Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor.

We'll be back next week with another regular episode, but today I have something special for you.

Have you ever obsessed over the meaning of a punctuation mark at the end of a text message?

Or accidentally talked over a colleague during a video meeting and fumble to figure out who should start first?

Or maybe you just can't adjust to that one colleague's frustrating email style.

These awkward, sometimes anxiety-provoking moments are par for the course with virtual communication.

Humans rely on body language to understand each other.

But when most of our communication happens from behind a screen,

our usual signals can get easily lost or misinterpreted. In the new audiobook, Digital Body Language,

author Erica Duwan charts a path forward. Investigating a wide array of exchanges from

large conferences and video meetings to daily emails and texts, she offers insights

and solutions to build trust and clarity in our digital world. Keep listening for an exclusive

excerpt from the audiobook. And if you like what you hear, you can pick up a copy of digital

body language using the link in the show notes or wherever books or audiobooks are sold.

Chapter 1

What is Digital Body Language?

They had been going out for three years, when the fight conducted exclusively via text message occurred.

The fight lasted for hours back and forth, until at one point, frustrated and weary,

Laura tapped out.

So, are we through, question mark?

I guess so, Dave replied.

Laura was devastated.

...