The most valuable conversations themselves are spaces where the participants give over a part of themselves to each other to explore, illuminate and connect" Nihal makes communication natual and accessible to all. We have a great resource as part of the bibliography at the back, and I would like to read the conversations too! Let's Talk blends Nihal's experiences as an acclaimed interviewer with expert opinion on the secrets and psychology behind successful communication.

From tracing the evolution of dialogue to discovering what lights up in the brain when we're enjoying a good discussion, Nihal speaks to the experts - from the board room to the criminal courts - to find why good conversation has eroded over time and how we can fix it. He currently presents the daily afternoon show on BBC 5 Live and the official Penguin Books podcast. He wants to know what it really means to have a ‘great conversation’ and, most importantly, how he can teach us to have better interactions in our everyday lives. I read this at the same time as Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers and despite the books being on a similar topic/approach, this is hands down the better of the two.And I think thats what the Author wanted to get across from the book and they suceeded surprisingly well. The book has signposted me to some really interesting new media to check out though with some great examples of interesting conversationalists, so it’s worth a read on that aspect! Broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake helped me through lockdown; I’d often sit listening to his interviews on his BBC Radio 5 Live show when my social interaction and conversation topics were limited!

Host of Today in Focus the Guardian's flagship daily news podcast and one of the top ten most listened to podcasts in the UK.That being said it was an easy read and some of the stories were fun to go through, but if you are looking for ways to have better conversations this isn’t the book.

I enjoyed the fact that the author narrated the audiobook himself and it featured snippets of his interviews with some of the interesting people he talks to at work. If the tag line had been something like " stories from my life as a radio host," it wouldn't have felt like such a letdown.

A self-declared passion project which reminds a great radio presenter and his audience that we have two ears, should be curious and find common ground with enemies. Read this fascinating book and you'll become a better listener, a better conversationalist and better company' Adam Kay'A brilliant book on the art of conversation' Matt Haig'A compulsory book for these divided times' Sathnam Sanghera'An intriguing exploration of the importance of a proper chinwag' Sara Cox'A terrific book from a terrific broadcaster. The only thing lacking for me was actual transcripts of the conversations, in raw form, before they are converted into the prose of the book. In many ways this is not like any of the books I have read in the past, in the sense that this is not an easily read fiction book, or even an autobiography. I enjoyed the voice clips of the people he interviewed and I wish that dialogue could have been more present.

But by the end, after much repitition, it became clear to me that good conversation means listening a lot more. For other, more casual conversations, it’s the desire to actively listen rather than wait to respond. The considered and respectful way he converses with all his guests made me 100% want to read this book. I really can’t do this book justice in the review; it’s packed to the brim with such fascinating insights; we are lucky to have a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the conversations that would have happened to generate the content. Nihal Arthanyake has done a wonderful job of telling us how wonderful conversations by bringing people who need to communicate on.From ever-decreasing face-to-face meetings to echo chambers online, we no longer have the necessary tools to talk to each other. Very good talking heads (Sutherland, Syed, Hari, Rick Haythornthwaite) and the familiar style where the reader is led by the hand. The beginning of the book, with its history of how societies perceived conversation, was interesting enough to me to raise this to a 3* review. Although this won’t be a major revelation for most, I enjoyed this read and found it v insightful in parts.