There are all different kinds of people in this world. Some are socially fluent. They can walk into a room. They can make friends. They can meet people. And there are others who are, well, awkward. I am one of those awkward ones, which is why I was so excited to talk to Tai Tashiro. He's a psychologist

who studies social awkwardness. In fact, he wrote a whole book about it. It's called

Awkward, the Science of Why We're Social Awkward and Why That's Awesome. And it turns out

there are actually some huge advantages to being socially awkward.

So much so that socially fluent people might actually learn something from us socially awkward people.

Now, I'm not going to lie to you.

This conversation is at times a little bit awkward, but it's also awesome.

This is a bit of optimism.

Ty, I've never introduced a guest this way before, but I am so glad that you exist.

Well, thank you.

That's a really nice way to start off.

I am this person that you study and write about.

I am and have always been awkward.

My girlfriend would make fun of me, but lovingly.

She always admired that we would go to a party, for example.

We were at a social event.

And I had no idea how to insert myself into a conversation,

you know, how some people can just sidle up to a conversation and just join in.

And it's not awkward or weird or anything.

And I'd never known how to do that and so what I do

is I stand in the middle of the room or to the side but sometimes in the middle completely by

myself holding my drink just watching everybody and weirdly I'm totally comfortable doing it but

...