Finish lines are supposed to be clear. Cross it. Celebrate. Move on...but what if they are not endings at all?

In the Season 1 finale of Listening for the Questions, Dr. Patti Fletcher, Dan Ward, and Lynne Cuppernull take on one of the most emotionally loaded ideas we carry with us: finish lines. Athletic. Professional. Academic. Personal. Visible and invisible. Chosen and imposed.

Drawing on Lynne’s experience as an Ironman triathlete, Dan’s background as an engineer and systems thinker, and Patti’s work around transformation, leadership, and life transitions, the conversation explores finish lines as waypoints, transitions, and sometimes illusions. From triathlons and PhDs to careers, gender equity, glass ceilings, and personal reinvention, the trio asks what really happens when we focus too tightly on the end instead of the experience.

Along the way, they wrestle with questions like:

• When does a finish line become a starting line?
• Whose finish line are you running toward and who chose it?
• What do we miss when we are too focused on crossing the line?
• What can we learn from not finishing?
• And who helped you get there in the first place?

This episode is thoughtful, funny, honest, and deeply human. It is about ambition, presence, partnership, and the courage to question whether the finish lines we chase actually belong to us.

As Season 1 comes to a close, this conversation invites you to pause, reflect, and ask yourself what you are building toward, who you are building with, and what might be waiting on the other side.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

Building something new sounds exciting. Rebuilding something after it breaks sounds exhausting. And yet most of us are living in a world where both are happening all at once. In this episode, Patti, Dan, and Lynne dig into the questions we should be asking when we talk about building and rebuilding and why these processes are never as simple as they seem.

Dan brings his experience as an engineer and technologist and admits that even in fields built on data and logic, most decisions are emotional ones. Lynne talks about coming back from a serious injury and how rebuilding a life and rebuilding a body are never separate experiences. Patti reflects on transformation and why rebuilding feels so loaded with history, memory, and meaning.

Together we explore questions about resilience, fragility, anti fragility, institutional collapse, community, collaboration, disagreement, and the emotions we attach to words like build and rebuild. We also look at what is worth rebuilding, what is better to build from scratch, and how personal rebuilding shapes everything else we try to create.

This conversation moves from sandcastles to frozen yogurt shops to democracy to the stories we tell ourselves about what should last and what should change. It is thoughtful, curious, and surprisingly funny in moments that remind us just how human these questions are.

If you are navigating change or trying to understand what should be saved, strengthened, or scrapped, this episode offers the questions that help you see the path more clearly.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

Magic is one of those topics everyone thinks they understand until someone asks a real question about it. In this episode, Patti, Dan, and Lynne step into the world of tricks, sleight of hand, wonder, and the deeper meaning of it all.

Dan adds a twist right from the start by revealing that he is not only an engineer and a technologist but also a magician who believes the best magic happens close up, in the moments when you are not sure what is real and what is not. That sets the stage for a conversation packed with curiosity and a surprising number of questions that have nothing to do with rabbits, hats, or sawing anyone in half.

Together we explore what magic actually is and why there is more to it than meets the eye. Why some people love it and some avoid it. What good magicians and bad magicians can teach us about leadership, creativity, timing, connection, and paying attention. We also look at what happens when we move past the tricks and start talking about transformation, invention, and the bold decision to imagine a third option when the world says there are only two.

Along the way we get into authentic human connection, wonder, belief, creativity, archetypes, sexism in magic, and the strange but very human desire to be surprised.

If you have ever wanted to peek behind the curtain, or if you are simply in the mood for a conversation that invites curiosity and possibility, this episode delivers.

Listen in and ask yourself a few magical questions.
Where might you find wonder this week. What mystery might you create. And who will you share it with.

Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.