“When we’re serious about something, we’re committed to it. We’re intentional about it, and that’s where I’m at these days — trying to be intentional about play and staying curious.” ~ Yvonne Marchese

Yvonne Marchese is the lovely and effervescent host of Late Bloomer Living, a weekly podcast devoted to redefining what’s possible in midlife and beyond.

She’s a self-described age agitator, play instigator and believer in do-overs on a journey of discovery around that aforementioned play — which brought her, as it can, to curiosity.

We talk about being serious about play, finding flow even at work, curiosity as the superpower we’ve always had, all the different “first steps” in curiosity, what we can learn from meditation and rollerskating alike, aging as the process of gaining knowledge, curiosity in community, why we just can’t help blooming — and the inevitability of glorious glimmers!

Sitting there watching my thoughts, becoming curious about them, that’s when I started to notice: all these thought loops were really disempowering. The things I was telling myself about myself — is that really true? And when you start to ask yourself something like that, it opens up the possibility of going in a different direction. It blew my life wide open. 

Listen to #315: Late Bloomer Living: Curiosity & Play, with Yvonne Marchese

Check out Yvonne Marchese’s Late Bloomer Living podcast and photography. Get on her PlayShop wait list and enjoy her book, In Full Bloom.

Listen to the lovely conversation she and I had on her show: Choosing Curiosity in an Anxious World (January 7, 2026) and my fascinating conversation about aging with Michiko Sakaki.

Yvonne mentioned Stuart Brown, the National Institute for Play and his book Play. Have fun!

Lean into the serious idea of play with these C2BC Classics: Comedy is About Observation;The Creative Quester’s Guide to Curiosity, with Sam Furness; and Street Wisdom, with David Pearl.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Are We Loose Yet” by BodyTonic, via Blue Dot Sessions.

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