• The Clamshell Effect: Why we walk around closed off and how to stay open to your own creative aliveness.
• Jumping into the Fire: Why the sense of discovery is more important than the end result.
• Princess Essex: The true story of a woman who pretended to be a princess just to be seen for a day.
• Creative Oxygen: Why finding what makes you feel human is a necessity, not a luxury.

Want more? Here are handy playlists with all my previous interviews with guests in writing and theatre.

Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join us for the Follow Your Curiosity Creativity Circle.

Please leave a review for this episode—it’s really easy and will only take a minute, and it really helps me reach new listeners. Thanks!

If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.

00:00 Introduction
04:02 Embracing curiosity, asking questions, and building strong connections.
08:14 Making networking meaningful by asking genuine, human-centered questions.
12:20 Being curious instead of judgmental leads to better conversations.
16:13 Dangers of relying solely on AI for answers.
20:14 Approaching organizational culture change through curiosity and pain points.
24:31 Challenges in shifting to a true feedback culture.
28:23 Coaching empowers ownership by guiding with questions, not answers.
32:19 Learning to handle feedback thoughtfully and with discernment.
36:18 Curiosity is like a muscle, build it intentionally over time.
40:09 Start with simple curiosity, apply process to bigger challenges.
44:09 Questions can reveal disconnects between leadership and frontline experience.

You can get your copy of Danielle's Curiosity Playbook here.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in writing.

Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join us for the Follow Your Curiosity Creativity Circle.

Please leave a review for this episode—it’s really easy and will only take a minute, and it really helps me reach new listeners. Thanks!

If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.

[I'm on vacation this week, so I'm re-upping one of my favorite interviews from the last year. I'll be back with new episodes next week!]

My friend and fellow Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, Nina Hart, was one of my first guests, and she comes back to the podcast today. Nina is an author and performer—including being an original member of San Francisco’s experimental dance troupe, Contraband, and, playing a purple electric bass, recording and performing with numerous bands—and I invited her to dig into Keith Johnstone’s groundbreaking book on theatrical improvisation, Impro, with me.

I knew Nina would have a lot to say about how we unknowingly are our own biggest obstacles to our own creativity, which is a primary focus of the book. We talk about the role status plays in our lives and our perception of things like permission and perfection, how cultural and societal expectations create the fears that hold us back, the importance of feeling safe to let those fears go, and much more.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us when you feel most safe to express yourself.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in acting and theatre!

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon!

If you'd like weekly updates, plus a chance to see where my curiosity is leading me, check out my new (free!) Substack newsletter.

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden has been a story lover since she and her family watched TV and movies together. Her father taught her how to find the deeper layers of a story. This love prompted her to pursue a double major in Religious Studies and Theatre and Speech, a MA in Theatre Arts, and finally a MAEd so she could share her love of stories with her students. Now retired, Lucinda writes her weekly blog, Sage Woman Chronicles, is working on her second novel, manages her online course, "Saving the World One Story at a Time", and produces the bi-weekly podcast, Story-Power.

Lucinda talks with me about the overlap between religion and theater, how story can broaden our understanding of others and help us learn emotional intelligence, how she came to create her online course, and even shares some classic books and movies that are still relevant today.

Episode breakdown:

[00:05:05] Reading fiction helped Lucinda love literature.

[00:08:33] Religious studies to theater.

[00:15:06] Emotional intelligence.

[00:19:18] Father's emotional intelligence led to success.

[00:27:23] From teaching to writing a book, blog, novel, podcast, and online course.

[00:37:12] Language, colors, and stories shape us.

[00:42:58] Acting class teaches medical students empathy skills.

[00:50:44] Movie and book recommendations: awakening journeys and making a difference.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when a story was important to you.

Want more? Here are some handy playlists with all my previous interviews with guests in theatre and writing and publishing.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events), all for free!

My friend and fellow Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, Nina Hart, was one of my first guests, and she comes back to the podcast today. Nina is an author and performer—including being an original member of San Francisco’s experimental dance troupe, Contraband, and, playing a purple electric bass, recording and performing with numerous bands—and I invited her to dig into Keith Johnstone’s groundbreaking book on theatrical improvisation, Impro, with me.

I knew Nina would have a lot to say about how we unknowingly are our own biggest obstacles to our own creativity, which is a primary focus of the book. We talk about the role status plays in our lives and our perception of things like permission and perfection, how cultural and societal expectations create the fears that hold us back, the importance of feeling safe to let those fears go, and much more.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us when you feel most safe to express yourself.

Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in acting and theatre!

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Post.news, Spoutible, and Mastodon! And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, get the 6 Creative Beliefs that Are Screwing You Up, plus biweekly updates on what's going on in my world (including upcoming events) for free!

Hillary Webb describes herself as a cultural anthropologist, author, and mixed-media storyteller with a focus on theater anthropology and cross-cultural perspectives on human consciousness. It’s a mix that covers a lot of territory, both literally and figuratively. Hillary has traveled the world for research on shamanism and consciousness, and has even managed to stumble into the world of stand-up comedy in Berlin. We talk about Western ideas of individualism and how they influence our ideas of being part of a group, how those dynamics function in a place like Peru, and how they all influence our senses of who we really are. We also explore the current cultural ideal of authenticity and how it intersects with enthusiasm—and come to a conclusion that might surprise you.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review, and in it, tell us something you're enthusiastic about, whether large or small.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Register here.

Need a dose of calm and wonder? Join me for Gratitude and Wonder! Register here.

Creativity enthusiast and educator JoAnn Nocera knows what it’s like to stop listening to your creative spark—and she’s done the work to get hers back. Now she helps students, teachers, and parents keep that spark alive. She joined me to talk about that journey, what she sees happening in classrooms, and most importantly, how to keep kids from losing that spark in the first place. As an added bonus, a lot of what she says can be applied to adults, too. She also shares her favorite creativity tool: Neurographic doodling. 

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

When I think of someone who is unstoppably creative, I think of Leonie Dawson, who is my guest today. As you’ll hear, Leonie is an artist, writer, and inveterate experimenter who build a 7-figure business by trying as many things as possible to see what she loved the most, and runs on the philosophy that whoever’s having the most fun wins. We talk about everything from how she encourages creativity with her kids to her decision to leave social media to the fact that it really is okay to decide not only who you want to work with, but who you don’t—and a whole lot more. This is a wide-ranging conversation that offers a lot to chew on for any creative soul or entrepreneur.

**There’s some strong language in this episode.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Isabelle Hardesty started her creative life in visual art and fashion before trying her hand at writing. Inspired in part by her childhood in South Florida, her most recent novels are The Witch of Belle Fleur, and its upcoming sequel, Midnight in Belle Fleur. We talk about the importance of listening to our intuition, being sure YOU like your own work, why she self-publishes, the responsibility creatives bear for the messages we put out into the culture, the revision process, and more. 

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Trudy Cunningham is one of the most insightful and creative people I've ever met. Her background in mathematics and education led her to the improbable position of associate dean of engineering at Bucknell University, which is where we first crossed paths. It's is also why I wanted to talk to her. She later moved to Sewanee, where her husband served as president and she continued to teach. As you'll hear, not only has she steadfastly refused to be told women can't teach math, she's just as consistently stood up for her students' best interests with parents, faculty, and university administrators. Her approach to problem solving is simultaneously practical and creative, and infuses her outlook on everything from teaching to aging. And she understands far better than most what makes people tick. 

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

This week, I’m bringing you a current teacher who’s a former colleague of mine: Lisa Houston, who started the drama program at the Pennington School and now serves as its middle school dean of students. Among other things, Lisa tells us how she rebuilt the drama program from the ground up, how it’s expanded over the years, what it’s like to take a group of high school students overseas to perform at a major festival, and how she’s seen theater impact the kids who participate in it, and even change lives. You'll also hear about the effect teaching drama has had on her life. 

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Maria James-Thiaw is a performance poet, playwright, and professor at Central Penn College. She’s also a friend of mine from the MFA program at Goddard College.

Maria has been playing with words since she was old enough to understand them, and has a phenomenal talent for wielding them with power. Her most recent project, the choreopoem Reclaiming My Time, is based on the histories of women who lived through the Jim Crow Era. She’s also the CEO and co-founder of the Reclaim Artist Collective, which works with artists and individuals in marginalized communities.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

We think of creativity as something associated with the arts—dance, music, poetry, etc. That's why I wanted to talk to Robert Smith?, a mathematician who creates models that help improve disease control. He gained some fame a few years back for modeling zombie outbreaks—and that work has proven useful in the real world. Robert has also written several books about Doctor Who. If you're skeptical about math as a creative pursuit, or a math agnostic/atheist yourself (I hear you!), I promise you'll see things differently once you listen to this interview.

(Note: In October 2020, Robert transitioned and is now known as Stacey Smith? Because of the quantity of material predating the transition, Stacey has chosen to credit Robert for items before October 2020.)

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com., and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

When your father is a playwright and your mother is a lyric soprano, you're unavoidably exposed to a creative outlook on life. This week is the second in a series of three episodes where we'll be hearing from three siblings from an incredibly artistic family, all of whom are artists themselves.

This week, I talk to Rachel Marianno, the middle sibling, a teacher, school administrator, and poet in Philadelphia. We talk about what it was like to realize she was "different" as a result of the environment she grew up in, why she decided to major in education rather than theater, and how she's been able to influence and support her students to follow their creative call. Rachel also shares a poem with us.

Next time, we'll round the set out with Rachel's brother Orrin Evans, of the Grammy-nominated Captain Black Big Band.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!