Choose to be Curious

I found myself thinking about the exquisite agony of a Hitchcock suspense when I came upon an article in Scientific American, "Why Curiosity Makes Us Patient." Abby Hsuing & Alison Adcock assert curiosity makes us hungry for knowledge, but not necessarily in a hurry to get it. It's a finding that runs in the face of a whole lot of curiosity theory that supposes curiosity is an urgent desire to kno...

The Ig Nobel Prizes recognize research efforts that make you laugh...and then think. They celebrate the unusual and honor the imaginative. They are, in my mind, a delightful and very deliberate celebration of curiosity. Ig Nobel Prize founder and editor of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research Marc Abrahams joins me to talk about the origins and contributions of this quirky prize. The awards...

What if museums were sticky, stinky, noisy places? What if they were sensational? Psychologist Alison Eardley is on a mission to make museums more accessible and inclusive -- physically and conceptually -- for all audiences. Her work draws on all of our senses, engaging us far more deeply with what's before us. What if museums helped us tap our collective curiosity to co-create our visits? More ab...

For the 250th episode of this brave little enterprise, I invited psychologist and curiosity researcher Todd Kashdan to join me to rethink some of the old curiosity standards. The research has evolved and we're going with it. What better way to keep the curiosity alive than by questioning what we think we know? More about Todd Kashdan: https://toddkashdan.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Shift of C...

...In today's conversation, Todd Kashdan and I touched on evolving understandings about curiosity across the life span, the challenges inherent in certain kinds of curiosity, and a more nuanced way to think about "the curiosity zone". But I couldn't fit the whole conversation in 28 short minutes, so here's a little bonus -- a peek behind the production curtain, and some of the rich conversation th...

From the moment I set foot on campus, it was clear that Olin College of Engineering has a special and very intentional relationship with curiosity.   Olin embodies a willingness to try something new, make mistakes, and learn from those experiences. Gilda A. Barabino, Ph. D., is president of Olin and sets that curiosity tone. More about Olin College of Engineering at https://www.olin.edu Theme musi...

The big questions of astrophysicist Mario Livio's new book Is Earth Exceptional? The Quest for Cosmic Life are as close as we get to an ultimate curiosity -- questions about the origin of life, the universe, and where and how those two intersect. Dr. Livio worked with the Hubble Space Telescope and is a bestselling author of seven books. Together with Jack Szostak, a biochemist and Nobel laureate,...

In 2007-2008, Chris Kolenda led an 800-paratrooper task force in eastern Afghanistan. While there, he motivated a large insurgent group to switch sides, the only example of such success in the 20-year history of the war. We can learn a lot from his stories. Find Chris Kolenda here: https://chriskolenda.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Turning to You" by Landsmen Duet, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Once you know it, you see it everywhere. Ever since Gregg Potter put collaboration on my curiosity radar, I'm seeing it in everything. Gregg is a collaboration coach and founder and executive director of the International Institute on Collaboration. He knows a thing or two about how people work together toward shared objectives -- whether they think of it that way or not. Five skills work together...

Curiosity, biodiversity, rewilding -- these are the exciting places Carolin Sommer-Trembo Ph. D. takes us today. Carolin is an evolutionary biologist. Her big goal is to focus attention on animal behavior as it effects evolution and biodiversity. To get there, she has studied curiosity in cichlid fish in Africa's Lake Tanganyika, combining some good old-fashioned field work with exciting new inves...

I could listen to peace-builder and story-teller Kiran Singh Sirah all day. Not because he's a gifted and generous story-teller -- he most certainly is -- but because his world view is so encompassing, so uplifting, so empowering. So beautiful. Our conversation about curiosity, stories and belonging gets to the heart of who we are as humans, and what we can be as a society. Pull up a comfy chair,...

We all want to understand the world around us, but sometimes our curiosity can lead us down some strange paths. Dr. Joe Stubbersfield is a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Winchester in the UK. He's curious about how our various stories and narratives might shape -- and are shaped by -- our curiosity. Joe has researched how morbid curiosity can lead people to conspiracy theories ...

I'm intrigued by the concept of social enterprises -- businesses with a sense of purpose larger than themselves. Timothy D. Craggette is founder and Chief Education Officer of NAASBI, The National Association for the Advancement of Small Business Innovation.  He trains business owners and supports small business innovation through the association and his radio show/podcast The Swift Kick Show. Tim...

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is a Choose to Be Curious trifecta: researcher, theoretician -- and practitioner. A neuroscientist and deep thinker about the personal and social implications of our curiosity, she conducts tiny experiments to focus closely on how we use our time and energy to best effect. Anne-Laure is the founder of Ness Labs, a collective platform for curious people, where “ambitious knowled...

What do people who know and appreciate a place deeply see that I might not? The Mount Vernon Trail winds its way along the river, a combination national park and major commuter artery. It's a place I find myself frequently and I wondered: what am I not seeing in this place that is so familiar? The Trail is there because the Potomac River is there, an always-scenic but often-silent companion. What...

Annabelle Tometich -- writer, editor, former food critic and now author -- joins me to explore the tricky, high-traffic intersection of identity and curiosity. Who gets to decide identity? How do we determine our own, let alone someone else's, identity? How might we allow ourselves and others a little grace to figure these things out? Find Annabelle Tometich at https://annabelletometich.com Theme...

"Curiosity is fundamental to writing and to everything that I treasure," said writer Rachel Kadish as we opened our conversation. Hard to imagine, but it just kept getting better from there... Inspired by her New York Times opinion essay on teaching writers to seek "unflinching empathy", I invited her to join me for a conversation about putting our trust in the curiosity. Discover the delight that...

Peder Söderlind describes himself as a Swedish author, researcher and entrepreneur, but I believes he's an important emerging curiosity theorist. His writing and thinking on the topic are rich in all the best ways -- evocative, provocative, constructive. Our conversation moved from "local, difficult, and meaningful" problems for keeping our minds curious and framing problems as opportunities, to t...

Can we capture what makes us curious? Where does our curiosity cross into confusion, or frustration? Can we place it? Might we experience it in one domain, but not another? These are the kinds of questions that animate the work of Emily Grossnickle Peterson, Ph. D., director of the Educational Neuroscience Lab at American University. Years after first meeting, we finally sat down to talk… Check ou...

Can curiosity be meaingfully infused into design processes? Cassini Nazir thinks so. From curiosity journals to bookmarks and Valentine's Day celebrations, he's full of ideas about how to invite curiosity in, by design. Cassini Nazir teaches interaction design and user experience courses in the College of Visual Arts and Design at University of North Texas. He's interested in designing ways to inv...

Summer's coming. Time to take that curiosity out for a little spin! Whether you're traveling far from home or enjoying a little "staycation," author, tour manager and explorer extraordinaire Andréa Seiger has tips for getting the most of your adventures. Why visit cemeteries, science associations and bus stops? Can you smell green? What do your knees see? Andréa is a delightful coach for our wande...

"We live in an experimenting society" Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter reassures us, "The fact that we can use partial information and do better is actually one of our superpowers." Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense by Saul Perlmutter, John Campbell and Robert MacCoun takes the optimism and tools of science and helps us apply them to the everyday. They help us think ab...

It’s been ten years since self-described “questionologist" Warren Berger first published his best-selling book A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Now, more than ever, we need the power and importance of thoughtful — and, as he would say: beautiful — questions. And what of the intersection of curiosity and questions? What’s their relationship? And how might...

I came across the heading "DISCOVERY MATTERS" as I dug around the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's website and I knew I was on to something. Janet Coffey, Ph. D., directs the Moore Foundation's Curiosity-Driven Science Initiative. She aims to enhance opportunities for active public engagement with science as a means to help cultivate a curious and an open-minded public that appreciates, values...

In his new and surprisingly uplifting book ASK:Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life, Jeff Wetzler distills the many lessons he’s learned into a curiosity-centric approach – “The Ask Approach” – that offers a way for all of us to tap into our desire for connection and into the wisdom hiding in plain sight around us. It begins with choos...