Hi! My name is Aric McKeown. Welcome to the first episode of the Better Strangers podcast. With this podcast, I hope to explore the art of conversation and what makes me so bad at it. To accomplish this, I plan to have as many conversations with complete strangers as possible.

Each episode will be show you the awkward “getting to know you” phase of meeting someone. This is something that nearly petrifies me. In fact, when hearing the ringtone leading up to this first conversation, my heart was racing like a jackrabbit and I started to feel sick. Like when you’re calling a girl (or guy) that you like in middle school. Middle school. Talk about awkward.

In this first episode, I have a wonderful chat with Marne Gerdes. If this chat had gone horribly wrong, this might have been the only episode of this podcast. But Marne was open and talkative and great.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t awkward. Oh, was I ever.

To give you the real flavor of these conversations, I am leaving in all the pauses and stammers. This is about seeing what a conversation really looks like. Not one prettied up like that fast talking nonsense on the Gilmore Girls.

Also, I know there isn’t a drinking game out for this podcast because this is the first episode. But you might want to drink every time I say “exactly.” Don’t worry. You will be drunk very quickly.

So, please. Enjoy the podcast. And if you are interested, please consider submitting your information to participate in a conversation with me. Participate in a conversation? That couldn’t sound any more dry if I tried. It’ll be better than that. I swear!