Holiday (and Life) Hack: How To Turn Awkward Conversations Into Meaningful Moments
The Most Dramatic Podcast Ever
iHeartPodcasts
4.4 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Everyone has been there at a family or friend gathering…. That awkward moment of silence in a conversation, followed by uncomfortable laughter or even a topic you don’t want to discuss. Amy and T.J. have some expert tips on how to become a “topic manager” and learn to become a “responsive listener.” We even share an amazing list of holiday themed icebreakers that you can keep in your back pocket to make all of your conversations fun, meaningful and memorable.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.1 | Hey there, everybody. |
| 0:07.8 | Merry Christmas. |
| 0:08.8 | It is Thursday, December 25th, and we hope you are enjoying time with your family, although |
| 0:15.8 | this is a time where you get family on steroids, a lot of time, maybe with your close family members, |
| 0:22.5 | but also with your extended family and maybe some of their friends and neighbors. |
| 0:26.4 | And there's a lot of small talk, a lot of catching up to do. |
| 0:29.9 | Sometimes things can get awkward. |
| 0:31.6 | Sometimes you can get into conversations you would like to get out of. |
| 0:35.7 | Well, we have some tips so you can avoid some of that awkward small talk and actually |
| 0:42.5 | enjoy the conversations. |
| 0:44.4 | It begins, though, T.J, with being ready to be a topic manager. |
| 0:49.4 | A topic manager. |
| 0:50.6 | You have to go into your own family with a plan. |
| 0:53.1 | Okay, first of all, that's a problem. |
| 0:56.1 | With a, you call it a what, a, say it again, a topic manager? Topic manager. They're saying |
| 1:01.6 | you should be prepared to be a topic manager for the family, for the group, okay. Correct. Correct. |
| 1:06.6 | Because if you have topics ready to divert to, if you've actually prepared slightly before you |
| 1:11.7 | walk into this family party, look, between now Christmas Day and New Year's Day, it is almost |
| 1:16.8 | certain most of you listening will be in some sort of family function, some sort of extended |
| 1:23.2 | family function or a party of some sort where you don't know everybody that well or you're |
... |
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