Frequently asked questions

Answers to the most common questions about TALK Studios, the TALK framework, our products for schools and families, and working with Alison Wood Brooks.

About TALK Studios

  • TALK Studios is a company on a mission to make conversation skills as teachable, learnable, and widely practiced as reading, writing, and math. Founded by Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks, TALK Studios translates decades of conversation science into practical tools for schools, organizations, and families.

  • Alison Wood Brooks is the Founder and CEO of TALK Studios and the O'Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where she helped pioneer the field of conversation science and created the oversubscribed course TALK. She holds a PhD from Wharton and an AB from Princeton University. Her 2025 book, TALK: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves, became a national bestseller and has been published in over a dozen languages.

  • Yes. Research on more than one million conversations shows that conversation improves with practice, just like reading or math. The small choices people make in conversation, such as what to talk about and when to ask a question, can be taught, practiced, and measurably improved.

The TALK Framework

  • TALK is a research-backed framework built on four elements: Topics, Asking, Levity, and Kindness. Topics are the building blocks of every conversation. Asking questions moves you between topics and deeper into them. Levity brings warmth without needing to be funny. Kindness makes the interaction feel generous rather than competitive.

  • The TALK framework draws on more than one million conversations studied, over three million individuals studied, more than 1,260 studies reviewed across the TALK program, and over 250 academic papers. Alison Wood Brooks uses experimental and computational methods across hundreds of thousands of real conversations.

The TALK Book

  • TALK: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves is a practical guide to the many micro-challenges of conversation. It covers what to talk about, when to ask a question, what to ask, when to share something about yourself, and how to make small talk less painful. The book was named a Next Big Idea Club Must-Read and became a national bestseller.

  • Yes. The TALK Workbook is a free companion with hundreds of topics and exercises for reflecting on your conversations and practicing new skills with friends and colleagues. When you request the workbook, you also join the email list for a monthly note from Alison.

  • The TALK book works for readers from Grade 7 and above, which makes it a fit for teacher toolkits, school libraries, and adult readers alike.

TALK Time

  • TALK Time is a digital kit of seven repeatable conversation games you can run in under ten minutes, with no prep and no special training. It was built for classrooms serving grades 5 through 12 and works just as well at the dinner table or with a work team.

  • TALK Time is a one-time purchase of $40. There is no subscription and no per-student fee. You download the files once and use them as often as you want for the whole school year.

  • The digital kit includes one slide for each of the seven games, one poster for each game, a "We Are a TALK Classroom" poster, and an Instructor Booklet with leader scripts, opening topics, game variations, and debrief guides. Everything is available for download the moment you buy.

  • Your files arrive by email within a few minutes of checkout. TALK Time is delivered through a secure download partner, so look for a message from noreply@digital-downloads.com. If it has not arrived in 15 minutes, check your spam folder, then email hello@talkstudios.com and we will resend it.

  • Pick one of the seven games, pick a topic from the opening prompts or swap in your own, then set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes and play. Close with the debrief question. You can start your first game in under thirty seconds and play the same game next week with a new topic.

  • A standard purchase covers one leader, so please do not forward the files. If you want your whole grade-level or teaching team running TALK Time, the Grade License covers up to 10 people and gets each of them their own kit under one purchase, so everyone can run games in their own classroom from day one.

  • Because TALK Time is a digital download, all sales are final once your files have been delivered. If something went wrong with your order, such as a failed download or a duplicate charge, email hello@talkstudios.com and we will make it right.

TALK Daily and TALK Sparks

  • TALK Daily is a free conversation prompt delivered to your inbox each weekday morning. Each edition includes a daily prompt, a "try this" tip centered on a specific conversation skill, a short explanation of the science behind the tip, and four follow-up questions for practice. Teachers use it as a no-prep classroom ritual, and families use it at home.

  • TALK Sparks is a free conversation topic generator with hundreds of prompts on demand. You can filter by warm-up, fun, deep, or classroom topics and tap for a new spark whenever a conversation stalls.

TALK for schools

  • Schools use TALK Daily as a free daily conversation ritual, TALK Time as a set of repeatable classroom games, and the TALK book as a resource for teachers and school libraries. TALK Studios also works with schools on workshops, speaking engagements, curriculum adoption, pilot programs, and district partnerships.

  • No. TALK Daily requires no prep, and TALK Time comes with leader scripts and debrief guides so any teacher can run a game without special training or lesson planning.

  • Email partnerships@talkstudios.com to discuss curriculum adoption, pilot programs, or district partnership opportunities.

TALK for organizations

  • TALK Studios offers keynotes, workshops, executive sessions, virtual events, and consulting with implementation. Organizations can also license TALK content, explore custom partnerships, or become certified TALK facilitators. Past engagements include EY, Google, BlackRock, RTX, the Boston Celtics, Harvard Business School, Wharton, and Stanford GSB.

  • The Lavin Agency exclusively represents Alison for speaking engagements. To inquire about availability and fees, contact Charles Yao, EVP, Director of Intellectual Talent at The Lavin Agency, at cyao@thelavinagency.com.

  • TALK Studios partners with BTS for team consulting and rollout. To explore a consulting engagement, contact Andy Atkins, SVP, Executive and Team Performance Global Practice Leader at BTS, at Andrew.Atkins@bts.com.

TALK for Families

  • Families use TALK Sparks for on-demand topics, TALK Daily for a free weekday prompt, TALK Time games at the dinner table or in the car, and the TALK book for the science behind it all. A prompt and a few minutes turn one-word answers into a real back and forth.

  • Yes. Alison teaches a MasterClass called The Conversation Advantage, where you work through familiar conversation scenarios and learn research-backed ways to handle them with confidence.

contact and media

  • For press and media inquiries, email hello@talkstudios.com. For schools, districts, and organizational partnerships, email partnerships@talkstudios.com. For speaking engagements, contact The Lavin Agency. You can also send a note through the contact form on our Contact page and we will route it to the right person.

  • Sign up for Good Talk, the free monthly newsletter with insights from Alison, using the signup form in the footer of any page on this site.