Questions to ask famous people and historical figures
Nobody gets an hour with Gandhi, Harriet Tubman or Marilyn Monroe, but writing the questions is a good way to study a life. These sets put questions to named people, past and living, usually as an imagined interview for a class, a book group or a fan. Many are tied to what the person wrote and did.
A few to start with
What is the difference between a friend you enjoy and a friend you would die for?
He sorts friendship into three kinds, based on utility, on pleasure, and on character, and only the third is stable, because the first two dissolve when the use or the pleasure does. Most people recognize their own friendships in the ranking and dislike where some of them land.
What happened when you were struck in the head as a girl, and what did you live with afterward?
An overseer threw a weight that hit her head, and she had seizures, headaches and sleeping episodes for the rest of her life. She also understood the visions that followed as messages from God, so this single event connects her disability and her faith and cannot be left out of either story.
Why did you turn towards poverty and economics after the Voting Rights Act passed?
The shift to housing, wages and the Poor People's Campaign is the least remembered part of his work and the least comfortable. It raises the question of what legal equality does not fix.
What is the difference between an interview and a conversation?
A question about the form itself, and one she is unusually placed to answer, having spent decades blurring the two on purpose. Press on whether the guest always knows which one they are in.
How do two people with demanding careers decide whose turn it is?
A question about logistics rather than romance, which is why it works. Ask for a specific negotiation they had, since couples remember particular arguments about moves and jobs far more clearly than they remember any general philosophy.
Did you ever intend to free the people you enslaved, and what stopped you?
He freed very few, most of them members of the Hemings family, while debt and Virginia law were both available as explanations. The question tests whether he treats those as constraints or as excuses.