“All you need is courage and curiosity.” ~ Ronni Abergel
What if there was a way to help people meet and talk with others whose lives are very different (or not!) from their own?
The Human Library does just that, by creating a safe space for dialogue, an opportunity for challenging stigma and stereotypes, and the chance to “unjudge” someone.
Co-founder and CEO Ronni Abergel joins me to talk about “publishing” people as “open books.” Others come to the library as “readers.” And then the magic happens.
“Allow yourself to be curious, and allow yourself to ask the questions that your parents always said, ‘You can’t ask that,’ because in this space you can. If you are respectful and sincere about the question, please ask the question. Our books would love to answer it. They want to help you understand who they are and where they come from.”
“Everything that is engaging, that has a social component to it, will just evoke more and more curiosity.” ~ Sofia Forss
Sofia Forss is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Zurich, specializing in comparative cognition and animal behavior. She’s curious about how curiosity shows up in apes.
A fascinating discussion about curiosity and the influence of others, upbringing, and perceptions of risk. What might these findings suggest for apes’ close cousins, we humans? I was surprised and intrigued over and over in this conversation. I think you will be as well.
This was an eye-opener, and a turning-point for us, because we realized: Oh! it’s not that you go out there and explore just because something is suspicious and cool and colorful. No — there are rules to this — how a species evolved when you should be curious and when not.
Congratulations to Sofia and Dr. Elisa Bandini for winning this year’s Early Career Award from the Einstein Foundation for promoting quality in research. The Award of €100,000 goes to support their Ape Research Index project.
“If you change your point of view, you will see something new.” ~ Dad
Do you like a good scavenger hunt? Love the thrill of discovering new places? That’s your curiosity calling!
Wait ’til you hear about geocaching, a GPS-driven treasure hunt game for the 21st century.
Sonny Portacio hosts The Podcacher Podcast, a hit variety show all about “geocaching goodness” that he and his wife Sandy have been sharing since 2005. Who better to talk about curiosity and geocaching?
Right there is the first level of curiosity, asking “What is this about?” And then I remember finding my first cache and thinking, “How cool!”
Catch Sonny and Sandy and The Podcacher Podcast right here.
Want to know more about geocaching? Geocaching HQ has you covered. There are lots of local groups as well; a special shout-out to the good folks at NoVaGO (Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization), who helped get me started in the game!
Listening to the Universe 