Thecuriousmanspodcast

Matt Crawford speaks with author Edward L. Jones III about his book, Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder: What Really Killed the Crespi Twins.

While Kim Crespi was getting a haircut, her husband David murdered their five-year-old twin daughters during a game of hide and seek. In the aftermath, family, friends, and even David have more questions than answers. In 2005, Kim Crespi had what she later described as "the perfect life." She and her husband, David—a gentle giant of a man, devoutly religious, a loving father, and a proven star in the world of finance—had five healthy, happy children. No one, least of all Kim, ever suspected that the life the Crespis had lovingly woven together could be destroyed in less than forty minutes. In Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder, author Edward L. Jones III chronicles David Crespi's struggles with insomnia and depression, the role SSRI antidepressants may have played in the killings, and Kim's unimaginable journey of trauma, suffering, and eventual forgiveness as documented by her journal entries. Using letters and other forms of personal communications with David, plus excerpts from scholarly articles and more, Jones takes readers on a journey into the dark heart of psychosis, of North Carolina's penal and mental health systems, and of Big Pharma.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Samuel Ashworth about his book, The Death and Life of August Sweeney: A Novel.

Legendary chef August Sweeney has served his final meal, dying in the middle of service in the very restaurant he built to secure his legacy. When Dr. Maya Zhu, a guarded, intense autopsist, is summoned to investigate, she discovers she must operate under strict conditions Sweeney himself dictated before he died. As she digs deeper into his immense body, everything that can go wrong, does, because August Sweeney isn't about to let a little thing like death stop him from raising hell.The Death and Life of August Sweeney finds two people drawn together across the barrier of death. In her ruthless drive to excel as a doctor, Zhu has walled herself off from almost everything. As she dissects Sweeney, teasing out the mysteries hidden in his body, she begins to understand that she is doing an autopsy on her counterpoint: an equally ruthless artist who made excess his muse. As she obsesses over what happened to Sweeney under the strangest conditions of her career, her life– and August' s death– will never be the same.An epic novel about life, death, and the worlds in between, The Death and Life of August Sweeney examines what it means to be driven, to be famous, and to be alive. A true book of the body, the author spent years researching clinical pathology and fine dining alike, spending weeks observing autopsies and working as a stagiaire in a Michelin-starred kitchen.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Kit Karson about her book, Nefarious Intent: A Sheriff Elliott Mystery.

Holiday festivities in tiny Anderson, Montana take an unexpected turn when a welfare check becomes a murder investigation. Stone County deputy Tom Edwards discovers the frozen corpses of a local couple bound to chairs at their home in the Moonlight Mountains. The couple's son and daughter-in-law soon go missing, the only clue a puddle of blood. A tragic bus accident and embezzled church funds add suspects and complicate motives.

Stone County Sheriff Peter Elliott and his crew are once again faced with more suspects than clues and an increasingly hostile press in their struggle to solve these murders.

Matt Crawford speaks with Neurologist and author Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan about her book, The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels is Making Us Sicker.

We live in an age of diagnosis. Conditions like ADHD and autism are on the rapid rise, while new categories like long Covid are being created. Medical terms are increasingly used to describe ordinary human experiences, and the advance of sophisticated genetic sequencing techniques means that even the healthiest of us may soon be screened for potential abnormalities. More people are labeled "sick" than ever before—but are these diagnoses improving their lives? With scientific authority and compassionate storytelling, neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan argues that our obsession with diagnosis is harming more than helping. It is natural when we are suffering to want a clear label, understanding, and, of course, treatment. But our current approach to diagnosis too often pathologizes difference, increases our anxiety, and changes our experience of our bodies for the worse. Through the moving stories of real people, O'Sullivan compares the impact of a medical label to the pain of not knowing. She explains the way the boundaries of a diagnosis can blur over time. Most importantly, she calls for us to find new and better vocabularies for suffering and to find ways to support people without medicalizing them.

Matt Crawford speaks with Dr. Henry Gee about his book, The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire. In this provocative book, award-winning science writer Henry Gee offers a concise, brilliantly-told history of our species--and argues that we are on a rapid, one-way trip to extinction. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire narrates the dramatic rise of humanity, how a scattered range of small groups across several continents eventually inbred, interacted, fought, established stable communities and food supplies, and began the process of dominating the planet. The human story is relatively brief―the oldest fossils of H. Sapiens date to approximately 300,000 years ago―yet the spread of our species has been unstoppable…until recently. As Gee demonstrates, our population has peaked, and is declining; our environment is becoming inimical to human life in many locations; our core resources of water, arable land, and air are diminishing; and new diseases, simmering conflicts, and ambiguous technologies threaten our collective health. Can we still change our course? Or is our own extinction inevitable? There could be a way out, but the launch window is narrow. Unless Homo sapiens establishes successful colonies in space within the next two centuries, our species is likely to stay earthbound and will have vanished entirely within another ten thousand years, bringing the seven-million-year story of the human lineage to an end. With assured narration, dramatic stories, and his signature sprightly humor, Henry Gee envisions new opportunities for the future of humanity―a future that will reward facing challenges with ingenuity, foresight, and cooperation.

Matt Crawford speaks with entrepreneur and CEO Tom Kubiniec about his career and company SecureIT Tactical. How did Tom go from a promising guitarist to a business owner, serial entrepreneur and CEO of SecureIT Tactical, a secure firearm storage after never owning a firearm until 2011? Give a listen and prepare to be inspired. We often think the inspiration we seek is linear and must come from the area we look to delve into. Obviously, that is not the case, but this is a conversation that proves that innovation can come from anywhere if you are willing to listen and act.

Matt Crawford speaks with professor of Biology at John Jay University and author Nathan Lents about his book, The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships.

Evolutionary biologist Nathan H. Lents knows what makes humans unique—and it's most definitely not our sexual diversity. A professor at John Jay College, Lents has spent his career studying what makes us, well, us, and contrary to what the culture warriors want people to believe—diverse sexual behavior is not a new development, or even a human one. It didn't just emerge from a progressive culture; it's the product of billions of years of evolutionary experimentation throughout the animal kingdom. It's not a modern story, a Florida story, or even a human story. It's a biological story.

In The Sexual Evolution, Lents takes readers on a journey through the animal world, from insects to apes, revealing what the incredible array of sexual diversity can teach us about our own diverse beauty. Nature, it turns out, has made a lot of space for diverse genders and sexual behaviors. And why? Because when it comes to evolution—diversity wins. This is not just a political or social message, instead it's rooted in science and cultivated from understanding the full breadth of sexuality that exists throughout the world.

With shades of both Frans de Waal and Esther Perel, Lents's storytelling is as fascinating as it is topical, offering eye-opening stories about the diversity of animal life, while relating it to our own sexual journey as a species. At once a forceful rebuttal to bigotry and a captivating dive into the secret sex lives of animals, The Sexual Evolution is the rare book of pop science that leans into the controversy. Sex, the reactionaries say, should only be for procreation between a man and a woman, anything else goes against nature. Well, nature would like a word with them.

Matt Crawford speaks with lawyer, judge, painter, illustrator and author Etienne Labuschagne about his work and his book, Bedtime Stories for Clever Children. Etienne and I discuss how to broach difficult subjects with children and how to empower them to tackle the challenging moments in life. Many of us try to protect our kids from the moments in life that will test them, but we do them no favors in doing so.

Matt Crawford speaks with author N.L Holmes about her book, Flowers of Evil: Hani's Daughter Mysteries. When two young women in ancient Egypt open a medical dispensary, they don't expect their first patient to be a dying florist of Amen whose last words are totally mysterious. It's Neferet and Bener-ib's nature to want to appease the ba of the murder victim by finding his killer, and their teenaged apprentice is a born detective. But between the skepticism of their own families and the malice of a rival healer, they find out the simple desire to do the right thing gets them into more trouble than they could have imagined!

Matt Crawford speaks with executive director of the New York based Falun Dafa information center about Shen Yun. We have all seen the ads on T.V but what exactly is Shen Yun and why was it started? Based on the Falun Gong teaching Shen Yun is a celebration of over 5000 years of Chinese heritage with choreography, vibrant handmade costumes, a dynamic live orchestra and an emcee that makes sure no one is unsure of what the symbolism of it all means.