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.

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Maggie wrote in a New York Times guest essay earlier this year, “We should rethink our outdated notions of not-knowing as weakness, and instead discover this mindset as a strength.”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.

...In today's conversation, Todd Kashdan and I touched on evolving understandings about curiosity across the life span, the challenges inherent in certain kinds of curiosity, and a more nuanced way to think about "the curiosity zone".

But I couldn't fit the whole conversation in 28 short minutes, so here's a little bonus -- a peek behind the production curtain, and some of the rich conversation that I didn't want you to miss.

For the 250th episode of this brave little enterprise, I invited psychologist and curiosity researcher Todd Kashdan to join me to rethink some of the old curiosity standards.

The research has evolved and we're going with it.

What better way to keep the curiosity alive than by questioning what we think we know?

More about Todd Kashdan: https://toddkashdan.com

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Shift of Currents” by Aeronaut, via Blue Dot Sessions.

From the moment I set foot on campus, it was clear that Olin College of Engineering has a special and very intentional relationship with curiosity.  

Olin embodies a willingness to try something new, make mistakes, and learn from those experiences.

Gilda A. Barabino, Ph.D., is president of Olin and sets that curiosity tone.

More about Olin College of Engineering at https://www.olin.edu

Theme music by Sean Balick;“Come As You Are” by Cauldron, via Blue Dot Sessions.