27 explainers
Listening culture
Listening as respect, as a trainable skill and as the thing that makes disagreement possible.
One question. Many voices.
Ask one question. Hear every side.
One question at a time, turned over from every angle. What Says is a free library of 210 evergreen explainers on asking well, listening well and what it means to have a voice.
8questions, one per section
210explainers to read
40perspectives on the home page
This week's question
One question. Five ways in.
Each week the page opens on a new question, one for each of the eight sections of the library. Fan out the cards to see how different explainers come at it, then follow the one that speaks to you.
The questions are prompts written for this page. Every perspective card is the opening line of a library explainer, linked to the full article. None of them is a quote from a member of the public.
Answers
Your turn to answer.
Every voice starts with one honest sentence. Try yours against the question on screen. It stays on this page and in your browser tab only: nothing is sent, saved or published.
Answering: Community wisdom
Where does a community keep what it knows?
Good answers start with good listening
Running a vox pop
How many voices get gathered.
The street interview is the oldest way to put one question to many people. Five steps, each one an explainer in the library.
Choosing Where to Stand for a Street Interview
Where you plant yourself for a street interview shapes everything that follows.
Consent Before the Microphone Comes Out
Good vox pop practice starts before a single question is asked.
Approaching Strangers on the Street With Respect
Walking up to a stranger and asking for their opinion is, on the surface, a small act, but it carries real weight for the person being approached, who has no way of knowing your intentions...
Keeping a Street Question Under Ten Seconds
A stranger on the street has given you something valuable before you have even asked a question: a moment of their time they did not plan to spend.
Editing Many Voices Into One Piece
A finished vox pop piece might use only thirty seconds from twenty minutes of recorded conversation, which means the editing choices matter as much as the questions asked.
Listening and knowing
The quiet half of every conversation.
An answer is only as good as the listening around it. Two sections of the library on hearing people properly, and on the knowledge communities keep between them.
26 explainers
Community wisdom
What gets passed down at the table, in the workshop and in the garden, long before anyone writes it down.
Many voices
210 explainers. 8 ways in.
Every article is free to read, short enough for a coffee break and written to be useful again next year.
The archive
Eight sections, one conversation.
Start anywhere. Each section opens with its first explainer and three more worth reading next.
