Jess Janz

And it's interesting because everyone comes alone to dinner with strangers.

So everyone is like has a mutual and collective discomfort because we don't go places alone.

And so dinner with strangers, they are eating alone, but eating alone together.

And it's been this really fascinating thing to see.

Basically, it's been a nine-year anthropological unofficial study on my part, I guess, of like how quickly can we share something about ourselves and break down those barriers and like get past small talk and share something real about where we come from or what we're thinking about or learning about, what we care about, where we're going.

Yeah, I think that there's like, well, something that I think is really magical is that like or unique is that it's not about necessarily like, oh, come here and meet your new best friend.

Like you also could sit next to a circus clown for the night and be like, wow, that's fascinating.

Like I would have otherwise never met that person.

And now I got this like three hour insight into what it's like to be them.

Well, and then I guess you would never know.

You could sit next to a circus clown and never know it.

Imagine?

I would love to meet what like an obvious clown is like.

But no, I think it's like something happens because there's like an opt-in, obviously, at Dinner with Strangers specifically.

But I hope that when people walk away from that, they think about, oh, in what ways am I being more curious about

With people around me, like if I am going to a house party or I am in mixed company of like a friend of a friend's house or like a group of 12, but I only know half the people there.

Am I only talking to the people that I know or am I broadening my horizons and engaging other people around me?

And I think.

I mean, I don't know.

I'm one of those existential people who's on a bus being like, all of these people have birthdays and they have people who know their birthdays.