Calm Clear Curiosity

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What do you do after making a mistake? Do you correct it and keep going, or does it become a reason to stop trying?

In Episode 12 of Calm Clear Curiosity, Christopher Johnson reflects on John Wooden’s observation that people who take action inevitably make mistakes. Drawing on learning to swim as an adult and working in live broadcasting and events, he explores how we respond when an attempt falls short, why being experienced doesn’t exempt us from being beginners, and how thoughtful correction helps us improve.

The book pairing is Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The relationship between player and coach invites a question about mentorship: Who helps us keep learning when we get something wrong?

In this episode:

• Moving from embarrassment to useful reflection.
• Making room to be a beginner.
• Correcting a mistake and returning your attention to the present.
• Helping others improve through respectful feedback.
• Recognizing the attempts we avoid because we fear getting them wrong.

A question to carry with you: What have you been postponing because you might get it wrong, and what would a manageable first attempt look like?

Book

• Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Connect with Christopher Johnson on LinkedIn and subscribe to his newsletter for more reflections from Calm Clear Curiosity.

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About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

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Learning Is a Gift. What Will You Do With It?

What changes when we think of what we learn not as something we acquire, but as a gift?

Inspired by a quote from Yo-Yo Ma, this episode explores the idea that knowledge has a lineage. Teachers, mentors, colleagues, cultures, opportunities, and experiences all contribute to what we eventually call our own expertise.

But receiving the gift is only part of the responsibility. Yo-Yo Ma challenges us to both preserve what we have learned and build on it. That raises an interesting question: How do we respect what came before while still creating something new?

The reflection extends beyond music and culture to our careers, organizations, families, and communities. What have you been given? Who helped you learn it? And what will you add before passing it along?

This episode’s recommendation

An unedited On Being conversation between Krista Tippett and Yo-Yo Ma explores curiosity, culture, human connection, and performance as hospitality.

That idea shifts the focus from “How am I performing?” to a more useful question: What experience am I creating for the people who are here?

In this episode

00:00 Yo-Yo Ma Quote
00:47 Learning as a Gift
02:25 Preserve and Build
03:43 On Being Recommendation
04:20 Performance as Hospitality
05:05 Legacy Reflection
05:47 Closing and Credits

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About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

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Creating a Legacy Through Connection and Community

Host Christopher Johnson opens Calm, Clear Curiosity with a Gwen Ifill quote about not expecting the world to improve on its own and instead creating something to leave the next generation, contrasting passive hope with active participation. He highlights Ifill’s journalism career and focuses on her use of “create,” reframing legacy as what we add to the world, including intangible gifts like traditions, knowledge, encouragement, and building others’ capacity to continue. Johnson pairs the quote with Vivek Murthy’s Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, emphasizing that meaningful lives depend on relationships despite cultural praise of independence. He argues communities are built through small, cumulative acts—welcoming newcomers, organizing, connecting people—and urges listeners to make the path easier for those coming next by documenting lessons, sharing failures, and inviting others in.

00:00 Quote And Welcome
01:01 Why Create Matters
01:50 Rethinking Legacy
02:36 Book Together On Loneliness
03:53 Building Community Daily
04:54 Legacy For The Next Person
05:36 Practical Ways To Contribute
05:51 Participation Over Passive Hope
06:46 Closing Question And Farewell

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

Host Christopher Johnson opens Calm, Clear Curiosity with Leonard Cohen’s idea that “repose” comes from thinking less about ourselves, contrasting it with everyday self-evaluation and even self-improvement as constant self-judgment. He connects this outward shift of attention to Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, which critiques medicine’s focus on prolonging life without asking what makes life worth living, centering the question “What matters to you?” Johnson highlights related questions—what someone fears, will endure, or won’t sacrifice—and argues they apply beyond medicine as a way to understand others. He frames curiosity as a tool for getting outside oneself, distinguishing reflection from preoccupation, and suggests practices like listening closely, making something, helping, exploring, and asking genuine questions. He closes with prompts about where attention goes when it's not focused on oneself and what changes when you become curious about others’ answers.

00:00 Cohen Quote and Welcome
00:47 Repose and Self Focus
01:59 Being Mortal and What Matters
03:10 Curiosity as Repose
04:22 Practices to Look Outward
05:21 Weekly Questions and Closing

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

Don’t Live Like a Weather Vane: Jessye Norman, Stoicism, and Handling Criticism

Host Christopher Johnson opens Calm, Clear Curiosity with a quote from opera singer Jessye Norman warning that constantly gauging others’ opinions—like a weather vane responding to shifting winds—can limit your life. He explores how many people instinctively ask “What will people think?” when trying something new, and how this becomes a self-imposed limitation based on imagined reactions rather than real obstacles. Johnson connects Norman’s idea to William B. Irvine’s book The Stoic Challenge, highlighting its Stoic practice of reframing setbacks: treating inconvenience, criticism, or failure as tests that build patience, creativity, resilience, and perspective. Instead of avoiding discomfort by making only safe choices, he suggests becoming someone who can handle questioning and criticism when it comes, and notes that the show notes include an interview with Norman.

00:00 Stop Living by Approval
00:52 The Weather Vane Metaphor
01:48 Your Inner Weather Vane
02:26 Quiet Self Limitations
03:19 The Stoic Challenge
03:46 Reframing Setbacks
04:25 Handling Criticism and Risk
05:11 Closing and Next Steps

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

Christopher Johnson introduces Calm, Clear Curiosity with a James Earl Jones quote about the pain of holding words in your heart that you can’t utter, reflecting on the contrast between Jones’ iconic voice and his childhood stutter. He connects the quote to common moments of hesitation, such as asking questions, sharing ideas, starting creative work, or having difficult conversations, and suggests that speaking can be part of becoming ready, with confidence sometimes following imperfect expression.

Johnson discusses Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, contrasting fixed and growth mindsets and applying the idea of development to finding one’s voice. He recounts how a teacher encouraged Jones to read poetry aloud, helping him speak without stuttering, and invites listeners to consider what they’re still holding back and why.

Book Recommendation

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

Dweck explores the difference between fixed and growth mindsets and how seeing our abilities as something we can develop can change how we approach learning, challenges, setbacks, and growth.

Listen More

James Earl Jones: An Incredible Journey
The Interview, BBC World Service

In this 2011 conversation with BBC interviewer Stephen Sackur, James Earl Jones reflects on his extraordinary journey from a childhood marked by poverty, segregation, and difficulty speaking to becoming one of the world’s most recognizable actors and voices. The BBC rebroadcast the interview following Jones’s death in September 2024.

Listen: https://pca.st/episode/276cc855-beac-4258-9bf7-7f1113d09443 

In This Episode

00:00 Opening Quote
00:17 Show Welcome
00:48 Jones and Silence
01:35 Words Unspoken
02:48 Mindset Framework
03:30 Developing Your Voice
04:01 Practice and Poetry
04:56 Question to Reflect
05:35 Book Recommendation
06:08 Closing and Credits

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

Good Life vs. Meaningful Life: Signature Strengths and What We Do With Them

Christopher Johnson opens Calm Clear Curiosity with a Martin Seligman quote distinguishing the “good life,” finding happiness by using one’s signature strengths daily, from the “meaningful life,” using those strengths to forward knowledge, power, or goodness. He argues we overfocus on weaknesses and performance-review “gaps” instead of asking what we do best, when we feel most engaged, and who benefits from our strengths, noting contribution can be small and practical. Johnson connects this distinction to Anne Patchett’s novel Tom Lake, set on a Michigan cherry farm during the pandemic, where daughters press their mother to recount her past as an actress and a former lover, prompting reflection on unlived lives, outward accomplishment versus lived satisfaction, and recognizing value while still inside a life. He also references a National Writer Series podcast interview with Patchett and closes with weekly questions about using strengths today and noticing what is already good.

00:00 Good vs Meaningful Life
00:23 Show Introduction
00:51 Signature Strengths
02:28 Strengths in Service
03:42 Tom Lake Overview
05:02 Unlived Lives
05:55 Author Interview Insights
06:48 Meaning as Practice
07:25 Weekly Reflection Questions
08:14 Closing and Subscribe

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

Go the Way Your Blood Beats: Following Baldwin’s Call to Live Fully

Host Christopher Johnson introduces Calm, Clear Curiosity with James Baldwin’s quote, “You have to go the way your blood beats,” reflecting on the difference between existing and truly living, and the danger of building a life around practicality and others’ expectations. He connects the idea to launching the podcast as an expression of his lifelong curiosity and suggests that what energizes us can clue us into the life we want, without requiring every passion to become a career. He reframes the guiding question from “What should I be doing?” to “What makes me feel most alive?” and recommends three Baldwin works—The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native Son, and Go Tell It on the Mountain—highlighting Baldwin’s exploration of identity, race, religion, family, and becoming yourself. I close by asking listeners what feels like their personal heartbeat and whether they make room to follow it.

00:00 Baldwin Quote Intro
00:24 Welcome to the Show
00:54 Go the Way Your Blood Beats
02:01 No Do-Overs in Life
02:30 Why I Started This Podcast
03:25 Make Room for What Matters
04:21 Three Baldwin Reads
05:27 Questions That Return
05:52 Closing Reflection and Farewell

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

Rejoicing in Others’ Good Fortune

Christopher Johnson discusses Pema Chödrön’s idea that “rejoicing in the good fortune of others” is a cultivable practice that generates goodwill, especially when we feel emotionally shut down. He contrasts polite congratulations with genuine happiness, noting it’s easiest when we’re doing well and hardest when we’re struggling and tempted by envy, comparison, or resentment—pressures amplified by social media. Rejoicing counters isolation by shifting from scarcity to abundance, strengthening relationships and reminding us that excellence isn’t limited and others’ success doesn’t diminish our own future. He suggests replacing “Why not me?” with curiosity—“What can I learn from their journey?”—and recommends Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart to explore discomfort without letting it dictate our response. He closes with a weekly prompt to reach out and celebrate someone’s recent milestone.

00:00 Quote and Welcome
00:44 Rejoicing as Practice
01:34 Comparison vs Abundance
02:38 Celebrating Builds Bonds
03:10 Curiosity Over Envy
03:36 Book Recommendation
04:10 Working With Discomfort
05:10 Weekly Reflection
05:48 Closing and Sign-Off

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.

Send us Fan Mail

When Reading Opens the World: Mary McLeod Bethune and the Power of Curiosity

The episode centers on Mary McLeod Bethune’s quote, “The whole world opened up to me when I learned to read,” framing reading as a gateway to possibility. It highlights Bethune’s life—born in South Carolina in 1875 to parents who had been enslaved, later becoming an educator, presidential advisor, civil rights leader, and founder of what is now Bethune-Cookman University—and connects her message to the host’s childhood with teacher parents who made reading enjoyable and normal beyond school. The host explains how that early curiosity shaped paths into technology and broadcasting and fuels a love of biographies. The script contrasts books with fast media, arguing that reading deepens learning and builds empathy and perspective, and invites listeners to recall the first book that made their world feel bigger.

00:00 Bethune Quote Opens Worlds
00:38 Who Was Bethune
01:05 A Childhood of Reading
01:50 Curiosity Becomes a Career
02:44 Why Books Matter Now
03:12 Reading Builds Empathy
04:11 Podcast Mission and Challenge
04:57 Closing Thanks

Support the show

About Calm, Clear Curiosity

Calm, Clear Curiosity is a weekly exploration of ideas worth thinking about. Each episode begins with a quote and follows the questions it raises through books, podcasts, journalism, conversations, and other discoveries.

Hosted and produced by Christopher G. Johnson of Calm Clear Media.

Music by Jerome Gray of Cleveland Heads.

Connect & Keep Exploring

Connect with me on LinkedIn for more ideas about curiosity, communication, media, and the ways we connect with one another.

Subscribe to my newsletter for reflections, resources, recommendations, and ideas that carry on the conversation beyond the podcast.

If this episode introduced you to a new idea, raised a question, or encouraged you to see something differently, follow Calm, Clear Curiosity wherever you listen to podcasts and share the episode with someone who might enjoy it.

Keep curious.