If you could have any question answered, what would you ask?

Episode 270: What does your cat think about you? How different would your life be if you’d made one different decision? And how many people have you influenced without ever knowing it?

Some of life’s most compelling mysteries are deeply personal. On this episode of “The Ethical Life,” hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada each bring three questions they would like answered. Inspired by a New York Times collection of unanswered questions, their conversation moves from household pets to the possibility of an afterlife, exploring what our curiosity reveals about our values.

Rada begins with his cat. Does he care about the people who feed him? Is he happy? What does the world look like through his eyes? Kyte’s first question follows a similar path: How does animal instinct work? A salmon returning to its birthplace or an oriole weaving a nest can accomplish something extraordinary without anyone explaining the process. Calling it instinct, Kyte suggests, doesn’t necessarily satisfy our curiosity.

The discussion becomes more personal when Rada considers the lives he might have lived. A last-minute college decision changed his plans, while a friendship with a co-worker eventually opened the door to his newspaper career. Those experiences raise a possibility both fascinating and unsettling: Decisions that seem insignificant can shape decades of our lives.

Kyte turns to what might come after those lives end. He and Rada approach the possibility of an afterlife from different perspectives, prompting a candid exchange about faith, consciousness and the limits of human understanding.

Another mystery concerns the effects we leave behind. Rada wonders how often a conversation, a kindness or something he wrote has mattered to someone without his knowledge. Kyte recalls encountering a former student who credited a seemingly ordinary gesture — being offered coffee — with helping him stay in college. The encounter offers a reminder that our greatest influence may come during moments we barely remember.

Their final question looks toward humanity’s future: Is a caring, peaceful society possible? Kyte and Rada consider whether human tendencies inevitably undermine that ambition and whether smaller communities offer reasons for hope.

Throughout the episode, the hosts invite listeners to consider their own mysteries. Which answers would satisfy passing curiosity, and which might change how you understand your life?

Scott Rada is a digital strategist with Lee Enterprises, and Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Kyte is also the author of "Finding Your Third Place: Building Happier Communities (and Making Great Friends Along the Way)."

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