50 Interesting

Conversation Topics To Talk

About With Anyone
by Sean Cooper
5 Comments
13 min read

Do you want to talk to a girl or guy, but youre afraid of the

conversation drying up?
 Maybe right now youre thinking of speaking to someone youre attracted to. Maybe
you even have a date planned. But you just want to make sure you dont run out
of good things to talk about.
That would be embarrassingly awkward, wouldnt it?

Imagine both of you sitting near each other. There is a sudden pause in the
conversation, and you know that you should say something now, but your brain
seems to have stopped working. All you can think of is some boring question or
stupid comment, but nothing interesting or good enough to actually say out loud.
You feel an awkward silence slowly descending like a dark cloud, and you start to
panic inside. You feel like youve become a total idiot because your mind has
become totally blank. Its like youve lost your whole personality. You can barely
even remember your own name at this point, let alone an appropriate thing to talk
about.
Youre not alone if youve been in this situation before. I certainly have, many
times. And I can understand that you want to prevent this from happening to you
again, especially if youre talking to a person who you like.
Well, good news! Ive put together this cheat sheet of 50 interesting conversation
topics you can use at any time to rekindle the conversation, even if you feel it start
to go downhill. You can go over this list before a first date or a party, whenever you
need to have a few good things to talk about in mind (just in case).
And dont worry, almost all of the topics I suggest are normal. This means you
wont hear me tell you to say lines which a normal person would never talk about in
real life.

Table of Contents [hide]

Hobbies
Work/School
Travel
Entertainment
Food/Cooking
Past Experiences
Present Observations
Future Plans
Human Relationships
Conclusion

For example, many of the conversation tips articles youll find on the internet are
embarrassingly cringe-worthy. They often give you silly suggestions like: If you
made a TV show about your life, what would you name it? Who really says
something like that? I know I wouldnt.
So without further introduction, here is the list of topics that you can refer back
to anytime. Youll notice most of them are fairly straightforward and
ordinary. Thats because you dont need to be talking about aliens and obscure
philosophy in most conversations. (Unless you want to!) Often simple and obvious
topics are enough to kick-start your brain again.
Ive also put them into groups to make it easier for you:

Hobbies

If you find out what a persons hobbies are,

you instantly know a lot more about them. Hobbies are things people do
without being paid to, just because they enjoy them. Some examples are: yoga,
photography, working out, meditation, shopping, etc.
The best question Ive found for finding out someones hobbies is:

1. What do you do in your free time? Simple and effective. This also has the
benefit of being an open ended question. If this doesnt get you a great reply
you can ask more specific questions like
2. Do you play any musical instruments?
3. Do you draw, paint or do art?
4. Do you like dancing?
5. Talk about technology, gadgets, cars. (Best if youre a guy talking to another
guy. Yes this is a shameless stereotype, but Ive yet to meet a girl who enjoys talking
about computer specs with me though Im sure they exist!)

Work/School

Some people say you shouldnt talk about

work. I think thats ridiculous. When you stop and listen to what people usually talk
about, work and school are at the top of the list.

After all, people do spend several hours a day at these places. And their work or
school are often related to an area theyre very passionate about. Their coworkers
are also some of the people they spend the most time interacting with.
However, be warned: for some people these topics can be boring. Older people
may be sick of talking about their work, and other people may only be doing a
boring job for the money, like a student cashier or construction worker.
6. What do you do/study? (Yes, the simplest and most common way to start a
conversation.)
7. What is your most (or least) favorite subject in school?
8. How do you get along with the people you work with? (People love talking
about their relationship and frustrations with other people. Yes, its gossip, but you
also learn a lot about how the person works this way.)
9. Do you love working there or are you doing it for the money? (This can be
a playful question on a date, not a good idea at a networking event.)
10. What is your dream job? Another way to ask this: If money didnt matter,
what would you do with your time?
Travel

Many of the most memorable

experiences in peoples lives came from traveling. When youre in an unfamiliar
place, in the middle of a new and strange culture thats gonna make a big impact
on you.
And even if someone hasnt traveled a lot yet, they usually have dreams of traveling
in the future. Either on vacations or later in retirement.

11. What countries have you traveled to? (If you two have visited the same
country, you may be able to talk about those shared experiences for hours.)
12. What was your biggest experience of culture shock in another
country?
13. Where in the world would you love to live most? Why?
14. How does your home country compare to here? (If they were born/raised in
a different country.)
15. Whats the worst thing thats happened to you while traveling? (Be
careful with this one, although you will get some interesting responses. Ive heard
people getting robbed by taxi drivers, getting scammed for a few bucks, etc.)
16. Have you ever traveled by yourself? (Or you can ask would they?)
17. Do you speak any other languages?

Quick Tip: Less Questions, More Statements

About Yourself
Ive worded most of these conversation topics as questions, but heres a quick
warning: Asking too many questions in a row can sometimes make the other
person feel like theyre being interrogated!

I recommend you use these topics Im giving you to think ofstatements to

share about yourself.
For example, instead of asking them directly What countries have you traveled
to? instead answer the question yourself first. So you might say something
like: I went to India and Belgium last year. I love visiting countries with great food.
By making a statement like this, youve introduced the conversation topic of travel
without asking a question directly. Best of all, you shared something about
yourself first, which makes the other person want to open up more. Because of
the law of reciprocity, the other person will usually share what countries theyve
been to automatically, or they may ask you a question about your travels.
The lesson here is that conversations usually flow smoother when you make more
statements instead of always asking questions. Other people do love talking about
themselves, but you have to contribute to the conversation, too. Asking too many
questions can even annoy some people and make you seem needy.

Entertainment
 Walk around in public, and you will always
hear people talking about movies, TV shows and books. For some reason, people
love talking about stories and the characters inside them they feel like
they know. Theres always new ones coming out, so the topic never really gets stale.
18. Whats your favorite movie (or TV show) ever?
19. Which movie/book/show are you ashamed to admit you love? (Lots of
people read books like Twilight or watch reality TV as a guilty pleasure.)
20. Which movie are you most looking forward to being released?
21. What kind of books do you usually read? What was the last one you
read? (This question is great if youre on a date and trying to find an intelligent
person!)
22. What kind of music are you into right now? (A study found talking about
music preferences leads to a quicker connection because music reveals your values
to others!)
23. What concerts have you been to? (If someone spends the money and time to
go see an artist live, it means they like them a lot.)
24. What movies have you watched more than once? Or what books have
you read multiple times? (Ive watched the Breaking Bad TV show 3 times already
because its my favorite.)
25. Do you play video games? (When someone is REALLY into video games, its a
large part of their daily life.)

Food/Cooking
 This is a light and fun topic. Everybody
eats, and most people enjoy talking about their personal taste in food. If this is
your first conversation with someone, then dont try to figure out the meaning of
life. Find out what type of food you should try!
26. Talk about a recent restaurant you or they went to. How was it different
than others, why was it good, why was it bad?
27. What type of cooking do they do at home? Do they dislike it or find it
relaxing?
28. Do they usually cook food from a specific culture? (For example, maybe
their parents are from Vietnam and thats 90% of the food they eat.)
29. Do they follow any specific diet? Like vegan or paleo for example. This can
tell you A LOT about their personal values. (Dont ask this to a fat person, they will
probably get offended if they are sensitive about their weight.)

Past Experiences
 The challenge with talking about past
experiences, is that you usually dont want to get too personal too quickly. If
you do, the conversation may start to sound like a therapy session.
On a romantic date some of these questions may be appropriate. In other
situations youll want past stories to come up more spontaneously, as they
relate to whatever topic is being talked about. For example, if the topic of some
new music trend comes up, you can mention what type of music you were into as a
kid.
30. Where did you grow up?
31. What were you like as a kid? (Behaved, rebellious, quiet, attention-seeking,
etc.)
32. What did you want to be when you grew up? (You can also turn this into a
funny question by asking them What do you want to be when you grow up? even
if theyre an adult.)
33. What were your past jobs like?
34. Do you have any siblings?
35. Find out if you two shared any common interests as kids. (Maybe you
were both interested in Pokemon, Harry Potter, etc. This can be an amazing way to
build a lot of rapport quickly.)
Present Observations

This one is something most people miss Back when I had a hard time carrying
conversations, Id often desperately try to think of new random topics to talk
about out out of thin air. I would search my brain for something cool to say like a
magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. As you can guess, this didnt work that well.
What Ive now realized is that making small observations about your environment is
a great way to restart any conversation. Instead of racking the inside of your brain
searching for something to say instead try looking around you and pointing
something out in the environment. This will often naturally lead to other things
you two can discuss.
36. If this is your first time meeting Why are you both here now? If its an art
gallery or a business networking event that is the best topic to start the
conversation with.
37. Make a comment about something theyre wearing. Maybe its an
interesting piece of jewellery or a compliment about their shirt.
38. What other people are nearby? (Talk about what theyre doing, guess what
their personality is like, maybe even make up a funny conspiracy story.)
39. Is there anything new, unusual or different about your environment?
40. Put more attention into your physical senses Is there music
playing? Some smell that you didnt notice before? Are you eating
something? What can you feel touching your skin?

Future Plans

People love talking about what they are looking forward to. The challenge here
is not to sound like a job interviewer with something like Where do you see
yourself in 5 years?
41. What are you doing this weekend? (Very common conversation topic. This is
a great way to start a conversation with someone you already know.)
42. What local events are you looking forward to? (This could be a festival,
holiday, concert, protest, or anything.)
43. Would you prefer to live in the city or on a farm?
44. Whats your main goal right now? What are you trying to accomplish?
Human Relationships

Almost nothing is more fascinating to most people than talking about how people
work. Why? Because much of the meaning in our lives come from our connections.
And to get what you want in life, you have to know how to handle people.
45. Talk about men or women. Ive seen guys connect very quickly talking
about women, what they do, and how they operate. And Ive heard this is even
more true when women talk to each other about men.
46. Ask them what their friends are like? Are they very similar to each other,
or opposites?
47. Have they had with the same friends most of their life, or made a lot of
new ones?
48. Ask about their family. Who did they live with? Were they strict, or easy
going?
49. Talk about some interesting idea you know from psychology. If you read
a lot of psychology books like I do, this is easy. You can tie it into a story they
just said.
50. What do you believe is true that most people would disagree with you
on? (This is a bit of an unusual deeper question, but Ill put it in here since its really
powerful. In fact, one of the most influential investors in the world says this his top
interview question.)

Conclusion
Whew! Thats a lot of topic suggestions!

I hope youve picked up at least a few that can help you in your next conversation.
One last point in conclusion

What Makes A Conversation Interesting?

Often people assume that the topic of your conversation has to be super-
interesting. Not really true. Ive heard comedians describe themselves making a
sandwich and hundreds of people sat listening with riveted attention.

So the lesson here is:

WHAT you talk about doesnt always have to be incredibly interesting. You
can make almost any conversation interesting if you are not afraid to openly
share your unique perspective, personality and opinion.
And if you find that your conversations feel boring the problem here could be
that you are simply exchanging facts with the other person. You are making the
mistake of not going deeper, and finding out how you or they operate as a person.
Heres an example: Talking to someone about baseball statistics is boring. Talking
to them about their favorite baseball team, baseball player, how you played
baseball as a kid and how it shaped you suddenly the boring conversation topic
has become VERY interesting because it has become emotionally relevant to the
two of you.
Take these conversation topics and tips with you and best of luck!