Some people at U of Penn are doing linguistics work that involves getting people to be recorded talking on the phone with strangers, on a specified topic. Today's topic was "health and fitness"--the conversation was a bit choppy, but mercifully they wanted us to talk about exercise, which he and I both do, rather than diet or something.
If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, you can sign up at
http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/Fisher/They ask you to give times they can call you, and there's also the option of calling them, which is what I did this evening. They'll ask where you heard about this; my PIN, for referral purposes, is 55541, and if you're male and give that referral, I get a dollar bonus. Maximum 3 calls per participant, so it won't pay the rent, but ten dollars for a ten-minute call, plus a couple of minutes on hold while they found a second participant, is reasonable, given that I'm unemployed and chatty.
I'm fairly sure you have to live in North America for this (since they're using 866 and 800 toll-free numbers), and it may be US only.