No Stupid Questions

Angela Duckworth wrote the bestselling book Grit, which many high schoolers have already encountered in class or from their parents. Her podcast with tech and sports executive Mike Maughan takes the curious, research-driven mindset from that book and applies it to everyday questions. Why do we want what we can't have? Is binary thinking ruining our ability to see nuance? What makes great advice actually great? The show has 313 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from about 3,500 reviews. The format is a conversation between two people who genuinely enjoy arguing with each other in a friendly way. Duckworth brings the academic rigor and cites studies by name. Maughan brings real-world experience and a willingness to push back on the data when his intuition disagrees. The chemistry between them is what makes the show work. Episodes run about 30 to 40 minutes and release weekly. Part of the Freakonomics Radio network, the production quality is high and the tone stays consistently warm and curious. For students, the appeal is obvious. The questions the show tackles are exactly the kind of things you wonder about during a boring class or a late-night conversation with friends, but Duckworth and Maughan actually research the answers instead of just guessing. Topics connect to psychology, sociology, economics, and philosophy without ever feeling like a lecture. The show also models something valuable: how to disagree respectfully, change your mind based on evidence, and stay genuinely open to being wrong.