Choose to be Curious

One word comes up a lot in our curiosity conversations: trust. "Chump Lady" Tracy Schorn and corporate culture & engagement guru Scott Nycum come at it from quite different directions but have surprisnigly similar things to say about how curiosity reflects and deepens trust. All that in five minutes!

Listen in, listen up: you might hear something that surprises you. Award-winning audio journalist, media consultant and audio artist Jocelyn Frank on curiosity and the awesome power of listening carefully to the people and sounds around us. Photo by Kristian Whipple @kwhipplephoto kwhipple.com Theme music by Sean Balick

Look up, listen up! We're all about paying attention to the world around us in this short visit with audio journalist and artist Jocelyn Frank and Atlas Obscura's DC chief explorer, Elliot Carter. Why choosing to be curious about the small sounds and lesser known sights is so rewarding. All that in six short minutes!

Two TED Talk superstars on the power of curiosity to beat bad habits and overcome fear. Drs. Judson Brewer and Mario Livio in a rich, fast five minutes.

You've seen his TED Talk on habit change, now Dr. Judson Brewer joins us to talk more about the central role curiosity plays in mindfulness and breaking bad habits. Its all about understanding our craving mind.

What might we learn by choosing to be curious about outcomes? Sharon Shutler spent the better part of 2017 supporting the effort to "flip Virginia blue." Then she spent some time looking at what worked -- and what didn't. Now she's sharing what she and others learned. And special thanks to Rene Barger for his segment "The Rocking Horse" and Sean Balick for his original tunes.

Michelangelo, the master artist, wrote, “I am still learning." We're all about the spirit of life-long learning in this week's segment, featuring Sharon Shutler's lessons learned from the 2017 Virginia elections and Marjorie Varner of Encore Learning.

Sixteen students, seven days, one remarkable adventure in curiosity, courage and systems transformation. Students of Central Falls High School (RI) came to Washington DC as part of their class "How to Change the World" - they have a lot to say about their experience. Join us next time when Sharon Shutler shares lessons learned from Virginia's 2017 Election.

Teacher Seth Kolker thought, “If we’re not teaching kids how to change the world, then our education isn’t doing them very much good.” So he and sixteen of his students from Central Falls (RI) set out to learn how to change the world. This is a taste of their story, made possible by the miracle that is community media!

"Change is hard," says historian Susan Strasser as she and poet Marcia E. Cole join me for A Double Take on Lynching. We choose to be curious about tough parts of our history so that we may learn, grow -- and change. Valeria Gellman collected oral histories from local legacy businesses in Arlington, VA, for the same reason. All in six minutes!

A White historian and an African-American poet team up to view the history of lynching in the U.S. with fresh eyes. What do we discover when we become curious about parts of our past that are shameful and violent? How might choosing to be curious about lynching's historic context and continuing consequences help us move forward? Theme music by Sean Balick. "Surly Bonds" by Aeronaut, via Blue Dot S...

It's not going away and neither is she. We take a look at Miriam Gennari's journey from curiosity to concern to advocacy as she takes on expanded polystyrene, Styrofoam. Are you a badger mom? Listen in to find out?

Paying attention to the world we call home - from our environmental footprints to our grasp of world affairs. Miriam Gennari and Bunmi Akinnusotu take on the world, literally. All in six minutes!

Two conversations about what really matters: Dr. Ellen Fox on bringing curiosity to ethical dilemmas in healthcare and Dr. Raya Kheirbek on narrative medicine and the art of really listening. Humane curiosity right where we need it - all that in just six minutes!

Healthcare ethicist Dr. Ellen Fox takes on the question "What truly matters?", using curiosity to help others reach good decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas. A remarkably thoughtful and humane conversation about healthcare. Join us next time when "Styrofoam Mom" Miriam Gennari brings curiosity to our environmental impact -- just in time for Earth Day!

A dual celebration: the 50th episode of Choose to be Curious and a lovely return to our first anniversary show with Scott Nycum on a theme that comes up a lot here: trust. In five fast minutes we make the case for slowing down and savoring what we find when we choose to be curious....

This is my 50th episode of Choose to be Curious and it's dedicated to walking the curiosity talk. In honor of the occasion, I dedicated a weekend -- 50 hours -- to being actively, consistently, and persistently curious. Who knew it would involve tornadoes, grave diggers, affinity groups with names like BURP, and Chinese belly dancers? I hope you'll join me next time when Dr. Ellen Fox and I explor...

Naren Ramakrishnan, director of Virginia Tech's Discovery Analytics Center (DAC), joins me to talk about how he and his colleagues use big data to do things like predict flu epidemics using decidedly non-medical information like Tweets and restaurant reservations. Curiosity + big data = fascinating results! Join us next time when we celebrate our 50th episode: a whole weekend of walking the choose...

A tantalizing idea: answers to all our challenges are hiding in plain sight, if only we can determine where and how to look for them. If only we are curious about how to find them. Naren Ramakrishnan, director of Virginia Tech's Discovery Analytics Center (DAC) and Arlington County Police Department Detective Sarah Bertollini on sleuthing out the facts in some unexpected places - in five minutes!...

J.R.R.Tolkien wrote "Still round the corner there may wait / A new road or a secret gate" He was writing about an exotic land far from here, but the same sense of adventure can inform our local explorations. Elliot Carter, DC Chief Explorer for Atlas Obscura, joins me to talk about choosing to be curious about the the world's hidden wonders in our own backyards. Join me next time when Naren Ramakr...

With spring coming, we're all about the wandering around with our eyes open this week. Elliot Carter, DC Chief Explorer for Atlas Obscura, pays attention the to the "little-known facts about the well-known places" and Karen Ward, founder of Curiosity Global, invites us to share how we discover the world through our curious eyes. Seeing the world anew, in just five minutes! As always, thanks to Sea...

This week, we choose to be curious about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Georgetown professor Caetlin Benson-Allott joins us to reflect on the "transformative power of attention" -- the idea that the more attention we pay to something, the more interesting it becomes. Case in point: she wrote a whole book about remote controls. Join us next time when Atlas Obscura's DC Chief Explorer Elliot C...

This week it's all about the thrill of the chase - searching out the hidden histories of ordinary things and wriggling down rabbit holes after fascinating new facts. Georgetown professor and author Caetlin Benson-Allott talks about object lessons and the transformative power of attention, and librarian Jennifer Rothschild reminds us why we might have been in love with the librarians of our childho...

Two very different stories with one common theme: searching for truth about who we are and how family fits. Sondra Kolker's search for the father she never knew, and Evie and Sarah Priestman's gender identity journey. As one storyteller puts it, "you can't help but want to know." All that in just over 6 minutes!

"It's just an intense curiosity - that desire to know your roots." This is a story about not having a choice in one's curiosity. About the burning need some of us have to learn even the most basic things about our origins and ourselves. One woman's search for her father, two women's discovery of family; a story told in four voices. "You can't help but want to know."