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The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Talk to strangers

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.511.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sean talks with University of Chicago psychologist Nicholas Epley about the strange gap between our need to be social and how social we choose to be. They explore why we underestimate how good conversations will feel, why awkwardness looms so large in our minds, and how small acts of connection can make us happier, less lonely, and more open to the people around us. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling) Guest: Nicholas Epley We would love to hear from you. To tell us what you thought of this episode, email us at thegrayarea@vox.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your comments and questions help us make a better show. And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. New episodes drop every Monday and Friday.Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:06.0

For the time you forgot your charger at the gate.

0:08.0

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0:10.0

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0:13.0

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0:18.0

And built in intelligence so you can stay focused on whatever you're doing.

0:22.4

Dell Technologies, built for you.

0:24.4

Dell.com.uk forward slash Dell PCs.

0:30.7

Support for the show comes from Service Now.

0:34.1

AI is moving fast across the enterprise.

0:36.8

But without visibility, it's just chaos,

0:39.6

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0:45.3

now turns that chaos into control. With the AI control tower, you see all your AI across the

0:51.1

business in one place, what it's doing, what it's done, and what it's

0:55.0

about to do. So you stay in control. To put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.

1:07.7

There's a familiar drama that plays out all the time in ordinary life.

1:13.0

You're sitting next to someone on a train or standing in line at a coffee shop or thinking about calling an old friend.

1:21.0

And for a second, there's an opening.

1:25.1

You could say hello.

1:27.3

You could give the compliment. You could make that call.

1:31.7

But usually, you don't. Not because you don't care or you're a bad person, at least I hope you're not.

1:41.4

Normally, you're just unsure. You don't want to be awkward. You don't want to bother

...

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