" I ate of that apple. It tasted like safety." - Ken Woodward

Once a submarine goes under, nobody aboard knows exactly where they are. The boat runs on an estimate that drifts, and being off course feels exactly like being on course. The only remedy is to come up and take a fix.

In this solo episode, Ken asks whether certainty is what keeps us safe, or whether safety comes from our ability to keep checking our position against the world.

He draws on his time as a Navy Radioman plotting fixes, Arie Kruglanski's research on the need for closure, a Listerine ad campaign that manufactured a fear to sell a cure, and John Keats's idea of negative capability.

He also tells the story of a political and religious certainty that once absolved him of responsibility, and what 2,085 miles of D.C. streets taught him about fear.

The episode closes with a question to take with you: Is my need for certainty making me safer?

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!

"My tree was planted in a metal bucket." - Ken Woodward

Some mornings, the ordinary holds the weight of everything. A walk to the garage. An attempt to correct a gait. A drift back to comfort. Ken opens this solo episode with that image and asks why returning to comfort is the default setting of an adult life.

Drawing on the work of Nigerian-born British photographer and activist Misan Harriman, Ken investigates the mourning that accompanies genuine personal growth. The mourning for the world you thought you believed in. The mourning for the person you were sure was good enough.

Ken traces his own reckoning through the identities that once added up to a clean equation. Each one a nutrient in the soil he was given. Each one another layer of metal on the bucket his tree was planted in. Growing. Just with no room to expand.

This episode is about noticing the bucket. Cracking it open. And dragging your roots toward soil that can actually hold them.

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!