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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to find a hobby. Not only is

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Speaker 1: a hobby fun, it makes you a much more interesting

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Speaker 1: person should anyone wind up talking to you. Certain things

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Speaker 1: we do because we have to work assignments, caring for

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Speaker 1: family members. Hobbies, on the other hand, are done solely

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Speaker 1: for fun. Whittling, playing an instrument as an adult, gardening,

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Speaker 1: scrap booking puzzles. Usually they involve a little bit of

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Speaker 1: skill and so can wind up putting you in a

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Speaker 1: state of flow, that magical place where things are difficult

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Speaker 1: but doable, and so time can seem to stand still.

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Speaker 1: This is an apparently fun and if time diary studies

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Speaker 1: are to be believed, a lot more fun than passively

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Speaker 1: sure like watching TV. But beyond that, hobbies solve a

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Speaker 1: common problem. We all wind up needing to make small talk.

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Speaker 1: From time to time we talk about the weather, We

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Speaker 1: inevitably asked what people have been up to, and that's

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Speaker 1: when the conversation often stops because the answer is often

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Speaker 1: nothing much. What do you do with that? Okay, I

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Speaker 1: guess I've been up to nothing much too, but a

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Speaker 1: hobby gives you something a little different to talk about.

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Speaker 1: So my friend and I have been building a vegetable

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Speaker 1: garden in my backyard, or my husband and I are

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Speaker 1: taking an online photography class, or I just learned how

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Speaker 1: to play Happy Birthday on the ukulele. These all offer

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Speaker 1: opportunities for back and forth. You report on how you've

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Speaker 1: been learning Spanish on a language app, and your conversation

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Speaker 1: partner can then talk about her family's trip two years

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Speaker 1: ago to Spain, or how her and started a Spanish

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Speaker 1: language tutoring business. There are just so many more possible

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Speaker 1: avenues then not much, which is the conversational equivalent of

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Speaker 1: a dead end. So think about how you'd like to

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Speaker 1: answer the question of what have you been up to?

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Speaker 1: My guess is that you already have some ideas of

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Speaker 1: fun things you'd like to pick back up. But if not, well,

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Speaker 1: time to start experimenting. Ask around, what do friends and

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Speaker 1: family do in their spare time? Bird watching, embroidery, who knows?

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Speaker 1: Scroll through lists of online classes. You might find a

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Speaker 1: new kind of craft or music, or an activity like

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Speaker 1: magic tricks that you hadn't considered it before. Peruse any

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Speaker 1: listings on bulletin boards at your library or community center

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Speaker 1: or house of worship. Maybe there's a group for edgy

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Speaker 1: quilters that meets by zoom on Tuesday nights and can

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Speaker 1: recommend how to get started and the best places for materials.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead and crowdsource on social media. What do other

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Speaker 1: people like? I wound up buying a knife throwing set

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Speaker 1: for my thirteen year old and me so we can

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Speaker 1: improve our knife throwing skills after a blog reader suggested it.

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Speaker 1: You never know when we might get drafted into the

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Speaker 1: Hunger Games. In general, the less stuff your hobby requires,

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Speaker 1: the better convenience. Trump's most things in life. And it

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Speaker 1: is easier to pull out cross stitching than uneasil, a

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Speaker 1: canvas and some oil paints. If the hobby can be

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Speaker 1: done in bits of time, even better. That's why a

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Speaker 1: lot of people are taking up foreign languages with duo

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Speaker 1: Lingo or Rosetta Stone. All those little bits of practice

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Speaker 1: add up. But in any case, all this time at

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Speaker 1: home not doing much is starting to make people feel

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Speaker 1: not just bored, but boring. And I don't want people

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Speaker 1: to be boring. I want you to have something to

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Speaker 1: talk about when you've got those awkward five minutes before

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Speaker 1: your zoom meeting officially starts. When you've got a hobby

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Speaker 1: that you're really into, well, the question what you've done

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Speaker 1: lately won't stump you at all, and you know you'll

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Speaker 1: have a lot of fun in the meantime. This is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then Breakfast

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Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows. M