Guides & journal

How to actually use it. Not how we made it.

Short, specific field guides. Which cards to pull for a car ride, how to run a deck at a holiday table, and what to ask a teenager who has stopped answering. No listicles.

Field guide

Twenty minutes in a car is the best conversation you’ll have this week

Side by side, no eye contact, a hard stop. Why the car outperforms the dinner table — and the four-card sequence to run in it.

6 min read · Read it →

Lead image — car interior,
two people, side by side

Field guide

How to ask a teenager a question they’ll actually answer

Every question that sounds like a check-in gets a one-word answer. Here’s what to ask instead, and the three subjects to leave alone.

7 min read →

Field guide

Running a deck at a holiday table with people who don’t agree

Twelve people, four opinions, one turkey. Which categories to pull, which to leave in the box, and when to end it.

5 min read →

Getting started

Your first night with the deck: don’t open with the deep ones

The single most common mistake is starting with the best card. Start light, and let the fourth answer be the good one.

4 min read →

On the system

Why every session should end on a pink card

Speak Life is the only category that asks you to say something to a person’s face. It’s also the reason people remember the night.

4 min read →

Field guide

The stories your parents will only tell if somebody asks

There is a narrow window for this and most families miss it. Four questions, one recording app, one afternoon.

6 min read →

One email a month

A new guide, and nothing else.

No launch countdowns, no discount codes. One guide a month and we’ll tell you when a deck ships.