Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness

Some of us have our best ideas in the shower. Others have the best ideas for how to shampoo and condition while we’re taking those showers. This week, Jonathan sits down (in person!) with Ramya Viswanathan, chemist and principal formulator for JVN Hair, to discuss the science of haircare.  You can follow all things JVN Hair on Instagram @jvnhair, and at www.jvnhair.com. For hair tutorials, behind the scenes footage, and other exclusive JVN Hair content, head over to JVN Beauty on YouTube. Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on  Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Need a palate cleanser? Have we got an episode for you. Padma Lakshmi joins Jonathan to discuss the key to a great grilled cheese, the ingredient that makes her chicken stock sublime, her new children’s book Tomatoes For Neela, and so much more. Padma Lakshmi is the creator and host of Hulu’s Taste the Nation and host and executive producer of the Emmy-winning Bravo series Top Chef. She is the bestselling author of two cookbooks, the Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs, as well as her memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate. You can follow Padma on Instagram and Twitter @padmalakshmi. Tomatoes For Neela is out now. Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

School is back in session, and so is Getting Curious! This week, Jonathan sits down with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to better understand Pell Grants, Pre-K, and how the Department of Education plays a role in each child’s education. Dr. Miguel A. Cardona currently serves as the 12th Secretary of Education. Since beginning his journey as an educator, Secretary Cardona has served as an elementary school teacher, school principal, Performance and Evaluation lead administrator, Assistant Superintendent, and most recently Commissioner of Education for the State of Connecticut.   You can follow Secretary Cardona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @SecCardona.   Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Refresh your beach playlist with a second serving of Getting Curious LIVE! For our last episode of the summer season, we’re giving you a taste of some top-shelf interviews recorded on Kesha's Weird & Wonderful Rainbow Ride Cruise, at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, and backstage at Jonathan’s Road to Beijing tour in Brisbane.   Featuring interviews with Detox, Thorgy Thor, Bob The Drag Queen, Erin Gibson, Nicole Byer, and Mawaan Rizwan.   Find out what today’s guests and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com, and full versions of each of the conversations excerpted in today’s episode are available for free wherever you’re listening to the show. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re celebrating the dog days of summer with two weeks’ worth of our favorite Getting Curious tapings from festivals, tour stops, and even a cruise. This week, cool down with interviews recorded live at Clusterfest and Outside Lands in San Francisco, and Vulture Fest in New York. The guests are amazing, the humor is on point, and the admission is free.Featuring interviews with Cat Cohen, Ayo Edebiri, Julio Torres, Jaboukie Young-White, Michelle Wolf, Florence Welch, and Justin Theroux.Find out what today’s guests and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Jonathan and archaeologist James Doyle as they explore early Mesoamerican arts, cultures, and communities on this week’s Getting Curious. Listen in to learn about the numeral and writing systems that connected Mesoamerican societies thousands of years ago, the significance of commodities like jade and marine shell, and the ways in which Mesoamerican traditions continue today.   James Doyle is an assistant curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. James is on Twitter @JamesDoyleMet and on Instagram @jamesdoylenyc.   Want to learn more? Check out some of James’ writing for the Met, including: Ancient Maya Sculpture Ancient Maya Painted Ceramics Olmec Art Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are in for a real treat this week as Dr. Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere joins Jonathan for an episode all about dogs! How do dogs perceive colors and sounds? What are best practices for dog training? Is alpha behavior a real thing? And are Jonathan’s dogs Pablo and Elton on track to be best friends?!   Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere, Ph.D., is the Director of the Thinking Dog Center and Assistant Professor at Hunter College (CUNY) where she focuses on studying the behavior and cognition of domestic dogs, and occasionally cats.   You can follow Dr. Byosiere on Twitter @SEByosiere, and follow the Thinking Dog Center on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @HunterTDC.   Want to learn more about dog behavior? Here are some recommended resources: How to Choose a Dog Trainer Guide to Cooperative Care Companion Animal Psychology Blog Bark Magazine Fear Free Pets Whole Dog Journal The Other End of the Leash Blog Pet Professional Guild IAABC Foundation Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One in four women and one in two trans people will experience intimate partner violence in the United States, and the primary obstacle to safety for survivors is financial security. Sonya Passi joins Jonathan to discuss what it looks like to reframe intimate partner violence as a structural economic issue, and what it will take to give survivors the support they need to thrive.   As a sensitivity warning, this episode discusses intimate partner violence in detail. We hope that centering an episode on this important topic helps to bring awareness to survivors’ experiences, and the incredible work that Sonya and other advocates are doing through organizations like Freefrom.   Sonya Passi is the founder and CEO of FreeFrom, a national organization on a mission to create pathways to financial security and long-term safety for survivors of gender-based violence. Sonya and her work emphasize the creativity, resourcefulness, and power that each survivor has to achieve financial independence, and to build communities that support individual, intergenerational, and collective healing.   Keep up with Sonya and Freefrom’s work on Instagram @freefromdotorg, Twitter @freefromorg, and Facebook @freefrom.org.   Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, we’re turning our attention to another era of athletic competitions: the ancient Olympics. Professors Sarah E. Bond and Joel Christensen join Jonathan to discuss these early games and what they reveal about ancient Greek and Roman politics, religions, gender roles, and more. After you listen, make sure to check out Dr. Bond’s first appearance on the show: Would I Have Been The Toast Of The Ancient Mediterranean? Sarah E. Bond is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Her book, Trade and Taboo: Disreputable Professionals in the Roman Mediterranean, was published with the University of Michigan Press in 2016. Follow her on Twitter @SarahEBond. Joel Christensen is Professor and Chair of Classical Studies and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs at Brandeis University. He also runs the blog sententiaeantiquae.com and the associated Ancient Greek and Roman (and Cats) Twitter account @sentantiq. He has published introductory books on Homer with Elton T. E. Barker (Beginner’s Guide to Homer, One World, 2013) and Erik Robinson (A Commentary on the Homeric Battle of Frogs and Mice, Bloomsbury, 2018) and recently completed The Many-Minded Man: the Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic with Cornell University Press (2020). Find out what today’s guests and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Getting Curious, we’re going from table to farm to learn more about where our food comes from, and who is producing it. Activist and lawyer Mónica Ramírez joins Jonathan to discuss the history of farmwork in the United States, the labor conditions facing contemporary farmworkers, and the work she and her peers are doing to prioritize legal and mental health support for farmworker communities.   Mónica Ramírez is an attorney, author and activist. She is the founder of Justice for Migrant Women and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, The Latinx House, and Poderistas (formerly She Se Puede). Mónica has received numerous awards, including Harvard Kennedy School’s first Gender Equity Changemaker Award, Feminist Majority’s Global Women’s Rights Award and the Smithsonian’s 2018 Ingenuity Award. She was named to Forbes Mexico’s 100 Most Powerful Women’s 2018 list and TIME Magazine included her in its 2021 TIME100 Next list. Mónica is also an inaugural member of the Ford Global Fellowship. Follow Monica on Instagram @activistmonicaramirez and Twitter @MonicaRamirezOH. Justice for Migrant Women is on Instagram and Twitter @mujerxsrising, and at justice4women.org.   Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices