Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

We don’t just growl at each other.

We can actually offer a pause.

Yes.

That’s what I always tell my kids—that every time they get angry, they should use their words. It’s what separates us from animals: the ability to talk it out.

And our ability to observe our moods and curate them.

Absolutely.

When your kids get angry, do they recognize it? How do I recognize that I’m in a state of anger? And what are the ways I can intervene in myself to shift that?

That means I need to be able to identify it, recognize the consequences of it, make a conscious choice to shift it, and then go have a pizza, turn on some music, take a walk in nature, chill for a moment, take a shower, or do whatever helps.

It’s really odd that these important human practices aren’t taught in school.

Yeah.

Along with most of what we’re talking about right now.

Absolutely.

And we need educators like you.

And like you too, Ron.

I mean, I would love for everyone to sit and listen to you because you have some incredible things to say.

You brought up one word that I’d love to dig into a little bit—curiosity. Because that’s one thing that isn’t just not taught in school; it’s actually taught out of us in school.

It’s funny how we just kill people’s curiosity.

It’s like, as adults, we have no curiosity left.

So, talk to us.

In your experience, how do you maintain or develop curiosity?

Yeah, yeah.

If you go to my website, ronkaufman.com, there’s a tab with a dropdown that says We Believe. It outlines my values.

The first pair of values is curiosity and respect.

In other words: What’s going on around here? And I’m not here to judge it.

Yeah.

The next two are gratitude and generosity—Oh my gosh, look at all that we have! What can we do for other people?

Then comes care and commitment—Give a damn and do something about it.

Yeah.

So, going back to curiosity and respect, that really took off for me in university.

I grew up in Connecticut and then went to Brown University. But after two years, I was bored.

I was a rascal. I knew how to get onto the roof of every building on campus.

So, I thought, What am I going to do now?

I went to study in Europe, in London, but I only studied for one semester. I took the spring off and traveled all over Europe with duffel bags full of frisbees, starting players’ associations, teams, and tournaments.

While traveling, I found a school in the south of France. So, for the next fall semester, I went to school in France, then took the spring off again, traveling and doing festivals all over Europe.

Then, I went back to Brown for my senior year and graduated.

During those two spring semesters off—and in the summers—I was in my early 20s, constantly traveling. It was actually cheaper to take a nighttime train from one city to another than to get a hotel room since I had a rail pass.

So, I was literally crisscrossing the European continent, experiencing different cultures, traditions, prejudices, biases, food styles, and religions.

How can you not be curious when the world is changing so rapidly, day by day?

And because of Frisbee, people would invite me home. I’d sleep on their couch, eat with their families, and experience their lives firsthand.

That whole experience taught me not just curiosity but also respect. I was just fortunate.

So, it seems that interacting with different people and traveling to new places nurtures curiosity.

And that’s interesting because one thing I always tell people is this: If you’re feeling bored or feel like you already know everything, go meet new people.

Travel somewhere.

Get out and experience things.

I can’t recall the name right now—I’m bad with names—but someone once described this idea as the fallacy of misplaced concreteness.

I think it was… The name will come to me, and I’ll put it in the description.