Perry Zurn & Dani Bassett || How Curiosity Connects Us
The Psychology Podcast
iHeartPodcasts
4.4 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2023
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we welcome Perry Zurn and Dani Bassett.
Dr. Perry Zurn is Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University. He is the author or coauthor of more than 75 publications in philosophy, political theory, trans studies, and network science and has given hundreds of talks at local, national, and international venues. His work has been generously funded by organizations like the American Philosophical Association, the Center for Curiosity, the Lee Somers Fund and more.
Dr. Dani S. Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, and Psychiatry. They authored more than 390 peer-reviewed publications, which have garnered over 38,000 citations. Dr. Bassett has received multiple prestigious awards from the American Psychological Association, Sloan Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation among others.
They often collaborate on research about neuroscience, curiosity, and the humanities. Recently, they co-wrote Curious Minds: The Power of Connection.
In this episode, I talk to Perry Zurn and Dani Bassett about curiosity. For them, curiosity is not just about gaining knowledge, it’s about connecting to the world and to each other. Each individual has their own style of connecting - they can be busybodies, hunters, or dancers at any given time. Perry and Dani also weigh in on how social media affects curiosity and how their network model of curiosity can improve education.
Website: perryzurn.com & danisbassett.com
Twitter: @perryzurn & @danisbassett
Topics
02:27 Perry and Dani’s interest in curiosity
06:26 Curiosity is connection
12:45 Network science
15:18 Archetypes of curiosity
20:22 Deprivation vs interest-based curiosity
23:56 Social curiosity
29:47 Cycling through the different styles of curiosity
37:25 Is social media making us more curious?
40:51 Consciously practicing curiosity
42:32 Curiosity and learning
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Curiosity isn't wanting to know or to get, but rather wanting to connect. Connect the things we do know, |
| 0:06.0 | to the things we're out to know. Also, to connect ourselves to our world and ourselves to |
| 0:10.7 | each other and communities to each other. Curiosity is this drive to connect and to build some kind of |
| 0:18.2 | web of of knowledge. |
| 0:26.5 | Hello and welcome to the Psychology Podcast. Today we welcome Perry Zern and Danny Bassett to |
| 0:31.7 | the show. Dr. Perry Zern is Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University. He is the |
| 0:37.5 | author or co-author of more than 75 publications in Philosophy, Political Theory, Trans Studies, |
| 0:42.5 | and Network Science and has given hundreds of talks at local national and international venues. |
| 0:47.6 | His work has been generously funded by organizations like the American Philosophical Association, |
| 0:52.2 | the Center for Curiosity, and the Lee Summers Fund and more. Dr. Danny S. Bassett is the J. |
| 0:58.6 | Peter Skirkinich, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with appointments in the departments |
| 1:03.8 | of bioengineering, electrical and systems engineering, physics and astronomy, neurology and psychiatry. |
| 1:09.9 | Together they authored more than 390 peer-reviewed publications which have garnered over 38,000 |
| 1:15.1 | citations. They authored more than 390 peer-reviewed publications which have garnered over 38,000 |
| 1:22.0 | citations. Dr. Bassett has received multiple prestigious awards from the American Psychological |
| 1:26.9 | Association, Sloan Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation, among others. Perry and Danny often |
| 1:33.2 | collaborate on research about neuroscience, curiosity and humanities. Recently they co-wrote the |
| 1:38.7 | book, Curious Minds, the Power of Connection. In this episode I talked to Perry Zern and Danny |
| 1:44.4 | Bassett about curiosity. For them, curiosity is not just about gaining knowledge, it's about |
| 1:49.5 | connecting to the world and to each other. Each individual has their own style of connecting. |
| 1:54.0 | They can be busy bodies, hunters or dancers at any given time. Perry and Danny also weigh in |
| 1:59.6 | on how social media affects curiosity and how their network model of curiosity can improve education. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.