What is a Conversation, Anyway?

Speakers John Nygaard and Seth Tichenor

Season 13 of Wit & Wisdom opens by returning to a question Seth Tichenor and John Nygaard first explored together in April 2019: what is a conversation?

That spring, they looked at how easy it is to talk at one another. People who disagree speak past each other. Those of us who agree can settle into echo chambers so comfortable we stop noticing that echos require walls. And at the same time people long for connection. A kind of connection only possible when we participate in conversations that stretch us or surprise us and maybe change us. Possibly the most important thing a conversation can do is reassure us that we are not the only thoughtful one in the room - a deeply common and also lonely idea.

Seven years on, conversation has disintegrated. Many of us avoid conversations and even entire relationships because topics that were once avoided at the dinner table are now outright screaming matches with mashed potatoes. Many of us are wrestling with disbelief that a loved one could hold values that are at such odds with the person you thought them to be. And the longing to connect hasn't gone anywhere either.

So Seth and John are talking again. What’s the difference between two people taking turns talking and a conversation? Why does it feel harder now? Can a conversation really change a mind, or change the people having it? What are we hoping will happen when we converse deeply?

Whether you heard the first conversation in 2019 or this is your first Wit & Wisdom, bring your curiosity and your own sense of what has shifted. Also, bring your questions about how we move forward.