Shownotes
What if your life didn’t have to fit into one lane? On Soul Sparks, hosted by Saima, Barry Deeks shares a deeply personal journey of creating across books, film, and ideas—without waiting for approval.
This episode is for anyone sitting on a creative idea, questioning their path, or feeling “too scattered” to begin. Barry explores how curiosity, love, and a sense of responsibility can guide your work, even when clarity is missing. It’s a reminder that you don’t need certainty—you need movement.
About the Guest:
Barry Deeks is an author, publisher, filmmaker, podcaster, and creative thinker who has explored multiple disciplines and written across diverse topics including philosophy, science, and mental health.
A Note for Our Listeners:
Before you press play, a gentle word. Our guest Barry Deeks is a survivor of a catastrophic road accident that temporarily affected his ability to speak. At times in this conversation, his words may not sound as clear as he would like them to, but every thought he shares is considered, intentional, and deeply felt.
We ask you to listen with patience and with an open heart. Please do not judge Barry on how his voice sounds, only on the depth of what he is offering. His presence in this conversation is itself an act of courage, and the meaning lives in his words, not in their delivery.
Thank you for showing up for this episode with the kindness it deserves.
Episode Chapter:
00:00 – Introduction to a multi-creative life
01:39 – Following opportunity vs forcing direction
03:09 – Strength in solitude and connection
05:36 – Redefining success through love
07:05 – Purpose, responsibility, and inner calling
12:13 – When ideas become non-negotiable
16:21 – Staying consistent through uncertainty
Key Takeaways:
- You don’t need one identity to live a meaningful life
- Curiosity can be a powerful compass when clarity is absent
- Creative paths often look messy from the outside—but coherent within
- Purpose isn’t always fixed; it evolves as you grow
- Starting matters more than having everything figured out
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Transcripts
00:00:08 Saima: Welcome to Soul Sparks, where we find the small moments that carry big meaning. I'm Saima, and today I am joined by someone whose creative life is genuinely hard to put in a box. And I mean that as the highest compliment. Barry Dicks is an author Publisher. Film writer and producer. Podcaster, comedian and a student of fourteen colleges fourteen. Yes. So today we are talking about what it means to create fearlessly, follow curiosity relentlessly, and build a life that doesn't ask anyone else permission. Mary, so glad to have you here.
00:00:50 Barry Deeks: Glad to be here.
00:00:54 Saima: I'm glad to have you here. Before we jump in, I just want to quickly share a small note with our listeners. Some of the statements in this conversation reflect personal beliefs and experiences and are presented as individual views, not medical advice. If you have medical concerns, it's always best to consult a qualified professional.
00:01:17 Saima: All right, with that said, let's get started.
00:01:20 Barry Deeks: Yeah.
00:01:21 Saima: Mhm. Before we get into the work itself, I have to ask. Most people find one lane and stay in it. But you seem to have deliberately avoided that. So was it a conscious choice or did life just keep handing you new doors?
00:01:39 Barry Deeks: Um, life handed me new opportunities. Every time I bought something. I waited a while and something else came along. An even bigger challenge. But I think I've surely exhausted all challenges. I want something more. I want to save the world. I believe I can.
00:02:09 Saima: Mhm. The way you put that, that's really inspiring. And I like how you describe it. I feel it sounds like you have been open to wherever life has nudged you, rather than forcing yourself into a single path. Like, you know, not being so rigid with yourself. And that kind of adaptability and curiosity is real. And it clearly shows in the work you're doing. So when you, you know, when you do step through one of those new doors, what's usually guiding you like intuition, a sense of purpose, or just the pull of curiosity?
00:02:46 Barry Deeks: It's people. In my philosophy, I've written fifty lines of philosophy, and one of the lines of philosophy is it takes great strength to embrace solitude, but it takes great strength to embrace people.
00:03:09 Speaker 3: Mhm. Mhm.
00:03:12 Saima: That's such a thoughtful way to put it. Very. And I really admire how intentional yet open you are. Like following your purpose and curiosity together takes a lot of self awareness and it's clear that approach has shaped the impact created. So building on that, I'm curious when people hear someone with a film done comedy and studied at different colleges, there's something this assumption that it means scattered energy or lack of focus. What do you think people get wrong about living a life with that many creative threads running through it?
00:03:57 Barry Deeks: It's hard. I didn't start out in life with the ambition to be what I am now. I found little steps along the way and that led to a portfolio. But after a while, I started collecting colleges. I've been to a few, I want to say to another and another and another until one more college didn't really mean much. It's just a statistic. What is greatness? But some measure on a spectrum. Is that defines us. Now, I think that it's love that defines a man or a woman. The man's capacity to love, that's what matters in life. That should be the only greatness worth measuring.
00:05:15 Saima: That's such an insightful point, and I love how you flip that assumption. I feel it's not scattered energy at all. It's a kind of expansive curiosity, and it really shows that living a creative, multi-threaded life can be about love and connection, not just bouncing around. Right?
00:05:36 Barry Deeks: Yeah. Um. The same place. The same place. Yeah. Do you know which books are written? Until I tell you, I've written a book on AI philosophy, a conspiracy theories. Mental health. Biology. Astronomy. Religion, a science fiction book, and an autobiography. My biography is the only one that's published internationally. The rest are published in limited edition or didn't make it up my desktop. The one that's published internationally is an e-book on Wattpad called Paradox Bizarre and Enchanting Life.
00:06:50 Speaker 3: Mhm.
00:06:51 Saima: let's go a little deeper across all of these creative projects, the books, the film, the comedy. What deeper need or question has been driving you?
00:07:05 Barry Deeks: Obligation. The Guardian angels. I was in school or outside school. I said to me, please do something of mankind. If of course you can't do anything, we can shut it all out. But please do something. They said there is only people in your world. My world? It can't fail. But they never told me what they wanted me to do. To let them figure it out for myself. Oh, yes. They made little prompts in there. You should write a book. And then. But they never said, what about. And, uh, I think I've been pretty. Well, I just don't know what to do next. I think that, uh, if I can generate enough fame with these podcasts, it can be like a snowball rolling down a hill. And I think that, uh. When I'm famous political, Claire confronts a lot of become famous and she'll be my festival agent. To bring about world peace. And that's something I can't do. I have to collaborate. Uh, well, if he's been too violent to be a pacifist. But we can work in tandem. I don't know. Honey. But she's probably an ambassador or something. I thought she wanted to be.
00:09:06 Saima: That's really powerful, Barry. Now, in that exploration, do you think that core question has shifted over time, or has it stayed consistent underneath all the different formats.
00:09:22 Barry Deeks: It's been a it's been dynamic. It is constant at all. The only thing constant has been change. And that's the only thing that will ever be constant. Even when you go to the so-called heaven. Things will change. Even the time has stopped because often time and will live forever in heaven. Heaven is not really a change of place. It is a state of mind. When the time comes, we shall awake and will experience something called mind melding experience, pure bliss, eternity. And it's something worth living for. They have to wait and see. If you met someone that you love and they do something profoundly brilliant for you. I'll give you a surge of emotion. You can feel that surge in motion to mind melding, and it can be an ongoing thing, not just a brief fix. And. I will solve the grand unified field theory in physics. I'm not capable of that. But I will become a miracle worker and. All that will be cancelled. Global prices will be frozen. People still pay their bills The support where necessary. And I will go to New York Central Park somewhere in a building built specially for me. From all over the world. And then the last day before time ends. Go back to prison or I will. You hope to incarcerated across the world. I'll go back to prison in England.
00:11:59 Saima: When you think about your books specifically, what was the moment a particular project stopped being just an idea and became something you knew you had to finish?
00:12:13 Barry Deeks: It became something to finish. It's not just my happiness. It's not just humanity's happiness. To succeed in this job. Then the consequences. The cost to humanity would be dire.
00:12:45 Saima: So, um, you know, on the film side, making your own film, you know, it's a whole different kind of vulnerability than writing. So what surprised you most about that process?
00:12:57 Barry Deeks: That it was possible at all? Uh, I really did surprise myself with every step along the way. Uh, I thought that it be impossible when one of my guardian angel said to me I could make a film. I thought she was joking. I thought she was talking rubbish. But I have actually made a film. In the end of it, you see me at this house behind me. But it's not me. It's the interpretation of me. It's all I can see. The house the same and me the same. It's not me saying these words. It just means inputting the words into the computer. And the computer speaks to me. Through me, through my voice.
00:14:00 Speaker 3: Mhm.
00:14:01 Saima: That's a great idea and perspective, how you highlight the vulnerability of filmmaking. It's a whole different muscle than writing. And yet it seems like it taught you something essential about showing up fully for your work. So for someone listening who has a book inside them or a creative idea they have been sitting on for years, what's the one thing you wish someone had told you early on that could have actually helped you move.
00:14:39 Barry Deeks: Never lose sight of your ambitions and aspirations. They may be a part of. It was a line of philosophy I came up with years ago. I wrote it down, but I can't remember what it said. But anyway, uh, I think that, uh, if you want something or someone badly enough, you find yourself capable of anything. And the what I want is a lady from Chester. And I shouldn't mention her name because that would be. That'd be rude, but I think she knows who she is and I don't fancy her. I just admire her. I admire a beautiful things.
00:15:49 Saima: That's really powerful and I like how honest and practical that is. It's the kind of insight that could save someone months, or even years of hesitation, and hearing it put it into words makes it feel possible for anyone sitting on a creative idea. So is there a practice or mindset that has kept you producing, even when the work felt hard, or the response wasn't what you hoped for?
00:16:21 Barry Deeks: I have one thing That. Humanity prospers. As I said in my vow in the. In the video, I vow to save humanity. I vow not to leave this world until humanity is safe. That is my words in the. In the video. Although it was not me, it was just the interpretation of the data I inputted into the computer. I feel now I've learned quite a bit about computers, but I haven't learned much compared to what is noble. I've learned how to do a few things fairly well, but it's still many, many more things I don't know how to do. I am good at computers. I'm not really. I just know a few things that we did in college. I'm not really an expert on anything, but I know a little bit a lot of different things.
00:17:49 Saima: And I will say that I really appreciate how you show that consistency and mindset matter as much as inspiration. It's encouraging to hear that even when things keep difficult or uncertain, there's a way to keep moving forward with purpose. And you have showed that in a very great manner. So very for everyone who wants to find your books, books, your film, your podcast, where is the best place to connect with you and your work.
00:18:24 Barry Deeks: On site. What about the book publishing site? That's where my book is the Bizarre and Enchanting Life parody. Excuse me. And my book is on the same subject called The Man Who Can. It's just a little less than half an hour long, but it's good for a lot of. It's good for a first attempt. But I no longer have the app anymore, and so I can't do it. Uh, the reason being is because they don't let me have the credit card. Now I don't care. I'm being looked after and only looked after by my appointee And I think it's my money because I spend it on silly things and. And then when he left. So I am restricted. But I spent a lot more money on the app for this podcasting. And that's why I, um, haven't got any more to go on to the course I mentioned in my. In my profile to Cambridge. To which I can't get any more colleges. And I pay a in a different way, but I got my card. And because I found the card details on the computer.
00:20:21 Saima: Yeah, certainly going to be beneficial for all our listeners out there, Barry, that are. Quite information stuff, I would say. Thank you so much, Barry. This conversation was a real spark, exactly what the show is meant to be. And to everyone listening, you don't need to have it all figured out to begin. You just need to begin. I'm Simon, and this is Soul Sparks. Until next time. Keep creating, keep learning, and keep showing up for the life that's asking for you.
