoughtful question and then giving people protected time to either draw or write the answer. The act itself generates attention; she does not need to instruct people to focus.

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What you'll learn

1 (07:50) **Introducing Wendy McNaughton and Laurel Braitman** - Host Chris Duffy sets up the episode with two artists who make presence and noticing the heart of their creative practice, and who co-founded the "Attention Club."
2 (09:31) **What is Attention Club?** - The guests explain the origin and purpose of their collaborative workshop, designed to use drawing and writing as tools for focused attention.
3 (11:11) **The Mechanism: Questions, Mistakes, and Flow** - Laurel and Wendy explain how their methods force a pause and reframe the role of imperfection in the creative process.
4 (15:22) **Breaking Down the "Artist vs. Amateur" Binary** - The guests discuss how they help people who don't see themselves as "creative" to access their innate abilities.
5 (18:38) **Practical Exercises for Listeners** - Wendy and Laurel offer specific, small exercises that listeners can try at home to practice paying attention.
6 (22:23) **The Value of Being "Bad" and the "Bad Script"** - The conversation shifts to how perfectionism and high taste can paralyze creative work, and the importance of just starting.
7 (28:14) **Objects, Memory, and Writing Through Loss** - Laurel discusses her "magpie" approach to meaningful objects and how they serve as prompts for writing about grief and memory.

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Show Notes

If you found yourself doodling or writing a lot as a child but then lost the hobby as you grew up, Wendy MacNaughton and Laurel Braitman want to help you recapture your spark. Wendy MacNaughton is an illustrator, the author of “How to Say Goodbye”, and the creator of Draw Together, an art and learning community. Laurel Braitman is a TED Fellow, the author of the memoir “What Looks Like Bravery”, and the founder of Writing Medicine, a community of writing healthcare professionals. Together, Wendy and Laurel created Attention Club, a group of people pursuing creativity by practicing focus with one another. In this episode, Wendy and Laurel join Chris for an in-person chat at the 2024 TED Conference where they discuss the feelings that arise when sharing art with an audience and why embracing mistakes can lead to more meaningful work.

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

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