"When you talk to strangers, you're making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life -- and theirs," says Kio Stark. In this delightful talk, Stark explores the overlooked benefits of pushing past our default discomfort when it comes to strangers and embracing those fleeting but profoundly beautiful moments of genuine connection.

Technology has made it easier than ever to live a frictionless life. Food and grocery delivery services, one-click shopping with 2 day delivery, outsourcing errands, asking AI every question, an app for every business, service, want. But what are we losing when we build a life around convenience? In this article from The Cut, Kathryn Jezer-Morton explores the concept of “friction maxxing,” and makes the case for both kids and adults building up tolerance to inconvenience, rather than treating it as something to be eliminated. In a 2018 essay for the New York Times, Tim Wu writes about how we must resist the “tyranny of convenience,” which offers us all destination and no journey, no learning from the human experience.

When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations — and that most of us don't converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations.

It’s easy to tell when someone’s not paying attention, but it can be surprisingly tricky to know what good listening looks like. Good listening is one of the most important things we can do to improve our relationships, develop our worldview, and potentially change people’s minds. So what can we do to become better listeners? Dig into different strategies that can improve your listening skills.