If you could ask people around the world one question, what would you ask them?
This is the question the whole programme is built on. It has been put, on camera, to people in Denver, Lagos, New York and Philadelphia, and each of these is what one person said when asked what they wanted to know from everybody else.
They are the bank the weekly question is drawn from. A question collected on a street in Lagos can be put to somebody in Philadelphia with the Lagos answer already sitting next to it, and every one below is credited to the person who asked it, with a link to the moment they did. Two answers that were jokes rather than questions are left on the tape; everything anybody sincerely asked is here.
Who answered, and what did they say?
These are the speakers’ own words, as they said them. We have not checked their claims.
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Length 1:47
What do you love about life?
“What do you love about life?”
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Length 16:28
Why aren’t we doing better as a species?
“Why aren’t we doing better as a species?”
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Length 20:14
What would you be giving up if you led with love instead of fear?
“What would you really be giving up if you led with love instead of fear?”
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Length 8:11
Why aren’t you more neighborly?
“Why aren’t you more neighborly? Why aren’t more people talking to their neighbors and creating more of a community?”
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Length 10:16
What was the most transformative moment in your life?
“what’s the most like transformative moment in your life?”
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Length 10:16
What is the favourite place you have ever been?
“favorite place you’ve ever been?”
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Length 16:28
If you had unlimited resources, what would you create?
“if you had unlimited resources, what would you create?”
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Length 16:28
What is your dream?
“What’s your dream?”
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Length 16:28
What makes you happy?
“What makes you happy?”
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Length 16:28
Why is it so hard to make money and keep it?
“Why is it so hard out here to make money and keep it?”
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Length 20:14
What do people think of Americans right now?
“I think it’s interesting to get different people’s perspective on what they think of Americans right now.”
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Length 20:14
Do they hate us?
“Do they hate us?”
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Length 20:14
Pizza or sandwiches?
“I guess I would ask them if they like pizza or sandwiches more.”
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Length 52:08
What are we doing about visa inequality?
“what are we doing about … passport holders from underdeveloped paying high amount of money apply for visas”
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Length 9:08
How are you coping with your anxiety?
“how are they coping with their anxiety”
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Length 14:17
Are you living for yourself or for other people?
“Are you living a life for yourself or are you living it for other people? You gotta ask yourself that”
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Length 5:42
What keeps people going?
“What keeps them going? Shit’s dark I want to know what keeps people going, you know what I mean?”
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Length 5:42
Are we going to settle for the programme we are being fed?
“Are we really going to settle for the program that we’re being fed”
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Length 10:42
Why don’t we just love each other?
“why do we treat our homeless like they’re filth, why do we treat each other like we hate each other, why don’t we just love each other”
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Length 9:11
Which is the best country to live in?
“If I’m going to ask something around the world, which is the best country to live?”
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Length 2:53
Why aren’t you doing what makes you happy?
“Why aren’t you doing what makes you happy?”
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Length 28:08
Why do people put more love into animals than into people?
“As an educator and mother, I am baffled that people put more time, energy, money, and love into animals than in human beings. Why do you think that is?”
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Length 1:35
How you can make somebody’s day a little better.
“just like how you can make somebody’s day a little better, maybe.”
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Length 1:32
What keeps them going.
“what keeps them going? Like, what’s their drive, I guess, would be?”
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Length 2:41
What do you aspire to be?
“What do you aspire to be? Like, what do you really want to get out of life?”
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Length 3:22
What are your values, truly?
“what are your values truly? Who are you trying to grow to be? And what type of feeling are you trying to leave in the world”
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Length 2:20
How hot is too hot? Every country rates its food differently.
“how hot is too hot? Like, every country has a different level of like, what’s their hot level in their food.”
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Length 2:44
¿Por qué las guerras?
“¿Por qué las guerras?”
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Length 10:40
He would ask people for their why.
“why do you treat others the way you do why do you be the way you are”
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Length 5:02
What gets you out of bed.
“What motivates you? What keeps you going? What makes you want to wake up and get out of bed?”
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Length 6:51
Five words.
“What are we doing, man?”
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Length 24:10
He would like the world to settle Wang Chung.
“What exactly is Wang Chung-ing? Are we doing it now? Does it really feel that good?”
What else has the archive asked?
- What is the most important global issue today? 14
- Is the internet good for us? 11
- What made you smile today? 17
- What is Ethereum? 10
- What do you think of the United States? 13
- How has the place you live changed in your lifetime? 8
- Do you have a message for the builders? 9
- What would you say to someone under ten? 12
Every answer on these pages is a quote checked against the transcript of the video it came from. To put a question to your own street, see One Question. To find a word across every transcript, search.