Thecuriousmanspodcast

What happens when professional expertise collides with deeply personal experience?

In this episode, I'm joined by psychiatrist and advocate Ellen Bassuk and her son Daniel Schoonover to discuss their powerful memoir Between Two Worlds: A Psychiatrist and Her Son's Quest for Compassionate Mental Health Care.

For decades, Dr. Bassuk worked inside the mental health system while simultaneously navigating it as the mother of a son living with serious mental illness, including schizophrenia. Together, they tell a deeply human story about family, caregiving, advocacy, stigma, resilience, and the painful gaps within America's mental health and educational systems.

This conversation explores compassion, recovery, parenting, identity, and what truly humane mental health care could look like.

What if animals aren't just surviving in nature… but building civilizations of their own?

In this episode, I'm joined by journalist and author Ryan Huling to discuss his fascinating book The Hidden Nation of Animals.

Part travelogue, part ecological detective story, the book explores how animals create infrastructure, maintain highways, negotiate territory, construct cities, and adapt to the human-altered world with astonishing sophistication.

This conversation challenges how we think about intelligence, ecosystems, and humanity's relationship with the natural world.

In a world shaped by human stories, what happens when we shift our gaze—quite literally—to the animals who have been watching us all along?

Today's guest is Thomas W. Laqueur, Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley and one of the most influential cultural historians of our time. Known for his groundbreaking work on the body, death, and human experience, he now turns his attention to something both deeply familiar and surprisingly mysterious: dogs.

In his remarkable new book, The Dog's Gaze: A Visual History, Laqueur explores centuries of art, culture, and human emotion through the eyes of dogs—revealing how they've shaped the way we see ourselves.

How does a nation build a cult of personality so powerful that it survives for generations?

In this episode, I'm joined by Jonathan Cheng, China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, to discuss his forthcoming nonfiction book Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult.

The book explores one of the most fascinating and unsettling political transformations of the modern era: how the arrival of American Christianity in Korea may have helped shape the quasi-religious cult surrounding Kim Il Sung and the ruling Kim dynasty.

This conversation examines history, religion, propaganda, authoritarianism, and the unique political mythology that continues to define North Korea today.

What happens when adoption stories celebrated as humanitarian triumphs conceal painful truths beneath the surface?

In this episode, I'm joined by author Paige Towers to discuss her book What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption.

The book examines the origins of international adoption through the story of Harry Holt and the rise of what became Holt International. Set against the aftermath of the Korean War, it explores the complicated legacy of intercountry adoption — including family separation, coercion, identity loss, and the lasting impact on adoptees and biological families.

This is a difficult but important conversation about history, ethics, trauma, and the stories that often go untold.

What if the story of the American Revolution isn't just American?

In this episode, I'm joined by award-winning historian Sarah M. S. Pearsall to discuss her book Freedom Round the Globe: A World History of the American Revolution.

We often think of the Revolution as a story driven by the Founding Fathers — but Pearsall expands that lens, showing how revolutionary ideas, resistance, and acts of defiance were unfolding across the globe in the 18th century.

This conversation challenges familiar narratives and reveals how marginalized voices and global movements helped shape one of the most defining moments in history.

As cannabis policy and science evolve, so too does the conversation around how it fits into modern medicine—especially for older adults.

In this episode, I'm joined by addiction specialist and Harvard Medical School instructor Peter Grinspoon to discuss his book Aging Well with Cannabis: Feel Better, Sleep Better and Live Better with Marijuana and CBD.

With cannabis now legalized in much of the United States, many older adults are exploring it as an alternative or complement to traditional pharmaceuticals for issues like chronic pain, insomnia, and anxiety. Dr. Grinspoon brings a medical, evidence-based lens to a rapidly changing landscape—one shaped by science, policy, and patient experience.

This conversation explores aging, wellness, risk, benefit, and what responsible cannabis use looks like in real clinical practice.

When deadly outbreaks erupt, most people think about hospitals, governments, or the military response.

Few think about the pilots, medics, and crews tasked with flying directly into the crisis.

In this episode, I'm joined by former paramedic, journalist, and award-winning author Kevin Hazzard to discuss his gripping book No One Is Coming.

The book tells the remarkable story of Phoenix Air, the small Georgia-based aviation company that carried out the unprecedented air evacuation of Ebola patients during the West African Ebola epidemic.

This conversation explores emergency medicine, aviation, global crisis response, fear, logistics, and the extraordinary people willing to go where others won't.

What does it really mean to lead — especially during times of uncertainty, burnout, and constant change?

In this episode, I'm joined by author and longtime movement leader Eveline Shen to discuss her book Choosing to Lead Against the Current: The Courageous Operating System for Changemakers.

After spending more than two decades leading Forward Together, Shen has helped mentor organizers, activists, and changemakers working to build stronger communities and more sustainable movements.

This conversation explores leadership, courage, burnout, systems thinking, and how people can create meaningful change without losing themselves in the process.

What begins as a personal health crisis can sometimes uncover questions far bigger than one person's story.

In this episode, I'm joined by author, graphic artist, and designer Adam Finegan to discuss his book The Sleeper Agent: The Rise of Lyme Disease, Chronic Illness, and the Great Imitator Antigens of Biological Warfare.

After contracting Lyme disease, Finegan began searching for answers — a journey that led him into the history of Cold War-era biological research, the work of virologist Erich Traub, and the controversial history surrounding Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

This conversation explores chronic illness, investigative research, medical uncertainty, and the powerful human drive to make sense of suffering.