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Live Happy Now

Why Sports Fans Have More Friends With Ben Valenta and David Sikorjak

Live Happy Now

Live Happy LLC

Health & Fitness:mental Health, Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.7522 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can being a sports fan make you happier? Research says yes, and this week, David Sikorjak and Ben Valenta, authors of the new book, Fans Have More Friends, explain why. These two strategies and analytics experts are die-hard sports fans who set out to prove their hypothesis that being a sports fan leads to happiness. In this episode, they share what they’ve learned and tell you why cheering on your favorite team is doing more for you than you might have realized. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why sports fans show higher levels of happiness. The importance of “passing down” fandom within families. How sports fandom can help overcome polarization.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for joining us for episode 390 of Live Happy Now.

0:06.8

If you're a sports fan or you know someone who is, you're going to love today's guests.

0:11.8

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I have the pleasure of sitting down with David

0:15.6

Secoriac and Ben Valenta, authors of the new book, Fans Have More Friends.

0:20.6

These two strategy and analytics experts are diehard sports fans

0:23.9

who set out to prove their hypothesis

0:25.9

that being a sports fan leads to happiness.

0:29.0

Their research proved them right,

0:30.7

and this week they're here to talk about

0:32.3

why cheering on your favorite team

0:34.1

is doing more for you than you might have realized.

0:39.7

David and Ben, welcome to live Happy Now. Thanks for having us. Happy to be here. Well, this is exciting because this is something

0:45.8

we have not touched on at Live Happy, which is unusual. It feels like a lot of things we've looked at

0:50.5

from so many different angles, but not fandom. And, you know, sports are such a huge part of our culture.

0:57.9

And I don't think we've ever touched on how it really affects us psychologically.

1:01.6

So I guess, for starters, how did the two of you meet and how did you decide to write a book about this?

1:08.5

Our relationship goes way back.

1:10.3

We've been working together for, I don't know,

1:12.5

12, 10, 12 years.

1:14.3

And we've always been kind of collaborators

1:16.4

and like-minded in how we see the world

1:20.1

and have been working in the sports business

...

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