Welcome to Let It Be Easy with Susie Moore.

Are you somebody who hates small talk?

I hear this a lot.

Oh, I want to go, but I hate all the small talk.

I hate this.

I hate the weather.

I hate talking about dumb things.

I hear this a lot and I get it. Small talk can feel

a little bit, not artificial, I suppose. It can feel like boring, banal, a little fake at times.

I feel like, you know, because at our core, we just really want to be our authentic selves. It's hard to,

you know, chat about things that aren't really interesting just to make nice with other people. And you know what? I actually learned an incredible question

from the one and only, the lovely Elizabeth Gilbert. You may know her as the author of E. Pray, Love,

and many other bestselling books. But her and I were speaking at the same event a couple of years ago here in Miami,

and I really enjoyed her talk because she posed this question to different people that she met

all over the world in different settings, and I've completely borrowed it. I love to use this with

family I haven't seen in ages, with strangers.

If I, you know, for example, go to a dinner and I know maybe my friend who invited me, but I don't

know other people, I love to put this question out there. It brings good vibes. I feel like you

learn a lot about people quickly. And it just raises, like it raises the energy in a conversation because we talk about something

meaningful, not like, oh, what do you do? Where did you grow up? Things that might not be interesting

to any of us. Plus, a lot of people don't want to be defined by the work that they do or where they

grew up or where they went to school. And a lot of the questions that come up in small

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