by Brian Grazer
Marvin Mitchelson: celebrity divorce attorney, pioneered the concept of palimony
Isaac Mizrahi: fashion designer
Tim Montgomery: Olympic runner stripped of his world record after being found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs
Robert Morgenthau: lawyer, longest-serving district attorney of Manhattan
Patrick B. Moscaritolo: CEO of Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau
Kate Moss: supermodel, fashion designer
Lawrence Moulter: former chairman and CEO of the New Boston Garden Corporation
Bill Moyers: journalist, political commentator, former White House press secretary
Robert Mrazek: author, former congressman
Patrick J. Mullany: former special agent for the FBI, pioneered FBI’s offender profiling
Kary Mullis: biochemist, Nobel laureate in chemistry for his work with DNA
Takashi Murakami: artist, painter, sculptor
Blake Mycoskie: entrepreneur, philanthropist, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS shoes
Nathan Myhrvold: former chief technology officer at Microsoft
Ed Needham: former managing editor of Rolling Stone and editor in chief of Maxim
Sara Nelson: cofounder of the public interest law firm Christic Institute
Benjamin Netanyahu: prime minister of Israel
Jack Newfield: journalist, author, former columnist for the Village Voice
Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa: chef and restaurateur
Peggy Noonan: speechwriter and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, author, columnist for the Wall Street Journal
Anthony Norvell: expert on metaphysics, author
Barack Obama: president of the United States, former U.S. senator from Illinois
ODB: musician, music producer, founding member of Wu-Tang Clan
Richard Oldenburg: former director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen: actresses, fashion designers
Olu Dara & Jim Dickinson: musicians, record producers
Estevan Oriol: photographer whose work often depicts Los Angeles urban and gang culture
Lawrence Osborne: journalist, author of American Normal: The Hidden World of Asperger Syndrome
Manny Pacquiao: professional boxer, first eight-division world champion
David Pagel: art critic, author, curator, professor of art history at Claremont College specializing in contemporary art
Anthony Pellicano: high-profile private investigator in Los Angeles
Robert Pelton: conflict-zone journalist, author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places books
Andy Pemberton: former editor in chief of Blender magazine
David Petraeus: director of the CIA, 2011–2012, retired four-star U.S. Army general
Mariana Pfaelzer: United States federal circuit court judge, opposed California’s Proposition 187
Jay Phelan: evolutionary biologist, professor at UCLA
Ann Philbin: director of the Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Mark Plotkin: ethnobotanist, author, expert on rainforest ecosystems
Christopher “moot” Poole: Internet entrepreneur, created 4chan and Canvas websites
Peggy Post: director of the Emily Post Institute, author and consultant on etiquette
Virginia Postrel: political and cultural journalist, author
Colin Powell: U.S. secretary of state, 2001–2005, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former national security advisor, retired four-star U.S. Army general
Ned Preble: former executive, Synectics creative problem-solving methodology
Ilya Prigogine: chemist, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Nobel laureate in chemistry, author of The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature
Prince: musician, music producer, actor
Wolfgang Puck: chef, restaurateur, entrepreneur
Pussy Riot: Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the two members of the Russian feminist punk rock group who served time in prison
Steven Quartz: philosopher, professor at California Institute of Technology, specializing in the brain’s value systems and how they interact with culture
James Quinlivan: analyst at the RAND Corporation, specializing in introducing change and technology into large organizations
William C. Rader: psychiatrist, administers stem cell injections for a variety of illnesses
Jason Randal: magician, mentalist
Ronald Reagan: president of the United States, 1981–1989
Sumner Redstone: media magnate, businessman, chairman of CBS, chairman of Viacom
Judith Regan: editor, book publisher
Eddie Rehfeldt: executive creative director for the communications firm Waggener Edstrom
David Remnick: journalist, author, editor of the New Yorker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
David Rhodes: president of CBS News, former vice president of news for Fox News
Matthieu Ricard: Buddhist monk, photographer, author of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
Condoleezza Rice: U.S. secretary of state, 2005–2009, former U.S. national security advisor, former provost at Stanford University, professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Frank Rich: journalist, author, former columnist for the New York Times, editor at large for New York magazine
Michael Rinder: activist and former senior executive for the Church of Scientology International
Richard Riordan: mayor of Los Angeles, 1993–2001, businessman
Tony Robbins: life coach, author, motivational speaker
Robert Wilson and Richard Hutton: criminal defense attorneys
Brian L. Roberts: chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation
Burton B. Roberts: chief administrative judge, New York Supreme Court in the Bronx, model for a character in Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities
Michael Roberts: fashion journalist, fashion and style director at Vanity Fair, former fashion director at the New Yorker
Joe Robinson: speaker and trainer on work-life balance and productivity
Gerry Roche: senior chairman of Heidrick & Struggles, a business executive recruiting firm
Aaron Rose: film director, art-show curator, writer
Charlie Rose: journalist, TV interviewer, host of PBS’s Charlie Rose
Maer Roshan: writer, editor, entrepreneur who launched Radar magazine and radaronline.com
Pasquale Rotella: founder of Insomniac Events, which produces music festival Electric Daisy Carnival
Karl Rove: Republican political consultant, chief strategist for George W. Bush presidential campaign, senior advisor and deputy chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration
Rick Rubin: record producer, founder of Def Jam Records
Ed Ruscha: pop artist
Salman Rushdie: novelist, author of Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses, winner of the Booker Prize
RZA: leader of Wu-Tang Clan, musician, actor, music producer
Charles Saatchi: cofounder of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, cofounder of the advertising agency M&C Saatchi
Jeffrey Sachs: economist, professor at Columbia University, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
Oliver Sacks: neurologist, author, professor at New York University School of Medicine
Carl Sagan: astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, professor at Cornell University, narrated and cowrote the PBS TV series Cosmos
Jonas Salk: scientist, developer of the first polio vaccine, founder of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Jerry Saltz: art critic for New York magazine
James Sanders: scholar of the Old Testament and one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Shawn Sanford: director of lifestyle marketing at Microsoft
Robert Sapolsky: neuroendocrinologist, professor at Stanford School of Medicine
John
Sarno: professor of rehabilitation medicine at New York University School of Medicine
Michael Scheuer: former CIA intelligence officer, former chief of the Osama bin Laden tracking unit in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, author
Paul Schimmel: former chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Julian Schnabel: artist, filmmaker
Howard Schultz: chairman and CEO of Starbucks
John H. Schwarz: theoretical physicist, professor at California Institute of Technology, one of the fathers of string theory
David Scott: Apollo-era astronaut, first person to drive on the moon
Mary Lynn Scovazzo: orthopedic surgeon, specialist in sports medicine
Terrence Sejnowski: professor, directs the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Marshall Sella: journalist for GQ, New York magazine, and the New York Times Magazine
Al Sharpton: Baptist minister, civil rights activist, talk-show host
Daniel Sheehan: constitutional and public interest lawyer, cofounder of the Christic Institute and founder of the Romero Institute
Mike Sheehan: New York City police officer who became a news reporter
Yoshio Shimomura: consultant on Japanese culture
Ronald K. Siegel: psychopharmacologist, author
Michael Sigman: former president and publisher of LA Weekly
Sanford Sigoloff: businessman, corporate turnaround expert
Ben Silbermann: entrepreneur, cofounder and CEO of Pinterest
Simon Sinek: former advertising executive, motivational speaker, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Mike Skinner: musician, music producer, leader of English hip-hop project the Streets
Slick Rick: musician, music producer
Anthony Slide: journalist, author, expert on the history of popular entertainment
Carlos Slim: Mexican businessman, investor, philanthropist
Gary Small: professor of psychiatry at UCLA Medical School, director of UCLA Center on Aging
Fred Smith: founder, chairman, and CEO of FedEx Corp.
Rick Smolan: cocreator of the Day in the Life book series, former photographer for National Geographic, Time and Life magazines
Frank Snepp: journalist, former CIA agent and analyst during the Vietnam War
Scott Snyder: comic book and short-story writer
Scott Andrew Snyder and Tracy Forman-Snyder: design and art direction, Arkitip
Johnny Spain: one of the “San Quentin Six,” who attempted to escape from San Quentin State Prison in 1971
Gerry Spence: famed trial lawyer, never lost a criminal case as a prosecutor or a defense attorney
Art Spiegelman: cartoonist, illustrator, author of Maus, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Eliot Spitzer: governor of New York, 2007–2008, former attorney general of New York
Peter Stan: analyst and economic theorist at RAND Corporation
Gwen Stefani: musician, fashion designer
Howard Stern: radio and TV personality
Cyndi Stivers: journalist, former editor in chief of Time Out New York
Biz Stone: cofounder of Twitter
Neil Strauss: author of The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
Yancey Strickler: cofounder and CEO of Kickstarter
James Surowiecki: journalist, business and financial columnist for the New Yorker
Eric Sussman: senior lecturer at UCLA School of Management, president of Amber Capital
t.A.T.u.: Russian music duo
André Leon Talley: contributor and former editor at large for Vogue
Amy Tan: author of The Joy Luck Club
Gerald Tarlow: clinical psychologist and therapist
Ron Teeguarden: herbalist, explores Asian healing techniques
Edward Teller: theoretical physicist, father of the hydrogen bomb
Ed Templeton: professional skateboarder, founder of skateboard company Toy Machine
Margaret Thatcher: prime minister of the United Kingdom, 1979–1990
Lynn Tilton: investor, businesswoman, founder and CEO of Patriarch Partners
Justin Timberlake: musician, actor
Jeffrey Toobin: journalist, author, lawyer, staff writer for the New Yorker, senior legal analyst for CNN
Abdullah Toukan: CEO of Strategic Analysis and Global Risk Assessment (SAGRA) Center, Jordan
Robert Trivers: evolutionary biologist, professor at Rutgers University
Richard Turco: atmospheric scientist, professor emeritus at UCLA, MacArthur Fellowship recipient
Ted Turner: media mogul, founder of CNN
Richard Tyler: fashion designer
Tim Uyeki: epidemiologist at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Craig Venter: biochemist, geneticist, entrepreneur, one of the first to sequence the human genome
René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet: French aristocrat, money manager, one of the founders of Access International Advisors, which was caught in the Madoff investment scandal
Bill Viola: video artist whose work explores stages of consciousness
Jefferson Wagner: former Malibu councilman, owner of Zuma Jay Surfboards
Rufus Wainwright: musician
John Walsh: art historian, curator, former director of the J. Paul Getty Museum
Andy Warhol: Pop artist
Robert Watkins: businessman, chairman of the U.S. Rugby Foundation
Kenneth Watman: analyst at RAND Corporation specializing in strategic defense and nuclear deterrence
James Watson: molecular biologist, geneticist, zoologist, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, Nobel laureate in medicine
Andrew Weil: physician, naturopath, teacher, writer on holistic health
Jann Wenner: cofounder and publisher of Rolling Stone, owner of Men’s Journal and US Weekly
Kanye West: musician, music producer, fashion designer
Michael West: gerontologist, entrepreneur, stem cell researcher, works on regenerative medicine
Floyd Red Crow Westerman: musician, political activist for Native American causes
Vivienne Westwood: fashion designer who developed modern punk and new wave fashions
Peter Whybrow: psychiatrist, endocrinologist, researches hormones and manic-depression
Hugh Wilhere: spokesman for the Church of Scientology
Pharrell Williams: musician, music producer, fashion designer
Serena Williams: professional tennis player
Willie L. Williams: former police chief of Los Angeles
Marianne Williamson: spiritual teacher, New Age guru
Ian Wilmut: embryologist, led the team of researchers who first successfully cloned a mammal (a sheep named Dolly)
E. O. Wilson: biologist, author, professor emeritus at Harvard University, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Oprah Winfrey: founder and chairwoman of the Oprah Winfrey Network, actress, author
George C. Wolfe: playwright, theater director, two-time winner of the Tony Award
Steve Wozniak: cofounder of Apple Inc., designer of Apple I and Apple II computers, inventor
John D. Wren: president and CEO of marketing and communications company Omnicom
Will Wright: game designer, creator of Sim City and The Sims
Steve Wynn: businessman, Las Vegas casino magnate
Gideon Yago: writer, former correspondent for MTV News
Eitan Yardeni: teacher and spiritual counselor at the Kabbalah Centre
Daniel Yergin: economist, author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Dan York: chief content officer at DirecTV, former president of content and advertising sales, AT&T
Michael W. Young: geneticist, professor at The Rockefeller University, specializing in the biological clock and circadian rhythms
Shinzen Young: meditation teacher
Eran Zaidel:
neuropsychologist, professor at UCLA, expert in hemispheric interaction in the human brain
Howard Zinn: historian, political scientist, professor at Boston University, author of A People’s History of the United States
Appendix: How to Have a Curiosity Conversation
* * *
We’ve talked throughout A Curious Mind about how to use questions, how to use curiosity, to make your daily life better. But maybe you want to try what I did: Maybe you want to have some curiosity conversations, to sit down with a few really interesting people and try to understand how they see the world differently than you do.
Curiosity conversations can help give you a bigger life. They can do for you what they have done for me—they can help you step out of your own world, they can widen your perspective, they can give you a taste of experiences you won’t have on your own.
Starter Conversations
Everyone has their own style, but I’d recommend starting close to home. That’s what I did, in fact. Think about your immediate circle of relatives, friends, acquaintances, work-related colleagues. Maybe there are a few people with intriguing jobs or very different experiences—of education, upbringing, culture, or people who work in your business but in a different arena.
That’s a great place to start, a good place to get a feel for how a curiosity conversation works. Pick someone, and ask if they’ll make a date to talk to you for twenty minutes or so—and specify what you want to talk about.
“I’ve always been curious about your work, I’m trying to broaden my sense of that world, and I was wondering if you’d be willing to spend twenty minutes talking to me about what you do, what the challenges and the satisfactions are.”
Or . . .
“I’ve always been curious about how you ended up as [whatever their profession is], and I was wondering if you’d be willing to spend twenty minutes talking to me about what it took to get where you are—what the key turning points in your career have been.”
Here are a few tips for when someone agrees to talk to you—whether they are a family member, an acquaintance, or a friend of a friend:
• Be clear that you want to hear their story. You’re not looking for a job, you’re not looking for advice about your own situation or any challenges you’re facing. You’re curious about them.
