Alden Olmsted

5 Great Questions

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This is a podcast of great questions. Have you noticed that you don't get asked really interesting questions? What time will you be home? Is Lucy's sniffle serious? Did you know your father fell again? Can you resend me that meme? These questions are necessary, but they're not interesting. * * * Let me set the scene: The dinner party is winding down, the FOMO crowd is off to the next social occasion, and the remaining folks number less than ten. Maybe five or six. I pick out a person who looks tired of the small talk and I say, "Let me ask you a question." "Sure" - they answer, with half of the crowd already leaning in - sensing something may be coming. "If you could clone yourself, what would the other you be doing?" Now everybody is paying attention. That was my first great question. It still usually gets the record to scratch and the small talk to cease. If you can picture an old western when the right guy walks into the wrong saloon at the perfect moment - that's what happens. Only in a good way. After the first answer we go around the circle and let everyone answer. Someone almost always has a realllly good answer. And guess what? Now they're in. They're not just wanting another great question, their minds are begging. Their hearts are open, their phones are off, and their egos are low. I can see it in their body language. Great questions do that. They can make your brain feel like it's exercising a new muscle, or at least a part that hasn't been tapped in a long, long time. People ate up my good questions. In fact, they loved them. And I loved hearing the answers. * * * I started a book a few years ago, collecting some of the best answers, but I put it down and never finished. I realized recently that the joy of people's answers was in hearing them, so here we are. Each week I'll ask my guest a great question, maybe two, and you'll hear their answer. Some may be short, some long, but they'll be honest. They'll be real. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn9M3KAsxA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Real Topeka real.</a> As you're listening you may have a good answer yourself and want to be on the show. If that happens you can send a summary of your answer to [email protected] For now, let's get started.