The 12 Inquiries Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Twelve Inquiries
Welcome to The 12 Inquiries, a year-long conversation between two friends about 12 topics that interest us. You could call it a monthly salon, though that sounds a little grandiose. We hope you’ll join us in the conversation. Who knows, maybe we’ll become friends.
Each conversation will take place over a month. We’ll publish an introductory newsletter and podcast episode the first week of each month. During the second week, we’ll host a live conversation on Twitter Spaces with guests. On the third week, we’ll publish a short recap of what we learned, and respond to questions and comments we receive. During the fourth week, we rest. Well, really, we prepare for the next month’s inquiry.
https://www.thetwelveinquiries.com
www.thetwelveinquiries.com
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
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
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
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, technology critic, and analyst along with Grafton Tanner author of The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia.
This is an edited version of our hour-long 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
“Technology is a glittering lure.” - 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 on October 6 at 11 a.m. CST, joined by Sara M. Watson, a brilliant technology critic whose writing appears in publications like The Atlantic, Wired, Business Insider, and The Washington Post, along with Grafton Tanner, 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
We had a fun and thought-provoking conversation with Mischa Byruck, Marsha Olson, and Revaz Ardesher about the current, confused state of masculinity and where it can go from here. We talked about dating and sex, friendships and mental health, conflict and confrontation … and so much more. Some excerpts:
I kind of feel like we're at a bit of an inflection point. Women are now unwilling to settle for less than all of the things that we were forced to become in our own upbringings, which is being emotionally available, being able to name your feelings and communicate them.
I sent around an article to the group that was in psychology today about the rise of single, lonely men. And part of it is just about how women aren't gonna date down anymore.
And I think we really do a disservice in the way that we have raised men and now they're just starting to figure out that they have to do something a little bit differently because it's not gonna work the same and women don't have the same reasons to partner anymore. You know, we're, more able to be alone if that's easier, as I think it is in many cases.
I mean, I didn't see my dad cry until my grandmother's funeral, which was just like five years ago. I grew up in a household where you're waiting for your dad to come home and you don't know what kind of mood he's gonna be in and he’s just silently repressing all of his feelings: the anger, the sadness.
One of the biggest themes that I've seen is that we have intellectually gotten past sexism like, of course, women are equal, got it. But that will betray all kinds of really harmful things that we still do. We don't have a lot of men, certainly not in our political field, for instance, speaking about what it really is to be a man of integrity.
I do feel like there are these masculine traits and then there are these “toxic masculine” traits. And sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. I think being “strong” is a masculine trait and I think that it's a positive trait. When I think of “being strong,” I think about how I would've wanted the men in my life to be strong for me. And what that would've looked like is: more stepping up, more functioning. I have had to be highly functioning or over-functioning because, you know, the men in my life have not functioned at all.
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
It was the era of Fight Club, Maxim, metrosexuals, and “The Game.” How did 1990s notions of masculinity shape our gender identities, our friendships with men, and how we treated women?
This month’s episode is undeniably more personal and vulnerable than last month’s hot takes about the last and next 15 years of Twitter. In this episode, we discuss our struggles growing up to win the affection of women and the respect of men. We revisit the movie Fight Club more than 20 years after its release. And we consider the challenge of crafting a positive vision of masculinity that young people today can aspire to without shame.
As always, we would love to hear your thoughts – either in the comment section below or by writing to us at info@12inquiries.com. And we hope that you’ll join us in a couple of weeks for a Twitter Spaces discussion with some special guests to discuss how social norms of masculinity affect sex, friendships and how we deal with conflict. Thanks for sharing some time with us.
We’re closing out our very first inquiry with a Twitter Space conversation with two brilliant guests. Lena Zun and Emily Parker.
Lena shares how Twitter became a space for visiting friends and an outlet for her “cursed thoughts,” and Emily reminded us that not that long ago, conventional wisdom said Twitter was going to bring democracy to the WORLD.
These inquiries are ultimately an excuse to talk about the things we find fascinating. We invite you to join the conversations, chime in on Twitter, comment on this post, and tell us what YOU find delightful and/or maddening about Twitter.
We’ll be dropping our second inquiry shortly, where we open up about how our personal view on masculinity has evolved from the late 90s through the present.
*We hosted this Twitter space live on July 28th, 2022, and this recording is a condensed version.
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
Welcome to the first of the twelve inquiries! Each month we choose a topic, share a podcast, and then host a conversation with friends on Twitter Spaces. You can learn more about us and the project at our welcome post.
There has been a lot of speculation about how Twitter will change if Elon Musk takes over. But how has Twitter changed already? And how has it changed us? Earlier this year — before all the Musk madness — we celebrated our 15-year Twitter anniversaries. In this episode, we discuss the highs, lows, and lolz of adulting on Twitter. And we share some of our hopes for how the platform evolves in the future.
Surely, we’ll look back on our first podcast episode with the same level of cringe as looking back on our first tweets — which is why we could use your feedback! Let us know what you think and please join us on Twitter Spaces to share your thoughts about Twitter and what it could become.
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
Welcome to The 12 Inquiries, a year-long conversation between two friends about 12 topics that interest us. You could call it a monthly salon, though that sounds a little grandiose. We hope you’ll join us in the conversation. Who knows, maybe we’ll become friends.
Enter your email to subscribe to the newsletter
A couple of lines about us. We were both born in 1980. Luis has lived his life split between Mexico and the United States. David has lived most of his life in the United States and some in Mexico. We met in 2010 at a rooftop party in Mexico City, where we fell into an hours-long conversation about culture, technology, history, design, politics, and the meaning of life that has never really stopped.
Luis studied film and is the co-founder and creative director of More Starch, a boutique creative studio in Mexico City. David studied political science and is a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation, a grantmaking foundation in California.
As we’ve learned more about each other over the past decade, we’ve come to recognize and appreciate our differences. What unites us is a common curiosity. We’re much more interested in learning from one another than arguing about who’s right.
The Inquiries
So what will we talk about? Here’s a preview of the conversations we’ll have over the next three months:
15 Years on Twitter: How has Twitter changed over the past 15 years and how has it changed us? Also, how should we spend the next 15 years on Twitter? Or, should we?
Evolving Masculinity: What was it like to grow up with a 1990s culture of masculinity? How has it evolved? And what is our role in continuing its evolution?
Techno-stalgia: What does our nostalgia for the technologies of the past say about our relationship with the technologies of today? How do we navigate the tradeoffs between convenience and intention? And what are the technologies of today that we’ll be nostalgic for in the future?
The Format
Each conversation will take place over a month. We’ll publish an introductory newsletter and podcast episode the first week. During the second week, we’ll host a live conversation on Twitter Spaces with guests. On the third week, we’ll publish a short recap of what we learned, and respond to questions and comments we receive. During the fourth week, we rest. Well, really, we prepare for the next month’s inquiry.
Really? Another podcast?
Yes, we know, there’s a bit of a, shall we say, renaissance of buddy podcasts.
We think it’s great. Ever since we started this project, our conversations have become more meaningful. Our reading has become more deliberate. At first, we wondered if we’d manage to come up with 12 topics. Soon, we came up with a growing list of more than 20 that we are struggling to narrow down.
We’ll begin in July with our first conversation about the highs and lows of having spent 15 years on Twitter. Please join us by subscribing to the newsletter and look out for our first episode to land next month.
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