If you could ask the whole world one question, what would it be?
This is the question the whole programme is built on. It has been put, on camera, to people in Denver, Lagos and a Nigerian campus, 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.
The answers
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What do you love about life?
“What do you love about life?”
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Why aren’t we doing better as a species?
“Why aren’t we doing better as a species?”
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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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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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What was the most transformative moment in your life?
“what’s the most like transformative moment in your life?”
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What is the favourite place you have ever been?
“favorite place you’ve ever been?”
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If you had unlimited resources, what would you create?
“if you had unlimited resources, what would you create?”
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What is your dream?
“What’s your dream?”
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What makes you happy?
“What makes you happy?”
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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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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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Do they hate us?
“Do they hate us?”
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Pizza or sandwiches?
“I guess I would ask them if they like pizza or sandwiches more.”
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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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How are you coping with your anxiety?
“how are they coping with their anxiety”
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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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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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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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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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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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Why aren’t you doing what makes you happy?
“Why aren’t you doing what makes you happy?”
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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?”
Other questions the archive has answered
- What is the most important global issue today? 8
- Is the internet good for us? 9
- What made you smile today? 9
- What is Ethereum? 7
- What do you think of the United States? 7
- How has the place you live changed in your lifetime? 6
- Do you have a message for the builders? 5
- What would you say to someone under ten? 3
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.