“We have to be able to find ways to forge that trust. But it’s not blind trust — we have to be curious about each other. We have to learn about each other. And to me, that’s always driven me on, in terms of trying to understand people across gulfs of human experience.” ~ Rachel Kadish

“Curiosity is fundamental to writing and to everything that I treasure,” said writer Rachel Kadish as we opened our conversation. Hard to imagine, but it just kept getting better from there…

Inspired by her New York Times opinion essay on teaching writers to seek “unflinching empathy,” I invited her to join me for a conversation about putting our trust in curiosity.

“If art is to help us navigate the world, it has to show us how real evil happens,” explained Rachel. “It makes me feel safer in the world. It makes me feel like if we can recognize common ground, then that’s the start of a conversation, or at least of some hope.”

I thought I was having a curiosity conversation, but it was really a master class in humanity.

The moment you say some version of “once upon a time.” people’s faces change…There’s something that cracks open in us when we know we’ve taken the leap into fiction. We take down our defenses…And the minute you get immersed in a story…we can care about somebody who is different from us. We can become curious about their lives.

Listen to Choose to Be Curious #238: Unflinching Empathy & Putting Our Trust in Curiosity, with Rachel Kadish

Discover the delight that is Rachel Kadish. I think you’ll appreciate The New York Times essay.

Learn more about Artists for Understanding, using arts to combat intolerance and hate in all forms.

Listen to my episode with Jeff Wetzler where we talk about listening for the content, emotion and action in our conversations.

Lean into writing and/or empathy, try these C2BC Classics: Empathy, with Brandon Charles; Compassionate Curiosity & Death, with Valoria Walker; Michael Tennant Is Actually Empathic; “Be Curious. Allow Your Heart & Your Mind to Open” with Amina Luquman-Dawson; Query the Work, with Writer Liz Coley; and Writing Fiction, with Laura McBride.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Feathered” by The Cabinetmaker, via Blue Dot Sessions.

You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

uh-oh! THE CHOOSE TO BE CURIOUS SHOP IS UNDER (RE)CONSTRUCTION.