Chapter 85: Jane McGonigal on slaying stress with superhero strengths

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Happy Sturgeon Moon, everybody! And happy Blue Moon, too! Jane McGonigal joins us on Chapter 85 of 3 Books to help us celebrate.

Let’s start off with a question.

What would you do if you jumped out of a desk chair and slammed your head directly into an open cupboard door which gave you a massive concussion that left you bedridden for months? Oh, and you were told “No reading, no writing, no video games, no work, no email, no running, no alcohol, and no caffeine.”

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Well, most of us would probably just lie there.

I mean, what else could you do?

Well, if you’re Jane McGonigal that’s not what you do. No! If you’re Jane McGonigal, what you do is design a game, in your concussion-riddled state, to help you get better. You create an avatar. You give yourself goals. You select projects. And you slowly help yourself heal! You call the game Jane the Concussion Slayer, after your favorite TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and then you release it out into the world.

Today that game has helped over a million people tackle challenges like concussions, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. It’s been renamed Super Better and been evaluated by clinical trials, randomized control studies, and all kinds of scientific white papers as the top game in the world treating depression, anxiety and pain.

Is it any wonder Jane was the first person to study computer and video games in her PhD at Berkeley? Or that she’s a TED superstar with two talks racking up over 15 million views about how gaming can make a better world and the game that can give you 10 extra years of life? Or that she’s the New York Times bestselling author of Reality is Broken and (yes) Superbetter? Or the Director of Games Research & Development at the Institute for the Future? No, I did not make any of that up. And I could go on!

Jane McGonigal is a humanistic designer of alternate realities and her life goal is to see a game developer win the Nobel Peace Prize. I love her work and the incredible force for good it is having on the world.

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Let’s grab a seat with Jane and talk: how we live with greater flow, how we harness our children’s ‘soul force’, why we maybe shouldn’t be limiting screen time, how to choose games for kids, what questions you should ask your kids about the games they play, the best card game out there, exploring the boundaries of our psychic selves, and, of course, Jane McGonigal’s 3 most formative books.

Let’s turn the page into Chapter 85 now …

What You'll Learn:

  • How can we bend the rules of reality?

  • What is the power of a twin relationship?

  • What is a soul force?

  • How should we think about nature and nurture as we parent?

  • Are our identities more malleable today?

  • What is the difference between social media and gaming?

  • What is flow?

  • Why do game designers learn about flow?

  • How can flow be a resource for humanity?

  • How do we find our own flow?

  • How can we shift away from bullshit jobs?

  • Why should we shorten the workday week?

  • How can games help treat PTSD and depression?

  • How can we better manage screen time for our kids?

  • How should we curate games for our kids?

  • How can games help our kids learn confidence?

  • Why should kids teach their parents how to play video games?

  • What are the  key questions you should be asking your kids about the video games they play?

  • What is a predictor of video game addiction?

  • How does TV benefit kids?

  • Why should you watch TV with your kids?

  • Why should you know the theme songs of your kids’ favorite TV shows?

  • How do we teach aliens what it means to be human?

  • What does studying an audience tell us about art?

  • How do we experience more out of life?

Notable quotes from Jane mcgonigal:

“What I try to do with my kids is I try to see them and reflect back to them what I see.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Parenting can help you be a better person because you don’t want to pass on your learned anxieties” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“The soul force is also the love force. It is the sheer power of love that you feel as a parent to make every change you wish you could have made.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Online gamers are essentially like psychonauts. The same type of experimentation we saw around psychedelic drugs in the sixties, we are seeing with online gamers kind of exploring the boundaries of their psychic selves through the avatars.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Technology is allowing us to explore our psychic selves and who we want to be and the power of our minds.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Social media and gaming are so different. One brings out the best in us. One brings out the worst in us.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“The performance of your real self on social media is, in many ways, toxic and disfiguring of your authentic self vs when you play a game, you might be playing an alternate persona, it's an avatar, a character, but you are being an authentic self.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“When I research who people are when they play their favorite games, it's not an escape or a reconfiguration of their authentic selves. It's really nurturing and allowing to flourish things that are really signature strengths.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Self-help is so important, but it's not enough. We have to heal society and heal each other, not just ourselves.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“We need universal basic income so that people can spend more time doing the things that bring them flow that are not bringing them a paycheck.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“There's abundance in things you aren't paid to do.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“The things that bring us true well being and psychological flourishing, that allow us to connect with others and help them flourish too, are these activities that are not expensive, we don't get paid for, but we get nourished by them.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Family screen time to me is not something I need to restrict, if we're doing something that's challenging and learning and creating and collaborating.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“If you can talk about what it takes to be good at the game in language that then bridges back or springboards back to reality, then you're more likely to see those skills as part of who you are and use them when you face a real challenge or stress.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Kids are naturally better at video games than we are, and this is a rare role reversal where they get to be the teacher to the parent. It's so good for your relationship.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“Games are skills and training and strengths that are part of who we are and we can bring that to our whole lives.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

“If you can't sing the theme song, then you're not involved enough.” Jane McGonigal #3bookspodcast

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