Scott Shigeoka
Scott Shigeoka (he/him, they/them) is an internationally-recognized curiosity expert and speaker. He is known for translating research into strategies that promote positive well-being and connected relationships around the globe, including at the UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and through his popular courses at the University of Texas at Austin. Scott has spread his curiosity practices to public officials, health care professionals, artists, activists, writers, media organizations, educators, community leaders and businesses. Originally from Hawai′i, Scott now lives in California.
In Seek, Shigeoka blends cutting edge research on curiosity with wisdom from years of grassroots community work and the stories of people living at the threshold of deep curiosity—ancient wayfinders in the Pacific Ocean, Catholic nuns and Millennial seekers sharing a convent, a wildland firefighter in Montana, and more—as he takes readers on a journey to understand the power of deep curiosity.
I wrote my book at my home in Joshua Tree, California. This is my home writing studio, which is surrounded by desert mountains and flora:
Merlin Sheldrake who wrote Entangled Life. Not only do I think we’d really get along, but I am obsessed with mushrooms. One of my favorite lines in my book Seek is: “Embrace your inner mushroom.” Just like mushrooms can decompose toxic matter and turn it into nutrients—we can do the same thing. We can turn our hard and negative experiences into something that serves us. But Instead of a lunch hang with Merlin, I would want us to spend an afternoon foraging for mushrooms!
One of my best friends was struggling with setting boundaries. She’s a self-identified “people-pleaser” and her day-to-day life is a tsunami of favors and tasks for others, while putting her own needs and dreams on hold. Generosity is an important character virtue, but giving to others while sacrificing your own health and wants can be a consequential and tiring way to live. She asked me for advice and I recommended she read Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab. “Not only will this help you, it’ll also help everyone around you,” I told her.
I love Dr. Nicole LaPera and Dr. Becky Kennedy, both bad-ass psychologists. These are the kinds of “influencers” I am ecstatic to amplify—two smart and experienced healers who are creating content that is full of wisdom and tangibility to people on a journey of curiosity and healing.
Leo. Whenever I meet people who are into astrology, they always tell me unprompted “YOU MUST BE A LEO!” My thought in response: Is it my aquamarine bejeweled jumpsuit or the fact that I organized a spontaneous dance circle in the middle of a leadership conference at break? I’m also a 7 on the Enneagram. Both are so accurate! That said, I do like my quiet time and am sometimes shy in social settings—oh the paradoxes of personality!
I’d love the ability to pour espresso shots out of my fingers! I love everything about coffee—the taste, the smell, the way it moves through my body… I’d love the ability to spontaneously brew a cup at any moment. It would be such a fun party trick, and I know almost every writer would love to hang out with me since they’d get free coffee all the time..
Maximize your potential for connection, healing, and personal growth with this “timely bridge for our divided world.” (Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential)
"We've been hiding from each other for far too long. Seek offers us an empathic, practical, and heartfelt road map forward." ―Seth Godin, author of The Song of Significance and Tribes
If you've felt alienated and alone in recent years, you're in good company. Whether it's a rift in your family, polarization at your workplace or just a sense that society isn't as connected as it once was, many of us feel painful chasms in our connections. Internationally-recognized curiosity expert and bridge builder Scott Shigeoka knows that there’s only one cure: Deep Curiosity.
Rooted in a desire to understand, rather than to know, a practice of Deep Curiosity can help us leverage something we think of as an intellectual force or personality trait into a heart-centered daily practice to transform our well-being and our lives.
In Seek, Shigeoka blends cutting-edge research with electric, vulnerable storytelling to teach readers their signature DIVE model. With his guidance, you’ll learn more than a dozen practical strategies to:
- Detach — Let go of your ABCs (assumptions, biases, certainty),
- Intend — Prepare your mindset and setting,
- Value — See the dignity of every person, including yourself,
- Embrace — Welcome the hard times in your life.
“Energizing, creative, and exciting” (Gretchen Rubin), Seek is a revolutionary playbook to heal division, loneliness, estrangement, hatred, and our most urgent societal challenges.