It has been called the new "um" or "like," but linguist Geoff Nunberg says starting sentences with "so" isn't a new trend. People have been doing it for years. We're just noticing it more now.

There’s no there there” was Gertrude Stein’s classic slander of the city of Oakland, Calif. That was the last time a sentence was started successfully with a pronominal, impersonal there.