# Busy person's guide to small-talk staples **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 14, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/busy-persons-guide-to-small-talk-staples/560670 "2010-11-14T20:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/busy-persons-guide-to-small-talk-staples/560670/1 "2010-11-14T20:48:37Z")
Lots of small talk revolves around having a very surface-level grasp of many different conversational areas. Depending on the occasion, this might mean sports, news, wine, music (classical or popular), or film. However, actually understanding this stuff requires a bit of time and energy, and lots of people (especially those in intense career paths or higher education) don’t have the time to pick up everything by osmosis. It struck me that there’s an opportunity here to write up a series of short guides to all these areas, except for news for which there are many digests already available. Because small-talk conversation tends to be superficial, it’s not _that_ much material to cover, and there’s usually no shame in admitting that your knowledge of Liszt or the '78 World Series isn’t encyclopedic. Anyone know if something like this has already been done? ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/busy-persons-guide-to-small-talk-staples/560670/2 "2010-11-14T23:26:01Z")
My husband just told me yesterday about [Dinner Party Download](http://www.publicradio.org/columns/dinnerpartydownload/about.html)from American Public Media: > [@](#): > > a fast and funny “booster shot” of news and culture designed to help you dazzle your friends and family at this weekend’s dinner party. In every 15 minute episode you’ll learn a joke…get the week’s major headlines…bone up on some history…drink in a cocktail recipe…meet an artist of note…savor an emerging food trend…and hear your new favorite song. Plus, unconventional wisdom from hosts Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam. It sounds like almost exactly what you’re describing, and a heckuva lot of fun. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/busy-persons-guide-to-small-talk-staples/560670/3 "2010-11-15T20:11:51Z")
Awesome!