#104 Still Sharp: Lulu Miller on the Questions We Stop Asking

" Real curiosity, untethered, unsoftened, it's a pretty intense tool. And I think the kids haven't blunted the weapon by politeness or by fear of looking dumb or by the belief that there are certain things we should know. It's still sharp." - Lulu Miller

Lulu Miller first found the power of questions on a subway train, listening to an early Radiolab episode about fireflies that blink in unison. That question opened a door she had been looking for since childhood: another world, inside this one. Today she co-hosts Radiolab with Latif Nasser, co-founded Invisibilia, and created Terrestrials, a nature podcast for kids and families.

Her international bestseller, Why Fish Don't Exist, begins with a question many of us carry quietly: what is the point? Her answer reminds us that the categories we trust are often questions we stop asking.

But the power scared her. She once fled journalism for a fiction MFA, convinced her questions could hurt people. Jad Abumrad's reframe brought her back: those worries are the sound of your moral compass.

In this conversation, Lulu shares three ways to move a conversation past the rehearsed version: ask something tactile, ask the elephant-in-the-room question, and interrupt with care. Then the kids on Terrestrials take over, asking NASA scientists and the poet laureate the blunt, open questions adults soften away. Real curiosity, unsoftened, is still sharp.

Who blunted ours?

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

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#100 Debbie Millman: Earning Trust & Storytelling Through Questions

"The biggest reason somebody will avoid answering a question is because they don't trust you with the answer." - Debbie Millman

Debbie Millman has spent 21 years asking questions on Design Matters, the show she started in 2005 before podcasting had rules. In episode 100 of Curated Questions, she takes the receiving chair.

Debbie traces her craft from a survey-style list she asked everyone, work she now calls terrible, to a method she describes as storytelling through questions, where each question carries the context a guest needs to respond to a fully realized moment in their life. She explains why she avoids false wisdom language, multiple-choice framing, and interpretation the guest hasn't offered yet, and makes the case that people withhold answers when they don't trust you with them.

The conversation ranges across branding, her clients, the questions she brings to any redesign, the rebuild of The Rumpus with Roxane Gay, and what AI costs students who skip the difficulty. She closes with the question consuming her at 65: how to live this last third.

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

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#95 Dr. Lani Watson: Even Socrates Didn't Ask: On the Hidden Power of Questions

" This aporia, this state of confusion and bafflement, is actually a fantastically exciting, liberating, intellectually stimulating place to be because you're really facing something that you don't know that you thought you did." - Dr. Lani Watson

Dr. Lani Watson has spent her career on a question most of us never stop to ask. What is a question, and why does it hold such power?

Known online as The Questions Doctor, Lani is a philosopher and the author of Q: The Hidden Power of Questions in a World That Wants Answers. In this episode, we sit with the idea that questions are a kind of everyday magic. A power we all carry and rarely notice. They change our brains. They change our relationships. They shape the very answers we receive.

We talk about Socrates and the gift of not knowing. We talk about a world racing toward answers, and what we lose when we rush past the question. We talk about who gets to ask, and who does not.

Come sit with the questions a while. There is power in the asking, and it belongs to all of us.

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

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#93 Ken Woodward: Built to Reach, Not to Catch

"Nothing in us reports on an absence. No creature ever needed a sense for the path it did not walk." - Ken Woodward

More than sixty percent of Google searches now end without a single click. We type the question, read the summary, and leave. The trip is gone.

Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff argues that curiosity needs a gap to switch on, and that learning deepens while the question stays open. The answer closes the window.

But the reaching is not our failure. Wanting the missing piece is old equipment, and it worked well for a very long time, because you used to have to walk over the ridge to find out. What changed is the hit rate. We catch every time now, in three seconds, and the machinery on the other side never gets to run.

This week we look at which gaps are worth keeping open, why resistance is the mechanism rather than the toll, and what ten years of a daily question taught me about the limits of my own idea.

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

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#71 Ken Woodward: The Cost of Wonder

"The only cost of liberation is the decision to pay attention." - Ken Woodward

In 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)

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#63 Ken Woodward: The Inquisitive Almanack: 2026

"Direction often emerges not from knowing what you want, but from finally admitting what you don’t." - Ken Woodward

The Inquisitive Almanack: 2026 Edition closes the year with something Curated Questions has never quite done before—an affectionate, slightly irreverent, and deeply thoughtful almanack for the inner life.

Inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, this episode blends dry wit, invented bureaucracy, and hard-won wisdom to offer forecasts not for the weather, but for the heart, mind, and questions we carry.

You’ll hear interior weather reports, proverbs for the asking class, arbitrary rules of inquiry, lunar phases of curiosity, and predictions for the questions most likely to surface in 2026—across leadership, relationships, parenting, teams, and personal life.

Released intentionally as the final episode of the year, this Almanack isn’t a recap or a resolution guide. It’s a pause. A breath. A lighter place to rest before the calendar turns and begins asking new things of us.

Come curious. Leave rested. And carry one good question forward.

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

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#48 Ken Woodward The Curated Questions Origin Story: When It All Began!

" Once you have the question, the hard part begins." - Ken Woodward

In this solo episode, host Ken Woodward delves into the origin and development of the 'Curated Questions' project, which began in 2018. Ken shares his personal journey of curiosity, inspiration from Tim Ferriss' podcast, and the influences that led to the creation of his blog and subsequent podcast.

Highlighting notable milestones and influential interviews, Ken discusses the structure and purpose of the Curated Questions website and its various elements, including famous questions and lists. He also reflects on the profound impact of asking meaningful questions, illustrated with personal anecdotes.

The episode encourages listeners to embrace curiosity and engage with the world through the power of well-chosen questions.

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

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#41 Robert Sturman: The Question of Beauty: A Photographer's Pursuit

"I realized that paying attention is a form of a question." - Robert Sturman

Robert Sturman is a seeker and visual storyteller. Driven by an unshakeable belief that beauty exists everywhere. He has pursued this vision as an Official Artist of the Grammy Awards and the FIFA World Cup, and as a globally recognized photographer who captures the healing power of humanity through yoga. After studying art at UC Santa Cruz and Memphis College of Art, he discovered that his life itself, was art, and needed to become a masterpiece.

Robert has mastered finding profound beauty in unexpected places - from the streets of Manhattan to San Quentin Prison, from Kenyan orphans to breast cancer survivors bearing their scars. His philosophy is rooted in Rumi's words: "I can't stop pointing to the beauty."

Through his lens, Robert demonstrates that everyone belongs and vulnerability becomes strength. His approach reveals that the most potent questions aren't about technique, but about trust, connection, and helping people recognize their own light. He seeks beauty where others see difficulty because he understands transformation happens when we're willing to look deeper.

The most heartfelt title he answers to is Dad to Otis the Handsome Hound, an 85-pound English American Redtick Coonhound who was rescued following animal testing. Otis has nearly 7K Instagram followers and is an advocate for cruelty-free testing.

In this episode of Curated Questions, host Ken Woodward converses with renowned visual storyteller Robert Sturman. Robert, celebrated for his profound and inclusive photography, shares insights on capturing the healing power of humanity through his lens. The discussion explores Robert's journey from photographing idyllic beach yogis to documenting yoga practice in diverse and challenging settings, including maximum security prisons and amongst war veterans. Through his lens, he celebrates vulnerability, trust, and beauty in unexpected places. Robert also delves into his advocacy work with his rescued animal companion Otis, highlighting the critical issue of cruelty-free product testing. Throughout the episode, recurring themes focus on the transformative power of paying attention, the courageous response to criticism, and the continuous pursuit of personal and artistic growth.

This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.

Keep questioning!