Choose to be Curious
Choose to be Curious is a show all about curiosity. We talk about research and theory, but mostly it's conversations about how curiosity shows up in work and life. Now syndicated and available via Pacifica RadioNetwork.
Episodes
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 Balick; "Town Market" by Onesuch Vill...
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January 21, 2026 • 5 mins
...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.
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January 13, 2026 • 28 mins
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: Cary Wilton
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January 7, 2026 • 28 mins
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, via Blue Dot Sessions.
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December 29, 2025 • 28 mins
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 out to do something with that in...
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December 3, 2025 • 5 mins
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 audiences will be getting in case ...
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November 24, 2025 • 28 mins
"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://johnmuirlaws.com
Theme music by Sean B...
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November 24, 2025 • 6 mins
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/
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November 19, 2025 • 28 mins
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://www.skipthesmalltalk.com
Th...
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November 12, 2025 • 28 mins
“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 delight at being joined by cre...
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November 4, 2025 • 28 mins
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 music by Sean Balick. ”Mind Bod...
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October 28, 2025 • 28 mins
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 music by Sean Balick. ”Sunday Li...
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October 22, 2025 • 28 mins
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 Sean Balick. “Turning on the L...
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October 15, 2025 • 28 mins
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 everyone --- especially those with disabil...
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October 7, 2025 • 28 mins
“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-described global nomad and sociolingui...
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October 1, 2025 • 28 mins
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 Blue Dot Sessions.
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September 24, 2025 • 28 mins
We all have a curiosity origin story. What’s yours? CEO, author and marketing exec Tyler Chisholm’s happens to involve a pool cue.
Enriched by his experience in strategic growth-oriented marketing and as host of not one but two podcasts, Tyler polishes that first little nugget into robust guidance for leaders everywhere in his new book Curious as Hell,
We focused on the wonderfulness of rapport, self-curious leadership, mirroring...
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September 16, 2025 • 28 mins
Mónica Quesada Cordero and her colleagues at el Colectivo 506 have learned a lot in their five years of bringing solutions journalism to Costa Rica. These are curiosity lessons for journalism, and for life itself.
el Colectivo 506: https://elcolectivo506.com/?lang=en
Theme music by Sean Balick; “A Burst of Light" by Delray, via Blue Dot Sessions.
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September 8, 2025 • 28 mins
"We think there's a little more of a selective process going on with curiosity." ~ Mary Whatley
No surprise: curiosity changes over the lifespan.
Yes surprise: not in the way you might imagine. There are some advantages to aging...
Mary Whatley, PhD, studies motivated memory, aging and curiosity. She joins me to explore trait versus state curiosity; her recent research on increasing state curiosity as we age; the role of motivat...
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September 3, 2025 • 28 mins
Creativity strategist Natalie Nixon has a fresh take on productivity and our ideas about time.
She makes the case for leaning into joyful movement, deep thinking and the pause of a "strategic speed bump" to tap into -- and cultivate -- our creativity and curiosity.
Natalie Nixon: https://www.figure8thinking.com
Theme music by Sean Balick; “Mind Body Mind” by Bodytonic, via Blue Dot Sessions.
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