The Curiosity Hour Podcast

Episode 226 - Allegra Hernandez. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Allegra Hernandez. Allegra Hernandez is a musician, guitarist, and songwriter from Des Moines, IA. Allegra lets the music speak for itself with intricate dynamics and rich, melodic, guitar on top of heartfelt vocals containing elements of alt-rock, melodic hooks, and splashes of technical skill. They tap into a realm of musical versatility, showcasing many different sides to their songwriting, instrumental composition, and live performance. Strong songwriting and vocals are combined with exceptional guitar playing, big chunky distortion, searing leads, and first-person vignettes. Allegra released their first full-length LP Gift Exchange in November 2022. Allegra plays with bandmates Vimka Nochvay on bass, Aaron Larimer on drums, and is newly joined by Ayla Billick on guitar. You can find Allegra's music on major streaming platforms and Bandcamp. @allegrahernandezmusic on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. @allegrarocks777 on Twitter. Website: allegrahernandezmusic.com Aside from being a performing musician, Allegra is also a music instructor and teaches guitar and bass lessons. They are the Music Director at School of Rock West Des Moines and oversee the school's music curriculum and programming while making sure students are receiving a great education. Allegra works seasonally with a local non-profit organization, Girls Rock! Des Moines (https://www.girlsrockdsm.org), in the summers as a guitar instructor and band coach. As a non-binary and queer individual, Allegra is passionate about uplifting, supporting, and celebrating LGBTQ+ youth. Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! The easiest way to donate is via the Venmo app and you can donate to (at symbol) CuriosityHour (Download app here: venmo.com) The Curiosity Hour Podcast is available free on 13 platforms: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Soundcloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podbean, PlayerFM, Castbox, and Pocket Casts. Disclaimers: The Curiosity Hour Podcast may contain content not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion advised. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely those of the guest(s). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Curiosity Hour Podcast. This podcast may contain explicit language. The Public Service Announcement near the end of the episode solely represents the views of Tommy and Dan and not our guests or our listeners.

Episode 225 - Traci Thomas. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Traci Thomas. Traci Thomas is an avid reader and book lover who created the acclaimed podcast, The Stacks, in order to talk about books and the ways they shape our cultural understanding of race, gender, politics, and what it means to be alive. Weekly guests range from academic thought leaders to bestselling authors, from actors to politicians and more; you'll find Ibram X. Kendi, Angelina Jolie, Brit Bennett, Desus and Mero, Quentin Tarantino, and many more on The Stacks. Traci is the creator and host of a live literary event series with LAist called One for the Books. She also writes a monthly bookish advice column on Shereads.com. Podcast Website: https://thestackspodcast.com One for the Books Website: https://laist.com/events/one-for-the-books Advice Column: https://shereads.com/author/traci-thomas/ The Stacks Best Books of 2022: https://shereads.com/the-stacks-best-books-of-2022/ Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! The easiest way to donate is via the Venmo app and you can donate to (at symbol) CuriosityHour (Download app here: venmo.com) The Curiosity Hour Podcast is available free on 13 platforms: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Soundcloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podbean, PlayerFM, Castbox, and Pocket Casts. Disclaimers: The Curiosity Hour Podcast may contain content not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion advised. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely those of the guest(s). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Curiosity Hour Podcast. This podcast may contain explicit language. The Public Service Announcement near the end of the episode solely represents the views of Tommy and Dan and not our guests or our listeners.

Episode 224 - Quinton “Yung Trybez” Nyce Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Quinton “Yung Trybez” Nyce Yung Trybez with Darren "Young D" Metz together are the duo, Snotty Nose Rez Kids. Website: https://snottynoserezkids.com/ Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! The easiest way to donate is via the Venmo app and you can donate to (at symbol) CuriosityHour (Download app here: venmo.com) The Curiosity Hour Podcast is available free on 13 platforms: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Soundcloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podbean, PlayerFM, Castbox, and Pocket Casts. Disclaimers: The Curiosity Hour Podcast may contain content not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion advised. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely those of the guest(s). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Curiosity Hour Podcast. This podcast may contain explicit language.

Episode 223 - Young D "Young D" Metz Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Young D "Young D" Metz. Young D with Quinton "Yung Trybez" Nyce together are the duo, Snotty Nose Rez Kids. Website: https://snottynoserezkids.com/ Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! The easiest way to donate is via the Venmo...

Episode 222 Katherine Corcoran Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Katherine Corcoran. Katherine Corcoran is a former Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America. She has been an Alicia Patterson fellow, the Hewlett Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame, and a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow. At the AP, she led an award-winning team that broke major stories about cartel and state violence and abuse of...

Episode 221 - Ex V Planis / Curiosity Hour Podcast Crossover Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are share a conversation with the host of Ex V Planis, John Killian, and Tommy Estlund As we shared last year in episode 201, John Killian is a fan of “high weirdness” and loves to explore the spooky in reality *and* in fiction. This episode is a special collaboration between the two podcasts, where John and Tommy sat down to discuss their favorite scary books, culminating in a spirited discussion...

Episode 220 - Sav Buist and Katie Larson Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guests, Sav Buist and Katie Larson. Katie and Sav met in their public high school orchestra and became a band after witnessing an immersive workshop by two women that played the same instruments they did. Seeing the possibilities firsthand gave them the courage and empowerment to pursue music beyond the orchestra. They were inspired. They often say that music connected them to friendships and...

Episode 219 - Elena Conis, PhD, MS, MJ Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Elena Conis, PhD, MS, MJ. She’s a historian of U.S. public health and medicine, with a special focus on the history of infectious diseases, environmental health, vaccines, pesticides, scientific controversies, and the public's understanding of health and health science. Her research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Library of Medicine, the...

Episode 218 - Beecher Reuning Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Beecher Reuning. Beecher Reuning is an award-winning, non-binary filmmaker living in East Tennessee with their wife and two daughters. They teach on the film faculty at Middle Tennessee State University as they continue to write and direct their own films. As a common theme of their work, their stories often use comedy to deconstruct oppressive ideologies in favor of living a more authentic life....

Episode 217 - April Ajoy Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, April Ajoy. April Ajoy is a content creator who uses humor to shine light on the harmful, toxic and sometimes just weird traits of American Christianity. As a preacher's kid, she was deep in conservative evangelicalism. Some of her evangelical highlights include: singing on the Jim Bakker show, working for the 700 Club and leading worship for over a decade. She now identifies as a "recovering...

Episode 216 - Dr. Simran Jeet Singh Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Dr,.Simran Jeet Singh. Simran Jeet Singh is Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Program on Religion & Society. Recognized among TIME Magazine’s sixteen people fighting for a more equal America, he is a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations, Senior Adviser on Equity and Inclusion for YSC Consulting, and a Visiting Professor at Union Seminary. Simran is a regular...

Episode 215 - Emi Nietfeld. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Emi Nietfeld. Emi Nietfeld is a writer and software engineer. After graduating from Harvard College in 2015, she worked at Google and Facebook. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, Vice, and other publications. She lives in New York City with her family. Visit her website to sign-up for her newsletter and to find out how to buy her new memoir, Acceptance:...

Episode 214 - Chip Scanlan. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Chip Scanlan. Chip Scanlan is a former award-winning journalist, a writer, publisher, author and writing coach. He was the director of writing programs and The National Writers’ Workshops at The Poynter Institute, one of the world’s top schools for professional journalists. His latest books are “Writers on Writing: Inside the lives of 55 distinguished writers and editors” and “Writers on Writing:...

Episode 213 - Erica Anderson-Senter. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Erica Anderson-Senter. Erica Anderson-Senter lives and writes in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She teaches high school English and Creative Writing. Her first full length collection, Midwestern Poet’s Incomplete Guide to Symbolism, is available through EastOver Press. Her work has also appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the once CrabFat Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, Off the Coast, and Dialogist...

Episode 212 - Daniel Blevins Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Daniel Blevins. Daniel Blevins is a salon owner, social media influencer, LGBTQ+ advocate, activist and founder of Stand In Pride. Daniel and his husband of 22 years reside in rural East Tennessee. He’s a proud father of two children and three grandchildren. Daniel founded the Facebook group Stand In Pride in early 2021, the group has since grown to over 36k members, with members in over 70...

Episode 211 - Daniel Pink. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Daniel Pink. Daniel H. Pink’s books have helped readers and organizations around the world rethink how they live and operate. He is the author the New York Times bestsellers A Whole New Mind, Drive, To Sell Is Human, and When. His books have sold millions of copies, been translated into forty-two languages, and have won multiple awards. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C. New Book:...

Episode 210 - Jeff Nosanov Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Jeff Nosanov. Jeff Nosanov spent ten years in around NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASA Headquarters. He won three NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts grants and led several proposal efforts for science missions. Book URL: https://www.howthingsworkatnasa.com Note: Guests create their own bio description for each...

Episode 209 - Alex Falcone Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Alex Falcone. Alex Falcone is the only comedian and writer living in Los Angeles. He recently made his late night debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and he appeared on a handful of episodes of Portlandia on IFC. In 2018, he won Portland’s Funniest Person, which was big news there but he’d understand if you didn’t hear about it. Trust us, it was a huge deal. He’s also done a bunch of other...

Episode 208 - Dave Holmes. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Dave Holmes. Dave Holmes is a writer, comic, television host and radio personality based in Los Angeles. He’s an editor-at-large for Esquire Magazine, a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Vulture, Decider and Runner’s World, and the creator and host of the investigative podcast Waiting For Impact. He’s the author of the memoir “Party of One,” one of NPR’s Best Books of 2016, and has hosted shows...

Episode 207 - Elizabeth Nordenholt. Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Elizabeth Nordenholt. Elizabeth Nordenholt (she/her) is a podcaster, content editor, and graduate student currently pursuing a masters in psychology and eventual licensure as a marriage and family therapist. You probably know her best as the co-host of the podcast Your Fave is Problematic but she has also appeared on a variety of other podcasts and Twitch streams. She is polyamorous,...