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Episode: 407

Try it For 1 Week: Small Ways to Make Your Life Fun & Exciting Again

with Priya Parker

Make every moment with the people you love feel more fun and meaningful.

Summer is all about long days, warm nights, and time with the people you love. 

In this episode, Mel sits down with Priya Parker, author of “The Art of Gathering,” to show you how to make that time more fun, meaningful, and memorable. 

You’ll learn simple ways to create better conversations, deepen friendships, make family time less tense, meet new people, and bring more joy and connection to every dinner, party, meeting, and gathering.

You’ll learn how to be a better host and a better guest and how small, simple shifts can turn ordinary moments into memories people never forget.

Listen on:

When you stop leaving connection to chance, you’ll have a richer, more connected, more delightful life.

Priya Parker

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Key takeaways

  1. Before you walk into any gathering, ask what need, purpose, or connection you’re hoping to create, because if you change nothing, nothing changes.

  2. When conversations feel stale, ask a magical question that sparks curiosity, reveals hidden stories, creates real laughter, and helps you truly connect.

  3. If you feel lonely despite spending time with other people, stop relying on chance and add thoughtful structure, because meaningful connection rarely happens by pure luck. 

  4. Avoiding hard truths can quietly damage a relationship and creates unhealthy peace, while healthy heat can bring you closer to the people you care about most.

  5. Avoiding hard truths can quietly damage a relationship and creates unhealthy peace, while healthy heat can bring you closer to the people you care about most.

Guests Appearing in this Episode

Priya Parker

Priya Parker is a bestselling author and leading expert on how to gather, connect, and navigate conflict with more meaning and purpose.

  • The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict

    In The Art of Fighting, Priya Parker explains that we can’t form and grow effective relationships without a fight. She rejects the idea that conflict is abnormal or that good groups don’t fight. All groups change and evolve; indeed, it’s because people disagree that good groups flourish.

    Parker draws on her far-reaching experience as a conflict facilitator, her own detailed research, and real-world examples to lay out the ways that people can identify disputes, determine how to address them, and what to do if they are insurmountable. Whether people disagree in the boardroom or the locker room, on a playground or in church, online or in person, conflict is a part of life, and understanding healthy conflict and how to harness its power is more important than ever. The Art of Fighting is a vital primer to help all of us understand how to do that.

  • The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

    In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive—which they don’t have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.

    The result is a book that’s both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue—and how you host and attend them.

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