Small talk may be the most maligned category of conversation. For many, it's a time-waster with no redeeming qualities other than mindless chatter. Yet, when properly understood and applied, small ...

Small talk has a bad reputation. People roll their eyes at it and see it as a dreaded necessity that they need to get out of ...

When Gillian Sandstrom was a graduate student in Toronto more than a decade ago, she encountered a stranger on the subway who was carrying a scrumptious-looking cupcake. Sandstrom had long considered ...

Do you dread trading niceties with retail clerks and assorted other strangers when you are out in public? Do you go out of your way to avoid neighbors and co-workers so that you do not have to engage ...

Making small talk can be hard—especially when you’re not sure whether you’re doing it well. But conversations are a central part of relationship-building. In this first episode of How to Talk to ...

Think about what it's like to be at a birthday dinner where you have to interact with your friend's neighbors for the first time, or what it's like to be waiting for a Zoom to begin with coworkers you ...