Choose to be Curious

"Open-earedness" describes our willingness to explore new music. I’ve come to think of it as the auditory equivalent of open-mindedness. Good news: there's delightfully compelling evidence that choosing to be curious about music is good for our health and well-being! Tim McKenry, professor of music at Australian Catholic University, is a spirited advocate for reclaiming our tolerance of the unfami...

"I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times" is as encouraging a book as I can imagine. It is a curiosity guidebook par excellence, chock full of tips and tricks and a lovely reminder that, as author Monicá Guzmán puts it, “understanding the people who confound us is always, always worth it.” Monicá Guzmán, founder of Reclaim Curiosity...

I can think of no better way to mark the rather miraculous milestone of my 200th episode than with a conversation about walking and wonder. David Pearl is an innovator in business and the arts. He's also inventor and founder of Street Wisdom, an exercise in meticulous whimsy that helps us find inspiration from strolling the streets around us. "If you’re not curious, you tend to stay in the highway...

I first got interested in curiosity as a management tool in my role as chief operating officer at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), a national grassroots nonprofit organization. NAMI had about 80 employees and nearly 1,000 mostly volunteer-led affiliates  when I was there -- and it was basically my job to know everything.  But I became convinced I was better at my role if I didn’t know e...

Respect matters says Julie Pham, PhD. But it's also relative, subjective, and contradictory. It's complicated. Her book 7 Forms of Respect: A Guide to Transforming Your Communication and Relationships at Work makes the case that respect is all about honing our curiosity practices. Inward curiosity to unearth our own feelings about respect, and outward curiosity to help us discover and deliver what...

In 28 very fast minutes we cover curiosity and creativity, the transformative power of asking questions, pivotal differences between general interest curiosity and deprivation curiosity, turning mind wandering into mind wondering, the loveliness of open mindfulness and implementation intentions ... and the possibility of an app for all of that! I reached out to Jonathan Schooler, Ph. D., Distingui...

Killer whales, honey bees, walking dunes and hugging trees? Those are just a few of the delights awaiting those who get beyond their front doors, both literal and figurative. Dina Pavlis has lived and played on the Oregon Coast for over 20 years. She is an avid hiker, outdoor enthusiast, nature photographer and volunteer interpretive ranger with the US forest Service. She also produces and hosts B...

Where does research begin? Tom Mullaney and Christoper Rae say it starts way before we think it does. Their book, Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World) is a remarkable book -- a workbook, really. They provide a curiosity-informed, generative process for finding and really understanding the questions underlying anything you might want to learn more a...

The Curiosity Lab at IIT Gandhinagar (India) studies factors that generate, sustain and foster curiosity. The Lab is designed as an interdisciplinary space that promotes research and outreach initiatives specifically around curiosity. The Curiosity Lab takes on systemic inequalities, popular notions of what does or doesn't support curiosity, and generally makes it their business to encourage curio...

"A citizen scientist is anyone who is curious about the world and eager to help explore and understand it,” explains National Science Foundation director, Sethuraman Panchanathan. Caroline Nickerson advises SciStarter, one of the allied network of organizations promoting citizen science and April as Citizen Science Month. Her citizen science enthusiasm is infectious! Learn more about SciStarter an...

In 2017 Eva Marie Carney read a news story that changed her life. I invited her to share how being open to new information -- and allowing that information to influence not only her thinking but also her actions -- has enabled her to change other lives as well. This is an exploration of curiosity, very much as applied. Curiosity, in this case, in service of ending period poverty. Eva Marie Carney...

Claire Bown teaches techniques to help people connect more with art. Her guide How to Look at Art (Slowly) is as rich a compendium of curiosity practices as I've ever found. Claire's professional focus is museums, but she'd be the first to tell you: the skills she shares are useful anywhere... Check out Claire's work at Thinking Museum: https://thinkingmuseum.com Theme music by Sean Balick; "Purpl...

The well-deserved accolades pour in -- Newberry Medal, Coretta Scott King Award, Cyblis Award, and more -- but what caught my eye about Amina Luqman-Dawson's wonderful book Freewater was her deft deployment of curiosity. Whether as a springboard for her own writing and research, as an invitation to her readers, or the force that enables her characters' growth and literal freedom, curiosity in ever...

I had no experience with audio, radio, production, editing -- anything -- when I first undertook this show nearly 7 years ago. But I was an eager learner, improbably on the cusp of being on-air.  I had big ambitions and, like many newbies, I had no earthly idea just how big they were. I wanted to open my first show with reveille from the Joint Base Myer Henderson Hall. That shouldn’t be so hard, r...

Just in time for Valentine's Day we consider curiosity and how we experience and express love. Hailey Magee is a certified coach, educator, and writer who helps folks worldwide set empowered boundaries and break people-pleasing patterns.  She says curiosity is her love language. That seemed like a conversation we would all want to have! Check out Hailey Magee: https://www.haileymagee.com Read Hail...

How might choosing to be curious about language influence our familiarity with, understanding of, or comfort around the very words we use to express curiosity --- or anything else? That's where this fascinating conversation with University of Arizona linguistics professor Sonja Lanehart started.  But it wasn't long before we were talking about new words for curiosity, the forthcoming Oxford Dictio...

Natural Curiosity is both an entity and an idea. The entity, a nonprofit organization based in Toronto with a lab school and eponymous teaching guide, embodies the idea that environmental education must center our relations with all things, seen and unseen. Propelled by unequivocal recommendations from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Natural Curiosity brings indigenous perspectives i...

What if there was a way to help people meet and talk with others whose lives are very different (or not!) from their own? The Human Library does just that, by creating a safe space for dialogue, an opportunity for challenging stigma and stereotypes, and the chance to "unjudge" someone.  Co-founder and CEO Ronni Abergel joins me to talk about "publishing" people as "open books." Others come to the...

Sofia Forss, Ph. D. is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Zurich, specializing in comparative cognition and animal behavior. She's curious about how curiosity shows up in apes. A fascinating discussion about curiosity and the influence of others, upbringing, and perceptions of risk. What might these findings suggest for apes' close cousins, we humans? I was surprised and intrigued over...

Do you like a good scavenger hunt? Love the thrill of discovering new places? That’s your curiosity calling! Wait ’til you hear about geocaching, a GPS-driven treasure hunt game for the 21st century. Sonny Portacio hosts The Podcacher Podcast, a hit variety show all about "geocaching goodness" that he and his wife Sandy have been sharing since 2005. Who better to talk about curiosity and geocachin...

What makes someone "askable"? Arlington, Virginia has launched an "Askable Adult" program to build the capacity of adults to be nonjudgmental and approachable resources and supports for youth in the county. Program proponents believe that everyone has a role to play in supporting the health and well-being of children and youth in the community.  And on their short list of key skills that make adul...

The Right Question Institute (RQI), works to build a more just and equitable democracy by strengthening people’s ability to ask questions and participate in decisions that affect them. As RQI puts it, “When people of all ages learn to ask the right questions, it leads to feeling a new sense of agency, confidence & power.” Naomi Campbell directs RQI's Legal Empowerment program, leading RQI’s effort...

Local housing advocate Luca Gattoni-Celli joins me for a conversation about urbanism – the study of the built environment and how people interact with it – and learning to view the world with fresh eyes. How differently might we see things if we throw a little curiosity into the mix? Luca Gattoni-Celli was deeply moved by the passion and tragic death of Jim Pagels. I hope this show contributes to...

Danny Smith and Rich Maxham share a passion for violins. In a lovely and powerful apprenticeship partnership, Rich learns Danny's luthier craft, but Danny will tell you he's learning from Rich as well. It's apprenticeship as a joyful joint curiosity enterprise. Special thanks to Katy Clune, director of Virginia Humanities' Virginia Folklife Program, for facilitating this and so much else, and to R...

Kasha Patel is a triple threat: scientist, journalist and stand-up comedian, the perfect person to join me for a conversation about the rich alchemy of leaning into all three. Kasha Patel is the deputy weather editor for the Capital Weather Gang at The Washington Post, covering weather, climate change and the environment. Before joining The Post, she produced news stories, videos and features abou...