Have you ever been surrounded by people, but felt completely alone?

In 2014, Kalina Silverman moved to a new city. She wanted to go out, meet new people, and instead of just make small talk, actually have deeper, more meaningful conversations.

So she made a YouTube video where she filmed herself approaching strangers and skipping small talk to ask them the question: “What do you want to do before you die?” The conversations helped to build relationships she still maintains today.

Since then Big Talk's vision of helping to fight loneliness and restore meaningful connections, and unite people through storytelling about our shared human experiences has soared. In 2017, Kalina was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant "Using Big Talk to build empathy across cultures," and gave a TEDx talk with over 6,000,000 You Tube views: "How to skip the small talk and connect with anyone."

Big Talk is now a global movement that includes inspiring stories and educational interactive events facilitated by the Big Talk Question Card Game. There are many ways to play; with friends old and new, family members, coworkers, classmates, teammates, clients, members of your community, dating interests, and even yourself. The card game has been adopted by Universal Music Australia (featuring celebrities such as Keith Urban and Lorde), the U.S. State Department, the LA Lakers G Team, and even has led to a marriage proposal!