Choose to be Curious

As the world's largest online information resource, Wikipedia knows a thing or two about how our curiosity shows up. I wondered: as our information landscape changes, how does Wikipedia adjust? And our curiosity? Lisa Seitz Gruwell, Chief Advancement Officer at Wikimedia Foundation, joined me to reflect on what's worked and the importance of making time for curiosity. Wikipedia: https://en.wikiped...

Art Cullen is the editor and co-owner with his brother John of the Storm Lake Times Pilot, a weekly newspaper in that Northwest Iowa county seat – a town of about 12,000. He has a lot to say to and about the people and place he clearly loves, and mourns.  A place he knows so well, and yet still wonders at and about. Storm Lake Times Pilot: https://www.stormlake.com Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Ne...

I don't know about you, but sometimes the curiosity just isn't there. So I "fake it until I make it"-- I act like like I'm curious. I behave in curious ways, in hopes the feelings will follow. Wouldn't it be nice if there were an app for that? Enter The Humane Space. Lauren Henkin created the lifestyle company and first-of-its-kind app to help people find greater meaning in life through curiosity,...

Chronolog is a way to generate time-lapse images of Earth, powered by your camera -- and your curiosity. Used by organizations worldwide to monitor the environment and inspire our stewardship of our natural resources, this nifty citizen science effort capitalizes on our casual interest. Pretty clever. Chronolog: https://www.chronolog.io Theme music by Sean Balick; “A Catalog of Seasons” from Migra...

Teacher Micaela Pond felt called in yet another direction following the first election of Donald Trump. She soon emerged as a formidable community organizer. I asked her to reflect on curiosity in the work of fighting authoritarianism through community action. WOFA: https://wofava.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “Spunk Lit” by Love & Weasel, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Yvonne Marchese is the lovely and effervescent host of Late Bloomer Living a weekly podcast devoted to redefining what's possible in midlife and beyond. She's a self-described age agitator, play instigator and believer in do-overs on a journey of discovery around that aforementioned play -- which brought her, as it can, to curiosity. Late Bloomer Living: https://www.latebloomerliving.com Theme mus...

Ep.#314: "Curiosity is the thing that drives you to figure out who you really are," with jimmy Hatch by Lynn Borton

Kids are learning machines! But how do they do it? Cognitive scientist Elizabeth Bonawitz is helping us understand how children learn to learn and what role curiosity has to play in those processes. From dinner placemats to trading stickers for science facts, she finds creative ways to get at the heart of this most human of mechanisms. Computational Cognitive Development Lab: https://ccdlab.hsites...

How does an emergency department doctor manage the chaotic swirl of unknowns that show up at their door every day? What are they to make of the needs that emerge from the complex socioeconomic soup in which we all swim? Is curiosity a tool of choice? And are there lessons the rest of us might learn from an ER doc’s hard-won experience?  Milwaukee ER doctor Chris Ford replies with a resounding "Yes...

Malka Ranjana Kopell and Palma Joy Strand are co-founders of Civity, a word they created to describe a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different. They offer tools and trainings to help us all do just that. No surprise, curiosity plays an important part, but not just any curiosity... Civity: https://www.civity.org Theme music by Sean Bali...

...there was just too much goodness here, so I made the hard choice to move the analogies and lovely final reflections to an added clip. Theme music by Sean Balick; "Town Market" by Onesuch Village, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Sommelier and wine consultant Alicia Towns Franken embodies a tantalizing combination: wine --as another in my periodic series on curiosity and our senses--and an actual boots-on-the-ground effort to encourage and enable curiosity where barriers have long existed. Wine Unify: https://www.wineunify.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “Down by the Bank” by Barstool, via Blue Dot Sessions. Photo Credit:...

Curiosity gets a lot of credit for success. For me, that raises an interesting inverse question: what about curiosity and failure? Who better to invite into that conversation than Samuel West, creator of Museum of Failure, a collection of failed products and services from around the world. Museum of Failure: https://museumoffailure.com Theme music by Sean Balick. “The Rampart” by Castle Danger, vi...

Research tells us that by leaning into externally-focused curiosity – “what do I notice that the world needs?” – and internally-focused curiosity – “How might I be able to contribute?” – we can find meaning and a sense of purpose in our lives. We can find what lights us up. Estee Levine did just that. She got curious about where her passions might fill some of the gaps in her community and she set...

I’m taking a little break in December. Call it some curiosity R&R — curiosity respite & re-airs. I’ll get a production break, and my radio audiences will continue to enjoy uninterrupted listening, thanks to Pacifica Radio Network, with four great C2BC Classic re-airs. We'll be back with a great lineup starting January 1st. Of course, I don’t want you to miss out, so here’s a peek at what my radio...

"Slow down to the speed of wonder." ~ John Muir Laws This is an episode about nature journaling, but Jack would be the first to say: it isn't about the journal, it's about the journey. He's developed interdisciplinary programs that combine art with science and train us to observe the world with rigor and joy -- strengthening our capacity to be intentionally curious. John Muir Laws: https://johnmui...

I couldn't fit everything in this week, so here is what Jack Laws and I drew from the Big Jar of Wannabe Analogies. #analogy Episode webpage: https://lynnborton.com/2025/11/27/curiosity-nature-journaling-with-john-muir-laws/

Enough with the polite, front parlor pablum of the past -- and onward toward rich discussion, mindful discourse, self-disclosure, and – dare I say it? – curiosity! Wanting to do something about the epidemic of loneliness among her peers, Ashley Kirsner set out to find a way to help people build their conversational and self-revelatory muscles. Enter Skip the Small Talk. Skip the Small Talk: https:...

“Creativitry," writes legendary playwright Stan Lai in the preface to his new book of that name, "Doesn’t exist as a word. Just as all creative things do not exist -- until they do. "Rhymes with Artistry, and Chemistry, and Sorcery. "The know-how, practice and mastery of creativity." The overlap, undercurrents and  interplay of creativity and curiosity come up a lot here, which only heightened my...

How might understanding the experiences of disability help us be more curious about our own and others' minds and bodies? And, most importantly, how might any of that help us be kinder and more patient with ourselves and each other? I’m profoundly grateful to legal scholar and disability media-maker Qudsiya Naqui for proposing today’s topic. Qudsiya Naqui: https://law.udc.edu/qudsiya-naqui/ Theme...

Brian Fretwell's work grows out of a rich mix of neuroscience, anthropology, leadership and what you might call self-interested curiosity. Rather than obsessing about where we fell short and consoling ourselves we will learn from our mistakes, he encourages us to learn from our successes instead. The secret, he says, is connection. Brian Fretwell & Finding Good: https://www.findinggood.com Theme m...

What if there were a mechanism – a format – that kept novelty high, provided some assurance that the information being imparted was important (at least to someone), and that might tap into things we know perhaps a bit about?  Wouldn’t that seem like a pretty great curiosity vehicle? I give you PechaKucha! PechaKucha Night Knoxville: https://www.pechakucha.com/communities/knoxville Theme music by S...

I've been thinking about being more curious about what accessibility around curiosity really means and entails. I was delighted to sit down with accessibility advocate and Birdablity executive director, Cat Fribley to explore the curiosity lessons to be learned from the organization -- and from Birdability Week, a week full of events dedicated to making birding accessible and inclusive for everyon...

“Kiku” is a Japanese word for listen. It is comprised of smaller characters that together, as my guest Haru Yamada puts it, “generate the secret alchemy of listening: an ear 耳 on the left and fourteen 十四 hearts 心 on the right …conjuring a person listening with the energy of fourteen hearts.” Think for a moment what it means to listen with the energy of fourteen hearts… Haru Yamada is a self-de...

Sam Furness says nothing gives him greater joy than being an architect of spaces and moments where people really feel they can express themselves creatively.  In that spirit, he founded Creative Quests, a worldwide community and creative playground for people fueled by curiosity. Sam Furness/Creative Quests: https://www.creativequests.world Theme music by Sean Balick; “Valantis” by Cauldron, via B...