5 Great Questions | The Podcast
Episode 6 | Sasha Stone
Born in Southern California towards the end of the hippy era, Sasha had a bit of a cliched life growing up in Topanga Canyon in the 1970's. Free sex, free drugs, and a single mother with a revolving door of boyfriends,
Sasha found her salvation in movies, eventually leading to a self-started career begun in the early days of the internet, with the popular Academy Award prediction site 'Oscar Watch' (now Awards Daily), a successful site valued by Hollywood studios and publicists.
A lifelong liberal, Sasha grew up like so many children of baby boomers, assuming and KNOWING that the Republicans were the bad guys. Full of bad people and bad policies. All bad.
Until the summer of 2020.
The hypocrisy of the covid panic - so strangely discarded when the George Floyd protest riots were deemed more important than safety during a global pandemic - was her Red-Pill moment. You can hear the full story in many of her great podcasts (link below).
Sasha and I both found solace during the pandemic via the 1997 prophetic book The Fourth Turning by Strauss & Howe. Although I'm a lifetime center-right independent I soon found that neither political party could be counted on for the truth, a very unsettling realization.
Our shared California backgrounds and love of movies led to many online conversations and we decided it was finally time to meet, if only by audio.
Hope you enjoy this casual interview.
Follow Sasha at https://substack.com/@sashastone
Watch Sasha's early life on Netflix by David Fincher:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80990130
Alden on Substack at https://substack.com/@aldeno?
Watch Alden's BMX Doc on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/30-Bikes-Story-Homestead-Bicycles/dp/B09J2PJXRT
Episode 6 | Sasha Stone
aldenolms89.substack.com
5 Great Questions
<b>This is a podcast of great questions.</b><br /><b></b><br />Have you noticed that you don't get asked <b>really</b> interesting questions?<br /><b></b><br />What time will you be home? <br />Is Lucy's sniffle serious? <br />Did you know your father fell again?<br />Can you resend me that meme?<br /><br />These questions are necessary, but they're not interesting.<br /><b></b><br /><b>* * *</b><br /><br /><b>Let me set the scene:</b><br />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.<br /><br />I pick out a person who looks tired of the small talk and I say, "Let me ask you a question."<br />"Sure" - they answer, with half of the crowd already leaning in - sensing something may be coming.<br /><br />"If you could clone yourself, what would the other you be doing?"<br /><br /><b>Now everybody is paying attention.</b><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><b>Only in a good way.</b><br /><br />After the first answer we go around the circle and let everyone answer. Someone almost always has a realllly good answer.<br /><br />And guess what?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Great questions do that.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />People ate up my good questions. <br /><br />In fact, they loved them. <br /><br />And I loved hearing the answers.<br /><br /><b>* * *</b><br /><br />I started a book a few years ago, collecting some of the best answers, but I put it down and never finished.<br /><br /><b>I realized recently that the joy of people's answers was in <i>hearing</i> them, so here we are.</b><br /><b></b><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn9M3KAsxA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Real Topeka real.</a><br /><br />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 <b>alden5@spreaker.com</b><br /><br /><br />For now, let's get started.
<b>This is a podcast of great questions.</b><br /><b></b><br />Have you noticed that you don't get asked <b>really</b> interesting questions?<br /><b></b><br />What time will you be home? <br />Is Lucy's sniffle serious? <br />Did you know your father fell again?<br />Can you resend me that meme?<br /><br />These questions are necessary, but they're not interesting.<br /><b></b><br /><b>* * *</b><br /><br /><b>Let me set the scene:</b><br />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.<br /><br />I pick out a person who looks tired of the small talk and I say, "Let me ask you a question."<br />"Sure" - they answer, with half of the crowd already leaning in - sensing something may be coming.<br /><br />"If you could clone yourself, what would the other you be doing?"<br /><br /><b>Now everybody is paying attention.</b><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><b>Only in a good way.</b><br /><br />After the first answer we go around the circle and let everyone answer. Someone almost always has a realllly good answer.<br /><br />And guess what?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Great questions do that.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />People ate up my good questions. <br /><br />In fact, they loved them. <br /><br />And I loved hearing the answers.<br /><br /><b>* * *</b><br /><br />I started a book a few years ago, collecting some of the best answers, but I put it down and never finished.<br /><br /><b>I realized recently that the joy of people's answers was in <i>hearing</i> them, so here we are.</b><br /><b></b><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn9M3KAsxA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Real Topeka real.</a><br /><br />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 <b>alden5@spreaker.com</b><br /><br /><br />For now, let's get started.Listen on
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Episode 6 | Sasha Stone