True Fun in a Fake Fun World

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[upbeat music] What's up, y'all? Summer's got a different tempo. Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer. Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in-between moments, that's where the ideas hit. Conversations stretch out. Little memories sneak up on you. Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand, that color, that chill. The new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks. Guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls. Yeah, that feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm with Starbucks. Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks.

[upbeat jingle] Hey, everyone. It's Kal Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Ear Say, the Audible and iHeartAudio Book Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Ear Say, the Audible and iHeartAudio Book Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. [upbeat jingle]

Pushkin. [singers vocalizing]

If you think about it, and I encourage people listening to try this, if you ask someone in your own life to share a story of past fun, just watch their face while they're telling you the story. There's really this amazing warmth and this glow that comes off of people, and it's very contagious. It really just lights people up.

As adults, most of us don't have the time or energy to prioritize having fun. It kind of feels like a luxury good. But when some free time unexpectedly opened up for science journalist Catherine Price, she discovered just how restorative and life-giving fun can be.

That's what led me to write The Power of Fun, was this curiosity about what is this feeling? How does it differ from what it says in the dictionary? What research is there on what this is doing for us? And then perhaps most importantly, like, how can I have more of it because it feels so good? [singers vocalizing]

On today's episode, how to have more fun. I'm Maya Shankar, a scientist who studies human behavior, and this is A Slight Change of Plans, a show about who we are and who we become in the face of a big change. [singers vocalizing] Catherine has spent years researching how people can live happy and meaningful lives in a world filled with distraction.