I'm taking a little break in December. I'm calling it Curiosity R&R -- Curiosity Respite & ReAirs, so this is a quickie... It's been a packed 8 1/2 years of production and I need a rest. Radio audiences will have uninterrupted programming -- and you can get a peek here. Links on my website. I also provide a sneak preview of what's coming in 2025. :) But mostly I just want to say thank you for listening! Theme music by Sean Balick; "The Green Room" by Warmbody, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Birds seem like a delightful lens through which to view curiosity: Here’s a species that lives among us, is literally part of the scenery, but to which many of us are almost entirely blind. But when we choose to be curious about birds, suddenly it's like a whole new universe emerges in our own backyards.  We see things we didn’t see before.  We hear things we didn’t hear before.  We learn things we didn’t know before. You can imagine my delight when I stumbled on María-Elena Montero, president of the DC Bird Alliance. She leapt at the chance to talk about birds--as well as some of the curiosity practices and life lessons to be learned from observing our avian friends. Check out DC Bird Alliance: https://dcbirdalliance.org Theme music by Sean Balick, "Wingspan" by Bayou Birds, via Blue Dot Sessions.

On the 20th anniversary of his thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail, Adam Segel-Moss left home, family, and work for a little over two months to hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. He’s home now, reflecting — as one would — on what it meant to walk and wonder through all that time and space. Adam Segel-Moss on the Pacific Crest Trail: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=86930750 Theme music by Sean Balick; Trail sounds used with permission from Adam Segel-Moss; “Temporal Slip” by Cloud Breaker, via Blue Dot Sessions.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that some people are curious eaters while others just aren't. I think we may have a baseline of food curiosity, but I also think that baseline can shift. And I imagine that’s what caught my attention when I spotted The 2024 Consumer Curiosity Report – findings from a survey of 850+ early food adopters, conducted by Curious Plot, a marketing, communications and consulting agency. It seemed like the curiosity intersection of our appetites, opportunities and influences, and I wanted to know more. Curious Plot: https://curiousplot.agency Theme music by Sean Balick; “Fig Tree” by Desert Orchard, via Blue Dot Sessions.

It may be hard to think about "uncertainty" as a good things right now, but hear me out. Certain words keep coming up in this curiosity context: exploration, innovation, creativity, trust-building, learning -- and uncertainty. Not the "uncertainty" of the world today--which feels very heavy right now--but the "uncertainty" of allowing room for new thoughts... And along comes Maggie Jackson, award-winning author and journalist, with a best-selling, thought-provoking and profoundly timely book on the power and potential of our own uncertainty. Maggie wrote in a New York Times guest essay earlier this year, “We should rethink our outdated notions of not-knowing as weakness, and instead discover this mindset as a strength.” So, of course, my mind goes to choosing to be curious. Discover more about Maggie Jackson: https://www.maggie-jackson.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Uncertain Ground” by Duck Lake, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Leland Ko came on my radar when he was one of four gifted young cellists selected by Yo-Yo Ma to participate in a program called Music-Art-Life in 2023.  It was, for me, a chance to luxuriate in curiosity. I wondered: Did their knowledge, skill, and feel for the music mean their curiosity about it was qualitatively different than my own? If so, how? Find Leland Ko online: https://www.lelandko.com Recording of Leland Ko performing Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8 — III. Allegro molto vivace used with permission. Photo of Leland Ko by Tam Lan Truong used with permission.

Periodically I set myself a curiosity scavenger hunt theme with a fixed duration – 77 days of feet, a long hot summer of art, a month of biophilia, a week in the kitchen – and then I just keep my eyes open and my camera handy. It's a joy. The thrill of the hunt; the challenge and delight in finding something new in the very familiar; the excuse to get outdoors, whatever the weather; the visual puns; the surprisingly sentimental moments -- all culled from the everyday world around me. It is very much in the spirit of what journalist and author Rob Walker would call “The Art of Noticing.” Find Rob Walker on Substack: https://robwalker.substack.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Inessential” by Bayou Birds, via Blue Dot Sessions.

I found myself thinking about the exquisite agony of a Hitchcock suspense when I came upon an article in Scientific American, "Why Curiosity Makes Us Patient." Abby Hsuing & Alison Adcock assert curiosity makes us hungry for knowledge, but not necessarily in a hurry to get it. It's a finding that runs in the face of a whole lot of curiosity theory that supposes curiosity is an urgent desire to know, now. But here is research saying: slow down -- it’s more interesting than that. Read the Scientific American essay here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/no-spoilers-please-why-curiosity-makes-us-patient/ Theme music by Sean Balick; “Turning on the Lights" by Speakeasy, via Blue Dot Sessions.

The Ig Nobel Prizes recognize research efforts that make you laugh...and then think. They celebrate the unusual and honor the imaginative. They are, in my mind, a delightful and very deliberate celebration of curiosity. Ig Nobel Prize founder and editor of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research Marc Abrahams joins me to talk about the origins and contributions of this quirky prize. The awards gala is a mix of circus, opera and real Nobel Laureates, orchestrated to cheer on people who have devoted their time and talent to studying things the rest of us...have not... Check out Improbable Research: https://improbable.com Theme music by Sean Balick; “Rabbit Hole" by Love and Weasel, via Blue Dot Sessions.

What if museums were sticky, stinky, noisy places? What if they were sensational? Psychologist Alison Eardley is on a mission to make museums more accessible and inclusive -- physically and conceptually -- for all audiences. Her work draws on all of our senses, engaging us far more deeply with what's before us. What if museums helped us tap our collective curiosity to co-create our visits? More about The Sensational Museum here: https://sensationalmuseum.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “Micolai” by Wax Museum, via Blue Dot Sessions.