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# 40 Magical Questions to help a group connect across difference

### A cheat sheet for global teams, diverse families, and modern life

[Priya Parker](https://substack.com/@priyaparker)

Jun 12, 2026

I hear some version of this question over and over again: **How do you create connection across cultural difference?**

You all know by now that one of my favorite tools in my facilitator tool belt is Magical Questions. (All together now: A Magical Question is a question that everyone in your group would be interested in answering _and_ interested in hearing each other’s answers.)

I’ve put together a list of questions (many from Group Lifers) that work particularly well when you’re trying to connect across a line of difference (for whatever reason).

What works is surprising. For example, want to know one of the best questions to ask in a culturally-diverse group?

“What’s your favorite way to eat a potato?”

At first glance, it sounds basic. (And it is.) A potato? But it’s a simple, accessible, close-to-universal way into people’s many worlds. (This question actually came from GROUP LIFER Tara during one of our very first Group Help Labs.) The humble potato is rich fodder for conversation from many worlds. When we asked this question in our [Group Help Lab](https://priyaparker.substack.com/p/create-connection-across-cultural-diffs), the chat lit up: pierogis, aloo gobi, samosas, patatas bravas, French fries from a specific roadside stand, gnocchi, latkes — dishes tied to childhood, and different regions and rich, specific, differing cultural contexts.

This question works because it creates many ways in. Nobody needs expertise or the right answer. It invites stories and memory and specificity and culture.

#### **So without further ado, here are 40 Magical Questions designed to help culturally diverse groups connect (many from YOU!).**

#### **Food, memory, and home**

1. What food would someone have to eat to understand your childhood?
2. How did/does your family prepare rice?
3. What sound instantly reminds you of where your family is from?
4. What’s a smell that instantly takes you home?
5. What did hospitality look like in your home growing up? — Yara E.