Curiously with Dustin Grinnell

There’s an old idea that explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: you come away understanding how it works, but the joke dies in the process. Naturally, I decided that was worth spending an hour on.

Jim Stallions is a Boston-based comedian you may know from the stage, from his TikTok account Great Face for Radio, or from being the guy in the room you can never quite predict. He joined me in the Dale Dorman Radio Studio at Massa...

Can writing be taught? It’s one of the oldest arguments in literary culture, and every year, thousands of writers bet their time, money, and creative confidence that the answer is yes. They enroll in MFA programs, bring their pages into classrooms, and submit themselves to a process called “workshop,” where their work gets dissected, debated, and handed back to them.

Of course, MFA writing programs exist for more than just fiction w...

When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was The Magic School Bus. In one episode, Ms. Frizzle shrinks the class down and takes them inside the human body to learn about the immune system. I’ve never forgotten it. For years, I knew I wanted to write a story about people miniaturizing themselves with advanced technology and venturing into the body on a mission. Last year, I finally gave it a shot.

I imagined technology that redu...

When we think of imagination, we assume it’s reserved for creatives: painters and poets, actors and musicians. But the truth is, we use our imagination almost constantly: anytime we reminisce, anticipate, plan, or daydream. Research suggests we spend between a quarter and half of our waking hours with our minds wandering elsewhere, away from what’s right in front of us. But why? And what’s actually happening in our brains when we d...

We all know the basics for sleep: put your phone away, create a bedtime routine, avoid caffeine, keep the room cool. We’ve heard it a thousand times. And yet, one in eight Americans has chronic insomnia, and over half report frequent sleep difficulties. So, what’s the disconnect? Why do we know what to do but still lie awake at 3 a.m., mind racing, exhausted but unable to sleep?

In this episode, I talk with Morgan Adams, a certified...

Most of us spend our lives pretending we have forever. We push off difficult conversations, delay dreams, and take tomorrow for granted. But the truth is, we don’t have forever. We have about 3,200 weeks, according to average life expectancy. Knowing this can make us work a little harder, love a little deeper, live more intentionally. But how many of us actually sit with the reality that our time is limited? How many of us talk ope...

Beer has been part of the human story for millennia. It helped fuel debates in revolutionary taverns, followed soldiers to war, brought strangers together in colonial alehouses and modern taprooms. From the Founding Fathers’ home brews to today’s experimental IPAs, beer has been a constant companion to our species. But why? What is it about this fermented beverage that’s kept us coming back for ten thousand years?

In this episode, I...

I’ve always believed that the questions we ask reveal as much about us as the answers we give. So when I had the chance to set up a booth at the MIT Museum’s 2025 Cambridge Science Carnival, I brought one question with me: “If science could solve one problem for humanity in the next 50 years, what would you choose—and why?”

The carnival buzzed with over a hundred booths celebrating curiosity. Families roamed the grounds, kids wide-e...

There’s something both terrifying and oddly comforting about knowing we have four billion years left. The sun will expand, swallow Earth, and explode. We need to leave. The question isn't whether we should go, but how we'll survive once we do.

I’ve always been drawn to stories about humanity’s future in space. Not the sanitized Hollywood versions, but the messy, complicated reality of what it would actually take. When I disc...

Since starting the podcast in 2023, I’ve made a conscious effort to stay out of the way. I ask questions, I guide guests through their stories, I stay detached. I never wanted to be one of those hosts who dominates their show with their own opinions. But staying detached comes at a cost: listeners don’t really get to know me. And in podcasting, that connection matters. People want to feel like they know the person behind the mic.

On...

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by space. As a kid, I had a poster of the Eagle Nebula on my bedroom wall and a telescope I used to study the moon. My favorite movie is Contact, based on Carl Sagan’s novel about searching for extraterrestrial life.

Thinking about the cosmos gives us perspective. Not just on our own lives and problems, but on our entire species. Sagan reminded us of this in his iconic Pale Blue Dot s...

You’ve seen it while scrolling social media, sitting in a virtual meeting, or watching a political debate. Some people command attention right away, drawing viewers in and holding them there. Others, despite having meaningful ideas, fail to engage. Not for lack of substance, but for lack of visual presence. In an age of constant on-camera interaction, this skill is no longer optional; it’s essential.

In this episode, I talk with my...

In 2022, I joined The Anthony Thomas Podcast to discuss my sci-fi thriller, The Empathy Academy, a novel that explores this exact question. The story follows Montgomery Hughes, a teenager who infiltrates a controversial academy designed to genetically “correct” unethical behavior in young people. What he discovers inside reveals the dark side of using science to engineer morality.

The conversation with Anthony was supposed to be a t...

What if the reason your health problems keep coming back is because you’ve only been treating symptoms, never the underlying cause?

When Katie Concannon was a teenager, she started experiencing health issues related to her menstrual cycle. She did what most people do: went to doctors, followed their advice, took medications. The treatments addressed her symptoms temporarily, but they never explored why the problems existed in the fi...

What if you could work from anywhere in the world—a beach in Bali, a café in Barcelona, a mountain village in Colombia—and never need permission from a boss to buy a plane ticket? The digital nomad lifestyle has become the fantasy of millions stuck in fluorescent-lit offices, scrolling through Instagram feeds of tanned freelancers typing on laptops with ocean views. But behind the perfectly curated photos lies a more complicated re...

Can an AI truly understand us? Does it have thoughts, creativity, or self-awareness? The movie Her was set in 2025—the year we’re living in now. So I decided to interview artificial intelligence itself. In this fascinating 45-minute conversation, I put OpenAI's ChatGPT on the hot seat to explore what AI is actually capable of today, what it fundamentally lacks, and what the future might hold.

For over two years, ChatGPT has been my ...

When I was a kid, I questioned rules that didn’t make sense. I resisted illegitimate authority. I could be difficult, inquisitive, sometimes arrogant. My dad used to joke that I had oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, a behavioral diagnosis for kids who are uncooperative and defiant toward authority. But I never saw that part of myself as disordered. I saw someone concerned about the world, unwilling to bow to coercion or incomp...

When Elon Musk publicly revealed he uses ketamine to manage his depression, the revelation sent shockwaves through both tech and mental health communities. Here was one of the world’s most high-profile figures openly discussing his struggle with depression and choosing a treatment that most people associate with anesthesia or illicit raves. But Musk isn’t an outlier. He’s part of a growing movement of people turning to ketamine whe...

What if the future of mental health treatment involves substances we’ve spent decades criminalizing? For years, psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA were dismissed as dangerous drugs with no medical value. But a growing body of research suggests these substances, when combined with guided therapy, might help people struggling with depression, PTSD, anxiety, and addiction in ways traditional treatments cannot. The question is no lo...