" I ate of that apple. It tasted like safety." - Ken Woodward
" 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.
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Episode Notes
00:00 It Tasted Like Safety
01:55 Lost Underwater
02:35 Dead Reckoning Drift
03:05 Periscope Depth Fix
03:54 How Bearings Work
04:49 The Safety Question
05:20 Three Part Roadmap
05:42 Defending Certainty
06:59 When Certainty Floats
07:13 Need For Closure
07:33 Seize Then Freeze
08:14 Fear Fuels Certainty
08:30 Street Encounter
09:16 Fear As A Racket
10:09 Listerine Playbook
10:53 Bigger Threat Machines
11:20 Not Every Alarm
11:59 My Old Story
12:37 Preassembled Politics
13:08 Certainty As Absolution
13:48 George Floyd Bearings
15:24 New Certainty Trap
16:46 How To Get A Fix
18:20 Two Walk Days
20:59 Assessment Is Safety
22:20 Tools To Stay Open
26:28 Closing Takeaways
Resources Mentioned