You might have been told not to talk to strangers... but this week, we find out why a stranger might just be a friend you haven't met.

Read on to find out what's on the show, or click the player below to listen. And as always, the podcast is available here (or in an enhanced format from iTunes).

 

Every week, Sook-Yin takes her mic to the streets to meet some strangers. This week, she goes a step further, when she turns the mic over to a stranger and asks her to chat with other strangers. How strange will it be?

Now we'd never advocate stalking anyone. But as DNTO producer Tori Allen discovers, there are some definite benefits to following strangers... especially online, with the help of stwanger.com. (And if you want to find out more about the benefits of following strangers on twitter, check out this piece from our friends at Spark.)

Strangers can be awesome, and no one knows that better than Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome. He'll tell us about the awesomeness of people we don't know.

There were plenty of strangers at Hannah Miller's wedding...and her husband was one of them. She'll tell us why. (And you can see some of her wedding video below.)




Cecil Castellucci is a creative machine: she writes books and plays, and makes music and movies. And in her life and her work, she's often interested in the plus side of interacting with strangers. In fact her new novel, Rose Sees Red is all about a girl whose life is changed by the stranger next door. She'll come by to tell us about it.

Mark Shouldice and Franke James tell us about their strange(r) dinner.

It can happen anywhere... on the street, in a café, even while riding an escalator. Someone you've never seen before catches your eye and all of a sudden you're sharing a moment. But if you're not quick enough to act on it, you can always place a missed connection ad in your local paper and see what happens. Video journalist Katy Newton spent some time meeting the people behind these posts for her series I.C.U. She'll tell us about the power of a missed connection.

If a stranger helps you out, are you then obliged to help that stranger - even if it means putting yourself in the path of a crazy extortionist? Find out what Nile Seguin did when he found himself in that very situation.

If you've ever given money to a charity, the odds are that the person who benefited was a stranger to you. But we'll hear the remarkable story of Chris Mburu, who tracked down his benefactor... and find out the lengths he went to to repay her kindness. (And you can find out more about A Small Act, the documentary about Chris' story, here.)

The Record Of The Week Club was a 16-week recording and social experiment in Winnipeg that brought together musicians who had never met before. Their task was to write, record, and mix a song in one night. So how'd it work out? We'll talk with two of the project's participants: Ismaila Alfa and Mark Penner.

Lilly McElroy has an interesting way of meeting strangers: she throws herself at them. Literally. She'll tell us why leaping at people is a great way to meet them.

Carma Jolly tells us how a perfect - and still unknown - stranger helped her on the subway during a frightening experience.

And here's this week's playlist:

Cee Lo Green - "Strangers In the Crowd"
Hannah Georgas - "Stranger To Me"
Martha Wainwright - "Love Is a Stranger"
Catie Curtis - "Hello Stranger"
Frank Sinatra - "Strangers In the Night"
John Southworth - "So Glad It's Finally Spring"
Natalie Merchant - "Kind and Generous"
Ismaila Alfa and Mark Penner - "Walkman"
Paper Cranes - "Lover's Leap"