Her research for the book has involved hours upon hours of talk­ing with peo­ple about con­ver­sa­tion as well as eaves­drop­ping on con­ver­sa­tions: the kind of low-grade spy­ing that in acad­e­mia is known as “ethnog­ra­phy,” that in jour­nal­ism is known as “report­ing,” and that every­where else is known as “pay­ing attention.”