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The 3 ingredients for fun: an expert's formula for experiencing genuine delight
People take part in the annual International Pillow Fight Day in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2018.
Robin Utrecht/AFP via Getty Images
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People take part in the annual International Pillow Fight Day in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2018.
Robin Utrecht/AFP via Getty Images
Search “how to have fun” on Google and literally billions of search results come up. People pay hundreds of dollars to hire party coaches and play coaches. There are seminars and workshops on how to have fun in life.
What’s so hard about having fun?
Packed schedules and the pressure to succeed discourage people from taking a step back and unwinding. For some of us, the guilt of not being productive makes fun, well, not fun.
“Everyone is so busy but yet unfulfilled,” Catherine Price, the author of The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, told NPR.
With a background as a science journalist, Price sought to parse out the ingredients for “true fun,” as she calls it. Her answer is the overlapping states of playfulness, connection and flow.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Andrew Limbong: Can you define some terms here: What is “fun”?
Catherine Price: So what I found is that the dictionary definition doesn’t match the lived experience when people have fun. So I decided to try to come up with a better definition of what fun is. And the definition I came up with is that fun — or “true fun,” as I call it — is the combination of three states: playfulness, connection and flow. And when those three states are together, like the center of the Venn diagram, that is the feeling of fun.
Playfulness does not mean you have to play games. A lot of adults get very nervous when you use the word “playfulness,” so I like to say you don’t have to necessarily be silly or childish. It’s really just more about having a lighthearted attitude towards life and towards yourself.
Connection refers to this feeling of having a special shared experience with other people. And then flow is active and engaged. And really importantly, flow requires you to be present. So if you’re distracted at all, you can’t be in flow and you can’t have fun.
Limbong: People are hiring a party coach or a fun coach. And on the one hand, I can see people like myself rolling their eyes at this, you know? But on the other hand, I don’t know if it’s something akin to a physical trainer, someone to just help you along. I want to get your take on why these jobs exist and how have we commodified the business of fun.
Price: I think that the reason that there’s a market for such things is that there’s a genuine problem, which is that we’re not feeling connection or playfulness or flow that often. Things feel very serious. We are very lonely and isolated. And we’re very distracted. Everyone is so busy but yet unfulfilled. So I think that the market does speak to this genuine longing that we have for something more.
On the flip side, I don’t think it’s necessary to do that. I think that there are steps each of us can take and reflections we can engage in that can fill our lives with more everyday moments of fun without having to spend money. I mean, I literally have thousands of stories from people around the world about fun, and it’s fascinating to notice how few of those involve people spending money or even going anywhere. I think those are two misperceptions we have about fun: that it costs money and that you have to be outside of your everyday life for it to occur.
Children play in the snow in Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight, off England’s southern coast, in 1940.
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Children play in the snow in Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight, off England’s southern coast, in 1940.
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Limbong: But I wonder, then, how much social media plays into this, right? Because I know when I play with my nieces and nephew, my sister then always gets out her camera. Then we’ve got to pose in the leaves or whatever, and she has to post on the ‘gram. It’s like, well, we were just having fun. (Shout-out to my sister: I hope you’re listening. I love you!) But what does social media do with our perception and our concept of having fun?
Price: I think it’s really messed us up because one of the requirements for fun is that you be completely present and that your inner critic is silent. And if you’re performing, then you’re not fully present and you probably have your inner critic on in some capacity. That kills fun. Fun is very fragile. It’s like a sensitive flower.
Limbong: So I’m going to come to you hat in hand. If I want to start having more fun today, where do I start?
Price: I would suggest that you think back on moments from your own life that stand out to you as having been fun and notice what themes emerge, because these are things that you should prioritize. I’d also say, though, to really play around with the idea of how could you build more playfulness, connection and flow into your everyday life. You know, how could you be more present? How could you reduce distractions? One suggestion I always give for playfulness in particular that I love is to try to be playfully rebellious — do things that kind of break the rules of adult life a little bit — not in the way of getting you arrested, but just something that delights you. Like, do stuff that delights you, and create delight for other people.
The last suggestion is prioritize it. That’s the most important thing: Take fun seriously. Play around with it, and just notice the difference in your mood. We should be having more fun. The world would be a better place if we had more fun.
new video loaded: Another Night of Violent Protests Outside a Newark ICE Detention Center
transcript
transcript
Another Night of Violent Protests Outside a Newark ICE Detention Center
Protesters and the police clashed again outside of an ICE detention center in New Jersey on Saturday night.
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“Shut down Delaney Hall.” “Shut down Delaney Hall.” “Mikie Sherrill, do better. Mikie Sherrill, do better.”
By Cynthia Silva
May 31, 2026
Family visitation at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center is being restored to at least part of the facility, New Jersey’s governor and US homeland security officials confirmed on Sunday morning, after a week during which heated demonstrations at the site were met with aggressive policing tactics.
Meanwhile, families of detained immigrants grappled with conflicting information about exactly whom among them would get visitation after the announcement from governor Mikie Sherrill and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And local officials by Sunday had also indefinitely imposed an overnight curfew beginning at 9pm for a blocked-off area including Delaney Hall.
Delaney Hall visitation had been canceled after detained immigrants began carrying out an ongoing hunger and labor strike inside the detention center – which prompted protests outside the facility in support of those striking.
Facility staff confirmed to the Guardian on Sunday that what are known as units 1 and 3 were given visitation beginning at about noon and 2pm local time, respectively.
Unit 1 is a women’s section of the facility. Unit 2 is where the majority of the hunger-striking detainees are based, and it was unclear on Sunday whether it would have access to family visitation.
Sherrill’s office and the private prison company GEO Group, which runs the facility, did not respond to a request for comment. The road leading to Delaney Hall is now fully blocked by police, except for families attempting to visit detained loved ones, state officials announced on Sunday afternoon.
The governor’s announcement and subsequent confusion by families followed a night of violent clashes outside the facility between local officials and protesters. In the aftermath of that, Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, responded by activating a curfew for the area surrounding Delaney Hall.
The curfew would be in place nightly from 9pm to 6am “until further notice”, said Baraka’s office, which threatened arrest or legal action if people did not disperse during that time.
On Sunday morning, Sherrill and other top New Jersey state officials said that three people were arrested on Saturday night as a result of clashes with police. State officials said those arrest happened after a group of protesters attacked police and a barrier.
The Delaney Hall protests and clashes have become the latest flashpoint in the growing opposition to the aggressive anti-immigrant tactics Donald Trump’s administration has implemented nationwide throughout his second presidency.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains immigrants in its network of facilities across the US while the cases of those detained play out in courts.
ICE detention centers have been repeatedly criticized for harsh conditions.
Hakeem Jeffries, the top US House Democrat of nearby New York, conducted an oversight visit of Delaney Hall on Sunday, and said the conditions of confinement “shock the conscience”.
On 22 May, a group of immigrants detained inside Delaney Hall detention announced a hunger and labor strike inside the facility, demanding improved conditions, medical care, a meeting with Sherrill and for their immigration cases to proceed. Between 300 and 400 detainees have since participated in the strike.
Protests began shortly thereafter, with lawmakers attempting to visit the facility. The facility gained further national attention after ICE officers pepper-sprayed US senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, outside the facility during a skirmish there on Monday.
ICE officers have used pepper spray as well as stun guns throughout the demonstrations. They have also shoved and arrested protesters.
On Friday, Sherrill and other top New Jersey officials announced that state police would replace ICE officers outside Delaney Hall. The state police set up road blocks around half a mile on either side of the detention center.
That night clashes erupted after state police officers began moving in on protesters. State police officials on horseback moved through the crowd. Other state police officers in riot gear shot teargas canisters at protesters, aggressively shoving demonstrators and arresting six.
Advocates present at Delaney Hall on Saturday repeatedly criticized Sherrill, a Democrat, for her response to the protests.
“The escalation that happened [on Friday] was ten times worse than what ICE was doing to everyone prior nights,” Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigrant Coalition, said in an interview on Saturday outside of the facility. “If anything, the escalators were the state police.”
A statement from Sherill on Saturday announcing the restoration of family visitation at Delaney Hall claimed DHS had “met our demand”. But DHS refuted the governor’s statement.
“To be clear: Visitation was only suspended because of violent riots,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Now that we have a secure perimeter, visitation can resume.”
Methodology
The illustrations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s plumbing system were drawn from National Park Service documents produced as part of its renovations and reviewed by people with knowledge of the project. The layout of the expansion joints was derived from photographic evidence and a 2013 report released as part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
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