If you are looking for an easy way to go from small talk to something a little heavier, try some of the question sets below. They start with more playful inquiries and move towards questions that, in unexpected ways, seek to illustrate some of the many commonalities linking us as human beings. Over time, more questions, by topic, will be added to the right of this page.

* Set 1

• What is your favorite color?
• If you could choose to be any animal, what would it be and why?
• Are you named after one of your relatives. If so, who are you named for?
• Do you have a favorite story or memory of your grandparents?  
• Do you know where your ancestors first settle when they came to the United States and, if so, where (note: even Native American’s are believed not to have been native to the Americas at first)?

*Set 2

• What is your favorite vegetable?
• If you had to describe yourself as a food, what would it be?
• Have your parents ever told stories about what it was like where they grew up? If so could you share one or two?
• Tell us one story about your most embarrassing moment.
• When have you felt most like an outsider? And what made you feel that way?

*Set 3

• Do you feel older or younger than you are?
• What is your favorite thing about yourself?
• If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?
• Do you believe that people have a moral responsibility to take care of their families? Why or why not?
• Do you believe that people have a moral responsibility to take care of the earth? Why or why not?

*Set 4

1. Do you like walking in the rain?
2. If you could only eat one desert for the rest of your life, what would it be?
3. Do you have a fear or phobia, besides being afraid of oversharing?
4. What do you most value in friendship?
5. What do you think your life would be like if you were born to a different family, perhaps richer, poorer, more loving, or less so?