Why don't we give ourselves permission to value doing stuff that we just get a kick out of like give yourself permission to get a kick out of your own life?

Hey, this is Kelly Corrigan, and we have been reorienting ourselves this month toward things that can help us feel more and no more

So we can do more and be better. This week we're winding up our series the 2022 regroup with a serious

conversation about the mental, physical and cognitive benefits of fun. My guest is the science journalist Catherine

Price. She wrote the super hit How to Break Up with Your Phone and more recently the power of fun how to feel alive again.

So join us as we make the case for true fun over fake fun and why it's worth making room for something so

optional even on our busiest days. We'll be right back with Kelly Corrigan Wonders.

Hey, this is Kelly Corrigan, and I'm back with Kelly Corrigan Wonders. As we continue to regroup and try to get our heads right for 2022, it may be worthwhile to reconsider the value of fun in our lives.

Because after all, as George Bernard Shaw said, we don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.

So instead of looking at fun as something frivolous that gets shoved down to the very bottom of our priority list, what if we took a more scientific research based approach?

What if we incorporated tools to help us feel less guilty about embracing fun? And what if that change ended up making us more productive in the process?

Today, we're talking to science journalists, speaker, teacher, consultant, and author, Catherine Price.

Catherine is the founder of ScreenLifeBalance.com, and she's written a new book called The Power of Fun How to Feel Alive Again.

We thought maybe if we knew that there's real data to prove that fun makes us healthier, fun makes us more effective, relaxed, and nicer, we might give ourselves permission to do it more often.

For most of us, these last few years have been the hardest days of our lives. Too much pandemic, too little justice, so much worrying.

I mean, we wondered if it was even appropriate to have an episode about injecting more fun into our lives. But once we dug in, we realized that maybe a little more fun is exactly what every single one of us needs most.

As we were preparing for this episode, we asked you all to leave us voicemail messages about what you do for fun. We loved hearing from you and wanted to share some of your ideas and messages.

So the thing I've been doing lately for fun is rollerblading. It's the woosh, woosh, and gliding of the blades. It's just fun.

And I don't know if this is weird or not at 42 years old, but sometimes I like to do kid crafts.

I have fun and make fun by riding my push scooter around a little Spanish town with my two kids, riding and snorkeling as much as I possibly can.

Hi, this is Kristen. I realized a few months ago that I needed to get outside. So much time inside in front of my computer was it contributing to my well-being.

My neighbor helped me rehab my two-decade old bike from college and I quickly discovered that listening to your podcast while biking brings me to a mendish joy and a sense of connection.

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