What are we in the golden age of?
Hi everyone, welcome to the first edition of the (new) Ask Roulette newsletter. Ask Roulette was a live show and podcast I hosted for many years in which strangers asked each other questions live on stage. You came with a question you wanted to ask a stranger, and got randomly paired to discuss it on stage.
I loved doing it, we built up a great community, and I miss it. So this is my attempt to try to recapture some of what was special about Ask Roulette.
Here’s how it works.
Each edition, at the top of the newsletter, I’ll post an answer to the previous question, sent in by a reader.
That reader will then ask their question.
I’ll collect the answers and pick one to highlight the following newsletter, along with that reader’s question. And the chain continues.
Make sense? Maybe? Here we go.
Previous Question:
What are we currently in the golden age of?
Answer:
This one's pretty specific, but underwater cave exploration. Cave diving got its start back in the late 60s/early 70s. It developed a reputation for being extremely dangerous, mainly due to the lack of training and general unreliability of equipment. Lots of people died and valuable lessons were learned from the causal factors. Today, equipment is extremely reliable if properly maintained. The likelihood of experiencing a major failure is slim. Training has also developed exponentially to the point where a well trained cave diver with high quality, well maintained equipment takes on more risk driving to the dive site than actually cave diving (to an extent. More complex profiles change the math a bit, but most risk can be mitigated). As a result of this, along with technological innovation, exploration is blowing up. Highly experienced teams are laying miles of survey line at depths exceeding 300'. I've seen pictures and video of previously unexplored cave passages that have seen fewer people than the surface of the moon.
There are connections waiting to be made and entirely new systems waiting to be discovered. We may have largely explored the surface of the earth, but we know very little about what's underneath the surface (as well as under the oceans). True exploration is alive and well and the only barrier to how far someone can go is how much time, effort, money, and dedication they're willing to put into it.
(since this was the first in the chain, I borrowed from a great reddit thread that asked this question. from here on out, all the questions and answers will be from readers of this newsletter)
Next Ask:
What is a smallish thing that you’re incredibly good at?
If you’d like to answer this question, you can simply hit reply to this email and write it in. Be sure to also include a question that you’d like to submit next.
If picked, I’ll only use your first name. If you prefer to stay anonymous you can fill out the form here. Or, you can just lurk and read.
One note: Since your answer will be the bulk of the next newsletter, feel free to expound. Tell us a story.
And we’re off.
(for now, this newsletter is free for all. With enough subscriptions, we’ll be able to expand in cool ways and offer extra content for the Ask Roulette community. So, think about it)
Bits and Pieces
From time to time, I’ll throw some updates, links, and other notes at the bottom of the newsletter.
Recent additions to the Perfect Songs playlist.
“You Are Giving Me Some Other Love” by Penny & The Quarters
“Woe Is Me” by The Walkmen
“I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” by Stevie Wonder
Chicago! We’re doing a cool thing this Sunday, premiering a brand new episode of 30 for 30 Podcasts. It’s about steroids, book publishing, Congressional hearings; it’s a fun one. Come say hi, and spread the word to all your Chicago friends. (By the way, I’m doing a number of other live events this fall. More info here.)
A great Twitter account: Crap 90s Football.
This summer I listened to Station Eleven on Audible. It’s perfect, and particularly perfect for the Trump era. Here’s how: it evoked a sense of foreboding, which I live with each day; but it didn’t actually speak to the Trump era in any way I could put my finger on. So it felt escapist, and emotionally useful for working through whatever it is we’re trying to work through right now. That probably doesn’t make sense. Point is, it’s real good.
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