No Stupid Questions - Introducing "No Stupid Questions"

Episode Date: April 24, 2020

Stephen Dubner, the host of Freakonomics Radio, and Angela Duckworth, the psychologist and author of Grit, explore the weird and wonderful ways in which humans behave. In each episode, they take turns asking each other questions, with conversations ranging from friendship and parenting to immortality and whether dogs are better than people. No Stupid Questions premieres May 18th.

I'm Angela Duckworth. And I'm Stephen Dubner. I'm a psychologist at Penn, and I run an educational nonprofit called Character Lab. You also wrote the book Grit. Yes. And I am a writer, and I host a podcast called Freakonomics Radio. And you wrote the book Freakonomics, among quite a few others. I did.

And you and I became friends. We did. And we discovered that both of us really like to ask each other questions. And there's only one rule. The rule is there are no stupid questions. Each week, join Stephen and Angela in a mutual question-asking society about the weird and wonderful ways that humans behave. Sometimes the takeaways are practical. A lot of people, I think, are uncomfortable being alone in public.

They feel the world is kind of judging them to be a loser for being alone. Do you have any advice for people to feel better about being alone in public? I think that one of the great general truths about how we're perceived by others is that we tend to overestimate, you know, how much anybody really cares at all anyway. We assume everybody's looking at us, but no, they're looking at something which is more interesting to them, which is themselves. Sometimes the questions are existential. How would my or your life be fundamentally different if you knew you were going to live forever?

I think the way children live their lives is kind of like the way somebody would live their life if they were immortal, right? Because they are really not thinking about their impending doom. And on occasion, they tackle some super heavy important questions. How far would you go for your dog? Like, people do seem to treat their personal pets, dogs especially, better than they treat other humans. I totally agree. And I do think it's kind of tragic.

And yet, I participate. And I do think it's kind of tragic. And yet, I participate. And yet. I have this trick, which is I superimpose onto the face of every person who's annoying me the face of some dog. And then I picture all... This makes you nicer to them? It does. Wow. Suddenly, I'm empathetic toward every person. No Stupid Questions premieres May 18th. Subscribe now on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. I am empathetic toward every person.