Thecuriousmanspodcast

Matt Crawford speaks with entrepreneur and CEO Tom Kubiniec about his career and company SecureIT Tactical. How did Tom go from a promising guitarist to a business owner, serial entrepreneur and CEO of SecureIT Tactical, a secure firearm storage after never owning a firearm until 2011? Give a listen and prepare to be inspired. We often think the inspiration we seek is linear and must come from the area we look to delve into. Obviously, that is not the case, but this is a conversation that proves that innovation can come from anywhere if you are willing to listen and act.

Matt Crawford speaks with professor of Biology at John Jay University and author Nathan Lents about his book, The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships.  Evolutionary biologist Nathan H. Lents knows what makes humans unique—and it’s most definitely not our sexual diversity. A professor at John Jay College, Lents has spent his career studying what makes us, well, us, and contrary to what the culture warriors want people to believe—diverse sexual behavior is not a new development, or even a human one. It didn’t just emerge from a progressive culture; it’s the product of billions of years of evolutionary experimentation throughout the animal kingdom. It’s not a modern story, a Florida story, or even a human story. It’s a biological story. In The Sexual Evolution, Lents takes readers on a journey through the animal world, from insects to apes, revealing what the incredible array of sexual diversity can teach us about our own diverse beauty. Nature, it turns out, has made a lot of space for diverse genders and sexual behaviors. And why? Because when it comes to evolution—diversity wins. This is not just a political or social message, instead it’s rooted in science and cultivated from understanding the full breadth of sexuality that exists throughout the world. With shades of both Frans de Waal and Esther Perel, Lents’s storytelling is as fascinating as it is topical, offering eye-opening stories about the diversity of animal life, while relating it to our own sexual journey as a species. At once a forceful rebuttal to bigotry and a captivating dive into the secret sex lives of animals, The Sexual Evolution is the rare book of pop science that leans into the controversy. Sex, the reactionaries say, should only be for procreation between a man and a woman, anything else goes against nature. Well, nature would like a word with them.

Matt Crawford speaks with lawyer, judge, painter, illustrator and author Etienne Labuschagne about his work and his book, Bedtime Stories for Clever Children. Etienne and I discuss how to broach difficult subjects with children and how to empower them to tackle the challenging moments in life. Many of us try to protect our kids from the moments in life that will test them, but we do them no favors in doing so.

Matt Crawford speaks with author N.L Holmes about her book, Flowers of Evil: Hani's Daughter Mysteries. When two young women in ancient Egypt open a medical dispensary, they don’t expect their first patient to be a dying florist of Amen whose last words are totally mysterious. It’s Neferet and Bener-ib’s nature to want to appease the ba of the murder victim by finding his killer, and their teenaged apprentice is a born detective. But between the skepticism of their own families and the malice of a rival healer, they find out the simple desire to do the right thing gets them into more trouble than they could have imagined!

Matt Crawford speaks with executive director of the New York based Falun Dafa information center about Shen Yun. We have all seen the ads on T.V but what exactly is Shen Yun and why was it started? Based on the Falun Gong teaching Shen Yun is a celebration of over 5000 years of Chinese heritage with choreography, vibrant handmade costumes, a dynamic live orchestra and an emcee that makes sure no one is unsure of what the symbolism of it all means.