“We believe in the power of curiosity.” ~ Perry Zurn & Dani S. Bassett
Curiosity, say Perry Zurn and Dani S. Bassett, is a practice of connection: it connects ideas into networks of knowledge, and it connects knowers themselves, both to the knowledge they seek and — perhaps even more importantly — to each other.
Twins, professors, and true curiosity connoisseurs, Perry & Dani return to Choose to be Curious for this delightful multidisciplinary distillation of this thing we call curiosity, celebrating the release of their groundbreaking book, Curious Minds: The Power of Connection.
As Dani puts it, the book ends up being something they breathed for five years. You don’t have to spend that long, but you will definitely want to inhale this transformative intellectual oxygen.
“Zurn and Bassett changed my mind about what curiosity is at its essence. I am now convinced that curiosity is more than wanting to know—it is wanting to connect. This bold new theory for curiosity has enormous implications for building a more curious, creative, and equitable society.”
—Angela Duckworth, Founder and CEO, Character Lab, Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Listen to Choose to be Curious #177: Curious Minds: The Power of Connection, with Perry Zurn & Dani S. Bassett
Perry Zurn is a professor of philosophy at American University. He is the author of Curiosity and Power: The Politics of Inquiry and co-editor of Curiosity Studies: A New Ecology of Knowledge. Enjoy my previous interview with Perry here and here.
Dani S. Bassett is J. Peter Skirkanich Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. They are the author of more than 300 scientific articles in neuroscience, physics, network science, and complete systems science. Enjoy my previous interview with Dani here.
I had the privilege and fun of interviewing Perry and Dani for a collection of shows with contributing authors in Curiosity Studies. Check out the whole series here.
I encourage you to get your own copy of Curious Minds: The Power of Connection. (They slayed me with a treasured reference to The Phantom Tollbooth. Loyal readers may recognize the passage…)
Our theme music is by Sean Balick. “Charcoal Lines” by Sketchbook, via Blue Dot Sessions.
You can subscribe to Choose to be Curious on iTunes and Spotify.
Check out the Choose to be Curious shop!
(This episode first aired on WERA in September 2022; it has been refreshed for distribution via Pacifica Radio Network, September 2023.)
