We’re often advised not to use “um” or “uh”, or “so” and “you know” in our communication. But linguist Valerie Fridland might argue otherwise. “Language is about how we encode both the linguistic message and a social message,” she says. “Crutch words … are really valuable and they have arisen to serve a need.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Fridland sits down with host and strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams to discuss how and when we use "you know","so", and other fille...
May 23, 2023•31 min•Season 4Ep. 91
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , lecturer and podcast host Matt Abrahams sits down with David Eagleman , a neuroscientist and the host of the PBS series The Brain, to discuss why our brains are wired for storytelling and how new senses might impact our connection and communication with others. “I’ve always been really interested in this idea of how we can pass information to the brain via unusual channels,” Eagleman says. “We’ve got our eyes or ears or fingertips and our nose, we’re v...
May 16, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 90
Whether you’re trying to build a romantic or professional connection, Rachel Greenwald’s advice is exactly the same. “Focus on how you make someone feel more than you focus on the words that you're saying,” she says. As a professional coach, Greenwald helps people develop better communication skills, from executives in the business world to singles in the dating world. Building deep connections may at times be challenging, but as Greenwald says, it’s ultimately not complicated. “You're demonstra...
May 09, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 89
*This episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart won " Best Business Podcast Episode " at the 2023 Webby Awards.* “You’re not going to hit the mark with everybody, but you still need to be mindful of everybody,” says Jonathan Levav , a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “That’s critical to create an environment where communication is effective.” In this podcast episode, Levav sits down with podcast host Matt Abrahams to talk about how to lead from home and how to foster an en...
May 02, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 88
We’ve all been there — we think we understand something, but when it comes time to explain it to someone else, we flounder. According to Gregory LaBlanc , a lecturer in management at Stanford GSB, attempting to communicate concepts reveals whether or not we properly grasped them in the first place. “If you think you understand something but you're incapable of communicating it, it probably means that you don't really understand it,” he says. For communication to be effective, LaBlanc says it’s n...
Apr 25, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 87
Whether you want to read more books or exercise more regularly, BJ Fogg has good news. “Habits are easier to form than most people think,” he says, “If you do it in the right way.” As the founder and director of Stanford's Behavior Design Lab , Fogg has devoted much of his career to researching human psychology, motivation, and behavior. According to him, habit formation isn’t a product of simply doing something over and over again. “It's not a function of repetition,” he says, “it's a function ...
Apr 18, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 86
Having to communicate in a language other than our native tongue can be quite a challenge, especially without a script or prepared speech. In this "Rethinks" episode, we revisit Matt's conversation with Kenneth Romeo about specific tactics that non-native speakers can use to handle in-the-moment challenges. Romeo also discusses why letting go of perfection is a key step toward speaking with confidence. Romeo has served as the associate director of the Stanford Language Center and a teacher of En...
Apr 11, 2023•15 min•Season 4Ep. 85
“The self is incompatible with freedom, the way most people understand it, because the self is a constraint,” says social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior Brian Lowery . “The ‘you’ you’re talking about is actually the relationships you have, the social interactions you have and the cultural context you exist in." In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Lowery sits down with podcast host and lecturer in strategic communications Matt Abrahams to talk about his...
Apr 04, 2023•16 min•Season 4Ep. 84
“If you're not living life according to your own values, you're most likely living them according to someone else's,” says Charlotte Burgess-Auburn . Burgess-Auburn is a designer, artist, educator, and the Director of Community at the d.school. With her recently published guide, You Need A Manifesto: How To Craft Your Convictions And Put Them To Work , she aims to help people identify their core values and then codify them to chart a course of meaning and purpose. “A manifesto is a statement of ...
Mar 28, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 83
It’s easy to feel like the star of the show when giving a presentation. But according to communication guru Nancy Duarte , you’re not the hero of this story. For Duarte, founder and CEO of world-renowned communication consulting firm Duarte Inc, effective communication is built on the foundation of empathy, which means considering your audience first and foremost. “All the attention is on us. But in reality, the audience is the one,” she says. “If they don’t leave with your idea adopted, your id...
Mar 21, 2023•23 min•Season 4Ep. 82
Why does disagreement feel so personal? According to author, journalist, and physician Seema Yasmin , it’s because beliefs aren’t just about what we think, they’re about who we are. “What [people] believe is entrenched in them, and it’s to do with their sense of belonging and their sense of identity,” says Yasmin. Whether we’re butting heads over something trivial like sports or something major like COVID-19 vaccines, Yasmin points out that the disagreement is just the surface — underneath are c...
Mar 14, 2023•23 min•Season 4Ep. 81
Words have impact. But when it comes to enchanting audiences and captivating with communication, Jonah Berger , PhD ’07, says some words are more potent than others. Berger is a Wharton School professor and an internationally bestselling author. His most recent book, Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way , identifies language we can use to communicate more effectively in all sorts of personal and professional contexts. “Subtle shifts in language can have a huge impact on everything from convi...
Mar 08, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 80
If we want healthier companies, schools, and teams associate professor of organizational behavior Adina Sterling says investing in the health of marginalized groups “can have enormous spillover effects for everyone.” Sterling is an organizational theorist and economic sociologist whose research explores how human relationships affect organizations and markets. As she says, “The outcomes that individuals, groups, and organizations experience have to do with the social networks that they have.” In...
Feb 28, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 79
To celebrate our 75th episode , we hosted a live "Ask Me Anything" event with Matt. In this global gathering, listeners called in with questions ranging from making a first impression and giving negative feedback to presenting virtually and the worst communication advice Matt's ever received. In addition to audience questions, Matt also shares a short lecture to outline his top three guiding principles when it comes to being a confidence speaker and leader. Connect: Premium Signup >>>&g...
Feb 14, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 78
In this "Quick Thinks" episode, host Matt Abrahams interviews ChatGPT, an AI natural language processing chatbot, about its purpose, sources of information, ethical considerations, and the importance of human communication skills. To produce this episode, Matt typed his questions to ask ChatGPT, then recorded them in the studio. Producers then used Descript Overdub to "read" ChatGPT's responses. The purpose of ChatGPT is to provide informative and accurate responses to questions in natural langu...
Feb 07, 2023•10 min•Season 4Ep. 77
Join Matt Abrahams, a lecturer of strategic communication at Stanford GSB, as he sits down with experts from across campus to discuss public speaking anxiety, speaking off the cuff, nailing a Q&A, and more. Connect: Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium Email Questions & Feedback >>> [email protected] Episode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart Website Newsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.io Think Fast T...
Feb 01, 2023•2 min
Want to change someone’s mind? First, explains Robert Cialdini , you have to change their framing. For Cialdini, the Regent's Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, persuasion begins before we even deliver our pitch or presentation. Through what he calls “ Pre-suasion ,” communicators can prime audiences to receive messages in a specific way, simply by drawing their attention in specific directions. “It involves focusing people on—putting them in mind of—thos...
Jan 24, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 76
Do love and money mix? Labor economist and Stanford Graduate School of Business professor emerita Myra Strober says absolutely. “Separating money and love is not a good idea. I have had 40 years to think about this, and, in my class at the GSB on work and family, each semester I realize how important it is to intertwine love and money." In this episode, Matt Abrahams sits down with Strober and social innovation leader Abby Davisson to discuss the thorny topics of work, money, career, and love. I...
Jan 10, 2023•23 min•Season 4Ep. 75
In one of our most popular episodes, professor of Marketing Baba Shiv shares his research on how emotions affect decision making. Knowing this, and applying techniques to help guide our audience through information and emotion, can help us make our messages stick. In this best-of episode we've included extra audio from Matt Abrahams's conversation with Shiv from November of 2020 that touches on how to best approach writing emails. Connect: Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Pr...
Dec 20, 2022•34 min•Season 4Ep. 74
As a communication expert, Alison Wood Brooks spends a lot of time talking about talking. But, as she says, listening is just as important. “My course is called TALK,” says Wood Brooks, who is the O'Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow at Harvard Business School. “The great irony is that it should really be called LISTEN . It’s hard to be a good listener yet so very important.” In the latest episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Wood Brooks covers convers...
Dec 06, 2022•26 min•Season 4Ep. 73
When it comes to negotiating and managing conflict, Professor Michele Gelfand says it’s time to get creative. Everybody has wants and needs. So what do we do when our priorities compete with those of other people? According to Gelfand, a professor of organizational behavior, negotiations and conflict management are exercises in creative problem-solving, ones where we look for ways to not only get what we want, but for those on the other side of the table to get what they want too. “The best nego...
Nov 22, 2022•13 min•Season 4Ep. 72
As Professor Jesper Sørensen sees it, a winning strategy is the result of conversations, not commands. Sørensen says strategy can be directed from the C-suite, but it doesn’t have to be. “Lots of great strategies are discovered,” he says, “they're discovered because the leaders were able to listen to their frontline workers or their frontline managers.” A more iterative approach, says Sørensen, helps companies adapt their strategy to an ever-changing landscape. In the latest episode of Think Fas...
Nov 08, 2022•26 min•Season 4Ep. 71
What’s the secret to coming up with good ideas? For Jeremy Utley , it’s about generating as many as possible. The director of executive education at the Stanford d.school, Utley says, “very few problems we face in business or in life have a single right answer.” All ideas — the good, the bad, and the ugly — are “a necessary input to an innovation process,” and an essential step in getting to solutions that will actually work. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Utley and host Matt Abraha...
Oct 25, 2022•23 min•Season 4Ep. 70
Stress, anxiety, nervousness — when these feelings inevitably arise, lecturer Kelly McGonigal says it’s not about making them go away, but using them to your advantage. “What I have come to value about anxiety,” says McGonigal, “is it’s a sign that I care.” As she explains, feelings of stress alert us to things that matter to us and help us stay present in the moment — particularly useful, she says, when it comes to communication. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , McGonigal and host Ma...
Oct 11, 2022•26 min•Season 4Ep. 69
As the dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dean Jon Levin knows the importance of crafting the right message and sharing it in the right way. But, as he says, one of the biggest challenges for any leader is to know what to communicate, and how. How do leaders strike the balance between being clear and directive, and as Levin says, “leaving space for people to form their own opinions, to discuss ideas, to debate”? He joins host and lecturer of strategic communications Matt Abrahams to d...
Sep 27, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 68
Why do we drive on only one side of the road? Why don’t we sing in libraries? Why wear a swimsuit? For Professor Michele Gelfand , it all comes down to culture. As a cross-cultural psychologist, Gelfand is fascinated by social environments and their effects on human behavior, particularly, how strictly people adhere to social norms. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Gelfand joins host and lecturer of strategic communications Matt Abrahams to explain why some cultures are “tight” and “h...
Sep 13, 2022•20 min•Season 4Ep. 67
“There’s no difference between the physiological response to something that you’re excited about and something that you’re nervous about or dreading,” says Andrew Huberman associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University. In this “Best of” episode, we revisit one of our most popular interviews. In it, Huberman, from the wildly popular Huberman Lab Podcast , shares his research on the autonomic continuum, a spectrum between states of high alertness or fear all the way ...
Aug 30, 2022•31 min•Season 4Ep. 66
“We need to be much more adaptive in the way we think about hybrid work,” says Michael Arena . “Experiment, experiment, experiment.” Innovation relies on teams connecting in very specific ways. But are those connections possible in a hybrid work reality? Glenn Carroll , a professor of management at Stanford GSB, and Michael Arena, a faculty member of Penn's Master's in Organizational Dynamics program, have been looking for the answer — studying how team interactions have changed since millions o...
Aug 16, 2022•22 min•Season 4Ep. 65
How others perceive us in person and via social media can impact our careers and social standing. But we can build the reputation we want through conscious communication. On this episode, strategic communication lecturers Matt Abrahams and Allison Kluger share techniques on effectively improving and managing your reputation. Connect: Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart Premium Email Questions & Feedback >>> [email protected] Episode Transcripts >>> Th...
Aug 02, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 64
Your words — are they credible? Or are they what Paul Oyer calls “cheap talk?” According to professor of economics Paul Oyer, how our words align with our actions isn’t just a matter of communication, but a matter of economics too. Economic concepts hold in all areas of life, which Oyer’s research has explored in everything from Uber driving to online dating. “Economics is everywhere,” Oyer says. “It's an incredibly powerful lens to analyze almost anything in the real world.” Join Matt Abrahams,...
Jul 18, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 63
