Feeding Curiosity

"Your philosophy is the foundation to align your thoughts to who you are, not coupling them to what you do." The purpose of doing deep work is to align your thoughts, words, and actions. By aligning those three components, it forms the bedrock of how you think. The story that you're telling yourself. For me, it adds connective tissue to feel fulfilled about anything you do. Many sources will help...

"You can't copy paste a conversation." - Jordan Criss  Jordan Criss joins us for this conversation, which started with a discussion around The JOKER starring Joaquin Phoenix. We concluded the film is much more of a social commentary than only for entertainment purposes. Jordan gives clear analogies what he believes the film was trying to accomplish, and for him, it was an unsettling film beca...

"These are all inflections points in your life. Can you look back and figure out why you thought the way you did? Then compare it to how you think now?" - Todd Myrick Subscribe on your favorite platform: Anchor | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | RSS In this episode, we are joined by Todd Myrick. Todd was on the show previously, and we covered the first half of his...

“Applying daily recovery isn't only about wellness; this goes deeper. Daily recovery should be a blueprint for understanding your routine and habits. Over time you can make adjustments so that you can start and end your days to be at your best. Ultimately priming your self to be at your consistently.” Subscribe on your favorite platform: Anchor | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overca...

"There's a trade-off between ambition and patience." - Alex Behrens In this week's episode, we are joined by Alex Behrens of Maple Leaf Coffee Roasters. In this conversation, Alex shares insights into the world of coffee roasting; from roasting to sourcing and different flavors we are accustomed to. He also expands on ideas of starting a business and just how much thought needs to go into it. Even...

Nick Buegel and Erich have a conversation about training the mind. In this episode, we go deep on how to train mindfulness. Mindfulness can be interchanged with meditation, but we specifically use the word mindfulness to make it a skill-based practice. We try our best to get very practical from our own lives on how we have used mindfulness. We want to make mindfulness as accessible to as broad an...

Over the weekend, Erich saw Angels and Airwaves (AVA) live at the Chicago House of Blues. In this episode, we spice things up with a different style of podcast. Erich shares his thoughts on the experience of seeing AVA, but before that, we need a little bit of background. A common theme of this podcast is how much we resonate with the music. There's deep roots within humanity and the creation of m...

In this conversation starts with a discussion opening of American football season.  From sports, we enter into a conversation around music touching on the artists we enjoy or have made an impact on us. For Ben and myself, we've always connected with Tom Delonge of Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves . We also talk about concept albums; albums meant to be listened to in sequence. Erich share a...

"Cultures grow when they come into contact with each other. But they only learn from each if your willing to let them cross-pollinate. Let them share ideas, move, and try new things. That's how you learn about other people and get empathy for people that aren't like you." - Joe Jackowski Joe Jackowski is back on the show! We recap what Joe has been up to over the summer and the upcoming school sem...

In this week's episode, we are joined by Joe Jackowski, Mike Taccona, and Nick Buegel. Our topic of discussion was work-life balance. How do we manage what we do for a living while continuing pushing our boundaries or achieving fulfillment outside of work? In the world we live in, it can be easy to have a job that pulls too much energy from us so that we don't have enough left to pursue other goal...

Mike and Mary Taccona are both registered nurses. Mike works in the Post Surgical Unit, and Mary is in the Emergency Department. Outside of nursing Mike and Mary are avid travelers. They have traveled throughout the United States and time abroad as well while balancing Nursing school and jobs.  In this conversation, we start with a look at adapting to their roles as nurses, pulling back the c...

“It’s either you’re in this industry [tower climbing] for 30 years or only 5. You like it or you don’t.” - Eric Herrera  Eric Herrera is a communications tower climber. In this episode, Eric shares stories from his unique and, at times, dangerous job. Tower climbing is one of the jobs that are easy to overlook in our hyper-connected world. It is because of people like Eric, and his crew membe...

Jordan Criss is a creative storyteller and has wide-ranging interests from music, screenwriting, and anime. At his core, Jordan believes in being authentic, and it comes through in his writing. In his own life, Jordan explores emotions and where they resonate with those around him. Jordan has appeared on this podcast many times and is a significant influence on the content we are creating. If you'...

Dr. Eric Fretz is a faculty member at the University of Michigan teaching in the Psychology Department, the School of Education, the College of Engineering, and teaches the LSA core course for the Minor in Entrepreneurship . Dr. Fretz has completed two Bachelor's degrees, two Masters degrees and a dual Ph. D. in Education and Psychology. He was certified as a Navy Master Training Specialist and le...

John Tenuto is a Sociology professor at the College of Lake County, IL, with over 25 years of teaching experience. Professor Tenuto has been nominated ten times for Outstanding Full-time Faculty, receiving the award three times in 2014, 2013 and 2005. He has also received the Illinois Board of Education Student Advisory Committee Faculty of the Year Award. He has given dozens of public presentatio...

Saint Ripley, a Chicago hip-hop artist, shares much of what shaped his music on this episode of Feeding Curiosity. With deep roots in multiple genres, he opens up about attending punk shows as a teenager, to his first exposure to hip-hop. On the rapper's first full-length album, Thoughts & Prayers, Saint Ripley shares emotions and stories that are not only a part of him but also a conduit in b...

Joel Salatin co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products. In this conversation we talk about Joel's nu...

Todd Myrick is an IT Specialist with an undergraduate in Fine Art Printmaking & Photography and later completed a graduate degree in MS Information Systems & Technology Management & MBA. Outside the academic world, Todd has always had an interest in technology and acts as a Reddit moderator.  In this episode, we get quite biographical as Todd lays out his life and what has influen...

What better way to celebrate American Independence than with a discussion about Freedom? Grab a six-pack and celebrate with us! Check out Jordan’s recent article “ What is Success ”.  For show notes head to https://feedingcuriosity.net/

Jordan Criss returns to the show! In this episode, we go deeper in trying to understand where Jordan's creativity has come from. On the surface, he's a creative writer if you sum up all of his interests from music, screenwriting, and storytelling. But there's a second competent at play performance, but the caveat here is that it has to be done authentically. Whether that be Jordan's performance on...

 Joe Jackowski is back on the show! This conversation can be seen as a continuation of the previous episode 53 , as we are still exploring the topic of meaning. We start today's conversation articulating the importance of writing, and some of the tools we use to structure what we write. From there, we have a deeper dive into Joe's Thesis, which is broadly around meaning and then applying mean...

  “Thinking capacity in the person gets sacrificed on the altar of empathy. " - Joe Jackowski Joe Jackowski and Nick Buegel return to the show. Joe is currently in the beginning stages of his thesis, where he is diving deep in the psychology of meaning where our conversation starts. At this point, we meander through history, picking at ideology and power using the Nazis, Hitler, and Operation...

Jordan Criss returns to the show to talk about his recent trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The catalyst for the trip was to attend Soundset 2019 , a purely Hip Hop music festival that has taken place memorial day weekend since 2008. Outside of music, Jordan enlightens us on his other passions: Food and Craft Beer in Minneapolis. To name a few, we talk about Surly Brewing and Matt's Bar: Home of the...

Mike Taccona and Eric Herrera return to the show! In this experimental episode, we take a topic we haven't covered much, but one that we can all take part — the process of making food. Mike has always been interested in creating high-quality meals and has been experimenting with burgers. Mike whips up his idea of a traditional American hamburger. The best part of cooking is sharing it with others,...

Nick and Erich return to reflect on graduation and their college experiences. In general, understanding where we came from to know where we are going. College is a significant milestone for our lives, and taking the time to reflect on the six-year journey has been crucial in getting the maximum value from it.  In many ways, I don't think I was as challenged in college as I could have been, bu...