The Observation Deck is a deck of cards containing random prompts and questions like, What did you get picked on for as a kid? and Describe your worst haircut.  Two years or so into my magazine career, I put together a list of offbeat questions that I had learned were likely to get fun interesting answers from people. I'd take a Xeroxed copy of the list to each interview and select a handful of questions from it to throw in along with my questions about their latest project, their love life, etc.

When I started my interview podcast Dennis Anyone?, I put the questions on cards and at the beginning of each interview, while I was setting up, I'd have the subject to go through the deck and pick out a few questions that they thought would be fun or interesting to talk about. I told them if a question didn't resonate for them, to skip away because there were plenty of questions.

've made the segment part of Lifecast because it's fun and leads to answers and anecdotes you would never have gotten to otherwise.