Conversations Worth Traveling For …
Seven years of helping men create connections through the non-profit MenLiving gave Shaun Emerson something valuable: perspective. He watched men navigate loneliness, longing, and the quiet frustration of relationships that weren't working, and through it, he kept noticing the same thing. Men and women weren't really talking to each other. They were talking about each other, from separate corners, growing further apart.
He couldn't unsee it. And once he couldn't unsee it, he had to do something about it.
The question was what.
Shaun's answer was disarmingly simple: start a conversation. Not a panel. Not a debate. Just a genuine, face-to-face exchange with women. The kind of exchange that models what curiosity and mutual respect actually look like in practice. And while he was at it, spotlight the women who are out here doing remarkable things in the world.
But Shaun believes real connection requires real presence. Which meant the conversation couldn't just live in a studio. It had to go to the people.
For that, he turned to the person he's been building things with for 32 years: his wife, Lisa. Together, they hatched a wonderfully impractical idea: a mobile podcast studio they could take on the road and park wherever the next great conversation was waiting. After a chance encounter with a model HC1 in a Palm Springs parking garage, they made the trip to Happier Camper in LA and selected the camper that would come along on their adventure: the HC1 Venture. With the help of friends, family, and a healthy dose of belief in what they were building, Curbside Conversations was born.
Together, Shaun and Lisa are parents to three kids and split their time between Glen Ellyn, IL, and Palm Springs, CA, which as it turns out, is a pretty good home base for a couple who believe the best conversations happen when you show up somewhere new.
About the Curbside Team