You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.

I am your host, Chris Duffy, and this is the first episode of season five of our show.

Thank you so much for listening.

I am so, so, so glad that we are back.

On today's episode, we're going to be talking about what it means to gather together and to gather well.

And that feels to me like a very appropriate topic for our first episode back,

because what does it mean to reunite with you, the listeners? What does our audio podcast

coming back together party look like? I'm kind of joking, but I'm kind of not. Regardless of that,

more importantly, what does it look like when you get together in person with your friends or your family or your

coworkers or even with strangers? How do you do that in a way that is fun and meaningful but also

builds relationships? In my life, I've been to a few parties that were so fun and unique that I

will think about them forever. One example is my friend Will once hosted a dinner party where everyone was

only allowed to bring different types of soups. And then after eating a bunch of soup, we all

went home before 9 p.m. To me, oh, that was a perfect event, a truly perfect dinner party.

Now, I've also been to some absolutely horrendous, awkward events where I have felt so

self-conscious and uncomfortable that I thought that I might explode. One time, I went to this party

where the host was trying in experiments, I guess, so we were forbidden to make small talk with any

of the other guests there. But the thing is, we didn't know any of the other guests either.

So everyone just ended up sitting silently in

this kind of like foyer waiting room while we were waiting for more instructions. It was truly

excruciating. Now today's guest, Priya Parker, is the author of the book, The Art of Gathering.

Priya thinks and writes all about bringing people together, and she knows how to do it well.

...