The Art of Curiosity


Published by Weldon Owen
Fifty of the world’s most creative people share their stories and inspirations in this volume created by the Exploratorium science museum.

What do music visionary Brian Eno, kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, science writer Mary Roach, Mythbuster Adam Savage, and Pulitzer-winning journalist Thomas Friedman have in common? They are all game-changers: scientists, artists, entertainers, and activists who revolutionized their fields with bold new perspectives and approaches—and they all had transformative, course-setting experiences at the Exploratorium science museum, the San Francisco landmark visited by a million people a year in person and by millions more online.

Join them and forty-five more brilliant thinkers and doers in a wonderfully playful, insightful, and sometimes incredibly moving journey to see how you, too, can harness your powers of observation, inquiry, and engagement to be the change you want to see in the world—regardless of who you are or what you do. Interviewees and subjects include:

Oscar-Winning Sound Designer Walter Murch on observation

Laurie Anderson on art as a way of knowing

Memory Expert Elizabeth Loftus on how we learn

Oliver Sacks on perception

Mary Roach on how she learned to ask the right questions

Adam Savage on the fun of finding things out

Mickey Hart on the art of playing to learn, and learning to play

California Governor Gavin Newsom on the importance of science

Community activist Randy Carter on finding joy in the worst of places

 . . . and dozens more interviews, insights, and activities suggested by artists, scientists, poets, and politicians, in a book that can help you become more creative—and maybe just change the world.

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