Infamously irritating, halfalogues are the half of a conversation you overhear when someone near you is talking on their phone. Researchers have shown that these partial interactions are much harder to tune out than two-way conversations, confirming what writers have always known: omission in dialogue is more powerful than saying it all.

Mentioned in this episode: Galván VV, "The Effects of Cell Phone Conversations on the Attention and Memory of Bystanders" in PLoS ONE (2013).

Music: Carole Cassier

The Quarantine Quill is a creative writing podcast hosted by Anna Polonyi with the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking. The podcast will be bringing you a daily writing tip and prompt for as long as PICT's creative writing events are on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. For more details on the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking, please visit parisinstitute.org.