Choose to be Curious

Photograph and author Stephen Collector’s career has been an exercise in curiosity and sustained attention. A lifetime of being outside, looking closely at landscapes, animals, and people, noticing what others walk past. Stephen Collector: https://www.stephencollector.com Theme music by Sean Balick. “Idle Way" by Duck Lake, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Biomimicry is “the conscious emulation of nature’s genius.” What might we learn by attending to nature's solutions? Sara Aly El Sayed, Director of the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University, has thoughts! Biomimicry Center: https://globalfutures.asu.edu/biomimicry-center/ Theme music by Sean Balick; “A Palace of Cedar” by The Pine Barrens, via Blue Dot Sessions.

When I wanted to think about curiosity in communications and PR – in the professional work of finding effective ways to tell our stories to one another, under all sorts of circumstances – I knew Greg Abel was the guy to talk to. Greg Abel: https://www.abelcommunications.com Theme music by Sean Balick. “Town Market” by Onesuch Village, via via Blue Dot Sessions.

What might choosing to be curious about the unthinkable offer? Davyne Dial is general manager at WPVM radio in Asheville, NC. Hurricane Helene taught her we should all be more curious about the very things we don't want to think about. WPVM 103.7, Radio Asheville: https://wpvmfm.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “Well Water" by The Bulwark, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Be honest: how often do you reflexively defer to AI? What if that same system told you it had some uncertainty about its answers? What would be different, and why? Author and journalist Maggie Jackson and I dig into what happens when we shuffle the certainty deck and reinsert unsureness in AI, our interactions with it, and our own thinking. Can we protect our future and own humanity by choosing to...

The Yale Center for Civic Thought is dedicated to encouraging thoughtful public discourse and civically responsible intellectual life by helping students practice disagreement, curiosity, and thinking without the pressure to perform. Stephanie Almeida Nevin is executive director of the Center for Civic Thought: https://civicthought.yale.edu Theme music by Sean Balick; “Tuck and Point” by Onesuch V...

Researcher Pierre-Yves Oudeyer and his team are studying autotelic curiosity, that marvelous ability to self-generate and self-select our own learning objectives, goals or games. They design robots to learn like babies... Pierre-Yves Oudeyer: https://www.pyoudeyer.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Cradle Rock" by Nursery, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Sometimes we just get carried away with the Big Jar of Wannabe Analogies. And so it was this time: we were into it!

What do you think of when you think of "kindergarten"? What about the prospect of being a life-long kindergartner? Join me and Lakshmi as we lean into what makes that mindset so rich and why returning to those roots is wise and wonderful. Check out Lakshmi & NoomaLooma: https://www.noomalooma.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Zig Zag Heart" by Nursery, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Philosopher Lani Watson’s new book "Q: The Hidden Power of Questions in a World That Wants Answers" invites us to wrestle with unaskable and unanswerable questions to understand the real power of our questioning practices. Lani Watson: https://www.philosophyofquestions.com Theme music by Sean Balick; "The Basket" by The Balloonist, via Blue Dot Sessions.

O'Nell Agossa has a personal pact: curiosity is who he is. His first book is part memoir, part allegorical road trip buddy story, a thoughtful, slightly trippy, poignant tale of self-discovery. Curiosity & I: Let Curiosity Guide You is a novel about research and theory -- but mostly it's a conversation about how curiosity shows up in work and life between O’Nell's protagonist and a shape-shifting,...

How does curiosity inform architecture? How do architects' designs elicit curiosity? And what stories do they leave behind for the future to unpack? Toronto-based architect Alexander Josephson sees curiosity at the center of anything done well. Alexander Josephson is founder of Toronto-based architecture firm Partisans: https://partisans.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “We Build with Rubber Bands”...

In her book I Believe in Everything: A Memoir of Illness, Motherhood and Magic, Jen Dary chronicles her experience with a brain tumor. It's a story of wonder, unknowing, uncertainty, belief -- and curiosity. Jen Dary: https://www.jendarywriter.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “The Big Ten” by Warmbody, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Larry Robertson makes the case: we aren’t just a “questioning species”, questions are the source of our flourishing. When we learn to use them well, we all benefit. Larry Robertson: https://lrspeaks.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Great Great Lengths” by The Balloonist, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Happy Semiquincentennial! Washington DC-based social sculptor, speaker, and writer Philippa Pham Hughes and I luxuriate in curiosity, this crazy big milestone, and letting ourselves dream about the next 250 years. Theme music by Sean Balick; “Cradle Rocks” by Nursery, via Blue Dot Sessions.

I know I'm relaxed when I'm barefoot in the grass. Something about the smell. The slightly damp, uneven texture under my feet. The associated breeze and bird song. It pulls me fully into the moment, settles me. So I'm putting my toes in the proverbial grass this month. Here are some great re-airs to enjoy! Featuring: Monica Quesada Cordero, Matthias Gruber, Laura Zigman & Shawkat Toorawa Theme mus...

Shaka Mitchell says, “I have seen firsthand how sharing a song can shortcut barriers and spark curiosity about perspectives vastly different from our own…"At a time when we can use all the connective tissue we’ve got, why not turn to something as fundamental as music to build our curiosity muscle? Come Together Music Project: https://www.cometogethermusic.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “Turning O...

The research made headlines: the raccoon raiding your garbage can might just be solving puzzles for the fun of it. Animal behavior scientist Hannah Griebling's work focuses on raccoon cognition and human-wildlife conflict. Short version: they win. They love the challenge. The masked bandit as a curiosity role model! Hannah Griebling: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=JCuZt0wAAAAJ The...

Have you ever noticed how much a space influences how you feel? How a place can put you in a good place...or not? How might we design and inhabit spaces that make choosing curiosity easier? Leidy Klotz offers tips to navigate the spaces around us, making both the best of them and feeding the best in us. Leidy Klotz: https://leidyklotz.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Discovery Harbor" by Cloud Har...

Ep. #326: Marking Our 10th Anniversary, with Lynn Borton by Lynn Borton

Manisha Biswas danced her way into my heart. She was the 2025 social science category winner of the Dance Your PhD contest – a prize she won for her interpretative performance of her thesis, “The Powerful Outcomes of Collective Synchrony”. The Dance Your PhD contest was launched in 2008 to help educate people about complex theories through interpretive dance. I ask you: What is not to love about t...

When the world feels like it’s breaking apart in a million places and even more pieces, I find myself wanting to learn from folks who are leaning into curiosity about the other, people who believe we can promote peace through what Sister Cities founder Dwight D. Eisenhower called “people-to-people diplomacy.” Fred Blanton is one of those people. He serves as the Virginia/West Virginia Coordinator...

I’ve been wanting to do a show about curiosity and community engagement in urban planning for a long time. Amber Wiley's  Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital is a fascinating, densely-researched look at how Black Washingtonians drove urban planning and design policy for public education. The book is, as one reviewer put it, “a stirring lesson in h...

Lady Borton has spent many years living and working in Việt Nam, providing relief service during the war and collecting stories and history ever since-- trying to make sense of the era, the place, the people -- before the stories are lost to time or erasure. She wrote me, “Because I don't know and don't assume I know, I ask odd questions." A curiosity practice, to be sure! Lady is pictured with he...

Do you have a sense of purpose? What does that mean to you? And what place does curiosity have in finding and living one's purpose? There's a lot of research going on around purpose. Purpose Commons is moving that research into practice -- and focusing it on youth. Purpose Commons: https://www.purposecommons.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “FasterFasterBrighter” by Ray Catcher, via Blue Dot Sessio...