The 12 Inquiries Podcast

These Are a Few of Our Positive Things.

From the beginning, this space has been driven by an insatiable curiosity that drives our friendship and subsequent conversations. That curiosity is also a lens through which we try to make sense of our ever-changing self and reality in general with varying degrees of success. Like any lens, what you choose to aim it at shapes the reality you see within your individual frame, and so we invite you to join us as we talk about optimism and positivity as a choice, a narrative, or framing with which we look at the world. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetwelveinquiries.com [https://www.thetwelveinquiries.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Experiments in "Analog"

After a slightly longer than intended unplanned break, we are back with a quick chat on our continual and mildly obsessive fascination with the intersection between habits and technology. What is it to be a functioning Modern Adult who has to figure out the tools to achieve and cope with everything that adulting means? Why do we feel such a nostalgic pull for the past and how we used to do things? Is it the tools themselves that were somehow better than we remember? Did we leave some things behind that we shouldn’t have? From this barrage of questions, an experiment emerged. We would try to wind the clock back a decade, with less iPad + Apple Pencil and more Paper and Pen, less streaming, more mp3’s, less computational photography, and more digital photography. So not quite exclusively analog but a little less 2020s. So have a listen and find out how our little experiment went and tell us what would your own experiment in “analog” be like. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetwelveinquiries.com [https://www.thetwelveinquiries.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Mental Health and Personal Narratives

A funny thing happens with therapy; It’s not funny “Ha ha,” but funny in the way watching Buster Keaton get punched in the face is funny. Once you start revisiting specific chapters of your life as part of a process meant to empower you with often radically different coping mechanisms, you also realize how much of your biography is fiction. We are the ghostwriters of our autobiography—the often unreliable narrators who are interested in protecting a sort of internalized version of ourselves. For this slightly behind-schedule fourth episode, we dive into those stories we tell about ourselves, find some interesting similarities, and explore how we both coped with our unconventional childhoods. We hope you’ll join us in this conversation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetwelveinquiries.com [https://www.thetwelveinquiries.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

A Tech Nostalgia Twitter Space

Everything old is new again. Generation Z is rediscovering the world we Xenials grew up in as we rediscover it ourselves. With some of that in mind, we hosted a Twitter Space with our guests Sara M Watson [http://www.saramwatson.com/], technology critic, and analyst along with Grafton Tanner [https://graftontanner.com/] author of The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673845/the-hours-have-lost-their-clock-by-grafton-tanner/#:~:text=About%20The%20Hours%20Have%20Lost%20Their%20Clock&text=Remakes%20and%20reboots%20dominate%20the,induce%20it%20to%20manipulate%20populations.&text=In%20The%20Hours%20Have%20Lost,defining%20emotion%20of%20our%20time.]. This is an edited version of our hour-long [https://twitter.com/the12inquiries/status/1578051667119030272?s=20&t=-nbSvM-2s8t32ns4EKGuIA] conversation on Twitter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetwelveinquiries.com [https://www.thetwelveinquiries.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Tech-nostalgia: Imprecise yearnings for our future's past.

“Technology is a glittering lure.” [https://youtu.be/suRDUFpsHus?t=23]- Don Draper The satisfying click of opening a flip phone. The seemingly limitless possibilities of “Surfing the web.” The sense of triumph after burning a perfect mix on a CD for someone or the joy of a carefully curated iPod with its astonishing 1000 songs in your pocket. Welcome to this third episode of The Twelve Inquiries, where we explore our nostalgia for technology that has come, gone, or sometimes just evolved to something else entirely. We remain gleeful early adopters, exploring software, new hardware, and the occasional unforeseen impact it has on ourselves. Yet, we just as easily fondly remember trips to Blockbuster video and taping songs off the radio. So join us in remembering when blogging was cool before it became uncool and then cool again. Before self-portraits became selfies and doom scrolling was a thing. Tell us what technology you miss the most – either in the comment section below or by writing to us at info@12inquiries.com. We will also be hosting a Twitter Space [https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1ynJOaQkwMXKR] on October 6 at 11 a.m. CST, joined by Sara M. Watson [http://www.saramwatson.com/], a brilliant technology critic whose writing appears in publications like The Atlantic, Wired, Business Insider, and The Washington Post, along with Grafton Tanner [https://graftontanner.com/about/], author of “The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetwelveinquiries.com [https://www.thetwelveinquiries.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]