In the past few months, I’ve noticed that there seems to be a lot less small talk cluttering my conversations. Last week, on a Zoom call with a new colleague, within three minutes we had discussed the beauty of hugging and her recent move to a place where she had more huggable podmates. It felt like a mutually nurturing connection, which is not unheard of in my worklife, but it feels like the new normal. At least in my experience, the pandemic has wiped out the inclination to make inane small talk about the weather or the weekend’s approach. It’s been replaced with a lot of straight to emotional connection and political alignment. Has the pandemic made small talk a thing of the past?