Applied Curiosity Lab

Who are these people who seem to be able to travel the world without tremendous resources? How can you travel hack your way to massive adventure?

What credit card and awards benefits exist  that you don't know about? How can you apply travel hacking secrets to other areas of your life? What are you missing?

Who is Guillaume Schaer?

 

Switzerland's Most Trusted Travel Hacker.

Founder of MilesAddict.

Founder of WEDO, a digital consultancy agency to help funded startups go from an idea to launching a product.

High-end video-surveillance expert.

World traveler and adventurer.

What will you learn?

How to have adventures that may seem beyond your financial ability.

What is travel hacking and how you can do it yourself.

The best credit cards for travel benefits.

How to optimize an around-the-world ticket using the 4 Cs.

Who is Guillaume's Columbia dealer and how can he help you.

What a travel hacker can do for you.

Curious questions.

How can you maximize your opportunities for free travel?

What are your top three travel hacking tricks?

How do you find out all of the benefits that you can get from your credit card?

How can you fly business class for less than the price of economy?

What's the Best Rate Guarantee and how did you use it to stay in hotels for free?

What is Hidden City Ticketing?

Links and resources:

MilesAddict

Star Alliance

Sky Team

One World

Kayak

GoogleMaps

Skiplagged

Where To Credit

LifeMiles

American Express Platinum card

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase Ink Business Preferred

Ledger Nano (for crypto currencies)

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

What should you do if your child is diagnosed with cancer...and you can't even pronounce the word, oncology? How can you save your child's life, and in doing so change the world?

How does a stonemason become a cancer researcher? Why do some people turn tragedy into triumph?

Who is Andy Woods?

Andy Woods and Charles Keller at Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute

Andy and Stella

Carpenter, tile guy, and musician turned pediatric cancer researcher.

Father of Anaplastic Wilms Tumor survivor.

Cancer researcher at Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute (cc-TDI).

Researching new preclinical research that demonstrates more promising and less toxic treatment strategies for children with cancer.

Advocate for other children with other rare childhood cancers- Epithelioid Sarcoma, 11.2 translocated Renal Cell Carcinoma, AML, DIPG, and juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma.

Working to make cancer treatment available to pediatric cancer patients in the clinical setting.

Devoted life to helping all children with cancer, and to finding a cure for cancer.

Head of cc-TDI's CureFast tumor bank/patient registry which collects leftover surgical and autopsy specimens from children with rare cancers and uses them to further our own research on these cancers and to share with other researchers.

What will you learn?

How to make a mid-life career change to become a cancer researcher

How to understand cancer research and how to become a cancer researcher.

Exactly what you can do to help cure cancer.

How to understand Cancer Stem Cell Theory.

How to understand Wilms Tumor cancer.

Why researching children's cancer is particularly important to finding a cure for cancer.

Curious questions.

What is the most effective thing you can do with the information you find on the internet?

What should one do if their child is diagnosed with cancer?

Why is children's cancer research different from general cancer research?

How do you convince Big Pharma to run a drug trial?

How did you go from being a stonemason to being a cancer researcher?

What is an Orphan Disease?

What's a Nano Course?

Given the vast differences in cancer, will there be a cure for cancer that cures all cancers?

Links and resources:

Andy Woods

Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute 

Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute (cc-TDI) tumor banking project, CureFast.

Consano crowdfunding campaign which supports Andy's current Wilms tumor study at cc-TDI

Alex's Lemondade Stand

Wilms Tumor (or nephroblastoma)

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on

How do you run for a political office? What are the differences between running for local, state, or federal office? What makes a good politician? Is that different from what makes a good political candidate?

What should you consider when considering running for political office? How does an introvert become a successful politician? What do political insiders look for when assessing who might be a successful political candidate?

Who is Dan Saltzman?

Currently serving his fifth term as a Portland City Commissioner, and has been Commissioner in Charge of 11 city bureaus.

Public servant for nearly 25 years.

Bachelor of Science from Cornell University, and M.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Worked for many years in the private sector as the principal in an environmental engineering firm.

Served as staff assistant to Congressman (now Senator) Ron Wyden.

Led the campaign for a voter-approved Portland Children's Levy fund that pays for abuse prevention and other child programs.

Established The Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services.

Led campaign as the Housing Bureau director for a $258 million bond to tackle affordable housing.

What will you learn?

What a political "stress test" looks like.

How long it takes to be a "somebody" in federal politics.

The ways that running for office influence how decisions are made once in office.

Why Dan thinks that women often make better politicians.

What an average day in local politics looks like.

How to be a good listener, and how to spot a good listener.

Curious questions.

What is the very first thing I should do if I'm interested in running for office?

What should people think about the actual job of politics versus to idea of being a revered politician?

How do you fundraise?

Do American's value ambition in women leaders in the same way they value ambition in men?

What advice can you expect to get from a political consultant?

Do constituents understand the roles of different political positions.

What's the best idea that you never considered?

How do you measure the effectiveness of programs you support?

If you could change one law, what would it be?

Links and resources:

Portland Children's Levy

The Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services

The Miracles Club

Portland Auditor's Office

Federal Election Commission (who donates to what)

Open Secrets (more donator information)

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on

What are psychedelics? How could the world benefit from legalizing psychedelic drugs? What will it take for the FDA to approve prescription psychedelic drugs?

How is Rick Doblin and MAPS leading the charge to bring psychedelics into mainstream psychotherapy? How does MDMA save lives? What are you missing by not trying psychedelics? Are they dangerous?

Who is Rick Doblin?

Founder and Executive Director of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

PhD in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master's thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients.

Conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary's Concord Prison Experiment.

Student of Dr. Stanislav Grof and among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner.

Developer of legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines and for personal growth for otherwise healthy people.

What will you learn?

How to create the best psychedelic experience.

The mission of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and how was created.

How MDMA assisted psychotherapy works and how it is different from classic psychoanalysis.

How MAPS obtained FDA approval for studying psychedelic drugs.

How a B-corp works, how this corporate structure works for MAPS, and how it could benefit other pharmaceutical companies.

How healing with psychedelics works.

Curious questions.

How do you define psychedelics?

What does it mean to "go deep"?

Why do some people never recover from a psychedelic experience?

How important is reality?

How does one create a double-blind for drugs with such powerful effects?

Links and resources:

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

Pineapple Fund

Manifesting Minds: A Review of Psychedelics in Science, Medicine, Sex, and Spirituality by Rick Doblin

New College of Florida

Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer: Theory and Experiments by John C. Lilly

Eselan

New Genesis: Shaping a Global Spirituality by Robert Muller

When you're watching television and consuming media, can you tell what's real and what's not? How do you tell a story in a captivating way...and still stay married to the truth?

When interviewing people for creating stories for non-fiction television or film, what's an example of a good question? How are these questions different from other types of interview questions?

Who is Laura Fravel?

Photo by Laura Fravel

Brand storyteller, producer, television maker, filmmaker, photographer, show doctor, documentarian

Worked with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Washington Post, The New York Times, PBS

Story teller and media maker for museum exhibits, non-profit and for-profit companies, and NGOs

Ex SCUBA instructor, marine education teacher

Adventurer

What will you learn?

How to turn a passion into a career. Listen for the cues.

The specific steps to take to create documentary television.

How to find and create story narrative out of science and social issues.

Curious questions.

How do you find a media-friendly scientist?

What exactly do you do when you're given an assignment from a television network?

How do we make sense of the world when facts don't fall neatly into traditional story narrative?

How does non-fiction documentary television differ from reality television?

Links and resources:

Laura Fravel Film and Photography

National Geographic television

Sea Education Association (SEA)

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

National Press Photography Association (NPPA)

Starbucks Upstanders

YogaGlo subscription

CreativeLive

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on Twitter or Facebook and your very own favorite social site.

To help out the show:

* Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

* Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

* Subscribe to Applied Curiosity Lab YouTube

Join the Tribe of the Curious.

Should you get venture capital for your business? If so, how? If not, why?

How can a venture capitalist help you turn an idea into a business? How can you avoid having a venture capitalist kill your business? Is Shark Tank realistic?

What is it like to go from peddling toilet paper to starting a computer software company to becoming a venture capitalist? How does one become a venture capitalist?

Who is Stephen Saltzman?

Okay, he is my first and current husband. There's that.

Venture Capitalist for Intel Capital (one of the largest venture funds in the world).

Started Intel's wireless division as the division's first General Manager.

Startup entrepreneur. Founder of Now Software and Active Arts.

Virtually Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) expert and investor.

Ex-advertising executive (Nikon, Shell Oil, Northern Bathroom Tissue, etc).

Former Inc. Magazine Ernst & Young Software Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and former Oregon High-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.

What will you learn?

The difference between an idea and a business idea.

The different ways to fund your business...and pitfalls to avoid.

The biggest mistakes Stephen has made and how you can avoid making the same ones.

What to do with an idea.

How to become a venture capitalist.

How should an entrepreneur create and deal with a board of directors (aka how not to get fired).

Curious questions.

What's the difference between an idea and a business idea?

What advice do you offer for people looking to have friends and family invest in their business?

What are the different kinds of investments?

How do you know if it's safe to share your idea with a potential investor?

How do you approach a venture capitalist?

How do you test an idea to see if it's a good one?

Links and resources:

Intel Capital

Crunchbase.com

National Venture Capital Association

Venture Beat

CB Insights for active corporate VC firms

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on Twitter or Facebook and your very own favorite social site.

To help out the show:

* Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

* Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

* Subscribe to Applied Curiosity Lab YouTube

Join the

Can animals have rights and still be dinner? This week Animal Recovery Mission's Richard "Kudo" Couto pulls back the curtain on the illegal animal industry – horse slaughter, ritual animal sacrifice, fighting rings, and the inhumane treatment of animals that we traditionally see on our dinner table.

What's it like to go from real estate developer to leading the largest animal cruelty investigation operation in the history of the United States? Learn what's next for Kudo and the ARM.

Who is Kudo?

Founder, Chief Executive Director, and lead investigator of Animal Recovery Mission

Advisor to city, state, federal and international agencies on issues of animal abuse and illegal slaughter

Largest undercover documenter of international illegal slaughter and animal abuse

Real estate developer turned animal abuse vigilante activist

Wanted: Dead or Alive by Cuban Cowboys of the C-9 Basin

Urban ninja renegade

Rescuer of Freedom's Flight (bloodlines traced to Seattle Slew and Secretariat)

What will you learn?

How to understand legality of horse meat in the United States

Why the C-9 Basin is unique

The role of animals in black magic and ritual

How to small non-profits can go into foreign countries and make change.

Curious questions.

Can animals have rights and still be dinner?

What constitutes humane treatment of animals?

How do you deal with the fact that different countries have different cultural norms when it comes to treating and eating animals?

How can a meat eater advocate for the humane treatment of animals without giving up meat?

Links and resources:

Animal Rescue Mission

Humane Slaughter Act

The Dairy Farm bust

Palo Mayombe

Facebook

Gadhimai Festival

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on Twitter or Facebook and your very own favorite social site.

To help out the show:

* Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

* Subscribe on iTunes or

Is it strange to believe that UFOs are operated by extraterrestrials...or is it strange not to believe? Why do more people believe in ghosts than in UFOs? When is seeing believing...and when is it not?

This week UFOlogist, Peter Davenport shares insights and intrigue about UFOs and ETs. It's statistically probable that we're not alone in the universe...but are we?

Curious Quote: "Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."  –Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Who is Peter Davenport?

Nationally prominent UFO investigator and expert UFOlogist

Director of the National UFO Reporting Center (since 1994)

Served as Director of Investigations for the Washington Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)

Undergraduate degrees at Stanford University in California (Biology and Russian). Graduate degrees at University of Washington (MS in genetics and biochemistry of fish, and MBA with emphasis in finance and international business)

Russian translator for the US Army

Founder of biotech company, Biosyn

Candidate for the Washington State legislature (1986), and candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives (1992)

What will you learn?

How to report a UFO sighting

How to know if you've seen a UFO

The most important sightings and how the government responded

The strongest evidence for extraterrestrial intelligent life

Why you might decide to reconsider your beliefs around UFOs

Curious questions.

Why do you believe that UFOs are evidence of extraterrestrial life?

How do you differentiate between people with delusions, pranksters, people who know nothing about the night sky, and people who sincerely believe that they have seen a UFO?

What qualifies someone as a UFOlogist?

Why would the US government cover up the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrials?

Is there some kind of common early experience or upbringing that makes one more open to the idea of UFOs and aliens?

What does an alien abduction look like?

Links and resources:

National UFO Reporting Center

National UFO Reporting Center hotline 206.722.3000

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

MUFON (Mutual UFO Network)

Fermi's Paradox

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on Twitter or Facebook and your very own favorite social site.

To help out the show:

* Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

* Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

* Subscribe to

How do you know if you're curious enough? Why is curiosity more important now than ever before? 

This week Jennifer Felberg and I sip cocktails and delve into the art and science of curiosity. How can applied curiosity get you a big promotion or a hot date? How can it save your life?

Who is Jennifer Felberg?

Entertainer and choreographer

Singer (from Platinum Record to giveaway)

Ex-Cruise Director, ex-personal trainer, and ex-esthetician...a sampler of life

Elder Whisperer

Creator

My sister

The 80s version of Becki and Jennifer...and Grace.

 

What will you learn?

Peak Curiosity

Crossing the political divide.

Three concrete and actionable ways to flex your curiosity muscle (aka going to the curiosity gym) so it's there for you when you need it.

How to use uncommon commonalities to connect, convince, and influence (like getting Bikers for Trump to take a photo with a Woman's Marcher in a pussy hat).

How to ask better questions.

How to use curiosity as an applied and strategic tool to get what you want.

Why my sister is awesome.

Curious questions.

Why is curiosity more important now than ever before?

Is it always better to be more curious?

When do you want your boss or partner to be less curious about you?

How can being an expert be a curiosity killer?

How can you ask good questions when you're not knowledgable about the topic (like when you're talking to your doctor, or at a party, or when you're feeling intimidated)?

Does elevating curiosity ahead of criticism, judgment, fear, and complacency make you less judgmental?

Links and resources:

Living Curiously: How to Use Curiosity to Be Remarkable and Do Good Stuff

Tribe of the Curious

Thanks for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

* Leave a note in the comment section below or Tweet with #ACLR and we'll find you.

* Share this show on Twitter or Facebook and your very own favorite social site.

To help out the show:

* Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

* Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.

* Subscribe to Applied Curiosity Lab YouTube

Join the Tribe of the Curious.

Special thanks to Jennifer for joining me this week. Until next time!

 

This week we take a curious peek into what it looks like and how to live a location independent lifestyle with Kevin Morris and Laura Domela.

Can you really live on an Airstream or a boat full time? With kids? What's it like to have your conference call interrupted by a pod of whales or a sleuth of bears?

"It's time that's the scarce commodity." –Kevin Morris

"Start by asking yourself, "What if...?" –Laura Domela

Who are Laura Domela & Kevin Morris?

Laura was born in Anchorage, Alaska, grew up in So. California, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Laura is an artist  (www.domela.com) and avid traveler

She created the Riveted blog in 2010 while traveling the US and Canada in an Airstream travel trailer, and has been photographing and writing about her travels ever since.

Laura is most excited about inspiring other people to craft the lives they wish for.

Kevin was born and raised in Texas, he has called Portland, Oregon home for the past 30 years, but spends just as much time exploring the world by water, land, and air.

Kevin is an engineer, writer, boater, pilot, entrepreneur, and deck-hand.

The majority of his time is aboard Airship (a Nordic Tug 34) with his wife Laura Domela – all the while managing “Electronic Engineering Journal” – an engineering trade publication he founded with Laura back in 2003.

Kevin believes that everyone can and should craft their life around their passions, finding or creating work that matches their interests and lifestyle.

Workboats by Laura Domela

What will you learn?

How to achieve and live a location independence lifestyle.

What it's like to live on a boat.

Why living a location independent lifestyle is not just a matter of luck.

How to learn about the boating lifestyle...aka how to befriend someone who owns a boat.

The most amazing thing that they have ever experienced while at sea.

How to join their flotilla.

Their greatest life lessons.

Humpback by Laura Domela

Curious questions.

What is something you would never have known if you had not chosen this lifestyle?

What decisions did you make that were pivotal in creating a location independent lifestyle?

How is living on a boat different from living in an Airstream?

What is something that you believed about downsizing that is completely not true?

What do you do to avoid getting on each other's nerves?

When all of your possessions must fit in such a tiny space, what do you miss?

Brown bears by Laura Domela

Links and resources:

Slowboat

EE Journal

Riveted

Laura Domela, photography

It's Not About Luck