Curated Questions: Conversations Celebrating the Power of Questions!

A meditation on how the questions we inherit shape the rooms we live in. Metaphors about prefabricated walls and blueprints reveal hidden assumptions in everyday queries. Stories about a misheard street exchange and a teaching moment with the Right Question Institute show how questions transfer agency. A simple practice is offered: pause, read the blueprint, and decide who built the question.

"It's not having the answers I teach people — it's having the questions. And that just upsets the entire architecture of safe thinking." - Phil LiebmanPhil Liebman spent years being mentored by one of the most relentless questioners he'd ever encountered. It changed everything about how he leads and coaches. In this conversation, Phil unpacks the difference between knowing mode and learning mode, why most of us were systematically educated out of curiosity, and what it actually takes to form a powerful question.He introduces his cycle of curiosity and certainty, a four-quadrant framework that explains why three-quarters of the best thinking happens before any action is taken.Phil shares hard-won lessons from decades of executive coaching, traces his intellectual foundation back to mentor Dr. Lee Thayer, and makes the case that leadership is a performing art, not a management science.The episode closes with a personal health scare that became an unexpected masterclass in what curiosity can do when fear shows up uninvited.This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Resources MentionedALPS Leadership (https://alpsleadership.com/)Dr. Lee Thayer (https://thethayerinstitute.org/about-us/)Vistage (https://www.vistage.com/)Lynn Borton - Choose to Be Curious podcast (https://lynnborton.com/)Stony Brook University (https://www.stonybrook.edu/)Elon Musk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk)John Cleese (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cleese)Grace Hopper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper)Leonardo da Vinci quote: "It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."Pablo Picasso (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso)Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center (https://www.msmc.com/comprehensive-cancer-center/)Phil Liebman on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philiprliebman)Producer Ben Ford (https://www.producerbenford.com/)Beauty Pill (https://www.beautypill.com/)

"Lean into courage and see what happens." - Eila Park RobertsonFormer ABC News journalist, award‑winning filmmaker, and crisis communications strategist Eila Park Robertson joins Curated Questions to explore what happens “when listening saves democracy.”Drawing from a childhood navigating violence, immigration, and loneliness, Eila shares how asking genuine questions became her superpower for building trust with people who would never normally talk to the media. She explains why Western culture has forgotten how to listen, how that loss feeds polarization, and what it really takes to build bridges across political and ideological divides, starting with presence, curiosity, and courage.Eila and Ken dive into introverts as secret leaders of the room, why outrage‑only politics is burning us out, and how personal relationships can transform deeply held beliefs. They also explore climate storytelling, South Korea’s fight against authoritarianism, and practical ways to resist despair and rebuild community in an age of fractured attention.This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Resources MentionedABC NewsAnecdotiaVogue Magazine Wedding ArticleDiane SawyersBarbara WaltersMuammar GaddafiMel GibsonZiwe FumudohDr. Jane GoodallInternational Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)Azzedine Downes, CEO IFAWUnited NationsKelly BoeschEila on Instagram (@eila2.2)Producer Ben FordBeauty Pill

A personal story about a worldview popping and the overwhelm that follows. A look at how questions help locate us and turn noise into meaning. A contrast between rigid certainty and generative inquiry. Practical ideas for choosing which questions deserve our attention. A mortar-and-pestle metaphor for how life’s grinding reveals what matters.

"Every deflection is a small tax." - Ken WoodwardIn this solo episode of Curated Questions, Ken Woodward explores the hidden cost of defended answers and the quiet exhaustion that comes from maintaining stories that no longer fit. Drawing on conversations with Kevin Kelly and Phil Liebman, he examines the difference between exploitation and exploration, and why deep questioning is inherently inefficient.Through metaphors of strip mining, sinkholes, and live wires, Ken shows how cultures and individuals enforce authorized stopping points that keep conversations at the surface. A personal story about a pivotal career decision illustrates how a single honest answer can release stored energy and create unexpected freedom.The alchemy of questions is not about uncovering better information. It is about creating conditions where truth costs less than performance. When we stay past discomfort and refuse to stop too soon, something shifts. The energy returns. That return is liberation.This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Resources MentionedKevin KellyWired MagazineCondé NastPhil LiebmanProducer Ben FordBeauty Pill

"The only cost of liberation is the decision to pay attention." - Ken WoodwardIn this solo episode of Curated Questions, host Ken Woodward reflects on wonder, not as a luxury, but as a necessary practice for resilience.Drawing from his experience aboard a U.S. Navy submarine in the gray winters of Connecticut, Ken recounts how weeks without color prepared him to recognize wonder the moment it returned. This memory becomes a lens for the present day, where constant crisis, scrolling, and AI-generated spectacle quietly dull our capacity to be moved.Ken weaves research, poetry, and personal practice to argue that real wonder has a cost: attention, specificity, and presence. From nature journaling prompts to insights from trauma research, he shows how precise noticing can interrupt numbness and restore resilience.Wonder, he suggests, doesn’t require mountaintops or submarines. Only the decision to stop, look again, and lower the threshold. The invitation is simple and demanding: reclaim reverence by paying attention to what’s already here.Wonder is not gone. It’s waiting to be noticed.This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Resources MentionedGroton, ConnecticutCole Arthur RileyLynn BortonChoose To Be Curious - John Muir Laws episodeJohn Muir LawsDeleting InstagramAngus FletcherJohn O'DonohueEternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections On Our Yearning To Belong by John O'DonohueRomanesco BroccoliThis Here Flesh by Cole Arthur RileyProducer Ben FordBeauty Pill

Episode Summary"They’re literally allowing their past to define them, not refine them. And refinement is an active process, and you have to be prepared to do the work if you’re gonna grow." - Dr. John A. KingIn this powerful and unflinching conversation, Ken Woodward is in conversation with Dr. John A. King, author, speaker, and PTSD recovery expert, whose life journey moves from profound trauma to purposeful advocacy. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse and trafficking, John transformed personal devastation into a mission to help others move from surviving to thriving through his foundation and mental wellness work.King reflects on how questions have guided his healing, challenging the tendency to live “from the outside in” and instead pursuing happiness through intentional inner work, and living "inside out." He shares the discipline behind lasting change, emphasizing the incremental progress of 1% shifts that compound over time, and the daily choice to let hardship refine rather than define us.Together, they explore resilience, identity, and the courage to rewrite one’s story. This episode is a candid reminder that recovery is not instantaneous but forged through persistence, self-honesty, and the relentless decision to keep moving forward.This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Resources MentionedDr. John A. King's websiteVilfredo ParetoNapoleonic WarCivil WarWorld War IWorld War IIFive WhysJesuit priestDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) Los Alamos National LaboratoriesTill It's Done (pending release) by John KingStopping Traffic documentaryStopping Traffic TrailerSisu (Finnish)Taken filmJohn WickBraveheartGladiator300 filmRats and Rain (book) by John KingSisu filmWarumungu PeopleThe Phoenix CollectiveThe Phoenix Collective ProgramDr. John A. King on InstagramDr. John A. King on LinkedInProducer Ben FordBeauty Pill

"Sometimes my parents say ask three questions and then you can play." - Addy GraffIn this delightful episode of Curated Questions, Ken Woodward sits down with eight-year-old explorer Addy Graff to discover how curiosity takes root early in life.A seasoned traveler who has visited roughly 40 countries and every neighborhood in Washington, DC, Addy shares how asking questions helps her learn about people, cultures, and new experiences. From sampling adventurous foods like snails to practicing French in local shops, she demonstrates a fearless approach to discovery.Addy reflects on lessons from school about thoughtful versus superficial questions and explains why the best ones invite stories rather than one-word answers. Encouraged by her parents to ask meaningful questions at the dinner table, she is already developing the habits of a lifelong learner.Whether researching travel for the book she is writing or choosing the most interesting path while wandering a new city, Addy reminds us that curiosity is less about age and more about posture. One that keeps the world expansive, welcoming, and full of possibility. Follow along on her adventures through her Dad's Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/austinkgraff/This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Episode Notes00:00 Introduction To Curated Questions01:52 Meet Addy Graff: The Young Explorer03:16 The Power of Asking Questions05:13 Adventurous Travels and Tasting New Foods08:44 Learning About Questions in School11:37 Curiosity and Learning New Skills13:52 Family Traditions and Encouraging Questions16:17 Favorite Questions and Multilingual Curiosity17:12 Discussing Language and Travel17:51 Exploring Washington, DC18:12 Neighborhoods and Landmarks19:19 Wandering and Discovering20:09 Culinary Adventures23:11 Writing and Researching Travel26:33 Travel Stories and Experiences31:14 Reflections on Questions Resources MentionedAustin K Graff: Dad who chronicles Addy's adventuresAustin K Graff on InstagramMs. Watts Addy's TeacherS'mores N'moreSanta Rosa Taqueria50 Maps of the WorldNutcrackerPrincess Jasmine outfitProducer Ben FordBeauty Pill

Episode Summary"I don’t want hope as a primary strategy for living well." - Ken WoodwardIn this solo episode of Curated Questions, Ken Woodward explores hope not as a feeling or slogan, but as a muscle, something built, weakened, and strengthened through use.Prompted by Alex Honnold’s free-solo climb and his own season of uncertainty, Ken reflects on the collapse of trust in institutions and the fragility of inherited forms of hope. Drawing on psychological and neuroscientific research, he reframes hope as a cognitive skill set rooted in agency and pathways, the belief that we can act and imagine multiple routes forward, even without certainty.Ken examines how rumination, paralysis, and outsourced responsibility erode hope, and how well-chosen questions can interrupt despair and reengage possibility. Moving from individual to collective hope, he invites listeners to consider where their own “hope muscles” have atrophied and what small, concrete actions might rebuild them.This episode is not a lesson on hope, but a vulnerable, out-loud search for it, grounded in questions, courage, and shared responsibility.This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Episode Notes00:00 A Taste Of What Is To Come02:02 The Story of Alex Honnold02:45 Personal Reflections on Hope03:49 Current State of the World05:34 The Concept of Hope08:41 The Neuroscience of Hope12:03 Practical Questions for Hope15:55 Collective Hope and Action19:09  Poem: Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Murdered by I.C.E, January 24th, 2026 by Amanda Gorman20:58 Closing RemarksResources MentionedAlex HonnoldTiapei 101 TowerAmanda GormanPoem: Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Murdered by I.C.E, January 24th, 2026 by Amanda GormanProducer Ben FordBeauty Pill

"You can only live with so much cognitive dissonance in your life." - Matthew PridgenMatthew Pridgen joins Ken Woodward for a raw, wide-ranging conversation about how questions can crack open denial and move us toward truth, repentance, and reconciliation.Matthew shares his dramatic journey from addiction and a near-fatal suicide attempt to a decades-long pursuit of faith, justice, and historical honesty. His pivotal moment was when an eight-year-old girl asked, “Why did you take my church down?” after a tent revival in Charleston’s historically Black East Side, which became the question that launched his racial awakening.Together, they explore how American “mythology” hides the realities of slavery, Jim Crow, and modern dog whistles, and how the Black church has sustained a prophetic witness against oppression.The episode highlights the personal cost of cognitive dissonance, the freedom of living without lies, and a central challenge for today: are Christians willing to abandon Christian nationalism and follow Jesus’ actual teachings?Check out Matthew's documentary The Sins of Our Fathers: Race, Religion, and the Rise of Trump on Amazon Prime, and his new Sins of Our Fathers podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts. (https://www.amazon.com/Sins-our-Fathers-Religion-Trump/dp/B0G1XD7TQT)This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)Keep questioning!Episode Notes00:00 Introduction to Curated Questions02:05 Meet Matthew Pridgen: A Story of Redemption03:38 Matthew's Tent Revival and Racial Awakening05:02 Confronting Myths and Realities of American History05:57 The Impact of Systemic Racism07:19 The Power of Film in Social Change08:41 Charleston's Unique Racial History09:13 The Great Migration and Segregation11:01 The Role of White Supremacy in American History11:37 Theological Justifications for Racism17:16 Matthew's Higher Call to Christians21:37 Matthew's Personal Journey to Faith25:06 Homeless Ministry and Community Engagement27:12 Understanding Institutional Poverty30:29 The Prophetic Witness of the Black Church34:28 Cognitive Dissonance and Historical Awareness37:20 The Need for National Reconciliation42:28 The Uncomfortable Work of Facing Truth48:56 The Role of Motivation in National Policy50:23 Soft Power and Global Influence50:55 The Motivation Behind Our Actions52:25 Impact of USAID and Trump's Policies53:13 The Harm of White Supremacy53:46 Christianity and Political Disillusionment54:58 The Hypocrisy in Evangelical Christianity56:25 The Existential Crisis of Faith57:07 False Prophets and Historical Atrocities58:12 Embracing the Black Church Tradition59:18 The Prophetic Witness of Black Women01:02:12 The Legacy of Slavery and Black Women's Burden01:04:21 The George Floyd Protests and Aftermath01:05:50 The Need for National Conversation on Race01:08:38 The Role of Individual Awakening01:09:32 The Importance of Historical Awareness01:12:56 Taking Action and Refusing to Be Complicit01:16:37 The Influence of Barbara01:22:34 The Freedom of Honesty and Repentance01:28:25 Increased Sensitivity of Raised Defenses01:31:28 The Challenge of National Pride01:32:32 The Role of Humility in Overcoming Bias01:33:41 Final Thoughts and Call to ActionResources MentionedSins of Our FathersFrom Folly by Matthew PridgenAmerica Street by Matthew PridgenSouth of Broad neighborhood in Charleston, South CarolinaJonathan Wilson-HartgroveGeorge FloydEmancipationReconstructionJim Crow LawsCivil Rights EraTower of BabelDay of PentecostMartin Luther King, Jr.Tulsa Race MassacreDonald TrumpDEICRTAntifaThe Great Party SwitchSouthern StrategyDr. Bernard PowersCollege of CharlestonCenter for the Study of Slavery at the College of CharlestonJemar TisbyDuke UniversityRev. Dr. Dallas Wilson, Jr.Emancipation ProclamationReverent William Barber IIPoor People's CampaignThe Naked Truth Art Project by Ephraim UrevbuThe Indigenous People's History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-OrtizSister Citizen by Melissa Harris-PerryAnn Caldwell Gospel singerThe Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. ConeCaste by Isabel WilkersonThe Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby (https://jemartisby.com/the-color-of-compromise/)How to Fight Racism by Jemar TisbyResmaa MenakemThe New DealJoe BidenJeffrey Epstein FilesInstagramFacebookTikTokYouTubeThe Sins of Our Fathers on Amazon PrimeProducer Ben FordBeauty Pill