Listening for the Questions Podcast - Big ideas. Bold questions. Smart AF conversations.

Dr. Patti Fletcher, Dan Ward, and Lynne Cuppernull

We don’t have the answers. But we’re darn good at listening for the right questions. Let’s be real: Does the world really need ANOTHER podcast? Well, we're making one anyway, because most conversations skip the questions that really matter. Most podcasts give you answers. We give you better questions. Questions that make you rethink the future of AI, burnout, culture, and connection. And yeah - some fun detours into sandwiches and magicians. Because life is too short to only ask "strategic" questions. This podcast is for curious leaders, thoughtful creators, and people who are done with surface-level conversations. If you are craving honest dialogue, fresh thinking, and a regular reminder to listen before you act - you're in the right place.

  1. 2D AGO

    What are the questions we should be asking about women?

    What Are the Questions We Should Be Asking About Women? John, Mark, and David each hold more corporate board seats than all female corporate directors combined. Not all three of them together. Each one of them, individually. Let that sit. This is the season two Women's History Month episode, and we are not here to celebrate what women have survived. We are here to interrogate the systems that made survival necessary in the first place. Dr. Patti Fletcher, Lynne Cuppernull, and Dan Ward ask the questions that the glossy Women's History Month content skips: Who wrote the rules women are still following and who are those rules actually serving? Why do we keep treating women as the variable that needs to be solved for instead of asking what kind of world we are trying to build together? What does it cost an organization when women hold real power without formal authority, and does anyone even see it? What happens to AI, the technology that has become our electricity, when women are not in the room coding it? And what would change if they were? Also on the table: coactive versus coercive power, why soft power needs a rebrand, what men risk by showing up as feminists at work, and the French press calling Catherine Wright "the third Wright brother" and almost, almost getting it right. This episode was sponsored by the long game. Played by women everywhere, often when they cannot see the scoreboard. Resources we mention in this episode: "Disrupters: Success Strategies From Women Who Break The Mold" by Dr. Patti FletcherPut a Woman In Charge, song by Keb’ Mo’  UN Report on AI & Gender Equality “LIFT: Innovation Lessons From Flying Machines That ALMOST Worked and The People Who NEARLY Flew Them” by Dan Ward  Why Women over 50 are the Future of Work in the Age of AI by Laetitia Vitaud, Fast Company Listening for the Questions drops every other Tuesday wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe, leave a review, and bring a question. Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    31 min

  2. MAR 17

    What are the questions we should be asking about loneliness?

    Loneliness is everywhere, and most of us are pretending it is not. In this episode of Listening for the Questions, Patti Fletcher, Dan Ward, and Lynne Cuppernull take on a topic that is deeply personal, widely shared, and still difficult to talk about. This conversation is not about being alone. It is about disconnection from others, from community, and sometimes from ourselves. It is about the quiet ways loneliness shows up even in full rooms, busy lives, and successful careers. Together, they explore why loneliness is rising even as we are more connected than ever. They look at the difference between solitude, isolation, and loneliness. They examine how cultural expectations, especially around gender, shape who experiences loneliness and who feels allowed to admit it. They also discuss how loneliness often hides behind productivity, independence, and the appearance of having everything together. The conversation moves beyond the individual and into the systems around us. What happens when community structures weaken. What happens when relationships become transactional. What happens when independence is valued more than interdependence. These are not abstract ideas. They shape how we live and how we connect. As always, this is not an episode focused on solving the problem. It is about asking better questions. Loneliness is not a personal failure. It is a human signal. This episode invites you to notice where loneliness may be present in your life, how you respond to it, and what might change if we approached connection with more honesty, intention, and care. Resources mentioned in this episode: Candace Pert: Genius, Greed, and Madness in the World of Science by Pamela Ryckman  https://www.amazon.com/Candace-Pert-Genius-Madness-Science/dp/0306831465 Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community  https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf Health Benefits of Hugs  https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-benefits-of-hugging-202202162693 Psychology Today. Male Loneliness  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/loneliness Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone Baby monkey bonding with stuffed animal  https://people.com/baby-monkey-at-zoo-goes-viral-for-having-stuffed-animal-as-friend-11908504 Available wherever you get your podcasts. Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    29 min

  3. MAR 3

    What are the questions we should be asking about reading?

    Why do you read? And what biases are sitting on your bookshelf? The hosts center their careers on innovation which means that they ask questions for a living. So when hosts Dr. Patti Fletcher, Lynne Cuppernull, and Dan Ward tackle reading, they don't ask what you're reading, they ask why. This episode starts with the personal: reading as escape, ritual, education, connection, a cuddle for the brain. Then it gets harder. How diverse are the authors on your shelf? Did you know men make up only 19% of readers of books written by women, while women are 65% of readers of books written by men? What does that say about cultural conditioning? The hosts dig into who reads, who writes, and who gets read. They examine economic dimensions: people with higher incomes read more, and people who read more earn more. They talk about creating reading cultures in organizations, the politics of whose books get attention, and whether it's okay to not finish a book (or write in one). Then they take on AI. Would you read a book written by AI? What if you didn't know it was AI-generated until after? And what does it mean when AI reads our books without permission: Can we even call that reading? Dan shares his experiment reading only books by women, people of color, and international authors for a year. Patti talks about intentionally seeking out authors of color after Black Lives Matter and forgetting she'd even made that choice because it became a natural, intentional part of her selection process. Lynne asks if reading is where avoided questions first whisper to us. They close with a lightning round: Fiction or nonfiction? Long or short? Library or bookstore? Paper or screen? Key Themes: Why we read versus what we readGender and cultural biases in reading habitsEconomic dimensions of literacy and accessBuilding reading cultures in teams and organizationsWriting in books, not finishing books, buying books we never readAI-generated content and what AI owes to authors whose work it trains onReading as anti-fascist practice and connection across difference Resources We Found Helpful Research & Data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reading dataU.S. Department of Education literacy research  National Endowment for the Arts reading trendsPew Research: 23% of American adults haven't read a book in the past yearGlobal readership data on gender disparities in reading Referenced Authors & Works:  C.S. Lewis: "We read to know we're not alone"Toni Morrison's *Beloved*The Brontë sisters (published under pseudonyms like Currer Bell) People & Organizations Mentioned: Reed Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder, Greylock partner) - early ChatGPT user for book writingTara McDonald - Natick, Massachusetts library systemAnthropic legal settlement regarding AI training on books Mentioned in Passing: Dan Ward's LinkedIn post on AI writing tells (especially the M-dash)B. Dalton bookstoresNational Reading Month (March)Read Across America Day (March 2nd) Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    30 min

  4. FEB 17

    Meta Questions Episode: What are the questions we avoid and why do we avoid them?

    What questions are you carrying that you haven't asked out loud? And what is not asking them costing you? We ask questions for a living. But what about the ones we don't ask? In this episode, hosts Dr. Patti Fletcher, Lynne Cuppernull, and Dan Ward get honest about the questions they avoid. They talk about why we skip certain questions: we're afraid of the answer, we don't want to do the work that follows, we're worried about crossing a boundary, or sometimes we just don't think to ask. They each share questions they've been carrying. Dan talks about not asking for help or feedback. Patti examines the questions women in their 50s face about defining life on their own terms instead of through roles they play for others. Lynne shares questions she's afraid to ask about politics and her kids' experience of divorce. The conversation covers personal territory and bigger questions. When does avoiding a question protect you versus hold you back? Where do you feel unasked questions in your body? How do you create environments where people can actually ask hard things? Is asking questions an anti-authoritarian act? They also look at AI's role in how we ask (or don't ask) questions. Are we using it to go deeper, or to avoid going deeper? What makes human conversation different when it comes to the questions that matter? This episode won't make hard questions easy. But it might make asking them less hard. Key Themes: The psychology and physiology of avoided questionsCreating environments where questions can be asked safelyThe difference between waiting for the right moment and avoiding indefinitelyQuestion-asking as anti-authoritarian practiceHow AI enables or prevents deeper questioningMaking it easier to ask hard questions without making them less hardResources We Found Helpful: Books & Research: On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder  Internal Family Systems  therapy information The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace by Amy EdmondsonThe Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well  by Amy EdmonsonReferenced Media: Blue Bloods (CBS) and it's spin-off, mentioned in this episode, Boston Blue (CBS)  for the portrayal of family dinner conversations as a space for difficult dialoguePractices Mentioned: Reflection practices for identifying avoided questionsSomatic awareness when questions ariseMindfulness techniques: asking "Am I safe now?" and "What do I need?"The coaching move: responding to questions with "What do you think?" Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    28 min

  5. FEB 3

    What questions should we be asking about Valentine’s Day?

    Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about love. But for many people, it lands as pressure, performance, exclusion, or quiet disappointment. In this episode, Lynne, Dan, and Dr. Patti take a familiar cultural moment and do what we always do on Listening for the Questions: we slow it down and ask better questions. Together, we explore what Valentine’s Day reveals about how we define love, worth, success, and belonging. We talk about the stories we inherit about romance, the commercial scripts we rarely interrogate, and the invisible hierarchies that decide which kinds of love are celebrated and which are ignored. We also ask what gets missed when love is framed as a milestone instead of a practice. This is not an episode about how to “do” Valentine’s Day better. It’s an invitation to examine what love actually means in your life right now, who it’s for, and how curiosity might open up more honest, humane, and expansive ways of relating to ourselves and others. Questions we explore include: Who is Valentine’s Day really designed for, and who gets left out?When does love become a performance instead of a lived experience?How do scarcity narratives around love shape our choices and expectations?What might love look like if we treated it as a verb, not a status?Whether you love Valentine’s Day, dread it, or ignore it completely, this episode offers space to reflect without judgment and to reconnect with love as something broader, messier, and more human than a single day can hold. Resources we found helpful when prepping for this episode: All About Love by bell hooks A grounding exploration of love as action, ethics, and responsibility rather than fantasy or possession. The Gottman Institute Relationship Research  Evidence-based insights on what actually sustains connection, trust, and intimacy over time. Esther Perel’s work on modern relationships  Particularly her talks and writing on desire, independence, and the tension between security and freedom in love. Available wherever you get your podcasts.  Listening for the Questions asks better questions so we can live more honest lives, together. Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    29 min

  6. JAN 20

    What questions should we be asking about misinformation and disinformation?

    We are surrounded by misinformation and disinformation, but reacting faster is not the solution. Asking better questions is. In this episode, Patti Fletcher, Dan Ward, and Lynne Cuppernull explore the difference between misinformation shared without intent to harm and disinformation spread deliberately to deceive. More importantly, they examine why both work so well and what they reveal about fear, identity, trust, and belonging. Drawing on the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory Confronting Health Misinformation, the conversation frames misinformation as a public health issue that requires collective responsibility, not individual perfection. The episode also explores deeper meaning-making frameworks, including Richard Rohr’s work on Order, Disorder, and Reorder, and why periods of disruption create fertile ground for false certainty. Along the way, the trio reflects on cultural touchstones like Schoolhouse Rock and ABC After School Specials and what we lost when we stopped teaching people how to think instead of what to think. This episode is not about debunking. It is about slowing down, noticing our reactions, and asking better questions before belief hardens into certainty. Resources mentioned Confronting Health Misinformation, U.S. Surgeon General https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-misinformation-advisory.pdf Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Egg https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-cosmic-egg-my-story-and-our-story/ The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder  https://store.cac.org/products/the-wisdom-pattern-order-disorder-reorder Schoolhouse Rock https://www.youtube.com/user/SchoolhouseRockTV1 ABC After School Specials https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4_H2rkrpOuvXd-7hJoZBzIoUdo09NdnM 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    34 min

  7. JAN 6

    What questions should we ask when we talk about New Year's Resolutions?

    New season. Same curiosity. And a topic most of us have a complicated relationship with. In the Season 2 premiere of Listening for the Questions, Dr. Patti Fletcher, Dan Ward, and Lynne Cuppernull take on New Year’s resolutions and immediately question whether we should be making them at all. Instead of debating which resolutions work, the conversation focuses on something far more interesting: the questions underneath our urge to start fresh every January. Why do we keep making resolutions even when we know we will probably break them? Who are these resolutions really for? Why do they feel so loaded with pressure, perfectionism, and failure? And what if the problem is not our willpower but the way we frame change in the first place? Lynne, Patti, and Dan explore the difference between resolutions and goals, identity and transformation, progress and perfection. They unpack the gendered pressure baked into many resolutions, especially those tied to appearance, discipline, and self control. They also play with the idea of replacing resolutions with questions and what happens when curiosity takes the place of self judgment. Along the way, the conversation wanders through birthday resolutions, school year fresh starts, acting as if you are already your future self, and even how AI can interrupt our default thinking by asking better questions instead of offering quick answers. This episode is thoughtful, funny, honest, and deeply human. It is not about fixing yourself. It is about understanding why you want to change, whose values are shaping that desire, and how asking better questions might lead to more meaningful growth. As Season 2 begins, this episode invites you to consider a different kind of fresh start. One where any day can be January 1st. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    33 min

  8. 12/16/2025

    What questions should we be asking when we talk about Finish Lines?

    Finish lines are supposed to be clear. Cross it. Celebrate. Move on...but what if they are not endings at all? In the Season 1 finale of Listening for the Questions, Dr. Patti Fletcher, Dan Ward, and Lynne Cuppernull take on one of the most emotionally loaded ideas we carry with us: finish lines. Athletic. Professional. Academic. Personal. Visible and invisible. Chosen and imposed. Drawing on Lynne’s experience as an Ironman triathlete, Dan’s background as an engineer and systems thinker, and Patti’s work around transformation, leadership, and life transitions, the conversation explores finish lines as waypoints, transitions, and sometimes illusions. From triathlons and PhDs to careers, gender equity, glass ceilings, and personal reinvention, the trio asks what really happens when we focus too tightly on the end instead of the experience. Along the way, they wrestle with questions like: When does a finish line become a starting line?Whose finish line are you running toward and who chose it?What do we miss when we are too focused on crossing the line?What can we learn from not finishing?And who helped you get there in the first place?This episode is thoughtful, funny, honest, and deeply human. It is about ambition, presence, partnership, and the courage to question whether the finish lines we chase actually belong to us. As Season 1 comes to a close, this conversation invites you to pause, reflect, and ask yourself what you are building toward, who you are building with, and what might be waiting on the other side. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

    30 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
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3 Ratings

About

We don’t have the answers. But we’re darn good at listening for the right questions. Let’s be real: Does the world really need ANOTHER podcast? Well, we're making one anyway, because most conversations skip the questions that really matter. Most podcasts give you answers. We give you better questions. Questions that make you rethink the future of AI, burnout, culture, and connection. And yeah - some fun detours into sandwiches and magicians. Because life is too short to only ask "strategic" questions. This podcast is for curious leaders, thoughtful creators, and people who are done with surface-level conversations. If you are craving honest dialogue, fresh thinking, and a regular reminder to listen before you act - you're in the right place.

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