LISTENING 2 What Your Stuff Say You

Neal Conan, Host: This is Talk of the Nation. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. …………………… on the
wall of my office include my ……………………………………………………………………………… from 1973 and the
New York Times …………………………..from the day my name was …………………… …. There's a baseball
on my desk, not signed or anything, just a baseball. Some toys sit on top of the speaker: a beach
chair with …………………………….., …………………….. and a ……………………has family pictures, John F.
Kennedy ……………………………………..of a PT-109, and a ………………………of Giants Stadium in New
Jersey. Sam Gosling, are those few things enough to tell you anything about what kind of person I
am? Sam Gosling: Yeah, they certainly could tell us a lot. There's a lot of information, a lot of it not
…………………….., but there's a lot of information in places like …………………………………,
…………………………….or their living spaces. Conan: And not just what they are, but the way they're
……………………. For example, if the family pictures ……………………………………………….in the office or,
urn, or …………… to, uh, to the person who …………………… it. Gosling: Yeah. It's really crucial to
…………………… not only what they are, but how they've been placed. Because how they've been
placed gives us good information on the …………………………………………that they ………… . So if we have
photos of, say, our family and our ……………………………………………..us, that shows us, it's for our
……………………….. Um, it's what you might call a ……………………, something we can snack on to make
ourselves feel better over the day. If it's turned the other way, then it's more for the benefit of
others, which doesn't mean …………………………... It may not be trying to
……………………………………………………………, but it, ……………………………. . Conan: Sam Gosling
………………………………………………………………. Stuff in ……………………, bedrooms, cars, and …………………….
What's there and how it's arranged can ………………… about who we are and what's important to us.
So we want you to call or email us and describe the room or the car you're in right now. What's on
……………………or ……………………, the videos and ……………………, ……………………………, ………………………….
Our phone number is 800-989-8255. Email us, …………………………. You can also join the conversation
on ………… at ……………………………………………………. Later on in the show, ………………………..and
…………………… involved in ………………………………….. But first, Sam Gosling. He's an
………………………………………………………………at the University of Texas in Austin. His new book is called
………………: What Your Stuff Says About You, and he joins us today from the
…………………………………………KUT in Austin. Thanks very much for coming in. Gosling: Pleasure. Conan:
And your book is called Snoop, because that's what you ……………………. . us what to do. Gosling:
Yeah. ……………………around people's, uh, places, and I should say that I ……………………, uh, "places"
very ……………………. Not only our, our physical environments but our ……………………………., too, such
as our ……………………….., our ……………………………… like our, our ………………………………. or our
Facebook …………………………. So if people, if people who want to call in want to
……………………………..about spaces, that would be fun, too. Conan: And of course, to
………………………..what personality type-what stuff tells you about you, you have to know what
………………………………are to begin with. ……………………, ……………………, are two that I guess everybody
knows about. Gosling: That's right. And there are a number of ways of thinking about personality.
And, uh, you can think about ………………………………, which is what most research
…………………………….., and within that ……………………….there's, uh, the, uh, system known as the "Big
Five;' or the "…………………………………………;' which talks about these ……………………………... As you say,
……………………,………………………. is the main one, but there are other important ones, too. Conan: And
LISTENING 2 What Your Stuff Say You

how did you get interested in this? Are you a ……………………………. snoop? Gosling: Well, I think we're
all natural-born ……………. And, I mean, some of us are ………………………………than others. Some of us
will open the ………………………………………when we go to a party, and some of us won't. But I think we
all do because it's crucial. If you think, who, who are the people who are-what is the
………………………………………………..that's most important to us in terms of, of how well we get on in
terms of …………………………………and ………………………………? It's other people. So I think we're
……………………………..to ………………………………………………………………is ……………………, and there is a lot of
information out there in people's spaces. So I think we all do it. Conan: And so we
……………………………as soon as we see them, as soon as we …………………………….., for example. Gosling:
Yeah, as soon as we shake their hand. And there's ayou know, the ……………………….. has been a part
of ……………………………….for years and years and years, but it was only recently that it was really
………………………… to a really …………………………….. And there was a study done by Bill Chaplin in 2000
which looked at exactly that. It looked at what can you learn about someone from a
………………………….. Conan: And sometimes, it's, it's interesting, uh, you can learn something about it
but you can also come to a conclusion that's, easily wrong. Gosling: Right. That's the point, yes. For
example, taking the example of …………………………., if somebody, uh, …………………………………………and
……………………………., uh, and ……………… as they're doing it, then we
………………………………………………………………of them. We, we form all kinds of positive things. Yet it
turns out that the …………………………, uh, ………………………………………………………………. So we are going
…………………………………………. And so, it's really important to know which are
…………………………………..and which ones are …………………… . Conan: And in the ……………………………
that we heard at the beginning of the program and, uh, throughout your book, you use the example
of Agatha Christie's ……………………………, Hercule Poirot. Gosling: That's right, because it's really
important-you know, if I had one wish, one wish in the world, it would be that one clue told you
something about a person. If you had a …………………………………….on your bed, it meant something,
you know. But the world is ………………………………….than that. So unfortunately, it doesn't work like
that because there are many reasons why we might have, say, a ………………………………… on our bed
or something like that. And so really, you can't use a ……………………………………where x means y. What
you have to do is you have to build up a picture ……………………………., and sometimes you only have a
very little piece and you have to hold your view very ……………………………. But that will, that will guide
your search for more information. Conan: So that ………………………. of Giants Stadium, well, it could
tell you that I'm a Giants fan, which is true, but it could also tell you I grew up in New Jersey.
Gosling: It could, or it could tell you-it might have ………………………………….. Who is it from? Is it from
somebody important? And so in 'order to resolve that, what we would do is we would look for
other clues. So the …………………….. there would begin to help us ………………………………….of the, of
the, um, uh, the ……………………………. We might also see, well, these other items, the
………………………………., these other things which, which might …………………………………. that, which
helps us resolveOK, so maybe ………………………….is important. We learn that you're
………………………………... And that helps us ……………………………..of each clue.