About this episode

Scott Shigeoka discusses the importance of curiosity in leadership and community engagement.

We talk a lot about curiosity as a mindset. Scott Shigeoka lives it as a practice. Right now he’s driving a 25-foot purple van across the country, finding and documenting the stories of ordinary people making their communities better. He's not just curious about what's possible. He's out there finding out. In this episode, Mina Seetharaman talks with Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek and Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute, about what distinguishes a genuinely curious leader from a performative one, how power dynamics play into curiosity, how the Curious 100 project reveals the many forms curious leadership takes, and why curiosity, when practiced well, can restore your energy rather than drain it. Scott was previously on the Creative Confidence Podcast to explore why curiosity is a business imperative. That episode is linked below. This episode is part of an ongoing series on navigating uncertainty. We're exploring this topic from multiple angles with several guests this year. Also in this series: How to Not Know with Simone Stolzoff and The Decisiveness Crisis in Senior Leadership Teams with Sam Conniff. Related Resources: Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your…

People in this episode

Host: Mina Seetharaman

Guest: Scott Shigeoka

Topics covered

• curiosity
• leadership
• uncertainty
• community
• storytelling
• business imperative

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Eames Institute, Curious 100, Creative Confidence Podcast

Books & works: Seek

More episodes of Creative Confidence Podcast

• Designing GenAI for the Emotional Side of Money: Johannes Seemann · July 15, 2026 · 1h 4m
• How Constraints Make Us More Creative: David Epstein · June 18, 2026 · 57 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Creative Confidence Podcast podcast page.