Stay Curious

Every scientific achievement, every artistic creation begins with an idea.

As Homo sapiens we have altered ourselves over the last 300,000 years. Beginning with agriculture, about 11,000 years ago, then accelerating greatly with the Industrial Revolution, we have also altered our home, planet Earth, changing its physical and chemical dynamic systems. All of these changes, both culturally and technologically, are rooted seminally in ideas. We would still be living in caves, technology only a stick, without imagining and then implementing ideas. Ideas truly and literally set us apart from the rest of creation.

In the late 1990s Kris Kimel had an idea about, yes, ideas. He envisioned a festival to spotlight ideas, bringing thinkers from across the world to Kentucky. The first IdeaFestival was held in 2000. The festivals continued until 2017. More than 450 speakers were featured, including Ray Bradbury, Brian Greene, Ray Kurzweil, Wynton Marsalis, Sir George Martin, Janelle Monáe, Burt Rutan, and Twyla Tharp.

Stay Curious is a brief retrospective of IdeaFeastival and its origins, many of the speakers, and, of course, ideas.

Also by Fairleigh Brooks

Beyond 17: The Apollo Applications Program and Losing the New Frontier (2023)

Fiction

Poems Stories

Mr. Willy & Arthur

A Presentation of Short Stories Without Regard to Marketing

Lady Chatterley's Pool Boy

Notes of a Would-Be Astronaut

About the Author

Fairleigh Brooks is an author, essayist, and a former commentator for NPR affiliate WFPL in Louisville, Ky. He writes about the history of science and technology, focused largely on space exploration, specifically manned space exploration. Within these considerations, Brooks has explored how technology arose, its purpose, and how technology changes the idea and concepts of who we are, and why we are. Brooks also writes short stories and novels, and the occasional poem.