Happy When Curious

What do you reckon? 

Russel Barsh is the director of Kwiaht-Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea. He studied at Harvard, taught at the University of Washington, and worked for many years at the United Nati…

What elevated feeling do you find yourself craving, but maybe having a hard time articulating exactly what it is, let alone how to get there? For me it's the sensation of not being in the center of t…

Mark Bitterman is an American entrepreneur, food writer and world traveller. He is the author of the James Beard award winning book "Salted: A Manifesto on the world's most essential mineral" along w…

Have you had the experience of passing someone in a car and waving to them and them just completely being in their own world and not seeing you? That experience has always stuck with me and I think i…

What makes for great conversation? Conversation that leaves you feeling enriched, that taps into your best self as opposed to your worst and in which you genuinely learn something?

Listen in as I'm jo…

Parenting is full of interesting philosophical questions. Join me as I think on a few of them that have been bopping around in my brain. 

As always what I am aiming for is not answers but rather usefu…

Is the human brain more wired towards story than a set of rules to follow?

Can religion prescribe behavior without trying to describe reality?

What is the most successful example of religious violence?

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It seems to me that being able to sense which mode of thinking we are operating in-
attempting to be right or attempting to get it right, really matters. Listen in as I do a short musing on it. 

Amanda is an ethnobotanist and cultural anthropologist. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at Washington State University. She researches ethnobotany (including traditional foods and …

The impulse to say "knock on wood" after certain types of sentences is very strong in me.  But lately I've been feeling like rejecting the impulse. Listen as I try to muddle through it.

From Wikipedi…

For Adam Summers, natural history and the practice of biomechanics starts with those moments where you witness an animal or plant doing something that you can't quite understand.  How did that eagle …

Join me as I explore what I see as one of the main causes of bad conversations when it comes to topics of public import-the continual muddying of waters between empirical questions and values questio…

Mandy Fer is one half of the Indie Folk Rock Duo Sway Wild, alongside Dave McGraw, as well as being currently the guitarist for the 3x GRAMMY nominee Allison Russell. You may have recently seen Mandy…

What if there is nothing to fix? 

I don't think this is literally true, but I do think it's a very useful state of mind to entertain every once in a while.  Join me for a short musing as I think it th…

Iris Graville is a writer and retired nurse from Lopez Island, WA.  She is the author of the books "Hiking Naked: A Quaker's Search for Balance" and "Writer in a Life Vest" amongst others.

 Her profi…

Join me as I try to come up with some rules as to who to trust in the wild landscapes of opinions we find ourselves in!

Dan is a homesteader, writer, artist and agroforester in Alaska and the author of the Where the Forest Meets the Sea substack.  I highly suggest reading his blog, it's a very enjoyable read.

Our start…

Happy New Year! Is life one damned thing after another...or not? Join me as I try to think it through. 

I absolutely love this question as it brings in so many elements of humanity. In this episode I try to explore what I see as a few interesting nooks and crannies of the huge mountain that is the conv…