The Conversations that Bring Us Closer

What’s the difference between being loved and feeling loved? Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky joins us to discuss the distinction, and how we can create a stronger feeling of closeness in our relationships. Then, in our latest installment of Your Questions Answered, psychologist Gr ...  Show more

Does power truly flow from the barrel of a gun? Pop culture and conventional history often teach us that violence is the most effective way to produce change. But is that common assumption actually true? Political scientist Erica Chenoweth, who has studied more than 100 years of ...  Show more

This new season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This episode is the last in the collection and is from our fourth season, How to Talk to People. T ...  Show more

What can we learn about the way we speak by analysing thousands of everyday conversations? That’s a question that fascinates Alison Wood Brooks. Alison, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, and author of the forthcoming book, Talk: The Science of Conversation and th ...  Show more

Some conversations are uncomfortable, but avoiding them comes with a cost.You want a more successful career, a more fulfilling relationship, a more meaningful life? What if all that’s standing in your way — are the conversations that you’re avoiding?“Most things that we want in l ...  Show more

Alison Wood Brooks (Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves) is a behavioral research scientist. Alison joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why growing up as a twin is like watching an alternate version of your own life, how we underestimate the compl ...