The Art and Science of Great Conversations

Conversation is a lot like art. It’s one of those uniquely human experiences that distills much complexity and infinite variety, verging on the indefinable. Unlike art, however, conversation is not a virtuoso endeavor. It is not only inherently an ensemble enterprise, it’s also how we share what we know, date and mate, and find security. Conversation has extraordinary powers to excite, our neurons being so sensitive to face-to-face engagement that they rapidly activate reward systems in our brains. Yet surveys show that it’s losing ground to texting and other forms of communication that, at best, provide some pale illusion of satisfaction.