Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Podcasts
    • Review
    • Essays
    • Old Chapel
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Review

The Power of Ask

How does one successfully navigate an increasingly complex world? Ask good questions, says journalist Frank Sesno ’77.

By Susan H. Greenberg
Illustration by Laura Liedo
July 25, 2017
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon
Ask More
by Frank Sesno

Frank Sesno ’77 has built a career out of asking questions. The former CNN anchor, White House correspondent, and Washington bureau chief has interviewed such prominent figures as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, both Presidents Bush, Jack Welch, and Yasser Arafat. He knows how to frame probing questions, listen carefully to responses, and challenge evasive answers.

In his new book, Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change, Sesno argues that the world would be a better, safer, more humane place if everyone learned to ask questions like a journalist—and really listen to the answers. Technology has created a “quick-hit, search-engine culture,” he writes, while social media infuses civic discourse “with invective instead of dialogue.” Only by replacing that culture of assertion and outrage with one that favors sincere, open-ended questioning can we hope to build compassion, foster understanding, and solve problems ranging from climate change to ethnic strife.

The book grew out of the Art of the Interview class that Sesno teaches at George Washington University, where he is the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs.

He himself interviewed more than 100 people for the project, most of them question askers by trade. Journalists Anderson Cooper, Terri Gross, and Jorge Ramos of Univision all make appearances, describing their philosophies and recounting memorable interview moments. Sesno also talks to politicians, entrepreneurs, military experts, therapists, and doctors, including Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who recalls the line of inquiry that eventually led to the development of the AZT cocktail to treat AIDS.

Part reportage, part memoir, and part how-to manual, Ask More details the kinds of questions that different situations require. Diagnostic questions, for instance, are used to determine why a plane crashed or a patient is ill, while entertaining questions inspire killer dinner-party conversations. Strategic questions determine objectives and anticipate obstacles in pursuit of a larger goal, and legacy questions help dying patients see the meaning in their lives. The book’s final section consists of a practical question guide for every occasion, from conducting a job interview to solving a crime.

Ironically, the most illuminating anecdotes may be those in which people recount the questions they didn’t ask. Former Joint Chief of Staff Colin Powell is still kicking himself a decade on for the Pentagon’s failure to thoroughly investigate the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction before it declared war on Iraq. And in the book’s most moving passages, Sesno candidly discusses his family upbringing and the questions he neglected to ask his own dying mother: “What are you proudest of in life?” “What’s one story you’d like me to tell my grandchildren about you?” He thinks he knows the answers, but still, he wishes he’d asked.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

More Than a Game

In a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, Abe Streep '04 introduces readers to the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team on a Native American reservation in Montana, where life's challenges are abundant.

By Alexander Wolff
Photograph by Devin Yalkin
October 21, 2022

Munya Munyati Has A Few Stories to Tell

Catching up with a young filmmaker who is rapidly making a name for himself at Vice.

By Mara Dolan
Film stills by Munya Munyati
September 16, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Dispatches

Japan Wants to Dump Water from a Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean

Middlebury's Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress thinks that's a terrible idea.

By Sierra Abukins
August 11, 2023

When Mini Golf Meets Reproductive Justice

A summertime staple becomes a first-of-its-kind teaching tool.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs by Todd Balfour
June 30, 2023

Welcome to All Things Scottish

Toward the end of the academic year, a group of Midd students turned Battell Beach into a setting that more closely resembled a Scottish moor.

By Caroline Crawford
Photograph by Brian MacDonald
June 30, 2023

Let’s Dance

How can one's digital experiences be interpreted through performance art? Choreographer Maia Sauer ’22 and a troupe of recent Midd grads attempt to find out.

By Alexandra Jhamb Burns '21.5
Photographs by Alexis Welch '22
June 2, 2023

The Repatriation

The Leopard Head Hip Ornament returns to Africa.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Courtesy Middlebury Museum of Art
February 16, 2023

Adventures in Filmmaking

Two professors and an alum have embarked on a journey to take a screenplay from its creation to the end product of a full-length feature film.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Still Photograph from The Swim Lesson Proof of Concept
February 14, 2023

A Night Out

For one evening in December, Atwater dining hall hosted a student-dining experience unlike any other.

By Caroline Crawford
Photographs by Paul Dahm
January 20, 2023

Finding His Way

What happens when your identity is stolen—not by another person but by your own body?

By Sara Thurber Marshall
December 15, 2022

A Natural Selection

For more than a quarter century, Stephen Trombulak— now an emeritus professor of biology and environmental studies—guided students in avian research on a parcel of College land hard by Otter Creek. This preserved area now bears his name.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photography by Paul Dahm
November 18, 2022
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Making Democracy Real

An Update on Our Conflict Transformation Initiative

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Brian Staufer
January 20, 2023

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Old Stories Being Told Differently, Part 1, featuring Carolyn Finney

Our guest for episode three of season three is Carolyn Finney, who is a storyteller, author, cultural geographer, and self-described “accidental environmentalist” whose work explores the intersection of identity, privilege, and our natural surroundings. In part one of this two-part interview, Carolyn joins host and president of Middlebury, Laurie Patton, to discuss how her upbringing and family history in Westchester County, New York became the foundation of her life’s work.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
September 18, 2023

Every Book You Write Is a Mystery, feat. Rebecca Makkai, MA English ’04

Our guest for episode two of season three is Rebecca Makkai, MA English '04, a critically acclaimed novelist and short story writer. She joins Laurie Patton to discuss her teaching career, overcoming writer's block, her time at Bread Loaf, dabbling in other genres or mediums for inspiration, and her deep personal roots to Vermont.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
May 30, 2023

The Virus Hunter, feat. Anne Rimoin ’92

Our guest for episode one of season three of this podcast is an epidemiologist who is an internationally recognized expert on global health, disease surveillance, and immunization. Anne Rimoin '92 joins Laurie Patton to discuss what it takes to be on the front lines as an emerging infectious disease researcher.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 17, 2023

Review

Editors’ Picks for July and August

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
August 11, 2023

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

Creating Community Through Hip Hop

For three days in March, the sounds, styles, and fashions of global hip hop converged on Middlebury for an electric symposium.

By Jordan Saint-Louis '24
April 17, 2023

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2023 Middlebury College Publications.