‌Thanks for your interest in being a guest on the Still Curious podcast! Below is some information to make sure everything runs smoothly and we all have a good time.

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Here's what's covered in this guide:
🎙 About the podcast
👀 What to expect as a guest
⚙️ How the process works
📋 Register Now

Last updated: 23 November 2022

🎙 About the Podcast

On Still Curious we go inside the rich life experiences of fellow grokkists from many different walks of life as they reflect out loud on navigating their squiggly careers and overwhelming array of interests.

We discover the red thread of excitement that pulls each guest ever onward and the amazing strengths and perspectives they've developed from synthesising all the random stuff they've learned along the way.

Each episode is a cosy conversation guaranteed to unlock self-understanding and help listeners feel energised, inspired and a little less weird about themselves.

Below is a short trailer to give you the flavour of the show. You can also browse past episodes here.

The podcast is hosted and produced by Grokkist founder Danu Poyner, who lives in New Zealand and has a career that has become more squiggly than a Norwegian fjord.

👀 What to expect as a guest

It’s a conversational podcast with a different guest each episode. The format is semi-structured - there are some questions that act as prompts to shape and guide the discussion, but the aim is to have a fairly natural and free-flowing conversation where often the most interesting insights turn up unexpected along the way. 

What we end up with is a mix between exploring your personal life journey, and a deep dive into some aspect of your professional sphere of practice and abiding interests.

Most episodes are edited down to around 60 minutes. The actual conversations usually go for around 90 minutes, with the flexibility to finish earlier or go longer depending on how the conversation is flowing.

As we wrap up, you will have the opportunity to give a shout-out or plug for something that you’re working on or that’s important to you, and let people know the best way to get in touch with you.

Questions for self-reflection

Below are some of the ‘signature’ questions for the podcast. Often Danu will ask some variation of these at a minimum (along with some specific researched questions tailored specifically to you).

Take a little time to reflect on the questions beforehand, but there is no need to have scripted answers or to over-prepare - these questions may not be asked in order or even at all!

Just be yourself, speak freely and trust that what you have to say will be interesting to our listeners. And don’t worry, we’ll carefully edit out any ums, ahs and stumbles while you find what you really want to say.

Life path

  • What do you say when someone asks ‘so what do you do?’ What’s missing from that answer that’s important for understanding what you’re really about?
  • Did you follow a Plan A in life or have you had more of a squiggly career?
  • What are some of the most random projects you’ve become involved in? How did they come about?
  • Do you think there’s been a red thread that ties together even the most random things you’ve done?
  • What’s holding your interest / keeping you busy at the moment?
  • How would you explain the most important thing about what you do to a 10-year-old?

Life as a grokkist

  • Does the term grokkist resonate for you? How so?
  • What never fails to light you up? Do you have any touchstones you return to time and again for inspiration?
  • Has there ever been a time you’ve needed to resist having your soul flattened by 'the system'? What did that look like?
  • What kinds of things have you noticed come easily to you compared to others? What do you struggle with sometimes? What do other people find hard to understand?
  • Tell me about a time you changed your mind about something big or let go of a belief that used to be important to you
  • How do you fill your cup?

Curiosity and learning

  • Have you always been intensely curious? How has that manifested itself in your life? What kinds of situations has it gotten you into?
  • Was there a moment when you decided you needed to own your education?
  • What’s something you’ve learned that turned out to be surprisingly valuable later in a different setting?
  • What’s something you’ve learned that hasn’t been useful at all but which brings you joy?
  • What are some of the most delightful learning experiences you’ve had?
  • What’s a life changing learning experience you would gift someone and why?

⚙️ How the process works

Before the Recording

After we confirm you as a guest, you will receive a calendar link to book a suitable time for the recording. Once you book a time, you will receive a calendar invite with joining details.

In advance of the recording, Danu will prepare and send you a draft list of tailored questions to guide our discussion – we won’t necessarily get to them all during the recording and they may not be asked in order, but it’s helpful to consider them beforehand.

Danu puts a fair amount of research into the questions so this step can sometimes take a little while to organise. Feel free to bring your own questions if you like! (But you don’t have to) When scheduling our interview time, you can also let us know if there are specific topics you’d like to cover or avoid.

On Recording Day

We're using software called Riverside for recording. It works pretty much exactly like Zoom, but it’s designed to capture the best possible audio recording quality.

When you join, you will enter a waiting room where you can test your audio/video settings. Danu will let you in and after that it works exactly like Zoom. We can say hellos and then start the recording when we’re ready.

Note: Only audio will be recorded. The video chat is just so we have a better time talking to each other! :) We use Descript to transcribe and edit the recording.

Based on experience, recording sessions are scheduled for 2 hours. This allows time to warm up and test the technical setup, engage in free-flowing conversation, and have a short debrief afterwards.

Tips for joining:

  • For the best experience, use a computer with a Chrome browser that’s up-to-date. You can also join using the Riverside iOS app.
  • Try to ensure a stable internet connection for the duration of the call. (To minimise audio disruptions from bad internets, Riverside locally records a separate audio stream for each speaker and then uploads it to the cloud.)
  • If possible, use headphones/earphones and use an external mic as this will result in a better recording. But if you can’t, don’t worry it will still be fine.
  • Ideally, close all applications that don’t need to be open during the recording. This prevents CPU overload. Important: Please close all programs that try to use your mic/camera.
  • If you can’t connect the mic/camera, make sure that you have given access to Chrome to use the mic/camera.
  • Turn up at the agreed time with a smile and have fun :)

After the Recording

After the interview, we will edit the recording for pacing and audio quality and an introduction, music cues etc. You will receive a link to access an unpublished draft of the episode to review, typically a few weeks after the recording.

Depending on scheduling and other factors, the episode typically goes live 4–6 weeks after the recording. Once it is published, it will be available on all the usual podcast directories (eg Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc) and we will send you a link and some promotional materials you can use to share with your own tribes.

📋 Register Now

If you'd like be a guest, complete the registration form below.

Phew! That’s a lot, but hopefully that's everything you need to know. Thanks for reading – we hope to have you on the show soon :)

Still have questions? Drop us an email or DM on socials.