Episode Summary
“I don’t want hope as a primary strategy for living well.” – Ken Woodward
In this solo episode of Curated Questions, Ken Woodward explores hope not as a feeling or slogan, but as a muscle, something built, weakened, and strengthened through use.
Prompted by Alex Honnold’s free-solo climb and his own season of uncertainty, Ken reflects on the collapse of trust in institutions and the fragility of inherited forms of hope. Drawing on psychological and neuroscientific research, he reframes hope as a cognitive skill set rooted in agency and pathways, the belief that we can act and imagine multiple routes forward, even without certainty.
Ken examines how rumination, paralysis, and outsourced responsibility erode hope, and how well-chosen questions can interrupt despair and reengage possibility. Moving from individual to collective hope, he invites listeners to consider where their own “hope muscles” have atrophied and what small, concrete actions might rebuild them.
This episode is not a lesson on hope, but a vulnerable, out-loud search for it, grounded in questions, courage, and shared responsibility.
This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.
Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Curated Questions Dispatch newsletter for more fun with questions and curiosity! (https://substack.com/@curatedquestions)
Keep questioning!
Episode Notes
00:00 A Taste Of What Is To Come
02:02 The Story of Alex Honnold
02:45 Personal Reflections on Hope
03:49 Current State of the World
05:34 The Concept of Hope
08:41 The Neuroscience of Hope
12:03 Practical Questions for Hope
15:55 Collective Hope and Action
19:09 Poem: Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Murdered by I.C.E, January 24th, 2026 by Amanda Gorman
20:58 Closing Remarks
Resources Mentioned
Poem: Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Murdered by I.C.E, January 24th, 2026 by Amanda Gorman
