Welcome. I'm Kevin Miller. This is a podcast about how we make meaning of live and experience the

miracle of living. In this episode, how to deepen relationships with well-constructed questions.

So cultural testimony right now is that while we are in more contact with people than ever,

we're also feeling more isolated, disconnected, and lonely.

That's not some broad brush opinion of mine, but I continue to get the research and surveys to back this up

and to just be a person out in the world experiencing other folks.

We seem to be a culture so hungry to be heard and understood and loved. And from this,

we've become a culture that works so hard to tell. We want to tell our opinion and our viewpoint

and thoughts and feelings and be accepted and affirmed, and we ask fewer and fewer

questions and have fewer and fewer questions ask of us. But this isn't a focus on simply

asking more questions, but asking meaningful questions that foster true connection. So my guest

calls them well-constructed questions. Topaz Adises is an Emmy

award-winning writer-director and experienced design architect. Really like that label. He's an

Edmund Hillary Fellow and Sundance Skull Stories of Change Fellow. His works have been selected to Cannes, Sundance, IDFA, and

South by Southwest, featured in New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and he's garnered an

Emmy for new approaches to documentary. He is currently the founder and executive director of the experience design studio,

The Skin Deep. There's my focus. If you'll go to YouTube and search for The Skin Deep,

you'll find his channel. He's got almost a million subscribers. And on the channel,

you will see couples. They may be married or parent and child or best

friends or any pairing of two people desiring a close relationship and they take turns answering

questions that Topaz and his team have prepared. Questions that open each other up and connect. So I just fascinate myself with the concept

and really feel like I connected, as you'll hear with Topaz. He has a new book that digs into the

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