Choose to be Curious

Ep. #326: Marking Our 10th Anniversary, with Lynn Borton by Lynn Borton

Manisha Biswas danced her way into my heart. She was the 2025 social science category winner of the Dance Your PhD contest – a prize she won for her interpretative performance of her thesis, “The Powerful Outcomes of Collective Synchrony”. The Dance Your PhD contest was launched in 2008 to help educate people about complex theories through interpretive dance. I ask you: What is not to love about this idea??? Manisha Biswas: https://www.manishabiswas.com/ Theme music by Sean Balick; “Mind Body Mind” & “Partly Sage” by Bodytonic, via Blue Dot Sessions.

When the world feels like it’s breaking apart in a million places and even more pieces, I find myself wanting to learn from folks who are leaning into curiosity about the other, people who believe we can promote peace through what Sister Cities founder Dwight D. Eisenhower called “people-to-people diplomacy.” Fred Blanton is one of those people. He serves as the Virginia/West Virginia Coordinator for Sister Cities International and on the SCI Board. He has a lifetime of involvement in citizen diplomacy and is as champion and clearly-cherished shepherd for Sister Cities, an organization that seeks to promote peace one community at a time. Sister Cities: https://sistercities.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “Town Market” by Onesuch Village, via Blue Dot Sessions.

I’ve been wanting to do a show about curiosity and community engagement in urban planning for a long time. Amber Wiley's  Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital is a fascinating, densely-researched look at how Black Washingtonians drove urban planning and design policy for public education. The book is, as one reviewer put it, “a stirring lesson in how the built environment records the hopes and frustrations of its society.” What role does -- or might -- curiosity play in all of that? Amber Wiley: https://www.ambernwiley.com Theme music by Sean Balick; "Home, Home At Last" by Warmbody, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Lady Borton has spent many years living and working in Việt Nam, providing relief service during the war and collecting stories and history ever since-- trying to make sense of the era, the place, the people -- before the stories are lost to time or erasure. She wrote me, “Because I don't know and don't assume I know, I ask odd questions." A curiosity practice, to be sure! Lady is pictured with her long-time friend and colleague Le Hoai Phuong. Theme music by Sean Balick; “Lakeside Path" by Duck Lake, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Do you have a sense of purpose? What does that mean to you? And what place does curiosity have in finding and living one's purpose? There's a lot of research going on around purpose. Purpose Commons is moving that research into practice -- and focusing it on youth. Purpose Commons: https://www.purposecommons.org Theme music by Sean Balick; “FasterFasterBrighter” by Ray Catcher, via Blue Dot Sessions.

As the world's largest online information resource, Wikipedia knows a thing or two about how our curiosity shows up. I wondered: as our information landscape changes, how does Wikipedia adjust? And our curiosity? Lisa Seitz Gruwell, Chief Advancement Officer at Wikimedia Foundation, joined me to reflect on what's worked and the importance of making time for curiosity. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Theme music by Sean Balick; “The Envelope” by Aeronaut, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Art Cullen is the editor and co-owner with his brother John of the Storm Lake Times Pilot, a weekly newspaper in that Northwest Iowa county seat – a town of about 12,000. He has a lot to say to and about the people and place he clearly loves, and mourns.  A place he knows so well, and yet still wonders at and about. Storm Lake Times Pilot: https://www.stormlake.com Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: https://icecubepress.com/2025/05/03/we-crapped-in-our-nest/ Theme music by Sean Balick; “Weathervane" by CloudCover, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Meet Lauren Henkin, founder of The Humane Space and trained architect, artist, and branding expert who designs curiosity- and awe-driven experiences. She discusses why curiosity fades, research tying curiosity to wellbeing, and how rituals, guided walks, and an app can spark daily wonder. She also links architecture and art to creating spaces that invite exploration.

Chronolog is a way to generate time-lapse images of Earth, powered by your camera -- and your curiosity.Used by organizations worldwide to monitor the environment and inspire our stewardship of our natural resources, this nifty citizen science effort capitalizes on our casual interest. Pretty clever. Chronolog: https://www.chronolog.io Theme music by Sean Balick; “A Catalog of Seasons” from Migration, via Blue Dot Sessions.