It’s the choice we make every day: when we have a chance to engage with a stranger on an airplane or sitting in a waiting room, do we put on our headphones or start a conversation? To speak or not to speak? Stan’s guest this week is University of Chicago psychologist Nicholas Epley, talking about his new book, A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection (Knopf, 2026). There is a paradox at the core of human life. We are a highly social species uniquely equipped to connect with other people and doing so is better for us. Yet we so often choose to be unsocial. We avoid talking to the stranger who sits next to us. We struggle to move beyond small talk with an acquaintance. Epley has spent his career studying the way we connect, and he tells us how small acts of connection with other human beings can have an outsized impact on the most important parts of our lives.
