Dan Rothstein, co-founder of the Right Question Institute and co-director of democracy-building programs, was recently a guest on The Quest for Significance Podcast.
Hosted by Arie W. Kruglanski, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, and Dan Raviv, a veteran broadcast journalist and author, the podcast delves into “the universal need for significance.” It explores how central the sense of significance is in people’s lives and to their sense of dignity and self-respect. The podcast is a spinoff of their book, The Quest for Significance: Harnessing the Need that Makes the World Go Round.
On their show, Kruglanski and Raviv have interviewed a number of guests, including a Middle East peace mediator, an expert on radicalization and terrorism, and the leader of an organization seeking more nuanced coverage and stories about Africa.
Rothstein spoke to the hosts about the importance of being able to ask questions as a tool for “participation, to making your voice heard, to feeling like you can make a difference, to any sense of efficacy.”
He spoke about building people’s skills for formulating and using questions in education, advocacy, and democracy, asking, “What should be essential in a democracy? It should be people confidently, actively, assertively asking questions about decisions being made.”