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    When Strangers Meet
    When Strangers Meet
    When Strangers Meet
    Audiobook2 hours

    When Strangers Meet

    Written by Kio Stark

    Narrated by Kio Stark

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Discover the unexpected pleasures and exciting possibilities of talking to people you don’t know—how these beautiful interruptions can change you, and the world we share.

    When Strangers Meet argues for the pleasures and transformative possibilities of talking to people you don’t know. Our lives are increasingly insular. We are in a hurry, our heads are down, minds elsewhere, we hear only the voices we already recognize and rarely take the effort to experience something or someone new. Talking to strangers pulls you into experiences of shared humanity and creates genuine emotional connections. It opens your world. Passing interactions cement your relationship to the places you live and work and play, they’re beautiful interruptions in the steady routines of our lives. In luminous prose, Stark shows how talking to strangers wakes you up.

    Threaded throughout are powerful vignettes from Stark’s own lifelong practice of talking to strangers and documenting brief encounters, along with a deep exploration of the dynamics of where, how, and why strangers come together. Ultimately, When Strangers Meet explores the rich emotional and political meanings that are conjured up in even the briefest conversations and unexpected connections with strangers. Stark renders visible the hidden processes by which we decide who to greet and trust in passing, and the unwritten rules by which these encounters operate. When Strangers Meet teaches readers how to start talking to strangers and includes adventurous challenges for those who dare.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio / TED
    Release dateSep 13, 2016
    ISBN9781508224105
    When Strangers Meet
    Author

    Kio Stark

    Kio Stark is the author of the novel Follow Me Down, the independent learning handbook Don’t Go Back to School, and When Strangers Meet. She writes, teaches, and speaks around the world about stranger interactions, independent learning, and relational technology.

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    Reviews for When Strangers Meet

    3.5/5

    24 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very interesting look at something so in your face everyday that you don't even think about it.
    • 3/5
      Advocates for talking to strangers as a way of reinforcing, and surprising ourselves (and our interlocutors) with, the humanity of other people. Suggests that voluntary encounters with strangers can be deeply intimate and rewarding in ways that encounters with people we already “know” often aren’t because of the surprise of the encounter. Has a bunch of cautionary language about unwantedness and differential access to public space; says that the virtue of encounters with strangers is cross-cultural but I wondered to what extent that was true.
    • 3/5
      3.5 This is a TED book, which means it was originally a TED talk (which I have not seen) and expanded a little. It's cute -- like a gift book with substance. Kio Stark's premise is that talking to strangers is fun and important (oversimplified) and she does have some caveats about safety and appropriateness which I appreciated. While the concept seems simple, it is bolstered by sociology and ethnography and some pretty thorough research. Here's her reasoning in her own words: "When you talk with strangers, you make beautiful and surprising interruptions in the expected narrative of your daily life. You shift perspective. You form momentary, meaningful connections. You find questions whose answers you thought you knew. You reject the ideas that make us so suspicious of each other." (2) In all honesty this book has nudged me to make an effort to talk to people I encounter rather than just smile or nod. It takes a little time and more importantly, purpose. Usually my purpose is to accomplish whatever errand or task I'm doing as quickly as possible with minimal interruptions. Re-thinking that approach. It's been nice to have my eyes opened. She includes a few "expeditions" that would make encounters with strangers even more intentional, (getting 'lost' in a new neighborhood, asking people for directions, saying hello to every single person you encounter on a half hour walk -- presumably in a city bigger than mine). Fun ideas, but think I'll stick with random for now. Would make a good gift for an introvert or a high school grad heading to college. Practical and insightful.
    • 2/5
      I was disappointed in this short book. I had read a synopsis of it and it sounded interesting, but, frankly, it really didn't say anything I didn't already know.
      The research included was illuminating, but really only served to reinforce ideas and conclusions I had already reached. From smiling and greeting strangers while on a walk, to engaging with strangers while on a subway or bus, to talking to strangers while waiting inlines, everything covered in this book was really not new, and I believe most people could have pretty much come to the same observations and conclusions that are reached in this book.
    • 2/5
      In this short book, Kio Stark examines the possibilities that become available to us if we take the time to notice and talk to strangers we encounter as we go about our busy days. I was intrigued by this idea, and by the sub-title, "How People You Don't Know Can Transform You". I was, however, disappointed. The book, in my view, was very light on substance and stated a lot of what, to me, is very obvious. Because this is a TED book, I expected to learn something. Maybe I'm an outlier -- I already talk to strangers regularly -- but I didn't take away and new insights from this book.