🎙 Be a guest on the Still Curious Podcast

Curiosity is a gift we start with but often lose. So what can we learn from those people who are still curious?

About the show

On the Still Curious Podcast, @Danu Poyner meets grokkists who insist on relating to the world with curiosity and care and talks to them about the red thread that runs through their life story and which ultimately empowers them to flourish as their unrepeatable selves.

Each episode is a cosy conversation guaranteed to unlock self-understanding and help listeners feel energised, inspired and a little less weird about themselves.

Browse the library of episodes here.

Why be a guest

We are creating a library of grokkist case-study sketches that highlights the weird, wild and diverse range of life experiences that grokkists have, all united by an insistence on relating to the world with curiosity and care. Your story will inspire others who never realised there are others like them.

It’s a rare opportunity to reflect out loud on your own story and discuss the stuff you care about with someone who is genuinely interested in hearing about it. And it results in an asset that you can share with others to help them get to you know you better as a whole person.

Practically speaking, doing the podcast is a great way to build relationships within the grokkist community. Most folks who collaborate with us on events, courses and other projects usually started out by doing the podcast.

What to expect as a guest

It’s a conversational podcast with a different guest each episode. The format is semi-structured - there are some questions that act as prompts to shape and guide the discussion, but the aim is to have a fairly natural and free-flowing conversation where often the most interesting insights turn up unexpected along the way. 

What we end up with is a mix between exploring your personal life journey and geeking out about the field of practice that most lights you up.

I aim for a natural conversation where you can be your shoes-off self rather than an interview or a performance as an expert and will do my best to get us ‘off-script’ as soon as possible.

You can rely on good editing to find the red thread of conversation and present you at your best, while still in a natural light. And you’ll have an opportunity to review an unpublished edit and request changes before the show goes out.

Most episodes are edited down to around 60-75 minutes from a conversation that usually goes for 90 minutes (sometimes longer if we get carried away).

We usually produce around 10-12 episodes per year.

Questions you might be asked

“Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question” - E. E. Cummings

Below are some questions to give you an idea of the tone and scope of conversation.

In most cases, Danu will research some tailored questions just for you and send them through in advance. Take a little time to reflect on the questions beforehand, but there is no need to have scripted answers or to over-prepare - we likely won’t cover them in order or even get to them all.

Just be yourself, speak freely and trust that what you have to say will be interesting to our listeners. And don’t worry, we’ll carefully edit out any ums, ahs and stumbles while you find what you really want to say.

Life path

• What do you say when someone asks ‘so what do you do?’ What’s missing from that answer that’s important for understanding what you’re really about?

• Did you follow a Plan A in life or have you had more of a squiggly journey? Is your story better told in a straight line or as a semi-related series of episodes?

• What are some of the weirdest and wildest adventures on your Shadow CV?

• Do you perceive a red thread running through all your adventures?

• Tell me the story of your relationship to the field of practice you care about most

Life as a grokkist

• Does the term grokkist resonate for you? How so?

• What never fails to light you up? Do you have any touchstones you return to time and again for inspiration?

• Has there ever been a time you’ve needed to resist having your soul flattened by 'the system'? What did that look like?

• What kinds of things have you noticed come easily to you compared to others? What do you struggle with sometimes? What do other people find hard to understand?

• Tell me about a time you changed your mind about something big or let go of a belief that used to be important to you

• How do you fill your cup?

Curiosity and learning

• Have you always been intensely curious? How has that manifested itself in your life? What kinds of situations has it gotten you into?

• Was there a moment when you decided you needed to own your education?

• What’s something you’ve learned that turned out to be surprisingly valuable later in a different setting?

• What’s something you’ve learned that hasn’t been useful at all but which brings you joy?

• What are some of the most delightful learning experiences you’ve had?

• What’s a life changing learning experience you would gift someone and why?

I’m interested in being a guest - what do I do?

Send a DM to @Danu Poyner or email podcast@grokk.ist. We’ll get back to you with availability. Depending on how much interaction we’ve already had, we may arrange a pre-meeting with you to find the shape of our conversation and make sure we’re a good fit for each other.

After we confirm you as a guest, you will receive a calendar link to book a suitable time for the recording. Once you book a time, you will receive a calendar invite with joining details.

For reasons of legal hygiene, we have a Podcast Release Agreement. For legal purposes, accepting the invitation to be a guest and participating in the recording means you agree to the terms of the agreement. It’s standard stuff, but let us know if you have questions or concerns!

Before the Recording

In advance of the recording, Danu will prepare and send you a draft list of tailored questions to guide our discussion – we won’t necessarily get to them all during the recording and they may not be asked in order, but it’s helpful to consider them beforehand.

Danu puts a fair amount of research into the questions so this step can sometimes take a little while to organise. Feel free to bring your own questions if you like! (but you don’t have to) When scheduling our interview time, you can also let us know if there are specific topics you’d like to cover or avoid.

We will ask you for:

• a short bio of around 100 words which Danu will use to introduce you and which will appear in the show notes.

• links to socials, websites and/or projects you’d like us to include in the show notes

• a hi-res photo of you for the cover art. The picture should include head and shoulders (make sure the whole of the head is in the image, e.g. no cropped top of head shots).

On Recording Day

We use SquadCast for recording. It works pretty much exactly like Zoom, but it’s designed to capture the best possible audio recording quality.

When you join, you will enter a waiting room where you can test your audio/video settings. Danu will let you in and after that it works exactly like Zoom. We can say hellos, get comfortable and then start the recording when ready.

Note: Only audio will be recorded. The video chat is just so we have a better time talking to each other! :) We use Descript to transcribe and edit the recording.

Based on experience, recording sessions are scheduled for 2 hours. This allows time to warm up and test the technical setup, engage in free-flowing conversation, and have a short debrief afterwards.

Tips for joining:

• For the best experience, use a computer with a Chrome browser that’s up-to-date.

• Try to ensure a stable internet connection for the duration of the call. (To minimise audio disruptions from bad internets, SquadCast locally records a separate audio stream for each speaker and then uploads it to the cloud.)

• If possible, use headphones/earphones and use an external mic as this will result in a better recording. But if you can’t, don’t worry it will still be fine.

• Ideally, close all applications that don’t need to be open during the recording. This prevents CPU overload. Important: Please close all programs that try to use your mic/camera.

• If you can’t connect the mic/camera, make sure that you have given access to Chrome to use the mic/camera.

• Turn up at the agreed time with a smile and have fun :)

After the Recording

After the interview, we will edit the recording for pacing and audio quality and an introduction, music cues etc. You will receive a link to access an unpublished draft of the episode to review, typically a few weeks after the recording.

Depending on scheduling and other factors, the episode typically goes live 6–8 weeks after the recording. Once it is published, it will be available on all the usual podcast directories (eg Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc) and we will send you a link and some promotional materials you can use to share with your own network.

Podcast Release Agreement

As a matter of legal hygiene, we have a release agreement that covers your appearance on the show (see below). Needless to say, appearing on the podcast is an indication that you’re happy with what it says.

Frequently Asked Questions

Am I interesting enough to be a guest?

Yes.

Still have questions? Ping @Danu Poyner for a chat.