Ask better questions with Dr Amy McLennan

Why staying curious is a skill - and how you can learn it. In this episode, Jen and Producer Nico sit down with Dr Amy McLennan, a medical anthropologist and systems thinker at ANU School of Cybernetics, for a conversation about AI, health, and why the smartest tech conversations are never as simple as for or against. And it's such a huge one, we've made it into 2 episodes.. so make sure you subscribe and catch both! Dr Amy breaks down why curiosity is a skill, why asking questions can feel weirdly uncomfortable, and why something as ordinary as eggs can reveal how wildly connected our systems really are. If you’re trying to make sense of the AI wave, the health data gap, or the pressure to have a hot take on everything, this one is a smart place to start. You’ll hear about the real world stuff that tech headlines love to skip over: a surgical robot that couldn’t fit through the hospital door, the giant blind spots in women’s health data, and why “AI will save us” is just as unhelpful as “AI will ruin everything.” If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a star rating, and give us a quick review. It helps more people find the show and supports our mission to share stories from leaders shaping tomorrow’s health, tech, and inclusion... like Amy McLennan, Victor Dominello, Cindy Gallop, Ida Tin and more. Watch us on YouTube Flip the Focus Season 3 Amy McLennan Find out more about the books, people, and ideas in this episode: Frank Makes a Factory by Josh Noble and Simona Dango: A piece of speculative fiction Amy uses to show how systems can be shaped by hidden assumptions. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez: referenced by Jen in the discussion about women being left out of data and design. American Sirens by Kevin Hazzard: the book Amy mentions about the Freedom House Ambulance Service and the roots of modern emergency medicine. Sir Ken Robinson: Jen's reference (and one of her heroes) in the discussion about education systems, creativity, and industrial style thinking. Clue and Ida Tin: Jen mentions them as an example of women’s health tech that is thoughtful about data and privacy. (You can hear Ida Tin in Season One of Flip the Focus, she's incredible.) David Ogilvy: Jen references as an example of starting from human insight. Watson: Producer Nico mentions this in the AI history discussion as part of the longer arc of machine learning and pattern recognition.