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Welcome back to Conversations with Tyler.

Today, we have my colleague, Robin Hansen, and with Robin, we go meta.

So Robin, if politics is not about policy, medicine is not about health, laughter is not about jokes,

and food is not about nutrition, what are podcasts not about?

As you know, in my new book, The Elephant and the Brain Hidden Modus in Everyday Life,

we have a whole chapter on conversation, which I expect you have perused.

And the claim we make in there is that although we like to talk about conversation

as if it was about imparting information and finding out useful things,

more plausibly it's about showing off your backpack of tools and skills in context.

So what am I trying to signal with the first question in a podcast?

Well, you are showing your versatility here.

You are showing lots of things.

You're showing how well you know me.

And this is the sort of question I like and can engage.

And the audience that you have an unusual perspective on things.

And as usual, apparently, people like your conversations because you have some magic sauce,

some special way that you can show that you get to people in a way that other people can't.

...