Episode 169: Roberta Kwok on the Slow Path to Epiphany

Episode 169: Roberta Kwok on the Slow Path to Epiphany

From Emerging Form by Christie Aschwanden

July 16, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

Roberta Kwok discusses her book on the slow path to epiphany in science and creativity.

“The book is about the opposite of the eureka moment,” says science writer Roberta Kwok about her new book, LOST IN CURIOSITY: Field Notes From Scientists’ Adventures into the Unknown . Join us in a conversation about the difficulties and gifts of showing up day after day. We talk about patience, wrestling with process, and the long slow path to epiphany–in science and in creative endeavors. We talk, too, about how to choose the right people to interview for a book based on research, how the body may or may not be a part of creative process, the possibility that walking is not the most important tool in a writer’s toolbox, and the thrill of collaboration. Roberta Kwok is a science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com , Nature, New Scientist, Audubon, and other publications. She has received a fellowship from the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. Before becoming a journalist, Kwok worked in a genetics lab at Stanford University. She lives in the Seattle…

People in this episode

Host: Christie Aschwanden

Guest: Roberta Kwok

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New York Times, NewYorker.com, Nature, New Scientist, Audubon, Knight Science Journalism Program, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union

Places: Seattle, Canada

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