What we’re about
Curiosity Connections is a community of curious, fun-loving people who enjoy intellectual discussions and learning from one another. Like a salon, we come together to engage in open, respectful, thoughtful dialogue on a wide range of topics from current events to ancient philosophies. Our objective is to encourage meaningful conversations about interesting and thought-provoking material.
Curiosity Connections hosts a variety of events, some in person (IRL) and some over Zoom. We have a podcast club, which is just like a book club, except instead of reading books, we all listen to the same podcast and come together to discuss it at the event. The podcasts focus on probing interviews with recognized thought-leaders in the fields of science, philosophy, psychology, politics, business, and technology. Our virtual podcast events are typically held on Mondays and our in-person events, in San Francisco and Marin (Mill Valley), are usually held Thursday and Saturdays. (For IRL events hosted at a restaurant, we ask that attendees please order food or drinks to support the venue during the course of the meeting.)
We also have a book club, where we take time with our books to get the most out of them. Typically, we’ll read about 50 pages per week and discuss them at the meetings. Finally, we periodically have other events like meetings based on a TED talk rather than a podcast.
If you are a curious person who enjoys sharing and exploring ideas with others, we would love you to join us!
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Podcast Club ONLINE: AI Fine-tuning, Anthropomorphizing & the Black BoxLink visible for attendees
This week's podcast is Offline with Jon Favreau and guest Jonathan Zittrain, the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, a professor of computer science at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, director of Harvard's Law School Library, and co-founder and director of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Zittrain is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and on the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He was on the Board of Advisors for Scientific American, a Trustee of the Internet Society, a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum (which named him a Young Global Leader), and the Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the FCC, where he chaired the Open Internet Advisory Committee.
PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.
https://crooked.com/podcast/ai-zittrain-chatgpt-llms-openai/
[Note: If you use this link, please play Episode 192 (E192), NOT the episode that's readily cued up]or
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/offline-with-jon-favreau/id1610392666?i=1000714588578
(1 hr., 21 min.)
Optional reading: Here's a link to The Atlantic article, by Zittrain, mentioned in the podcast: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/inside-the-ai-black-box/682853/
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What's this podcast about?
This week's podcast delves into questions about what's behind the AI that we use today, including LLMs and chatbots. Now that so many of us are using this technology daily, often in casual chatbot conversations where we reveal things about ourselves without much thought other than to get the information or help we seek, what are we surrendering to the AI? What is it gleaning from us, and how does that affect what we get back? This podcast explores the fine-tuning of AI and sycophancy, and it queries what we want from AI and what we actually should want to want from it (at times, a wholly different thing). Other topics covered include the anthropomorphizing of AI, the black box nature of AI, existential-risk concerns, whether humans are getting more stupid with AI use, the use of AI by Reddit co-founderAlexis Ohanian to create a video of his mother (who died when he was a boy) hugging him, and much more.
Just for interest, the Ohanian video is here: https://x.com/alexisohanian/status/1936746275120328931Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3682869318?pwd=SC80SzI1S3JkeW1pbGhzcTNVQWVmdz09. Password for event might be W5hDy7
What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times over the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQmUltimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.
- IN-PERSON Podcast Club: The Psychology of Pain/Pleasure and the Effort ParadoxGroundfloor San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
THIS IS AN IN-PERSON PODCAST CLUB EVENT IN SAN FRANCISCO! It will not be on Zoom. We look forward to seeing you in 3-D!
This week, we will listen to TWO episodes that are part of a Hidden Brain podcast mini-series, with host Shankar Vedantum. The first podcast features guest Paul Bloom, the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of psychology and cognitive science at Yale and Professor of Psychology at the U. of Toronto. Bloom is the author of seven books and editor/co-editor of three others. His research has appeared in Nature and Science, and he has written articles for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and other publications. The second podcast features guest Michal Inzlicht, a social psychologist, neuroscientist, and professor of psychology at the U. of Toronto. He is the recipient of many awards and honors in the field of psychology and has authored numerous research articles that appear in scientific journals.
PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to both podcasts below BEFORE attending the meeting.
Podcast #1:
https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/ouch-that-feels-great/or
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?i=1000712142870
(52 min.)
AND
Podcast #2:
https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/doing-it-the-hard-way/or
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?i=1000713137613
(58 min.)For those who seek additional effort (pain?), read the following optional article: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/550b09eae4b0147d03eda40d/t/5ab269ec0e2e729344929771/1521641976723/The-effort-paradox-effort-is-both-costly-and-valued.pdf
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What are the podcasts about?
This week's podcasts comprise a 2-part mini-series. The first, with guest Paul Bloom, explores pain and pleasure. Why do we sometimes seek and even enjoy things that bring us pain? For example, why do we eat very spicy-hot foods, watch scary movies, rubberneck when we pass accidents, or doomscroll? The second podcast, with guest Michael Inzlicht, discusses the psychology of doing hard versus easy things. The law of least effort states that organisms and systems naturally opt for the easiest, least effortful way to accomplish a task or reach a desired outcome. Yet there also seems to be an effort paradox in which people value things that clearly require effort and sometimes seek out difficult tasks. Both of these podcasts provide some insight into our human psychology and may help us hack how to better design our lives in a way we find most meaningful.What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times over the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm
Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.The meeting venue:
We will be meeting at Groundfloor (see map and address in upper right-hand corner) at 3pm. For those of you who attended our last in-person meeting (November 2024), it is the same venue in the Mission. Thank you to Clint for making this fantastic venue available to our group!Dinner:
Please join us for dinner following our meeting! We're changing things up a bit: Our last in-person events involved a group stroll to a restaurant to dine together. This has been challenging due to the size of our group and other logistics. For our upcoming meeting, we will provide everyone time to get out into the neighborhood to pick up takeout food to bring back to Groundfloor, our venue. Some restaurant takeout menus will be available for you to peruse, or feel free to check out restaurants ahead of time. There will likely be others who'll want to go with you to pick up food at the same place. Alternatively, you are welcome to brown-bag a dinner. A microwave oven is available at the venue. Hopefully, getting/bringing food to dine together at Groundfloor will provide a more enjoyable, less chaotic experience and allow us time to hang out, converse, and relax!Questions: Please contact Salina if you have any questions! Allow some time for a response, as Meetup doesn't notify that messages have been sent.
