Conversation isn’t taught in school the way writing and public speaking are, so we have to pick it up on our own—which is one reason there’s such wide variation in how satisfying our conversations are ...

You know the feeling. You’re at a party, doing your best to chat up the room, when suddenly the conversation falls off a cliff. You’ve asked all the small-talk staples: what they do, where they’re ...

Early in my magazine career, I landed an interview with a relatively famous celebrity (who I will not name for reasons that will become obvious). I was desperate to make a good impression, so while ...

What happens when we become too dependent on our mobile phones? According to MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, author of the new book Reclaiming Conversation, we lose our ability to have deeper, more ...

Think about the last time you told a story to a friend. You probably adjusted it halfway through. You saw their eyebrows lift. You noticed them lean in, or glance away. You clarified a detail. You ...

That awkward silence. We’ve all been there. Maybe it’s when you’re meeting someone for the first time. On a date, even. Or in a job interview. Have you ever felt afraid that you would run out of ...

There was once a time when strangers talked to one another, sometimes eagerly. “In past eras, daily life made it necessary for individuals to engage with others different from themselves,” Paula ...

We need to start an important conversation about all of the important conversations we need to have. Our backlog of important conversations seems to be growing at a much faster rate than these actual ...

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