Today on the show we’re talking about two topics that seem quite different but are actually incredibly related: breaking up with our phones and having more fun. Catherine Price’s book How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life originally came out in 2018; the revised edition of the book actually comes out tomorrow, February 4 and is fully revised and updated. Today on the show we talk about a phone’s impact on a life and how it robs us of living fully; that our phones — social media specifically — are designed to addict us and rob our attention and, as Catherine argues, what we pay attention to is what defines our lives. We talk about screen/life balance, a digital sabbath, and then we weave into Catherine’s 2024 book The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, which introduces us to a fun audit, having a fun squad, finding fun magnets, and the concept of True Fun, which Catherine explains today. There is so much good here, all of which will add to your quality of life. Catherine is also the author of Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food, which came out in 2015, and she is an award-winning science journalist who specializes in writing evidence-backed books about building joyful and meaningful lives. You might have seen her work in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, O: The Oprah Magazine, Parade, Slate, Salon, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, and more, and she has been dubbed, appropriately so, “the Marie Kondo of Brains” by The New York Times. You’re going to get so much out of this conversation.

All by Catherine Price:

How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life

The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again

“How to Feel Alive” on Substack