"Conversation: Striving, Surviving, and Thriving" presents a psychological-evolutionary rationale for everyday discourse and a method for analyzing conversations. As an evolved form of direct action, conversation empowers humans to relentlessly seek good physical and mental states by discovering life-enhancing messages and relationships. Properly analyzed conversations disclose our innermost desires and concerns, and promote self-enriching insights. "Conversation: Striving, Surviving, and Thriving" answers such questions as: What can I do to make my conversations more satisfying? What is conversational style? How is it that some people are chatty and others reticent? Where does conversational content come from? Why am I more likely to telephone my mother than my father? What are the similarities and differences between man-talk and woman-talk? Are some people simply not worth the conversational effort? Why is gossip enticing? Do I talk with the same persons about the same things? Incisive and eminently useful, "Conversation: Striving, Surviving, and Thriving" illuminates the hopes and dreams encoded in everyday banter, enabling us to more effectively talk our way to feeling good.