Follow Your Curiosity

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!

Good Grammar with Curtis Honeycutt

If you're like a lot of people, you'll see this headline and want to run screaming, but I want to promise you that this week's conversation is anything but terrifying. Curtis Honeycutt, award-winning author of the Grammar Guy column that appears in more than 30 newspapers nationwide, has made it his mission to make grammar accessible and meaningful, not the stuff of high school nightmares. His book, Good Grammar is the Life of the Party, is a guidebook for the wary as well as the knowledgeable, and I think it's safe to call it the funniest grammar guide you'll ever read.

Curtis and I discuss everything from Noah Webster's influence on American spelling, what "style" is (and the AP vs. Chicago Manual controversy), where religious fundamentalism and grammar meet, why Curtis and I disagree on this next comma, and more in this interview. Good Grammar is the Life of the Party is available on May 1.

Check out the show notes to find out how to connect with Curtis, the Alot, and more. Join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Living an Intuitive Life with Kelly Abanda

Kelly Abanda's journey sounds like a movie: a woman takes a risk, leaves her "good" job to travel the world for three months, and comes back three years later. Along the way, she makes unexpected connections, stumbles into opportunities, and oh, yeah—survives a few close scrapes. Kelly's a big believer in following the intuitive impulses that led her on this journey. Not only do we talk about her adventures abroad, we also talk about why people think they're not creative, and how giving up control can be a good thing. She also tells us how to get in touch with that intuition.

Kelly's latest intuitive endeavor is to help people adjust to the Covid-19 world of working from home. Check the show notes at fycuriosity.com for links to that project and more, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Happily Homeless with Alison Miller

Alison Miller describes herself as an uncertain adventurer and determined warrior goddess, and as you'll hear in this interview, she's earned both titles. Alison has lived on the road on her own since the death of her husband six and a half years ago, following her own inner compass the entire way. She's crossed the country eight times, carrying the names of those loved by people around the world on her pink teardrop trailer, seeking out love and adventure as she goes. She listens only to her own guidance, discovering that there are no mistakes that can't be corrected, and that love really is everywhere. Recently, she's been making a documentary about her journey, which she plans to show as she continues her travels.

Alison Miller is a remarkable spirit, "Happily Homeless," as she calls herself online, and one whose story will stay with you for a while.

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

Giving Ourselves Permission with Sam Kimberle

Sam Kimberle, the founder of Creative Life Scholars, joins me this week to talk about how she got started leading groups of women toward their creative goals. We talk about how the factory-inspired education system deprives us of creative energy, how denying our creative call can fuel anxiety and depression, the power of groups to keep us on track (including doing those exercises in the books we read—the ones many of us tend to skip on our own), and the power and importance of giving ourselves permission to do our creative work and be who we really are.

Check out the show notes, including links to the Creative Life Scholars program and Sam's upcoming retreat, at fycuriosity.com. You can also join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram, and rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Music, Mathematics, and Code with Michael Smith

Michael Smith is a software engineer turned musician—or is it the other way around? He's worked for Google, Swiftkey, and fuboTV, all while staying active as a musician and actor on the side.

I wanted to talk to Michael about how he balances the two, and also about the creative side of coding, which sounds to so many of us like a highly uncreative activity. We also talk about just what an algorithm is, how he chose whether to focus on code or music, the mathematics of music, and why the delicate balance of math and music is so important to him.

Check out the show notes—including the Bach video he mentions—at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!