In this episode, we are exploring daily recovery. Prioritizing daily recovery for Erich has been striving for the better part of the year. As an engineer, he sees it as the ultimate quality problem. Companies spend a considerable amount of time and money focusing on the qualities of their products and services; however, we've overlooked a significant component, the humans that make the products and services possible.

In this week's episode, we are joined by Alex Behrens of Maple Leaf Coffee Roasters. In this conversation, Alex shares insights into the world of coffee roasting; from roasting to sourcing and the different flavors, we are accustomed to. He also expands on ideas of starting a business and just how much thought needs to go into it. Even though he loves coffee roasting, adding a business takes it to a new level.

Nick Buegel and Erich have a conversation about training the mind. In this episode, we go deep into how to train mindfulness. Mindfulness can be interchanged with meditation, but we use the word mindfulness to make it a skill-based practice. We try our best to get very practical from our own lives on how we have used mindfulness. We want to make mindfulness accessible to as broad an audience as possible.

Over the weekend, Erich saw Angels and Airwaves (AVA) live at the Chicago House of Blues. In this episode, we spice things up with a different podcast style. Erich shares his thoughts on the experience of seeing AVA, but before that, we need a little bit of background. A common theme of this podcast is how much we resonate with the music. There are deep roots within humanity and the creation of music. We have talked about our favorite artists or genres many times.

This conversation starts with a discussion opening of American football season.  From sports, we enter into a conversation around music, touching on the artists we enjoy or who have impacted us.

We close with a discussion about storytelling. We mostly centered around impactful films like The Matrix, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. We talk about what makes characters compelling. Why do we enjoy characters with nuance and flaws more than black and white? 

Joe Jackowski is back on the show! We recap what Joe has been up to over the summer and the upcoming school semester.

In this week's episode, we are joined by Joe Jackowski, Mike Taccona, and Nick Buegel. Our topic of discussion was work-life balance. How do we manage what we do for a living while continuing to push our boundaries or achieving fulfillment outside of work? In our world, it can be easy to have a job that pulls too much energy from us so that we don't have enough left to pursue other goals.

Mike and Mary Taccona are both registered nurses. Mike works in the Post Surgical Unit, and Mary is in the Emergency Department. Outside of nursing, Mike and Mary are avid travelers. They have traveled throughout the United States and have time abroad while balancing Nursing school and jobs. In this conversation, we look at adapting to their roles as nurses, pulling back the curtain to the type of stress the situation puts on them. From there, we transition to travel. Next, we break down how and why they travel. Finally, we close on an impactful trip to a Field Station in Costa Rica.

Eric Herrera is a communications tower climber. In this episode, Eric shares stories from his unique and, at times, dangerous job. Tower climbing is one of the jobs that are easy to overlook in our hyper-connected world. Because of people like Eric and his crew members, we can have uninterrupted service with our devices. Eric highlights his journey of becoming a mentor and how he's grown since starting in the climbing industry.

In this conversation, we are building on a small section Jordan had said during the podcast with Saint Ripley. The clip can be summed as creating with a purpose, or anything that can be consumed should make others think. We expand on this thought by giving examples of content in TV shows and movies that have been done right to capture our attention.

Dr. Eric Fretz is a faculty member at the University of Michigan ( https://umich.edu/), teaching at the University of Michigan in the Psychology Department, the School of Education, and the College of Engineering, and teaches the LSA core course for the Minor in Entrepreneurship. Dr. Fretz has completed two Bachelors's degrees, two Masters degrees, and a dual Ph.D. in Education and Psychology. Retired from 20 years of active and reserve service as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy. He began his career on USS CHOSIN (CG-65), deploying for the first Persian Gulf War and qualifying as Fleet & Special Evolutions OOD, Gas Turbine EOOW, and Surface Warfare Officer. His military career included three deployments to the Persian Gulf, from Operation Desert Storm to Operation Iraqi Freedom. He closed out his career with a year-long mobilization to Baghdad, Iraq, serving in the Multi-National Corps – Iraq, assigned to the 'Army's 18th Airborne Corps in 2008. While in Iraq, he also started a scout troop and built a camp for Iraqi youth around Victory Base. He has earned over 30 military awards, including the Bronze Star Medal and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

John Tenuto is a Sociology professor at the College of Lake County, IL, with over 25 years of teaching experience. He has given dozens of public presentations and media interviews on the sociology of the "Star Trek" film and television shows. Professor Tenuto has appeared on the Netflix series "The Toys That Made Us" for the Star Wars and Star Trek episodes. In this conversation, we talk about John's interest in pop culture and how it shaped his lens of the world. Next, we dive deeper into John's interest in Star Trek. His research now takes him on the path to understanding and highlighting those who helped make the show what it was. We close with how he views teaching and what he does for his students. Again, his caring and authenticity in the role of a teacher come through.

Saint Ripley, a Chicago hip-hop artist, shares much of what shaped his music on this episode of Feeding Curiosity. With deep roots in multiple genres, he opens up about attending punk shows as a teenager to his first exposure to hip-hop. On the rapper's first full-length album, Thoughts & Prayers, Saint Ripley shares emotions and stories that are a part of him and a conduit in being a force of change in the world.

Joel Salatin co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, ten retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products.

Toddy Myrick is an IT Specialist with an undergraduate in Fine Art Printmaking & Photography and later completed a graduate degree in MS Information Systems & Technology Management & MBA. Todd has always been interested in technology and acts as a Reddit moderator outside the academic world. In this episode, we get quite biographical as Todd lays out his life and what has influenced him. What shows through is his connection to those around him and the caring he has for people whom he respects. We get to the early 1990s in the chronology of his story, and it will be continued in a future episode of the podcast, so stay tuned!

What better way to celebrate American Independence than with a discussion about Freedom? Grab a six-pack and celebrate with us!

Jordan Criss returns to the show! In this episode, we try to understand where Jordan's creativity has come from. On the surface, he's a creative writer if you sum up all of his interests from music, screenwriting, and storytelling.

This conversation can be seen as a continuation of the previous episode, Meaning, Power and Virtue, as we are still exploring the topic of meaning. We start today's conversation by articulating the importance of writing and some of the tools we use to structure what we write.

We discuss the psychology of meaning using history to understand power, responsibility, and connecting with the social world.

Jordan Criss returns to the show to talk about his recent trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The catalyst for the trip was to attend Soundset 2019, a purely Hip Hop music festival that has taken place on memorial day weekend since 2008. Outside of music, Jordan enlightens us on his other passions: Food and Craft Beer in Minneapolis. To name a few, we talk about Surly Brewing and Matt's Bar: Home of the "Jucy Lucy." Please enjoy this conversation.