Our common nature is a musical journey with Yo-Yo Ma and me, Ana Gonzalez, through this complicated country.

We go into caves, onto boats, and up mountain trails to meet people, hear their stories, their poetry, and of course, play some music, all to reconnect to nature and get closer to the things we're missing.

Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC, wherever you get podcasts.

It's Lynn Rosetta-Castor with the splendid table.

Thank you. Lynn Rosetta-Casper with the splendid table. A study found that we're losing our ability to communicate face-to-face.

We're beginning to do better with our thumbs and a screen than with reading facial expressions and body language.

I mean, let's face it, conversation is going the way of the dodo.

Well, of course, my solution is sit down over a meal.

But then what?

I mean, how do you get a conversation started with people who barely know each other?

Well, you could say that writer Daniel Meneker has psyched out how we barely know each other. Well, you could say that writer Daniel Menicker

has psyched out how we talk to each other. And he has some advice that goes beyond 140 characters.

So it's breaking the ice around the dinner table and more this hour on the splendid table. The Splendid Table.

This week's Splendid Table is a repeat of an earlier broadcast.

Hi, it's Lynn Rosetta, Casper, and you're listening to The Splendid Table, the show for people who love to eat. Our program is produced by American Public

Media. Well, we're working on another book, and I've been transported back to my Chinese

cooking days. I've been working on a recipe for master sauce. Now, let me explain. I had read that

there was a sauce in China that was used to poach poultry in meats,

and it was used again and again, and each time it picked up more flavor.

Now, the rumor was that the sauce was handed down generation to generation.

It was so precious that you'd included in your will.

Well, that's a great story, but of course, is it true?

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