How To! with Charles Duhigg

Small talk has a bad reputation. It's boring, shallow, and awkward. Who really wants to talk about the weather, again? But, when done right, it can be a cornerstone of connection. In this episode, Carvell Wallace is joined by Susan McPherson, the author of The Lost Art of Connecting. Susan is going to help our listener, Bee, navigate the uncomfortable small talk that she endures everyday at school pickup. Along the way, we'll learn what questions to have in our back pocket, how to turn small talk into big talk, and even how to extract ourselves from conversations that are going on too long.

If you liked this episode, check out: How To Talk to Strangers and How To Make Humor Your Superpower

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer and our producer is Rosemary Belson.

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Sometimes reading our news feeds can feel like getting hit by a semi-truck of devastating information, without really knowing how to respond. We can't always tune the world out, which means we need to figure out how to be an empathetic person within the chaos. In this episode, Courtney Martin is joined by public theologian and best-selling author, Nadia Bolz-Weber, as well as artist and activist, Jen Bloomer. Together they explore what it means to actually respond to tragedy and injustice.

LINKS:

Jen Bloomer's artwork

Valerie Kaur's book See No Strangers

If you liked this episode, check out: How To Have a Healthier News Diet: Part 1 and Part 2.

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer and our producer is Rosemary Belson.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When he's not working on How To! or coaching his daughter's basketball team, our producer Derek John loves to play in pickup games with friends. But a serious on-court injury has kept him on the sidelines for months. Now, as he prepares to return to the sport he loves, Derek is seeking tips on how to prolong his playing days while avoiding another injury. In this episode, author Jeff Bercovici joins Carvell Wallace and Derek to share insights from his book, Play On: The New Science of Elite Performance at Any Age.

If you liked this episode, check out: How To Trick Your Brain Into Running Longer.

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer and our producer is Rosemary Belson. This episode was produced by Kevin Bendis.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jonny is a 26 year-old bachelor whose cooking often leads to heartache (and for one ex-girlfriend, a stomach ache). Jonny admits he's a klutz in the kitchen, so we hooked him up with Sam Sifton, cookbook raconteur and head of the New York Times's Cooking section. In this episode of How To! we see if we can teach our love-lorn Millennial to cook one perfect meal. Is romantic bliss just a well-browned chicken thigh away? (Recipe included!)

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Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jonny is a 26 year-old bachelor whose cooking often leads to heartache (and for one ex-girlfriend, a stomach ache). Jonny admits he's a klutz in the kitchen, so we hooked him up with Sam Sifton, cookbook raconteur and head of the New York Times's Cooking section. In this episode of How To! we see if we can teach our love-lorn Millennial to cook one perfect meal. Is romantic bliss just a well-browned chicken thigh away? (Recipe included!)

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at How To! headquarters, we give and receive a lot of good advice. This year we learned to love our faces, started reading again, aced an interview, dealt with difficult parents, said goodbye to our pets, cooked chaotically, moved to a new country, navigated adult autism, and breathed like Navy SEALs. On this episode, co-hosts Carvell Wallace and Courtney Martin are joined by former host Amanda Ripley. They break down their favorite advice of the year and share some surprising updates from folks who were on the show.

Did we forget to mention your favorite advice of the year? Let us know with a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson and Kevin Bendis.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dan enlisted in the Army in 2003 during the early phase of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He just retired after 20 years of service—and is adjusting to myriad challenges of civilian life while also managing PTSD, ADHD and new sobriety. On this episode of How To!, Bob Beard of Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination joins us to talk about a new program that's helping veterans like Dan plan for the distant future using science fiction, conceptual art, and strategies employed by Fortune 500 companies.

If you liked this episode, check out How To Breathe Like a Navy SEAL.

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson and Kevin Bendis.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you haven't heard of ChatGPT, chances are you will soon. Maybe you've tried casually playing with the artificial intelligent chatbot. Maybe you've tried avoiding it. Or maybe ChatGPT is the new host of this podcast and you haven't realized it yet. Either way, we're on the precipice of a new, powerful technology. On this episode of How To!, co-hosts Carvell Wallace and Amanda Ripley join forces to talk through all things artificial intelligence. They bring on Kevin Roose, tech columnist for the New York Times and co-host of the Times' podcast, Hard Fork. He will explain how A.I. chatbots work, how to use them for good, how they may be used for, well, not so good, and what you should do if it starts hitting on you.

If you liked this episode, check out: "How To Beat Hackers at Their Own Game."

Do you wonder how best to use your time? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

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Allison is on the hunt for her next hobby. One that's satisfying. One that she can stick with. One that will fit into her family's very busy schedule. Except…maybe she's thinking about that last part all wrong. On this episode of How To!, Courtney Martin brings on Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space. Eve argues that drawing—and defending—boundaries for individual, creative pursuits is necessary for living a fulfilled life. She'll share how to balance domestic labor in order to carve out creative space and pick something that makes your soul sing.

If you liked this episode, check out: How To Stop "Having It All" (Before You End Up With Nothing)

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson and Kevin Bendis.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A parent's main job is to protect. But what happens when your parent doesn't protect you? What happens when they not only let bad things happen to you, but they doubt and dismiss you when you ask them for help? Our listener, Haylie, decided to go no-contact with her father after multiple attempts to reconcile their relationship. Now she wants to know how to grieve the death of the relationship. On this episode of How To!, Patrick Teahan, licensed clinical social worker and childhood trauma therapist, joins us to explain why cutting off a parent is so difficult, why we grieve these relationships, and how to start healing.

If you liked this episode, check out: How To Walk Away from an Impossible Parent

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson, with Kevin Bendis and Jabari Butler.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.