What is the one decision, pitch, or ticket you’ve been putting off because you’re terrified of what might happen—or what might not?
Welcome to Curiosity Clinic: Proceed at Your Own Risk!
When I set up this series, it never occurred to me that anyone would ask a question about my life. But listener Michael sent in a big one: “What’s one curiosity you followed that ended up changing the direction of your life?”
Telling this story turned out to be surprisingly hard. After attempts to write it down this summer, and to record it for the Clinic, ended up being a complete disaster, I decided to practice what I preach: I gave myself permission to do it badly, messy and imperfect.
It’s a story about an unexpected spark starting back in 2012 with actor Sam Neill’s Twitter account, leading to an uncharacteristically expensive event ticket, a trip to New Zealand, Doctor Who convention encounters, and how following one quiet thread of curiosity ended up reshaping my world and launching Follow Your Curiosity.
This episode is an invitation to look at the risks you’ve been talking yourself out of and the tickets you haven’t bought yet.
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I help people feel alive again through curiosity and play.
Episode breakdown:
0:00 - Welcome to the Curiosity Clinic
0:16 - Michael's Question: The curiosity that changed my life
5:32 - The $1,500 ticket and taking a chance
18:43 - A trip to New Zealand
25:58 - The gym shower epiphany
39:45 - Buy the ticket, send the pitch
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Case File #2: I Followed My Curiosity onto a Plane. It Changed My Life | Curiosity Clinic
Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the second Curiosity Clinic: Proceed at Your Own Risk. Today, I have one question from a listener because it’s a big question. And that is from Michael who asks, “What’s one curiosity you followed that ended up changing the direction
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:20]:
of your life?” Now I have to be honest with you. When I
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:24]:
set this up, it did not occur to me that y’all might wanna ask me questions about me. And that’s fine. Fair play to you, Michael. I really appreciate this question because it’s a very good one, but it was a surprise. So, I’m perfectly willing to answer this question, but I’m gonna be honest with you. I tried to write about this subject, not this particular question, but the subject that that it leads to this summer for reasons that will probably become obvious, because it, unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons, was timely. And it was very, very hard, and I gave up. And I kind of decided, maybe this is just not gonna happen.
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:05]:
And, I have tried multiple times now to do it on video because I thought, oh, it’ll be easier on video. And, reader, it has not been easier on video. So I am giving myself permission to, practice what I preach and do this badly because trying to do it well has been a disaster. And, it’s one question because, like
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:28]:
I said, it’s a big one. So welcome to story time, kids. Get yourself a blanket, brew yourself some tea, get your favorite teddy bear, and hunker down because it’s,
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:43]:
you might be here for
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:44]:
a little while. So the first thing that I need to do is
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:48]:
to tell you that y’all know, if you’ve been around here for a while, that I certainly am a fangirl.
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:54]:
You know, if you’ve been here, that I am a Doctor Who fangirl. What you don’t know in all likelihood is that
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:05]:
I’m also a Sam Neill fangirl. And so this story goes back
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:12]:
a ways. This goes back to really,
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:16]:
it could go back a long ways, but we’re gonna go back to 2012 when I discovered that he had a Twitter account. And when I checked out the Twitter account, I realized that this was not at all the person that you imagine when you think of someone who’s making movies. You know, you picture, at least I tend to, you picture people who are in LA making movies as, you know, going off to fancy parties and things like that. That’s not what I found on Sam’s Twitter. I found somebody who was on a farm in New Zealand hanging out with pigs and ducks and chickens, and generally being, as one of my friends described back then, mellow and loony—in the best way. Let me be clear. In the best possible way. And once I got over the surprise,
Nancy Norbeck [00:03:05]:
I was like, well, this is actually rather awesome. And so, you know, kind of fascinated going, wow, who knew? And, yeah, it was it was a surprise. So in 2013, about a year later, my friend Paula said to me, you know what you should do? Famous last words, those. She said, you should write
Nancy Norbeck [00:03:35]:
a Dayglo Disco top 10 post for your birthday.
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Now the Dayglo Disco was a
Nancy Norbeck [00:03:41]:
fictional disco at the Two Paddocks vineyard/farm, where Sam would write up a post as if his various friends and folks on the farm were visiting guest DJs and post their top 10 songs. And it was always a little bit of a production in the writing and always fun. She said, you should write one for your birthday, and you should post it on your blog, and then you should send him a link on Twitter. And I was like, are you crazy? Are you crazy? Really, truly? Are you are you nuts? And she said, no, really you should do it. And I thought that’s a little loony, but it kind of got into my head and I ended up writing that post and I ended up sending that sending that post. And then I ended up fleeing my house for a couple hours because of the nervous energy. And when I came home, I found a reply in my email and on Twitter that said, “You look good in the Dayglo.”
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:49]:
And I thought, oh, well, okay then.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:52]:
And I promptly said to myself, there’s a line to go on a headstone if ever there were one. So to this day, I’ve pretty much decided that I would like mine to say, “She looked good in
Nancy Norbeck [00:05:04]:
the Dayglo.” And then the following year, my very same friend, Paula, for my birthday, sent me not one but two bottles of Riesling for my birthday.
Nancy Norbeck [00:05:16]:
I have to tell you, I don’t drink very much, and I don’t know a damn thing about wine. Well, I do now. But I make an exception for this stuff because it’s amazing.
Nancy Norbeck [00:05:28]:
Just just truly, it’s it’s fabulously good. So fast forward to 2015
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in the spring. Now I have Google alerts for
Nancy Norbeck [00:05:41]:
any number of things and one of
Nancy Norbeck [00:05:44]:
them popped up one day in May 2015, I think it was, and informed me that the Proprietor of Two Paddocks was going to be the MC at a large wine festival in Oregon in July of that year. And I was like, that’s different because most Google alerts are, you know, so and so is now gonna be in this movie or this movie has just come out, or something like that.
Nancy Norbeck [00:06:12]:
And I thought, So I clicked through on
Nancy Norbeck [00:06:15]:
the link, and immediately, I mean, I was met by stunning photography and pictures of all of these tables set up this large outdoor setting with fairy lights and just fabulous looking thing. And I thought, wow, that looks impressive and wonderful. And I poked around and, you know, because I was starting to think,
Nancy Norbeck [00:06:38]:
this could be fun.
Nancy Norbeck [00:06:40]:
And then I found the price tag and told Paula, it’s $1,500. It looks like a hell of a party, but it’s $1,500. And Paula, will no doubt not surprise you, at this point, texted me back and she said,
Nancy Norbeck [00:07:00]:
you need to go. And I said, did you miss the part where it’s $1,500 just for the event ticket? And she said, you need to go, like, sell something, but you need to go. And I thought, she’s really lost it this time. But once again, kinda couldn’t get it out of my head.
Nancy Norbeck [00:07:25]:
And not long thereafter, I found myself forking over $1,500, which for this daughter of cheap Pennsylvania Dutchies was an experience. I had enough points left on a credit card that was closing, not because of me, to buy myself the wackiest plane ticket. The the flight out was pretty straightforward. The flight back looked like the zigzag from hell. And, so I bought
Nancy Norbeck [00:07:56]:
the ticket, both of them, and I went. And, I decided I was going on my own. And that was important because I had a couple of friends who really wanted to go. And so I knew that people do weird things around famous people. And first
Nancy Norbeck [00:08:17]:
of all, I didn’t want
Nancy Norbeck [00:08:18]:
to be one of them. And
Nancy Norbeck [00:08:20]:
also that I did not want the weight of other people’s expectation and story on me at this event. I wanted a clean slate to go and be just myself without
Nancy Norbeck [00:08:32]:
any of that on my back. So I went on my own and it was an adventure. Now part of the reason that I bought this ticket was because not just because Paula was sitting on this shoulder in my ear. It was because I was really, really curious. You know, you watch somebody on Twitter for
Nancy Norbeck [00:08:58]:
a while, and especially in this case, you’re kinda sitting there thinking,
Nancy Norbeck [00:09:03]:
is anybody actually really this delightful? I mean, can this really be real? Especially when it’s an actor. Right? Because, I mean, that’s kind of
Nancy Norbeck [00:09:13]:
in the job description. Could be anything. And so that’s why I got on the plane, and there were no guarantees. And in fact, the friend who dropped me off at the airport, we got to the curbside at the airport, and she just looked at me and she said, I really hope you’re not disappointed. And I looked at
Nancy Norbeck [00:09:34]:
her and said, me too, but I don’t think I will be. I don’t think I will be.
Nancy Norbeck [00:09:41]:
And I walked into the airport thinking, I really hope I’m not wrong about this. I got out to Oregon, and I had a couple days before I had to drive to McMinnville because this was hosted at Linfield College, which I understand is now Linfield University, which is a dry college, which just made it even funnier. They host this massive wine festival, but it’s a dry college. And, I got there
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:11]:
and a week or two before this,
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:15]:
I bought myself a ticket to a pre event dinner when they had originally sent the thing out. I hadn’t seen anything on the list that looked particularly interesting. And since I had already blown a bunch of money, I had let
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:27]:
it go. And then when they sent them out again, because they said, we really encourage you to
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:32]:
go to one of these things.
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:33]:
And I was like, uh-huh. Then I looked at
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:36]:
the list again, and I noticed that there was one on the list that was co hosted with, a familiar looking name. And I said, oh, Okay. And Paula, again, let me tell you. If you don’t have a
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:51]:
friend like Paula, you you need
Nancy Norbeck [00:10:53]:
to find a friend like Paula. Okay? Because Paula texted me, was like, just buy the ticket. If you don’t have a good time, you can kick me later.
Nancy Norbeck [00:11:03]:
I’m like, okay. Fine. Fine.
Nancy Norbeck [00:11:05]:
I spent the extra money because it wasn’t cheap, and I bought the ticket. So when I got there that day, it was that Thursday afternoon. The thing started on Friday. So the dinner was Thursday night. I just had enough time to change clothes and get back in my car and find this place for dinner. So
Nancy Norbeck [00:11:25]:
I show up just as
Nancy Norbeck [00:11:27]:
things are getting started, and there was, you know, a whole whole bunch of festivities. There were raw oysters and there was wine tasting and, you know, of course there was. And, people mingling in in that room and whatever. And I walk in and I’m just like, I am absolutely convinced that I am going to stick out like a sore thumb because I don’t know what the hell I am doing with any of this.
Nancy Norbeck [00:11:53]:
Right? I I I know that Riesling and Pinot Noir are not the same thing. Right?
Nancy Norbeck [00:12:01]:
But I don’t know much else. And so I’m walking into this room. I give them my name. They give me a table number and I proceed to walk in there and do my very best when in Rome do as the Romans do because I was just desperate to look like I belonged in that room and not feel like a complete moron. And, you know, obviously there’s this part of me that’s going, so, okay. I’m at this thing. And where, where is this dude? And I spotted him across the, across the way off in this little side room. And I had, I had read that he was kind of shy, and that was the moment when I was like, yep.
Nancy Norbeck [00:12:47]:
Yep. That’s clearly true. And part of me wanted to go over and say hello, but somehow I knew it
Nancy Norbeck [00:12:53]:
was like, nope. Nope. Not gonna do that. Gonna leave him
Nancy Norbeck [00:12:55]:
alone. And
Nancy Norbeck [00:12:58]:
I think that was the right call.
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:00]:
So I tried to mingle in a room full of people that I did not know who were all into something that I knew nothing about. And
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:09]:
I have no idea how I did
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:12]:
it that I tried to pretend that I was interested in raw oysters, which I was not. I tried one.
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:17]:
I always make myself try one of anything I’ve never had before. That was plenty. And then,
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:24]:
David Adelsheim, because we were at the Adelsheim Vineyard, came up and made this big announcement. And he said,
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:33]:
you know, we we have a great actor with us. And at that
Nancy Norbeck [00:13:37]:
point, Sam was in the room and behind the the bar and looked like he he had this expression across his face. It was sort of like, oh, dear god. Did you have to say that? And so David went went on for a little bit, and he said, we’re gonna have a movie premiere down in the the cellar. And so had everyone go down there. And I have to keep some of the details out of this, or I will literally this will be a two hour video. But, but yeah. So we went down and we watched what turned out to be the last of the Two Paddocks actual movie productions, which was amazing. If you haven’t seen it, it’s called The Odyssey, and you should go see it.
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It’s on
Nancy Norbeck [00:14:24]:
it’s on YouTube. And, and then there was a little Q&A, which
Nancy Norbeck [00:14:30]:
is when I realized that there were an awful lot of people at this thing who had no idea who he was because I heard somebody say behind me, like, who’s the actor? And I’m going, oh my god. Really?
Nancy Norbeck [00:14:41]:
Really? Oh my god. And,
Nancy Norbeck [00:14:45]:
this is also when it started to become clear that I think he may have mentioned that he had taken a break in the middle of filming And Then There Were None. And so he had
Nancy Norbeck [00:14:54]:
a mustache and it was very clear that he was not happy about
Nancy Norbeck [00:15:00]:
it. Not in, like, a grumpy way, but he, thoughout the course of the weekend multiple times that I was near enough
Nancy Norbeck [00:15:07]:
to hear, he mentioned it in a way that was sort of like, he just couldn’t stop thinking about it. And, it came
Nancy Norbeck [00:15:16]:
up in the Q&A and was pretty funny. So they eventually said David came back up and he said, the seat that you’re sitting on is the seat you’re gonna be in for dinner. So pick up your seat, go outside, find your seat at the table.
Nancy Norbeck [00:15:29]:
So that’s what we did. And I
Nancy Norbeck [00:15:31]:
I got myself out there and found my table. I was one of the first people to get there, found my seat at the table, put my chair down, and as you do, looked around. Why I’m looking around at, you know, a place where I don’t know anybody? I mean, I’m figuring I’m gonna be clear across the room from anyone interesting. And I look at the settings near mine, and two to the left of me is this Kiwi dude with a mustache he doesn’t like. And so I’m kind of going, oh my god. Oh my god. And, it hadn’t occurred to me when I walked in the door and they told me that I was at Table 1, that this might have been sort of like a wedding where Table 1 means something. And I think because I came to this thing by myself, and because I booked it when I did, you know, pretty pretty late
Nancy Norbeck [00:16:28]:
in the game, I think what happened is, and here’s the advantage of traveling on your own, there was a
Nancy Norbeck [00:16:35]:
random seat open. And since they didn’t have to put me with anyone else because I was by myself, they just slotted me right in there. Now before you
Nancy Norbeck [00:16:45]:
go getting too excited about this, the guy in between was a chatterbox who didn’t hardly let anybody else get a word in.
Nancy Norbeck [00:16:56]:
I certainly didn’t get a word in, but I did hear some snippets of conversation that on a couple of occasions, let’s just say for the poor bloke across the table from me who didn’t know me from Adam, It was a very good thing for him that I wasn’t drinking anything at the time because I was sporfling at my seat and trying really hard not to choke on anything. And one of them, I heard Sam say that he loved the Kazakh tradition where the men chase the women on horseback, and if they catch
Nancy Norbeck [00:17:29]:
her, they get to marry her, especially because if they don’t catch her, she gets to beat the crap out of them. And that, once I recovered from almost choking on
Nancy Norbeck [00:17:43]:
my dinner, I was sitting there going, oh my God. Oh my God. How is it possible? I was I was thinking actually of my friend leaving me at the airport and her comment because I was like, you needn’t have been concerned because this one is even better than it says on the tin. Like, how is it possible? How is it possible
Nancy Norbeck [00:18:09]:
that anyone can be this awesome? How?
Nancy Norbeck [00:18:12]:
I did introduce myself before the evening was over because I wasn’t sure that I would have the opportunity again during the weekend. But as it turned out, I had a couple of conversations with him before the weekend was over. And, there
Nancy Norbeck [00:18:25]:
are other stories that I don’t have time for here, but I could probably be persuaded to tell if y’all are interested in
Nancy Norbeck [00:18:34]:
a different video. So a little more than a year later, I had the opportunity to go to Australia for a friend’s wedding. And because, you know, you’re you’re gonna be I live in New Jersey. You’re gonna be
Nancy Norbeck [00:18:47]:
on a plane or in an airport or somewhere in transit for about twenty four hours
Nancy Norbeck [00:18:54]:
on a trip like that. And I said, yeah, I’m I’m not going and coming right back because that’s crazy sauce. I’m not not doing that. So I took a month off from work, and I spent two weeks in New Zealand and two weeks in Australia. Because, again, if you’re going that far, I’m not skipping New Zealand. Right? It’s right there.
Nancy Norbeck [00:19:14]:
And I thought, I am
Nancy Norbeck [00:19:16]:
not going to New Zealand and not at least trying
Nancy Norbeck [00:19:20]:
to go visit that farm. Because what’s the worst that can happen? I send an email and I hear nothing or I hear no. But at least
Nancy Norbeck [00:19:31]:
I will know that I tried. So in October 2016, I sent the email, and I just said, hey. I met Sam and Jackie, the vineyard manager at IPNC, and I’m gonna be over your way. I would love to come by for a tour if that’s at all possible. And I got a lovely reply saying, we’d be happy to
Nancy Norbeck [00:19:54]:
have you and, you know, send us
Nancy Norbeck [00:19:56]:
your dates. And and it was all arranged, and they said, we can’t guarantee that Sam will be here, but, you know, we’re happy to have you here and take you around the place. Awesome. Absolutely awesome. Especially because a month or so later, they changed the rules so that you had to be a member of the wine club in order to take a tour. And in fact, I was
Nancy Norbeck [00:20:15]:
a little worried that would keep me from being able to go, but they were perfectly happy to honor that prior commitment, which was great. So I decided that I was fine not knowing. Perfectly fine.
Nancy Norbeck [00:20:28]:
I mean, just to go and check it out would be awesome. And I decided that my goal was to meet Angelica the Bloke Pig. Now if you do not know who Angelica the Bloke Pig was, I’m very sorry for you. Angelica was sort of the the star of the farm aside from the Proprietor. It was an adopted, say, rescued kunekune pig with great personality, and there’s a whole backstory there. And so I got there my first time driving a right hand drive car in twenty years on twisty turny New Zealand roads. So that was an adventure, but I got there in one piece. And when I walked in the door, the first thing that they said to me was, do you like apricots? Which was not the question that I expected, but it turned out that the apricot trees, they were just falling off the trees because that farm used to be a New Zealand government research farm.
Nancy Norbeck [00:21:29]:
So there are still all sorts of other trees and plants on that farm. That’s why there’s lavender and all sorts of things. And so they grabbed a bag for me, and I was allowed to just pull apricots and figs off the trees. And I had enough apricots to go with my breakfast for the rest of the week, which was amazing. They also told me that he was there that day, so that’s awesome. And as
Nancy Norbeck [00:21:55]:
I was looking around before we went out because the same person, Jenny, who made the arrangements with me took me on the tour, I I visited the ladies room, like you do. And down the hallway was this wall that was absolutely covered with artwork. And as I walked down, you know, you couldn’t really not look at all of it, and, I noticed a familiar piece of surprising artwork right around the middle of
Nancy Norbeck [00:22:28]:
the hallway, right around eye level. If you’ve seen The Hunt for
Nancy Norbeck [00:22:32]:
the Wilderpeople, you will probably recall that there was a sketch, a very rudimentary
Nancy Norbeck [00:22:43]:
police sketch of Ricky and uncle Heck. And apparently, Jenny told me, Taika Waititi drew that sketch, and apparently, he was gonna throw
Nancy Norbeck [00:22:53]:
it out when they finished filming. Sam would not let him. He kept it, and he framed it,
Nancy Norbeck [00:22:59]:
and he hung it on the wall. Jenny told me that it was not uncommon to hear tapping from that hallway because he was always in there moving things around and adding things, which didn’t surprise me, especially when I went into the ladies’ room, and it was absolutely covered in there too. Anyhow, I had a lovely tour. I did in fact meet Angelica the blow pig who was quite bristly, not as furry as he looked. I got to see the weather feather. I saw all of the lavender, which was amazing. I found out how you make lavender oil. I saw Helena Bonham Carter the cow from, afar, all the sheep.
Nancy Norbeck [00:23:39]:
It was an absolutely glorious, glorious place.
Nancy Norbeck [00:23:44]:
And then when we came back to the building, Sam appeared,
Nancy Norbeck [00:23:52]:
And I got to spend about forty five minutes to an hour just hanging out. And we talked a little bit about IPNC and we’re we’re telling Jenny about it. And then we just had like the most absolutely normal conversation about whatever. In fact, Sam was the first person who told me about how folks were speculating that AI was going to take a wide range of jobs because he had just read an article about it. And he was saying doctors, lawyers, actors, which of course got his attention, and all of these things. And I remember just kind of standing there, like, how can you possibly have doctors, lawyers, and actors that aren’t human? How this makes no sense to me. You know, how can that possibly be? Not that I doubted what he had read, but just, like, the sheer logic of it made no sense to me whatsoever. But but we had, you know, a perfectly ordinary conversation.
Nancy Norbeck [00:24:57]:
He wanted to knew what know
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what I was planning to do with my week in Queenstown. It was, it was absolutely delightful in its complete ordinariness.
Nancy Norbeck [00:25:11]:
And I think that’s just because Sam was a people person. And so, you know, he wasn’t interested in attempting to impress me really. He just wanted to know who I was and share what he was interested in. And that was really that. It was just a fun a fun visit. And I didn’t get a t shirt that time. I did at IPNC because they didn’t have any that day. I was very disappointed, but I did get a picture.
Nancy Norbeck [00:25:45]:
So I’ll take that. I’ll totally take that. Now later that year,
Nancy Norbeck [00:25:53]:
I was in the shower at the gym, and I had started to get really, really into podcasts. And while I was in the shower at the gym, a couple
Nancy Norbeck [00:26:02]:
of things converged in my head all at the same time. And because
Nancy Norbeck [00:26:09]:
I don’t know about you, but like all of my good ideas happen either when
Nancy Norbeck [00:26:12]:
I’m in the shower or driving my car. And while I was
Nancy Norbeck [00:26:16]:
in there, the steam did its thing in my head. And I suddenly remembered this story about Sam being at boarding school and his father calling the school and basically saying, make sure that he’s doing all the sporty manly things.
Nancy Norbeck [00:26:36]:
And the school saying, sure. We’ll take care of that. And then probably doing at least some of that, but looking at young Sam and saying,
Nancy Norbeck [00:26:50]:
you know, we have this play we think you’d like to try out for. And while I was thinking about that story, I thought, you know what? I really love those people who do that kind of thing, who see the actual person and make sure that the actual person isn’t lost in the shuffle.
Nancy Norbeck [00:27:14]:
And I would love to hear more stories about people like that.
Nancy Norbeck [00:27:18]:
And what if I started a podcast about that kind of thing, to try to find those stories and get them out into the world? I don’t know how I would do this. I’d have to start asking questions. And wouldn’t it be cool if I could do this and use it as an excuse to travel? Like, go to a place and start asking questions and find people who have these stories and then say, where should I go next? Who do you know that I should talk to go to next? And I thought this would be a really, really cool idea for a podcast. Of course, the problem with this plan is that it involves travel, and travel requires money. And that was a little thin on the ground for a project like this in 2017. So I just kind of let it sit in the back of my head. And I wanna say here that in the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to figure out where I heard that particular story, and I’ve been failing miserably. I have not been able to turn it up anywhere.
Nancy Norbeck [00:28:14]:
I know I mentioned it on the fifth year anniversary for Follow Your Curiosity. I know I cannot have made it up. It could be that I’m misremembering details of it, but I can’t find it anywhere. Now I have not read Sam’s memoir yet because I’m weird about stuff like that, and I always wanna, like, save it. And also, like, do I listen to it or do I read it or do I but it I get very indecisive about these things. So it’s possible that there might be
Nancy Norbeck [00:28:40]:
a clue in there, But this was before that
Nancy Norbeck [00:28:43]:
book came out. So if you happen to know where I’ve heard this, please put me out of my misery and send me a note and tell me. Please. I’m begging you. But anyhow, this idea just kind of sat percolating in the back of my
Nancy Norbeck [00:28:54]:
head, but didn’t really have anywhere to go. Then in March of the following year, 2018, I went to Regeneration Who in Baltimore
Nancy Norbeck [00:29:07]:
because I had heard a week before that Peter Capaldi was gonna be there, and then I saw that also Peter Davison and the entire cast from his time on Doctor Who was gonna be there and Michelle Gomez and, you know, I mean, the list was absolutely enormous. I’ve never, I don’t think made a travel arrangement so quickly in my life. So I went to this thing and I went to a meet
Nancy Norbeck [00:29:31]:
and greet the first night.
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And at the end of the meet and greet, they had guests coming around and sitting at different tables. The the guest chair had been across the table from me, but it had moved back to
Nancy Norbeck [00:29:42]:
the seat next to mine. And Rob Sheeran, who wrote the episode Dalek in
Nancy Norbeck [00:29:48]:
the first season of the new show, was headed to our table. And I did not even let him fully get into his chair before I asked him a question because I had been wondering for years why he
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:02]:
had never written anything else for the show.
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:06]:
Well, two hours later, after they had booted us out of the room, the whole deal, we were still standing outside talking. And I thought,
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:17]:
you know, this guy would be
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:19]:
a really great podcast guest for a podcast I don’t have that doesn’t even have a name. And it would be completely nuts to ask this question, but it can’t really hurt to ask the question. Right?
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So I said, I keep thinking about starting
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:37]:
a podcast. It doesn’t have
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:38]:
a name, and I, you know, doesn’t exist yet. But would you do an interview? And he said, sure.
Nancy Norbeck [00:30:49]:
So before that weekend was out, on the iPad, because it was the only thing I had with me because I didn’t know I was gonna do this before the end of the weekend, we recorded an interview in a hotel room that ended up being one of the first two interviews that I recorded for a podcast. At which moment, after I recorded it, I suddenly realized, oh my god, I actually have a podcast. Now I have to do something with this. And I spent most of the rest of that year recording other interviews with people, many on that same iPad because it’s what I had. I had no idea I was gonna end up recording in a closet, that it was gonna become a thing. I also got up the nerve to send doctor Kelly Flanagan an email and ask him, and he said yes. And he’s been on the show three times now, and we’ve become friends. And then a year after that, year and a half after all of that,
Nancy Norbeck [00:31:45]:
I was at Long Island Who with Paul McGahn. And at the end of that convention, the very last panel, one
Nancy Norbeck [00:31:54]:
of the very last questions that he got on stage with Daphne Ashbrook, who’d been in the TV movie with him, Someone
Nancy Norbeck [00:32:03]:
said, you should do a podcast.
Nancy Norbeck [00:32:06]:
And they meant a drama podcast, and I knew that they meant a drama podcast. And he thought for a second, he said, you know, you’re right. I should do a podcast. And I’m sitting there on the center aisle in this room, the very end of the convention, and I’m thinking, I have a podcast.
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Not the kind you’re thinking of, but I have a podcast.
Nancy Norbeck [00:32:32]:
And I had spoken to Paul a couple
Nancy Norbeck [00:32:34]:
of times earlier that day, and I thought,
Nancy Norbeck [00:32:41]:
I have to go ask you now, don’t I? I have to go ask. And so, at the end of that panel, when it was all over and everyone is up, leaving the room, so I am now the salmon swimming upstream through that center aisle. I walked up, heart pounding, and I said,
Nancy Norbeck [00:33:05]:
I have another question for you.
Nancy Norbeck [00:33:07]:
If you wanna do a podcast, I have a podcast. It’s not a drama podcast. It’s an interview podcast, but I’d love to talk to you. I told him what it was about. I told him I had talked to Rob. I handed him my card and I could see the wheels turning for a couple seconds. And he said, yes.
Nancy Norbeck [00:33:24]:
Yes. Let’s do it. And I thought,
Nancy Norbeck [00:33:26]:
oh, oh my God. And we exchanged information. And I actually, I talked to Daphne because she was sitting there and then I had trouble contacting her. But don’t worry, we’re working on that one because I’ve spoken to her again too. And and I left with an email from him in my inbox because he wanted to make sure that I had his contact information. So it took about six months before we made that happen. I talked to him in May 2020 during lockdown and released that episode in August. And ever since then, I have at every convention that I’ve gone to, I have invited every single guest to come on Follow Your Curiosity.
Nancy Norbeck [00:34:09]:
Not everybody says yes, but an awful lot of people do. They don’t always actually happen, but an awful lot of them do. And, you know, a friend of mine when I first met him at
Nancy Norbeck [00:34:20]:
a convention was watching when I invited someone. And he barely knew me, and I
Nancy Norbeck [00:34:27]:
I turned around afterwards and his eyes were the size of dinner plates. And he said, I could not have done what you just did. And I said, yeah, you could. And he said, no, I couldn’t. And I said, yes, you could. Because as soon as you realize
Nancy Norbeck [00:34:40]:
that if you don’t ask, you’ll
Nancy Norbeck [00:34:45]:
end up wondering for the rest of your life if someone might have said yes and what would have happened. No becomes a whole lot easier to take. And an awful lot of the time people say yes. And, you know, I’ve often told the story of asking Paul and that being when I started asking people at conventions and that’s true. But really, the first time that I made that kind of
Nancy Norbeck [00:35:16]:
big ask was when I got on that first plane to Oregon. And then when I emailed about that that tour of the farm. And I really think that hanging out that day on the farm for an hour or so
Nancy Norbeck [00:35:32]:
really dispelled a lot of my fear of walking up and having a conversation with a famous person and made a huge difference. Just made it so much easier for me to do what I do now with this podcast. I’m not sure if I would have thought and been as readily able to ask Rob Shearman that question
Nancy Norbeck [00:35:59]:
if I hadn’t met Sam both of
Nancy Norbeck [00:36:01]:
those times. I don’t I I think every piece of this story builds on itself.
Nancy Norbeck [00:36:08]:
I think that it set me up to say, hey, look, when it comes right down to it, we’re the ones who build up famous people to be these people who are unapproachable and more specialer than we are in our heads. And really they’re just people.
Nancy Norbeck [00:36:28]:
I mean, yes, there are the ones who lorded over people. Do you know who I am? Which is why a lot
Nancy Norbeck [00:36:34]:
of the time people say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, But that really hasn’t been my experience.
Nancy Norbeck [00:36:40]:
And I know that there are exceptions to that rule, and there are certain people that you really shouldn’t meet who have turned out to be downright dangerous. But that hasn’t been my experience. And I cannot tell you how glad I am that I got on that plane and that I asked Rob and that I asked Paul and that I have continued to do this. And I am absolutely not kidding. If you do not have
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:04]:
a friend like Paula, you need one. You really, really, really need one. You know, I mean, I never ever in a million years back in the eighties when I was watching Doctor Who, the first time that I saw Jurassic Park, Never
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:21]:
would have imagined that I would ever have met any of these people. I certainly would not have imagined that I would be sitting in my own closet interviewing people like this for a podcast ever,
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:33]:
ever. I mean, even if
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:34]:
I had known what a podcast was back then, I never would have imagined that this would be something that I would be doing and that it would kind of become a normal thing in my life.
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:43]:
And I certainly would never have imagined that the real person would turn out
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:49]:
to be even better than the imagined person.
Nancy Norbeck [00:37:53]:
And yet, here we are because I bought one ticket and I went to an event by myself in 2015 because I was curious to know if the real person was actually what it said on the tin.
Nancy Norbeck [00:38:13]:
Now I also need to confess that when I named the Curiosity Clinic, I picked the name clinic for a reason.
Nancy Norbeck [00:38:26]:
And it’s because way back in the Twitter days, for a while, when Sam had a chunk of time, like, say, a layover at an airport, he would open up his Twitter for questions, and he always called it the clinic.
Nancy Norbeck [00:38:45]:
Now I can’t say that I can answer questions as well as he did back, on Twitter because his answers were always whimsical. And it was Twitter, so they were really short. And I am not a particularly short winded person a lot of the time as you may have noticed, but
Nancy Norbeck [00:39:06]:
I hope that I managed to do this project in that same spirit because it was always fun and it always lightened people’s spirits. In fact, one of
Nancy Norbeck [00:39:20]:
my favorite ones was when someone said that he gave everyone permission not to grow up. And he said, I tried to grow up. I did, but it
Nancy Norbeck [00:39:29]:
was never going to work. So if the Curiosity Clinic gives everybody some permission not to
Nancy Norbeck [00:39:36]:
have to grow up so much in a time when everything seems to be depressing and awful,
Nancy Norbeck [00:39:41]:
I can live with that. I’d be absolutely thrilled by that. So my question for you after
Nancy Norbeck [00:39:49]:
all of this is what’s the ticket you haven’t bought yet? What’s the ticket that you’ve been putting off or trying to talk yourself out of or that you think maybe you don’t really need to buy,
Nancy Norbeck [00:40:06]:
but that maybe you should? Because if
Nancy Norbeck [00:40:09]:
you don’t have a Paula, this is my moment when I’m gonna be your Paula.
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You should buy the ticket. You should buy the ticket. You should do the thing. Doing the thing is almost always better than not doing the thing. Or maybe in your case, it’s what’s the pitch you haven’t sent. Because I
Nancy Norbeck [00:40:31]:
can tell you that there is a pitch sitting in my drafts folder for follow your curiosity that has Sam’s name on it, that I was about to send.
Nancy Norbeck [00:40:45]:
When I woke up on a Monday morning in July and found an email waiting for me from a friend in Australia informing me that that
Nancy Norbeck [00:40:56]:
was no longer ever going to be possible ever again. And that draft is probably just gonna sit there forever because I haven’t quite been able to bring myself to delete it.
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So don’t wait, my chickadees. Don’t wait. Sometimes there are real serious justifiable reasons not to do something right away, but otherwise, don’t wait. Buy the ticket. Send the pitch. Don’t wait, because you just never know where it’s gonna take you. I certainly didn’t.
Nancy Norbeck [00:41:36]:
Alright. That is it for this episode of the Curiosity Clinic. If you made it this far, I am absolutely thrilled that you stuck with me. And like I said, there are some other stories that you might be able to twist my arm into telling you from both of those trips. So if you wanna hear them, let me know. And otherwise, I will see you next time. Don’t forget to submit your own question because I would love to hear it, and I’ll do my best to answer it whether it is a serious question, a goofy question, or a flat out impossible question, as long as it’s not a medical legal question, something that I’m really, you know, is totally out
Nancy Norbeck [00:42:18]:
of bounds. So thanks again, and I’ll see you next time.
Nancy Norbeck [00:42:23]:
Got a question for Curiosity Clinic? Send it in at https://fyc.quest/Clinic. That’s clinic with a capital c. There’s also a link in your show notes. You never know where a good question might take us.