We are a Ventures Based Studio Building New Futures
Formerly known as Epic Decade, we’ve spent over a decade taking on some of the most epic challenges of our time by focusing on the art and science of asking essential questions. This signature methodology is what we call Radical Curiosity, and it has become the operating system for Curiosity & Co.
How we work
Our process is industry-agnostic. We’ve worked across diverse fields such as retail, climate change, urban planning, financial services, healthcare, education, biotechnology, television, and social media. We build 9-18 month Innovation Labs* that put a rocketpack on organizations reinventing themselves by embracing the new values that are propelling flourishing futures.
Design thinking has its limits. So, we blend together several schools of thought and creative practices ranging from anthropology to biology, storytelling, communications systems thinking, and social movements.
Why we do it
We believe that society is going through an operating system reboot. A phenomenon we call a “cultural interregnum.” To be between things. We help leaders and organizations make sense of the challenger narratives that are upending tradition and inventing new ways for all of us to thrive.
What we make
A signature asset of the growing Curiosity & Co. ecosystem is our Ideas Salons. It has become the heartbeat of a knowledge community. They are design-hackathon retreats bringing VIP thought leaders for Pop-up R+D labs.
Salons have been attended by more than 4,000 executives from organizations such as Apple, American Express, Google, GE, ConocoPhillips, Capital One Bank, Disney Imagineering, Mercedes Benz, the Gap, Kaiser Permanente, VISA, Suncor Energy, IBM, Oprah Winfrey Network, and the Guggenheim Museum.
What is an Innovation Lab?
The process is the project:
Take a peek at just a few examples of what we’ve been working on…
[ 1 Part Research Lab + 1 Part Executive Education + 1 Part Rapid Prototype Studio ]
Public Health // Labs
HISTORY:
Where we build upon our immersion as an innovation studio inside of a biotech unicorn supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to transform the treatment and experience of chronic disease.
RESEARCH:
Advance the research we’ve conducted at Salons with Blue Cross Blue Shield, GE Healthcare, Google, Brown University, Doctors Without Borders, the University of Toronto, and more.
COLLABORATIONS:
Continue our collaboration with challengers such as Dr. Alex Jadad, who consistently questions Do We Really Know What We Mean by Health?, founded the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, and who was recently selected by the World Federation of Public Health as one of only 17 members of a global Public Health Leadership Coalition with colleagues from the WHO, international universities, and national health ministries.
Living System // Labs
HISTORY:
Where we build upon our immersion as the convener of Nexus North, a multi-stakeholder consortium of governments, oil & gas companies, indigenous chiefs, and civil society NGOs cooperatively working together to reimagine the region of northern Alberta, Canada’s multi-trillion dollar Oil Sands as a model for sustainability in partnership with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on a 50-year vision through 9-design principles of integrated social systems.
RESEARCH:
Advance the research we’ve conducted at Salons with leaders from the Athabasca Tribal Council, ConocoPhillips, Suncor, Local Motors, Husky Energy, IBM Canada, Cenovus Energy, Autodesk, Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, Innovation Expedition, Sustainable Communities, and the Mayor of Wood Buffalo.
COLLABORATIONS:
Continue our collaboration with challengers such as Charlie Cannon, an industrial design professor and co-principal investigator of the National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a $20 million investigation of the impact of climate change on marine life.
CURIOSITY HAS BECOME AN ENDANGERED SPECIES, PARALYZING OUR ABILITY TO AUTHOR BETTER FUTURES. IN ORDER TO REVIVE CURIOSITY, WE NEED RADICAL QUESTIONING.
RADICAL CURIOSITY I SETH GOLDENBERG
QUESTIONING COMMONLY HELD BELIEFS TO IMAGINE FLOURISHING FUTURES
OUR CONTEMPORARY MOMENT IS RIPE WITH OPPORTUNITIES
TO REIMAGINE OUR WORLD.
Radical Curiosity Book:
A bold manifesto arguing that the most complex challenges we face today–as individuals, businesses, and a society–require us to ask deeper questions, not seek easier answers.
With this empowering book, Goldenberg introduces the practice of Radical Curiosity through the lens of seven narratives that are going through significant transformation: Learning, Cohesion, Time, Youth, Aliveness, Nature, and Value. Along the way, he unpacks principles intended to spark our own questioning.
Blending philosophy, business strategy, cultural criticism, and fascinating case studies, Radical Curiosity is a new way of solving our most complex problems—one focused not on technology or science but on the power of human inquiry. By asking us to relearn how we learn, reengage in dialogue, revive our youthful sense of wonder, and rethink what we value, it reignites the curiosity needed to imagine and build a better world.
Radical questioning, as the book points out, is our fertile ground for imagining a flourishing future for ourselves and our planet. This book engages both your brain and heart in wonder and possibilities.
IVY ROSS
VP OF DESIGN FOR HARDWARE, GOOGLE
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How will we live, learn, work, play, and sustain ourselves in the 21st century?
Seth Goldenberg is a designer, activist, curator, and entrepreneur who harnesses the power of questioning to catalyze innovation and cultural change. He is the founder and CEO of Curiosity & Co., a one-of-a kind bookstore, experience laboratory, and design-ventures studio, and the creator of the Ideas Salons, invitational thought leader retreats that tackle the essential questions of our time. Goldenberg has led high-profile projects with clients such as Apple, American Express, the Oprah Winfrey Network, and the Governor of Rhode Island. He also founded Dialog: City, the civic arts festival for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, and Fast Company. He lives on the island of Jamestown.
28 BUILDING BLOCKS FOR RADICAL CURIOSITY
To be radically curious is to challenge the narratives inherited from the past and author new stories that reflect who we are and what we value today. It empowers us to recognize when our collective wisdom, like any outdated technology, needs an operating system upgrade. The book distills 28 Building Blocks For Radical Curiosity.
Seth Goldenberg’s deep commitment to curiosity taught me how important it is to ask essential questions. The right questions connect our minds and hearts, and that’s how we achieve the greatest outcomes.
DENISE YOUNG SMITH
FORMER VP OF WORLDWIDE HUMAN RESOURCES AND TALENT, APPLE
Don’t just read this book, BE this book! Radical curiosity is the antidote to the languishing state so many find themselves in as we face the backlash of an angered ecosystem. Seth’s words are a cry from the wilderness, an awakening of the unique gifts all people possess… curiosity, optimism, and the fearlessness to manifest a reversal of destruction. In this beautifully written book, Seth shows us the way to heal and in doing so, to flourish.
BRUCE VAUGHN
VP OF EXPERIENTIAL CREATIVE PRODUCT, AIRBNB
Radical Curiosity In The News:
