How to Harness the Power of Fun to Feel More Alive

Week of July 27, 2024

Join Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, for a two-part “Funtervention” workshop—inspired by her viral TED talk—devoted to helping adults and families understand the value of fun and have more of it, both during family week and in their everyday lives. The two workshops can be taken independently, though they’re designed to complement each other.

The Power of Fun: What is Fun, and Why is It Good For Us?
We use the word “fun” in our everyday speech, but what is fun—and why is it important? In this workshop, inspired by her viral TED talk, Catherine will reveal some common misconceptions about fun (spoiler alert: it’s not frivolous or irresponsible!). She’ll propose a new definition that she believes captures its true power and importance, and will explain some of the surprising ways in which fun is essential for our happiness and health. She’ll invite participants to reflect on their greatest personal sources of fun, and will provide concrete suggestions for how to have more fun during Family week, both individually and as a family. While younger children are welcome, this workshop is designed for participants 13 and older.

The Funtervention: How to Have More Fun as a Family
In this workshop, Catherine will lead families through a hands-on “funtervention” — a series of conversation prompts and brainstorming exercises designed to help them identify their “fun magnets” and “fun factors”— both individually and as families—so that they can have more fun.  She’ll also reveal common “fun blockers,” and offer families the chance to take her “fun compatibility” quiz to see where their tastes in fun do (and perhaps don’t!) align. Participants will leave with a new concept of fun and easy, practical ideas for how they can build more fun into their family lives, both at the Ranch and at home. While younger children are welcome, this workshop is designed for participants 13 and older. It builds upon some of the concepts from Catherine’s first workshop on fun, though it can also be taken on its own.

 

Catherine Price is a health and science journalist, speaker,and the author of books, including How to Break Up With Your Phone and The Power of Fun. Her work on fun and screen/life balance has been featured in media outlets around the world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, the BBC, CNN, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and The Today Show, among many others, and she has led talks and workshops for events including TED, SXSW, the Aspen Ideas Festival, Leadercast, and Oprah Winfrey’s “The Life You Want” series.

Catherine writes the Substack newsletter, “How to Feel Alive,” and her TED talk on fun has been viewed more than 5 million times. Her recent talk, ”Kids, Smartphones, and Social Media: The Risks and the Solutions,” has been described by Jonathan Haidt (the bestselling author of The Anxious Generation) as “the talk every parent should watch,” and has led to a collaboration between Catherine and Jon’s team, in which they’re working together to roll back the phone-based childhood.

Through her writing, talks, and courses, Catherine aims to provide evidence-backed resources to help people of all ages scroll less and live more.