Follow Your Curiosity

Seeing Possibilities with Rachel Marianno

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!

Don't Give Up on Yourself with Todd Evans

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 begins a series of three episodes where we'll be hearing from three siblings from an incredibly artistic family, all of whom are artists themselves.

We start with Todd Evans, the eldest sibling, a poet who has started several open mics in the Trenton, NJ, area, and also started the Don Evans Players, which performs his father's plays and other classics. We talk about what inspired him to start that group, how art came back to him after a period of addiction, and how his parents influenced him as a child and never lost their faith in him. He also graces us with a beautiful, brand-new poem.

Next time, I'll be talking to his sister, poet and school administrator Rachel Marianno, and we'll round the set out with his brother Orrin Evans, of the Grammy-nominated Captain Black Big Band.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com for details, including a video tribute to their mother (including some of her singing!), and share your thoughts with us on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Becoming the Eighth Doctor with Paul McGann, Part 2

This week—this month!—I have the honor and pleasure of talking with actor Paul McGann. He started his career in the West End, moving to TV with the BBC’s Monocled Mutineer, and to film with the cult classic Withnail and I. His credits also include Horatio Hornblower, Luther, and the Dickens adaptation Our Mutual Friend, and he’s narrated numerous documentaries. All that said, he’s probably best known as the Eighth Doctor from Doctor Who.

In the second of two episodes, Paul and I talk about working in radio/audio, the way lockdown has changed recording audio, working with Richard E. Grant, his thoughts on Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, earlier roles in The Hanging Gale and The Monocled Mutineer, and why he left social media.

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

Becoming the Eighth Doctor with Paul McGann, Part 1

This week—this month!—I have the honor and pleasure of talking with actor Paul McGann. He started his career in the West End, moving to TV with the BBC’s Monocled Mutineer, and to film with the cult classic Withnail and I. His credits also include Horatio Hornblower, Luther, and the Dickens adaptation Our Mutual Friend, and he’s narrated numerous documentaries. All that said, he’s probably best known as the Eighth Doctor from Doctor Who.

In the first of two episodes, Paul and I talk about how his elder brother, Joe, steered him to drama school, the advice he was given early on, and, of course, how he came to be the Eighth Doctor—and what that role has taught him about himself, fandom, and the power of stories to influence our lives.  

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

Inspiration and Originality with Cindy Lynn Speer

Novelist Cindy Lynn Speer is one of my dearest writing friends. We met online years ago, and instantly bonded over our love of language and writing. We've never sat down and actually had a face-to-face conversation about writing, though—until now.

Cindy Lynn is the author of five novels and a short story collection. We talk about how she got started with writing, what she's done in the publishing world along the way to getting her own books into print, the myths and realities of our ideas around what's original and what isn't, who ideas "belong" to, and a lot more. Cindy's new book, The Key to All Things, is available on July 25th.

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!

 

Navigating Your Inner Wilderness with Darcy Wade

Darcy Wade is an expressive arts therapist who knows what it's like to be derailed from her creative dream. As you’ll hear, one simple incident in high school destroyed her artistic identity, leaving her adrift through college. A chance interaction brought her back to herself and got her on the expressive arts path. If you’ve never heard of expressive arts, don’t worry—she has you covered as we talk about her early life as an artist, how she was thrown from that path and how she got back on it, and how wilderness and expressive arts therapy can bring us back to ourselves.

Check out Darcy's art and links in the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Running Away to Join the Circus with Ryan Ward

I couldn't resist this title for this episode, because it's true: Ryan Ward really did run away to join the circus. While that might sound silly, Ryan is wise beyond his years, having survived a deeply toxic relationship (which he discusses here), and reinvented himself, from changing his name to moving clear across the country to work as a circus performer and teacher. We talk not only about Ryan's history with the circus, but also about what he’s learned from his journey—how he interacts with his world, how he handles fear, and perhaps most importantly, how he determines what works for him and what doesn’t in relationships of all kinds, and how he handles the things that don’t serve him well. We also talk about what we're learning from this pandemic, and how it may catalyze change personally as well as globally.

Ryan's is a story of concentrated personal growth, especially in terms of the importance of taking care of ourselves first, and the wisdom and courage that come out of that growth. There's a lot to think about in this conversation.

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

The Power of Creative Constraints with Zoha Abbas

Zoha Abbas started her career as an advertising copywriter, and she’s here today to tell us how she got there, what it was like working for an ad agency (including the ups and downs of working with clients), and how she decided to take what she’d learned and help mere mortals figure out the best ways for them to market their businesses (as opposed to the ways everyone else says you have to do it).

We talk about everything from how creativity can be beaten out of us, the power of standing up for ourselves, how working in advertising both helps you develop a thick skin but also wears you down, and ways to get the word out about your next project without driving yourself crazy.

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!

You Never Know Until You Try with Alex Rudy

Alex Rudy started out drawing, and recording his own comic book audios, before taking a video production workshop in high school that led him to acting. While he took a few so-called detours along the way, everything he was curious about has factored into his creative life in one way or another, from being a wedding videographer to writing those childhood scripts, to using his drawing skills to bring his screenplay to life. Alex also has a podcast, The Artist Matters, where, like me, he interviews creative people. Alex is living proof that all you need to make things happen is start taking steps toward them.

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

Learning by Doing with Desiree Argentina

Desiree Argentina does a little bit of everything—in addition to being a school counselor, she's a writer, a travel blogger, a film production assistant, a podcaster, and even runs a cat rescue. Several of these are things she's learned by doing them, finding people to mentor her rather than studying up beforehand, which has given her experience and community right off the bat. Desiree has a lot to say about not letting perfectionism get in your way, exploring what you're interested in, following your energy when choosing what to work on, the value of travel, and a lot more.

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