Pick the kind of meeting and the place you're in, then open a topic. The questions are open-ended: people answer them with a story, not a yes or no.
Why these questions
People underestimate how much more enjoyable a deeper conversation with a stranger is than small talk: Kardas, Kumar and Epley showed this in 12 experiments (2021). That's why friendship and dates have a "Going deeper" topic, but the depth builds gradually, from the moment and the place to values.
Follow-up questions create the most liking (Huang et al., Harvard, 2017). Don't rush to the next question: ask "Why?" or "What happened next?".
There are no questions about the war, moving, money, exes, politics or religion: a first conversation should feel safe for both of you.