Thecuriousmanspodcast

Today, we're talking about forgiveness—but not only the forgiveness we extend to other people. We're talking about one of the most difficult forms of forgiveness: forgiving ourselves . My guest is Lena Fein, author of Shattering the Mirror , a memoir about surviving emotional disconnection, difficult relationship dynamics, and years of moving through life without fully experiencing it. Raised in a...

Today's guest has lived through war, incarceration, addiction, trauma, and some of the most difficult chapters of American history—and yet his life has become a powerful testament to the possibility of transformation. Greg Payton was a young African-American soldier drafted into the Vietnam War. His experience included time in a military stockade in Vietnam, where racial injustice, harsh condition...

What happens when a republic doesn't fall all at once—but gives away its power piece by piece? More than 2,000 years ago, Rome faced a political crisis that would transform the Western world. Civil war, political violence, concentrated power, exhausted citizens, and ambitious leaders created the conditions for a republic to become an empire. And at the center of that transformation was a man most...

There is a version of fatherhood we rarely talk about. We talk about the sleepless nights, the diapers, the exhaustion, and the joy. We talk about the transformation that comes with becoming a parent. But what happens when a father isn't feeling joy at all? What happens when the person everyone expects to be strong, capable, and in control is quietly falling apart? My guest today knows that experi...

What if the biggest problem with American elections isn't that election manipulation is something new—but that we've forgotten just how long it has been part of our history? From the disputed presidential election of 1876 to contested elections involving Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter, from voter suppression and gerrymandering to Bush v. Gore and the modern battles over election legitimacy, Ameri...

My thoughts on the 25th Anniversary of September 11th, 2001.

America spends more on health care than any other wealthy nation—and yet millions of Americans struggle to afford care, medical debt remains widespread, and our health outcomes often lag behind those of countries spending far less. So what happened? Did American health care simply become too complicated? Did insurance companies become too powerful? Did hospitals become too corporate? Did politicia...

Imagine parachuting into Nazi-occupied France with no guarantee that you'll survive the night. Your mission: arm the Resistance, sabotage the enemy, gather intelligence, and rescue Allied airmen. Now imagine doing it while sometimes posing as a fashion designer or a Vichy official—and then surrendering to more than 100 German soldiers because you've negotiated to save an entire French village. Thi...

1985. A small Oregon town. A teenage girl named Lou Miller is preparing to graduate high school when her father makes an unexpected announcement: a coworker named Jim—and his two Pomeranians—are moving into the family home. But there's something Lou doesn't know. Jim has AIDS. At a time when fear, misinformation, and stigma surrounded the disease, one teenager's decision to look beyond the diagnos...

What do you do when your father leaves behind an unfinished novel—and your father happens to be one of the most beloved and prolific storytellers in American literature? Do you finish it? And if you do, how do you make it his story while also making it your own? That's the fascinating challenge Beau L'Amour faced with Skyring Water , a new novel based on a partial manuscript by his late father, le...

What does God have to do with the American story? The answer, as you'll discover in today's conversation, is complicated. For four centuries, Americans have argued, preached, written, protested, prayed, rebelled, questioned, and sometimes fought over the meaning of the divine. Puritan ministers, enslaved poets, abolitionists, presidents, transcendentalists, scientists, civil-rights leaders, comedi...

For decades, Africa has too often been viewed through the narrow lenses of crisis, conflict, and poverty. But today's guest has spent a lifetime making the case that the continent is far more accurately understood as a place of extraordinary opportunity, innovation, diplomacy, and global importance. Joining me is Witney Schneidman —former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affair...

What does a mother do when survival means making impossible choices? And what happens when a thirteen-year-old girl is forced to grow up in a world where childhood can disappear overnight? Pauline Steinhorn's new book, Dreaming of the River: A Mother and Daughter's Fight for Survival During the Holocaust , tells the extraordinary true story of her mother, Bronia Feldman, and grandmother, Hajuta. I...

What can the collapse of an ancient republic tell us about the health of the American republic today? More than two thousand years ago, Rome was a functioning republic. It had elections, political institutions, a powerful Senate, ambitious leaders, and citizens who believed their system could endure. It didn't. The Roman Republic was ultimately replaced by autocracy—but, importantly, its collapse...

What happens when a political party loses the trust of the people it says it represents? And perhaps even more importantly: how does it earn that trust back? My guest today has some unusually direct answers. Joe Cunningham made political history in 2018 when he became the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. He went on to serve in Congress, wher...

What if science finally proved that there really is an afterlife? And what if it also proved that not everyone gets to experience it? That's the provocative premise behind Don Schechter's debut novel, Ascendants . Set in 2060, the novel imagines a world transformed by a scientific discovery: certain people are genetically destined to experience an afterlife, while everyone else—the so-called "biom...

What does a place do to you when you leave it behind—but it never really leaves you? In 1990, a young journalist named Earl Swift set out to hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. More than 2,000 miles later, he emerged changed: more disciplined, more resourceful, and deeply connected to the outdoors. But Swift also carried something else home. Early in his journey, he met two fellow hi...

What if one of the central assumptions about cancer is wrong? For more than half a century, cancer research has largely focused on the idea that cancer begins with mutations in genes that disrupt the normal controls on cell growth. But what if the fundamental problem isn't primarily genetic mutation? What if cancer is instead rooted in something more basic: a breakdown in the organization and bala...

Conspiracy theories can feel like a uniquely modern phenomenon. QAnon. Pizzagate. The "Big Lie." The Epstein Files. False claims about vaccines, medicines, elections, and political opponents. But what if conspiracy theories aren't a new disease infecting American politics? What if they've been part of the American political tradition from the very beginning? In his new book, Conspirator in Chief:...

Rock 'n' roll has always had a dark side. Behind the music, the fame, the drugs, the excess, and the mythology are stories of mysterious deaths, unexplained events, strange symbols, secretive organizations, and rumors that have refused to die. Was that simply the inevitable mythology that grows around enormously famous musicians? Or are there stories hiding beneath the official versions of events...

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Superman has become one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the world. But behind the cape, the shield, and the mythology is another story—one involving two young creators, a publishing industry, enormous sums of money, and a decades-long battle over who actually owned the ch...

What happens when ambition becomes more important than humanity? In the late 1800s, America is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Coal mines are expanding, fortunes are being built, industrialists are becoming powerful, and entire communities are being reshaped by the machinery of the Industrial Age. But beneath the booming industry is another story—one about the people living in its shadow. In...

The Olympics are supposed to represent something bigger than politics. Athletes from around the world gather in one place, nations compete peacefully, and the entire planet watches. But what happens when the world's greatest sporting spectacle becomes the target of an extraordinary act of terror? In Joe Battaglia's new novel, Beneath the Rings , the Doha 2040 Summer Olympics begin with dreams of g...

What was it actually like to be a gladiator in ancient Rome? Not the Hollywood version. Not the sanitized version. And not simply the image of two muscular men entering an arena with swords. What did a gladiator eat? Where did he sleep? What happened before a fight? How were gladiators trained, disciplined, rewarded—and sometimes exploited? What did freedom mean to someone who was technically ensl...

What happens after the revolution? The battles have been won. Independence has been declared. A new nation has been born. But then comes the hard part: building a country. Bestselling historical fiction author Sharon Virts explores that fascinating—and often overlooked—period in her new novel, Bargains of Fate , the second book in her Fields of Honor series. The series focuses on America's "Second...