Happy When Curious

What is the most life giving way to deal with the timeless feeling of missing out? 

What role does curiosity play in a restaurant? What is the connection between mountain climbing and cuisine? How do you maintain a throughline of values during a major career change later in life?Join me as I ask these questions and more of the amazing Maria Hines!Maria Hines was a Seattle restaurateur and Award-winning chef for many years, being recognized with the 2009 James Beard Award Best Chef Northwest. She is also the co-author of the cook book Peak Nutrition: Smart Fuel for Outdoor Adventure.   Maria cooked professionally since age 17, opening only the 2nd certified organic restaurant in the nation in 2006-which wasTilth in Seattle WA. Tilth which was quickly recognized as one of the top 10 new restaurants in the nation by the new york times. Since moving on from running restaurants she has been using her entrepreneurial experience to work with a variety of food and beverage operations, consulting, developing retail products and building storytelling content for companies aligned with her values.You can learn more about Maria and her work at her website and support her non profit Blue Sky Minds here.

Amber Edwards is a Platinum Results Coach and Business Results Trainer and I personally have had the privilege of working with her as my life coach for a year and a half now. Join me as we explore how she approaches coaching and how she integrates it into the meaning of her life!

Some questions/dichotomies I'm thinking through around my news fast...Am I burying my head in the sand or aiming my attention where my agency lies? Is it privileged selfishness to ignore the news or is it wise self care? Is news anxiety producing only because we don’t act on it and through organizing and action we reduce our anxiety, or is the fundamental business model of the news industry giving us a distorted sense of the nature of reality by taking advantage of our evolutionary predilection towards negative information?

Jesse Visciglia is the Head Brewer and part owner at San Juan Island Brewery in Friday Harbor Washington.  Join me as we discuss all things beer and brewing like...-How to taste a new beer-The role curiosity plays in brewing-How a former middle school science teacher found his way into commercial brewing-The relationship between inebriation and the art of fermentation-Are expensive beers better?-The hegemony of the IPAAnd more!And I make an embarrassing confession to Jesse at the end of the interview :)I hope you enjoy this conversation about beers as much as I did!Learn all about the beers Jesse makes for San Juan Island Brewery here.

My guess is no. 

Nathan Kessler-Jeffrey  is Executive Artistic Director of the San Juan Community Theatre and has been teaching, directing, and acting in theatres, colleges, and high schools for over two decades. He holds an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University, and his teaching specialties include directing, acting, stage combat, and rehearsal techniques. He is the former Education and Outreach Director for Taproot Theatre Company in Seattle, and has been a guest instructor at high schools, colleges, and universities.Nathan’s directing work includes productions for San Juan Community Theatre, Taproot Theatre Company, Driftwood Players, A Contemporary Theatre, American Globe Theatre, Abilene Shakespeare Festival, Transparent Storytellers Theatre, and the Seattle Play Series. In January of 2018, he joined San Juan Community Theatre as Executive Artistic Director and now divides his time between directing, acting, teaching, and leading SJCT’s team of staff and volunteers. 

Maria Michaelson is the co- founder and co Director of Alchemy Art Center in NW Washington. She received her BA degree in Ceramics from the California College of Art in 2009. Maria spent many years in West Africa learning the craft of bronze casting. In 2016 she was an Artist in Residence at 69 Rue de Rivoli in Paris, and for 8 seasons she has participated in the San Juan Island Artist’s Studio Tour. Since 2016, she has been working to create Alchemy Art Center, where her art practice is currently based.

Is the courage it takes to create connections with new people zero sum?

Clayton Banry is a community educator at the Joyce L Sobel Family resource center, a morale officer at San Juan Island EMS and has been a huge part of the Friday Harbor community for many years, and I was excited to have a chance to talk to him!The Joyce Sobel Family Resource Center:https://sjifrc.org/YAAShttps://www.sanjuanjournal.com/opinion/disability-awareness/San Juan Community Theatrehttps://www.sjctheatre.org/

How should we go about connecting the dots of our past into a narrative of who we are? Which types of narrative are "true" and maybe more importantly, which types are useful?

After a childhood spent in the jungles of Ecuador, Roger Johnson was educated in the United States, and holds a degree in Engineering and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Minnesota. From 1988 to 2010, Roger was Founder and President of Radiant Optics, Inc -- a successful commercial enterprise that marketed a radiant heat system based on a biomimicry patent in optics. The system can be seen in Home Depot stores countrywide. In addition to patents granted to Roger related to radiant heating, he has patents pending in connection with the Kinetic Response Helmet (KRH), and others in various stages of planning. Roger is the founder and creative lead of Eidon, LLC. He expects that the KRH will be the first of many projects with the group.

Is alcohol a sacrilege or a sacrament? Does it matter how we answer this?

Keep your curiosity candles lit my friends!

What do you reckon? 

Russel Barsh is the director of Kwiaht-Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea. He studied at Harvard, taught at the University of Washington, and worked for many years at the United Nations on indigenous peoples and their ecosystems before returning to the Northwest and organizing Kwiaht. With a background in human ecology he is especially interested in cultural and economic factors influencing human impacts on the environment, the role of schools, and adaptation of animals and plants to humans. He lives on Lopez Island Washington. 

What elevated feeling do you find yourself craving, but maybe having a hard time articulating exactly what it is, let alone how to get there? For me it's the sensation of not being in the center of the universe-in other words I crave the feeling when the optical illusion that is "I'm at the center of the universe" drops away. Join me as I try to put my craving into words.

Mark Bitterman is an American entrepreneur, food writer and world traveller. He is the author of the James Beard award winning book "Salted: A Manifesto on the world's most essential mineral" along with 4 other books on salt and bitters. He is the owner of The Meadow, a boutique that specializes in a huge array of artisan salts, bean-to-bar chocolates, cocktail bitters, and other products. The Meadow was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2006, and has expanded to include three locations in Portland and one in New York City.Getting to talk to one of my personal heroes Mark Bitterman was a real treat and I hope you enjoy it and also check out his awesome and unique company The Meadow and his awesome books!