Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on IHeartRadio.

And welcome to the new time slot. I'm so glad you're here.

The Carol Markowitz show now airs Wednesdays and Fridays so you can get my non-political show,

this one, the Carol Markowitz show on Wednesdays and Fridays, and then normally my political podcast that I co-host with

Mary Catherine Ham every Tuesday and Thursday. The only day you don't get me is Monday. Last week,

we talked about loneliness among teenagers, how hard it is not so much to even make friends,

but to maintain the friendships, to coordinate plans, all of that.

I said that every group of friends needs a cruise director, and a few of you wrote to me that you enjoyed the expression and usage.

Today, I want to talk about how to be likable, with a focus on one part of likability,

being interesting.

We openly talk about this with our kids.

In today's episode, you'll hear Grace Curley say that her parents would advise her and her siblings

to, quote, land the plane when one of their stories got too long-winded. I feel like there's this thing that

parents are supposed to think everything their kid does is perfect and amazing and never correct

them. I do not parent like that. You want to teach your kids to be nice people, to be good people,

thoughtful, but also to be interesting people,

not annoying people. You want them to be the kind of people that other people want to be around.

One of the things we tell our kids is that when they're telling a story, make it funny, be interesting.

Don't just ramble on the details of your day. We've all

met the adults who just love hearing themselves talk. I don't want my kids to turn out like

that. I want their stories to have a point. I want them to be interesting to listen to.

There are other bad personality traits we try to discourage them out

...