Wrestling with Questions

“Wrestling with the questions has allowed me space for me to work through the emotions, the thoughts, the processing… All of that comes through questioning, doing some journaling, and making my way through that challenge.” ~ Ken Woodward

We talk a lot about questions here on Choose to Be Curious. But talking about questions is one thing, really wresting with them is another. 

Ken Woodward not only curates questions, he leans into them. Big time. And that has changed his life in ways large and small that are an inspiration to me. I think they will be for you, as well. 

Pretty much all of my primary identities have been shaken — shaken to the core — and I’m getting tired of that. But I know that that’s awesome growth and I’m like, “Come on. Can I at least get to some point on some particular topic that I can look back at the first half century of my life that I was actually right on?”

Ken Woodward is creator of Curated Questions, a website and podcast. He harvests and shares powerful questions from innumerable sources. 

Wrestling with questions has led him to walk all 2,085 miles of Washington DC’s streets and alleys wearing a sandwich board emblazoned “Black and Brown Lives Matter” and has up-ended most of what he thought he knew about himself and the world around him.

He wouldn’t have it any other way…

Choose to be Curious · Ep. #228: Wrestling with Questions, with Ken Woodward

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #228: Wrestling with Questions, with Ken Woodward

Check out Ken Woodward’s Curated Question website.

I was honored to be a guest on Ken’s podcast as it returned to production earlier this spring. Listen to our conversation on Mental Health Compassion and Choosing to Be Curious.

“Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” is from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.

Here’s the Miracle Question: “Suppose tonight, while you slept, a miracle occurred. When you awake tomorrow, what would be some of the things you would notice that would tell you life had suddenly gotten better?” Learn more about how the Miracle Question is used.

If you enjoyed this conversations, you might like these C2BC Classics: Poetry: Curiosity Emerging, with David Keplinger; The Human Library, with Ronni Abergel; Dialogues on Race & Equity, with Samia Byrd; CuriosityConnects.Us with Philippa Hughes; and  Curiosity is the Gateway to Connection, with Mike Morales.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Four Point Path“ by The Bulwark, via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Wear your curiosity on your sleeve. Check out the Choose to be Curious shop.

A Mile in Their Shoes: Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail

Suddenly I was curious: whose land was I on, anyway?

Walking the Mount Vernon Trail, an 18-mile bike and pedestrian path along the Potomac River across from Washington DC, I wasn’t sure who had jurisdiction over the land on which I tread. That got me thinking about what else I was missing — and what others might see and experience differently on this familiar route.

And so a series was conceived — in four parts, I hope — looking at a place from multiple perspectives. I call it “A Mile in Their Shoes”.

This first episode features the people who have chosen to care for this bit of Earth, the big-hearted, hard-working, fun-loving Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail. They have found community, purpose, and lots to be curious about…

And there’s that expression that I love that you can climb a hundred mountains in your lifetime or climb the same mountain a hundred times — and you do learn: it’s different every day. 

Choose to be Curious · Ep. #227: A Mile in Their Shoes: Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #227: A Mile in Their Shoes: Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail

Many thanks to my Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail volunteers/guests Susan, Laurie, Austin, co-founder and president Judd Isbell, and Alexandria City Council Member Sarah Bagley, with special appreciation for Cameron Taylor who embraced my vague pitch and put me in touch with all these lovely folks.

Check out Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail: https://mountvernontrail.org

Want to experience the Mount Vernon Trail virtually? View “Biking the Mount Vernon Trail” on YouTube.

It’s a road, it’s a park, it’s the George Washington Memorial Parkway! Mount Vernon Trail follows 18 miles of this national park, designed for recreational driving. The GW Parkway links sites that commemorate important episodes in American history and preserves habitat for local wildlife. https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/index.htm

Austin mentioned using the app iNaturalist to ID plants. It’s a great tool and curiosity community: https://www.inaturalist.org FoMVT is hosting a “BioBlitz” event with iNaturalist April 28. More information and registration here. 

Hungry for more about nature, walking and connection to place? Try these C2BC Classics: Street Wisdom, with David Pearl; Beyond Your Front Door, with Dina Pavlis; Citizen Science Is for Everyone, with Caroline Nickerson; Our Man in Arlington, with Charlie Clark; Taking Curiosity in Stride; A Capital Naturalist, with Alonso Abugattas.

Photos used with permission of Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail.

Music for this episode by Warmbody, via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and  Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Wear your curiosity on your sleeve. Check out the Choose to Be Curious shop.

Foraging: Dancing with Nature

“The plants are leading the way and I’m just their dancing partner. There’s a curiosity…it’s not really knowing, not having it set in your mind that this is what you’re going to do, but being open to it changing. And then you’re just dancing according to their rhythm.” ~ Tama Matsuoka Wong

I’ve been thinking that foraging – going from place to place looking for things one can eat – is a lot like the sampling and prioritizing of information gathering that neuroscientists are studying, just applied to things many of us readily dismiss as “weeds”.

Tama Matsuoka Wong is a finance lawyer turned professional forager. She got curious about the “weeds” around her when she moved to a fixer-upper house in northern New Jersey. She started to see them and their ecosystem differently. 

Now she forages for high-end chefs in Manhattan and is an advocate for thoughtful stewardship of what’s naturally all around us.

That struck me as a curiosity conversation worth having.

I know people who are really disconnected. So I have chefs coming from all kinds of backgrounds. I have bartenders, I have farmers. I have EMT workers. I have plants people…it’s just people from all over…they would never normally come across each other. But sometimes, when you put them together, amazing things happen. In a way, all I’m doing is connecting these dots. And if you look at it that way, it’s infinitely curious. 

Choose to be Curious · Ep. #226: Foraging: Curiosity & Dancing with Nature, with Tama Matsuoka Wong

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #226: Foraging: Curiosity & Dancing with Nature, with Tama Matsuoka Wong

Learn more about Tama Matsuoka Wong here: https://www.meadowsandmore.com

Tama’s got a new book out! Use the QR code to oder Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager. 

(NOTE: I receive no proceeds from any sales, I’m just happy to promote a guest’s book!)

You know me, I’m always interested in the research and theory that undergirds or gently informs these conversations. Check out my interview with neuroscientist Jacqueline Gottlieb about sampling, information gathering, and what we can learn by tracking eye movement.

If you enjoyed this conversation about wandering, savoring and the great outdoors, you might like these C2BC Classics as well: Slow Down, with Justine Ickes; Street Wisdom, with David Pearl; Beyond Your Front Door, with Dina Pavlis; Reading Our Landscapes, with Liam Heneghan; Curiosity Out on the Town, with Demian Perry; Reflections-Not-Resolutions, with Kristine Wood; and  A Capital Naturalist, with Alonso Abugattas.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Lakeside Path” by Duck Lake, via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts. And here’s some fun podcast news this week:

Goodpods Top 100 Society & Culture Podcasts


Listen now to Choose to be Curious podcast

Wear your curiosity on your sleeve. Check out the Choose to be Curious shop.

A Special Kind of Alchemy

“We need to be very curious about the information we receive, especially before we adopt it.” ~ Dr. Ben Rein

Today’s conversation is a Choose to Be Curious trifecta: a neuroscientist, who studies empathy, has devoted himself to science communication, and willingly stands in the chaotic swirl where curiosity can go weirdly very awry.

Ben Rein, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Robert Malenka’s lab at Stanford University and a science communicator on social media. 

You might know him as Dr.Brein on TikTok or Doctor.Brein on Instagram. He’s the one summarizing research papers, teaching neuroscience basics, and debunking viral videos that promote scientific misinformation. 

Somehow, Ben has managed to combine curiosity, empathy and social media and have genuine good come of it. At some point in our conversation I declared his work a “special kind of alchemy.” I stand by that.

My thought — and my theory — is that, if we can take a moment to appreciate and interrogate that cognitive empathy, we can sort of will ourselves into emotional empathy.

Choose to be Curious · Ep. #225: A Special Alchemy: Curiosity, Empathy & Social Media, with Dr. Ben Rein

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #225: A Special Alchemy: Curiosity, Empathy & Social Media, with Dr. Ben Rein

Find Ben Rein, PhD on line at: www.benrein.com and follow him on social media: Instagram: @doctor.brein TikTok: @dr.brein

I recommend Ben’s talk at the Center for Brain Health: Mythbusting: How a Brain Scientist Uses Social Media for Good with Ben Rein, PhD.

Dr. Julie Fratantoni interviewed Ben for the talk that caught my attention. You can hear my conversation with her here: Curiosity & Brain Health, with Dr. Julie Fratantoni.

Empathy comes up a lot here. If you’d like to hear more, try these C2BC Classics: Empathy, with Brandon Charles; Building Bridges, with Vivek Patil; Cultivating Cultural Intelligence, with Asma Ahmad; Sounds of Caring, with Yoko Sen & Tammy Beaulieu; Compassionate Curiosity & Death, with Valoria Walker; Michael Tennant is Actually Empathic.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Perspiration” by The Ballonist, via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and now on Spotify. 

Wear your curiosity on your sleeve. Check out the Choose to Be Curious shop