An investigation of when and why people ask loaded questions that are a proxy for something else.
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Note: The internet version of this episode contains un-beeped curse words. BEEPED VERSION.
Question: Tell Me What You Think About This
“What do you think about Beyoncé?” and other questions that are asked a lot, raised by people on first dates. (12 minutes)
How Old Are Your Kids?
When a common, seemingly innocuous question goes wildly off the rails. (13 minutes)
Here's the video this story is about, featuring comedian Adam Ray.
How’s Your Mom?
Why are people asking me if my mother recognizes me, when it’s totally beside the point? (14 minutes)
Janelle Taylor originally wrote about her mother in an academic paper for Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
Can I Help You?
Schools ask their students the strangest essay questions sometimes. The experience of tutoring anxious teenagers through how to answer them requires a balladier, singing their lived experience to a crowd as though it were the Middle Ages. (10 minutes)
Milo Cramer’s show School Pictures was recorded at Playwrights Horizons.
Related
Act One: A Little Tour Inside the Message Machine
Act One: I'd Rather Not
Act Two: This Story Might Be Recorded for Training and Quality Assurance
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