The end of Dialogos is the beginning of a new era of Conversation

This is the last "main" article on my Dialogos Substack. Now on to putting together a book (or perhaps more!).

This is the last post that I’ll be writing for this Dialogos Substack. It’s been running pretty much every week since the beginning of January 2022. Seventy-nine weeks on, I’ve published around 100 articles and threads, for a total of something close to 400,000 words. It has been a rich and rewarding experience, if a little nerve-wracking on occasion to meet the deadline of Thursday 5pm every week! And I didn’t always succeed. My desire was to see what it’s like to try to publish a book episodically, as was done in the late 18th and 19th century. Charles Dickens is widely considered the writer who made episodic writing famous. He did so with bravado (and not without consequence for his unfortunate illustrator, Robert Seymour) with his Pickwick Papers, in 1836.

But Dickens was neither the inventor, nor the only author to have done so. The practice was widespread in the UK (before him), and in many other countries including France (Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert), Russia (Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky), the US (Henry James, Herman Melville), Germany and Poland. I’m very thankful for those of you who felt inclined to support me financially. For you, I’ll be going off line with some personalised words.

I also want to call out the wonderful contributors. Among the 79 major posts, there are 17 deliciously different articles from people who hold all sorts of varied conversations, such as with a tree, a hostage taker, an ancestor or between musicians. Below is a complete list of all of the contributors (with a link to their post) to whom I’m deeply thankful. This list is in alphabetical order using the first name!

1. Christopher Lochhead: The Dialogue Depression. A Deep Dive into the Roots of Ineffective Communication - https://minter.substack.com/p/the-dialogue-depression-guest-post

2. Dr Emmanuel Nuesiri: Conversational teaching at the African Learning College Mauritius (ALC). The five keys to making conversational teaching work in the classroom - https://minter.substack.com/p/conversational-teaching-at-the-african

3. François Jacquet: How to make conversation sublime through music - Interview with François Jacquet, member of the Quatuor Annesci. The remarkable ways that, through music, this quartet has created both unity and a larger presence. The musical conversation is at the heart of what they do - https://minter.substack.com/p/how-to-make-conversation-sublime/

4. Gair Maxwell: A Meaningful, Internal Dialogue. Bare-Knuckle Branding & Leadership - https://minter.substack.com/p/guest-post-by-gair-maxwell-a-meaningful

5. Hervé Franceschi: What We Can Learn From Dialoguing with Nature, This is a transcription and translation of the interview I had with Hervé who has spent his life talking with trees and animals. So much we can learn! -  https://minter.substack.com/p/the-art-of-dialoguing-with-nature

6. Jo Petroni: How designing a home can become deeply meaningful. How to create a meaningful exchange as an architect with prospective home buyers - https://minter.substack.com/p/how-and-why-designing-a-home-can

7. Joshua Shelov: The Music of Vulnerability. Exploring meaningful conversation through dialogue in the movies - https://minter.substack.com/the-music-of-vulnerability-guest

8. Laurent Combalbert: How to negotiate a conversation with a hostage taker, How to deal with intense emotions, high-stakes situations with a world-renowned negotiator and author - https://minter.substack.com/p/how-to-negotiate-a-conversation-with

9. Murphy Barney: Conversations with our Ancestors. What we can learn from conversing with our ancestors and how to carry on their wisdom - https://minter.substack.com/p/conversations-with-our-ancestors/comment/10119483

10. Nicci Kadilak: Creating Meaningful Dialogue Out of Thin Air. How to learn to write meaningful dialogues and what that can teach us all in real life - https://minter.substack.com/p/creating-meaningful-dialogue-out

11. Patrick Jinks PhD: The Conversation Not Held - https://minter.substack.com/p/the-conversation-not-held

12. Philippe Pierre PhD: The Power of Conversation in an Intercultural encounter - https://minter.substack.com/p/the-power-of-conversation-in-an-intercultural

13. Reena Kapoor: Conversations with a Citizen Historian, What I learned about myself by listening to my people’s history - https://minter.substack.com/p/conversations-with-a-citizen-historian

14. Rob Schenck: Conversations and Confessions with Reverend Robert Schenck, Between talking with God, US presidents, Supreme Court justices and senior politicians, we have the inside story on how Reverend Schenck masters the art of conversation - https://minter.substack.com/p/conversations-and-confessions-with#details

15. Steve QJ: How to have a meaningful conversation online. Decoding online discourse with numerous punchlines - https://minter.substack.com/p/how-to-have-a-meaningful-conversation

16. Ted Rubin: Is Executing Really the Only Thing? How thinking and brainstorming convert to powerful strategy making - https://minter.substack.com/p/is-executing-really-the-only-thing

17. Valerie Desclerc: How to make a successful first appointment when you are a consultant? How to use conversation to establish a connection with a stranger in the context of a prospecting call - https://minter.substack.com/p/how-to-make-a-successful-first-appointment

Through the process of writing this Dialogos, I have learned a lot about the art of conversation. I’ve had some remarkable discussions about conversation, improved some parts of my own repertoire and, in general, feel entirely reinforced in the conviction that the world needs — and many people are keen to experience — more robust and meaningful conversations. Not only is open and contrarian discussion and debate a critical component of democracy, it’s how we learn, and it’s how we get to know each other deeper. Bottom line, meaningful conversation is the linchpin of our relationships with one another.

Finally, I can also say that being part of the Substack community has been rewarding in itself. I’ve met many great Substackers (several of whom were among the contributors above). I want to thank Substack for their dedication to making us writers better and for giving a platform to voices that might otherwise be shut out or shut down.

For my next steps, I’ll be sifting through my writings and looking to see how I might bring to a book format this collection of essays and posts. For now, I’m happy to leave my posts online and I hope that they can be a useful resource for any of you wishing to have more tangly, messy and interesting conversations. No doubt, I’ll have to sunset this Substack in the future. But, whatever happens let’s continue to fight for having stronger, more exploratory, more incisive dialogue. May we find greater meaningfulness in the subjects we treat and the relationships we forge.

As Dickens said in Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions, 1865:

No one is useless in this world who lightens the load of another.