All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it.

We saw amazing effects.

I really felt like the cloud in my brain dissipated. There's no turning back from me.

Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today on The Bright Side, we're talking about building community and connection. We have the brilliant author, Priya Parker here, to teach us how to gather meaningfully.

She completely changed the gathering game for me.

It's Tuesday, March 26th. I'm Danielle Robé.

And I'm Simone Bois. And this is The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine. Vitamin D, we are in the world. The Bright Side is real. People are listening.

You know, I figured out your nickname. What is it? Because you keep calling me Sunny D or Vitamin D. And you know what rimes? Simone B.

Simone B. I like it. Simmy B? I don't know. I It's hard to break down. It's hard to break down. Yeah, maybe we need to workshop that one a little bit.

Simone is such a hot girl name. It's hard for me to nickname you.

It's one of those names that is un-nicknameable. It is very hard to break down.

Your mom really did a good job with that one.

She did. I grew into my name. I like it.

Okay, how do you feel? We birthed a podcast, baby.

We birthed a podcast, baby. I'm feeling good. I got a really sweet message from someone this morning who was like, I totally related to your comments on motherhood. I get it. I'm right there in the trenches with you. That solidarity, that's the community that we want to build with this show.

Yeah, that's really cool.

Yeah. How about you? How are you feeling?

I feel the same. I got a lot of really nice messages from people saying that it made them happy, which is really the of the show. What made me happy is my mom sent me a text message saying the show was phenomenal, and you know she's my toughest critic, so she's now our toughest critic.

She is because she's now following me on Instagram. We are following each other.

But she gave us two thumbs up.

Yay. Yes. Thanks, Deanna.

Thank you, girls. Well, I guess let's jump into our show today, yeah?

Yeah, we've got a big show today. All right, we got to start with a story that has been weighing heavily on a lot of our minds right now, and that is Kate Middleton's health. For those who haven't kept up with everything that's been going on, we're going to give you a quick recap. There have been months of speculation regarding Kate's whereabouts from media outlets, TV shows, celebrities, and online blogs. That started just after December 25th, because that was her last public appearance before a planned abdominal surgery in January.

Then in February, a palace source told people that Kate Middleton was, quote, doing well in recovery. But that's when the conspiracy theories began. Yeah.

Some were about the status of her marriage with Prince William, others about botched plastic surgeries or medical procedures. But perhaps the most wild conspiracy theories of all were that she's no longer alive, and photos and videos of her are actually deep fakes. Now, that, of course, was not helped by a photoshopped photo of Princess Kate with her three children, and then almost immediately taken down after the Associated Press questioned its authenticity. Kate later admitted to altering the photo herself. Then at the beginning of March, Which Kate was spotted for the first time since her surgery.

On Friday, the Princess of Wales announced in a video message that she'd been diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing preventive chemotherapy. I think the overarching feeling most people had when they watched this was sadness. This was so sad. I think there's some confusion for people, too, because they don't know what to expect from her because she's a public servant and a public person. She's a figurehead. She's a celebrity. She mentioned difficulty of having to process the news as well as explaining her condition to her three young children. That was the hardest part for me to hear. I know you said you felt really sad watching this, too.

I feel so sad. My chest feels so heavy watching all of this because I'm just putting myself in her shoes. It's already a lot to be a public figure in her capacity dealing with constant speculation. But then when you have this huge news, this major life change where your health is impacted, she's probably about her future. She's trying to just explain that to her kids. Her first priority is probably protecting her kids and her family, and she can't even do that because we're all breathing down her neck wanting answers. She doesn't owe us anything. I guess you could argue that she does owe us some answer because of her position. But I think what happened in the aftermath was completely inappropriate and out of bounds.

It was hard to watch. The media was in a flurry. Here's my personal perspective on it. I think that it's best to share from the scar, not the wound. It's really difficult to share a story while you're processing it. And so in that respect, I'm totally with you. It felt gut-wrenching to watch that video. She didn't seem okay. I think that people feel like she was bullied into a statement because the conspiracy theories and the gossip was a worst case scenario. On the flip side, she's a celebrity. I covered celebrity news for years, and any crisis PR expert will tell you that the move every single time is to get in front of it. They always say, Don't let someone else tell your story or spin the narrative. You have to own your story. Our first episode was literally, Write your own story. My personal opinion is I think this could have been avoided. I don't like what transpired, but I do think it could have been avoided. I think that they could have put out a statement saying, We'll update you as we know more, and please respect our privacy. Instead, I think they let the media and people on the internet make up and speculate what was going on.

It all got really weird.

I love what you said about, It's better to speak from the scar and not the wound. Did I get that right? Yes. Yeah, that's beautiful, and I think that's so accurate. I take issue with people seemingly gleefully speculating about what was going on. There was a lot of that. There was a lot of that, just taking pleasure in this woman's pain right now and, oh, let's figure out what is the next crazy conspiracy theory that we can drum up around her whereabouts. That, to me, is sickening. Great. Okay, we want to just add a little bright side button here. While the response to Kate's health has been extremely disappointing, the news of Kate's cancer diagnosis actually drove record traffic to Mcmillon Cancer Support, which is a leading UK cancer charity. So we love to see that.

Yeah, that is a Bright Side for sure. Okay, Simone? Yes. Simmy B?

I don't know. I don't know.

We need to workshop it. Hot girl, Simone, do you consider yourself a happy woman?

I Who consider myself a happy woman?

If you were to rate 1 through 10 on the happiness scale, where are you?

That's hard.

I mean- You can't say seven.

Why seven?

Because it's like a middle ground answer and it's a cop-out.

I would say today, maybe an eight. That's pretty good. That's pretty good for today. How about you? Do you consider yourself a happy woman?

Yeah, I do. I wake up, I'm like an eternally optimistic person. My happiness fluctuates, but my optimism doesn't.

That's how you got this job.

But my optimism doesn't. Yeah, I think we were both hired because we're optimistic. But I recently saw an article on the Every Girl, and they say there are five traits that the happiest women in the world all have in common. I want to go through them with you and see how we both rank.

Okay.

The first is they say no to things that don't bring them joy.

Yes, which is hard for us. A lot of us have been conditioned to do the opposite.

I'm from Chicago in the Midwest. You just say yes all the time. Do you want to drive someone to the airport even though it's during rush hour traffic? Yeah, of course you do. So I had to unlear this a lot. The only caveat I have to this is I think that our world, in a lot of ways, the Internet, at least, the discourse is, do only things that bring you joy. And I don't believe in that because there's short term joy and long term joy. So for instance, do I want to go to another bridal shower? No. In the short term, absolutely not. Do I value that friendship? Does that bring me joy? Yes.

Yeah, I think that's a good distinction.

Okay, number two, they prioritize their health.

Yeah, got to. Health is wealth. Health is happiness.

Well, what do you do to prioritize your health?

Oh, my gosh. I work out probably four to five times a week. That's pretty good. I try to be mindful of what I'm eating. I try to have balanced meals. I get a lot of protein in. I'm a wellness girly. I'm a wellness junkie. You are. Yeah.

You dive deep into it, too.

I do. I love me some wellness science.

I'm a sleepy girl, and if I don't get my sleep, I am useless to everybody, including myself. For me, that is the number one thing on the health radar. I do a word every single year at New Year's. My word for the year was discipline. I was really undisciplined with my workouts last year, and it decreased my happiness. Now I'm trying to work out three to five times a week and be a disciplined wellness girl.

Nice. How's it going?

I'm getting three in. That's good.

I'm not getting five. Well, here's the thing about wellness. I think we tend to think of it as an all or nothing game, like a zero-sum game, but there's so much... There's so many benefits in the in between. If you get 20 minutes in as opposed to zero minutes in, you're way better off.

Okay, number three, they don't take things personally. Do you take things personally?

Sometimes. It depends.

No one can see you, but you really had to think about that one.

Yeah, I was like, I don't know if that one's for me.

Why not?

You know what's interesting? I think of myself as a resilient person, but I do still take some things personally.

I think that's only natural.

Yeah, I'm only human people.

It's natural to take things personally.

How about you? Do you take things personally?

This one I'm pretty good at. This changed my life. My friend in college said this to me because I lived with four other girls, and we had this one roommate who would always try on outfits, and then she'd be like, Oh, I can't wear this, though, because I wore this last Thursday. My friend Julia from college would always be like, Nobody remembers what you wore last Thursday because they're all obsessed with what they wore last Thursday. The idea of everybody is so obsessed with themselves, they're not thinking about you, really helps me not take things personally.

Yeah, totally.

Number four, they confront their problems.

Yeah. I think you have to confront your problems in order to change. And action is the path out of despair, so you have to take action.

I feel like you can run, but you eventually run into yourself again, so you got to face them.

Totally.

Number five is they don't compete with anyone but themselves.

That's a good one. I had to make that mindset shift in my career. I would say that I made that shift, probably not until I turned 30. I think it took me a long time. What happened at 30? I think I became... Well, women According to the research, women gain more confidence as we get older, but for men, their confidence declines. No way. As they get older. No way. Yeah. I think it just starts to come more naturally. You become more confident, you become more aware of your strengths and also you lean into those and you lean into the factors that differentiate you from your perceived competition. I think that's the best way to think about it.

I love that staff because women do get better as they get older and the cultural perception. They're always telling us we don't, except for we really do, which is so great.

Totally. Okay, we're going to take a quick break. When we get back, author, mediator, and reigning authority on gatherings, Priya Parker stops to talk about the power of a really good gathering.

All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting, that's our body's adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it.

We saw amazing effects.

I really felt like the cloud in my brain dissipated. There's no turning back from me.

Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I used to have so many men How this beguiling woman in her 50s-She looked like a million bucks.with.

Zero qualifications.

She had a Harvard plaque.

Tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents.

She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentley all in the driveway.

Is it like a mansion? Yes, it's a mansion. This queen of the con uses to scam some of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes.

About six million. Approximately $11 million.

Nearly $10 million was all gone.

Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry.

She would probably have sex with one of her clients.

Hide your money in your old Richmond because she is on the proud.

Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We're back, you all. I'm Simone Boyce. Listen, Bright Side Besties, we're a new show here, okay? We're just getting started. As Danielle and I begin our journey as hosts, we want to make sure we're creating a meaningful and intentional space for our listeners and guests on the show. And lucky for us, today's Our guest is an expert in just that.

We're talking with Priya Parker. She's an expert in gathering and creating community. She's the author of the book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters.

Priya is here to show us how to make every gathering transformative, whether it's a big birthday party or just a small Zoom call. She's nothing short of magical people, and she is here to share her wisdom with us.

That's right. Priya Parker. Welcome to The Bright Side. We're so excited We're glad to have you here.

Thank you so much for having me.

So we want to take a page out of your book, The Art of Gathering. We're both big Priya Parker fans. Huge. We've read the book, and we want to name our intention for the conversation today. So we were thinking that our intention Our next question is to learn how to build community for a podcast in a meaningful and joyful way. I like the clap.

We got some applause, Bright Side besties.

Can you please share with us why setting an intention before gathering is so important?

The biggest mistake we make when we gather is we assume that the purpose is obvious and shared. Oh, I know what a podcast is. I know what a wedding is. I know what a funeral is. I know what a staff meeting is. When we don't actually pause to ask, why are we doing this? What is the purpose? What is the purpose of this podcast with all of the million of podcasts in the world? What is it that we are uniquely trying to do? We tend to then replicate forms that may not make make sense for this community or for these hosts. And so setting an intention and actually thinking well ahead of the gathering, why am I doing this? What is the need? How do I want to spend this time? Allows you to then make decisions and be imaginative about what that time actually looks like and feels like and helps you make practical decisions to get you there.

So in your book, you write that the first five minutes of any gathering are critical, and there's actually a lot of research that backs that up. And I love what you wrote about it. You say, your opening needs to be a pleasant shock therapy. It should grab people, and in grabbing them, it should both awe the guests and honor them. How do we create significant openings and why are openings so important?

We are all part of different communities, and I think of a gathering as a temporary alternative world, whether that is a mosh pit or a rave or a bagel brunch a protest. In order to create that temporary world and invite people into it, you need to prepare them so they know what they're signing up for and they can be successful in that world, but you need to also usher them into that world. And very specifically, all of these studies show that the first 5% of an experience set the pathway for everything else. And so literally, whether it's in person or virtual, if everybody's entering that space and asking, Do I belong here? Are these my people? Did I wear the right thing? Can I show my tattoos? Do I need to get a tattoo? Who are these people? And the best gatherers, the best hosts, understand that you're hosting from that moment of entry, and they do a really good job of welcoming people, of literally saying hello. And the way in which people choose to share what risks they take is fundamentally related to whether or not they feel like they belong that they're wanted there.

It is not rocket science, but it is intentional.

That social anxiety that you mentioned is so real. We've all felt that where you walk into a party, you don't know too many people. What's a practical tip that we can use in order to massage some of that social anxiety that happens whenever you step into a gathering? As a host, what can we do?

In The Art of Gathering, I interviewed over 100 different types of gatherers from all walks of life. Choir conductors, hockey coaches, party planners, professors that students love every year, and ask, what is it that they're doing that is so transformative? One of the people I interviewed is a guy named Anthony Rocco, and he is an underground party planner, and he would create these secret events for new members to get to know each other. This is one of the things he would do. In order to design a welcoming space, basically, he had people enter, and he'd welcome them, and he'd say, make yourself at home. Drinks are in the back. There's only one rule. You can't serve yourself a drink. You can serve anyone else a drink, but you can't serve yourself a drink.

That's so fun.

And by literally just slightly shifting the norms, the rules, how do you basically help people feel like this is something that they want to be a part of? And the last thing I'll say is you can help people really feel that way, actually not only at the moment they enter the room with a Zoom, but actually an invitation. The invitation is the first moment to create a sense of belonging, of comfort, of ease. And we tend to just think that they're carriers of logistics.

Priya, you have completely changed the way that I host. Now, whenever I'm throwing a party, I try to preify it. I try to think, what would Priya do? I tried your method recently when I hosted a dinner party, and I opened it with a short speech about what my friends mean to me. We answered these table questions that facilitated a really vulnerable and candid and funny discussion. At the end of the night, everyone was just beaming. You could just feel the energy and the magic in the room. And this is one of the texts that I got. My friend said, My soul really needed that. So all that to say, your method is truly transformative.

Thank you so much. That means so much to me. I think that at some level, what you're learning to do is make the implicit explicit. You're turning up the meaning dial, right? We tend to assume like, Oh, people know that I love them. They know. Actually, so many of us are parched. It is so beautiful to be able to water each other's gardens in these tiny ways to say, This is what I see in you. This is how I appreciate you. And then to have that come back, it's literally nourishing. Oh, I matter. Oh, this is what they see me. Oh, maybe I'll take a risk. If they see me that way, maybe I will take this risk. Maybe I will actually quit this job. Maybe I will call my parent who I haven't talked to in a long time. Wow, they see something in me. And in modern life, we have to invent these moments of tiny ritual.

Priya, I'm still a little bit unsure about how to start from scratch and invent those moments ourselves. This is just week one of our podcast, and you're an expert, especially in creating community online. How do we build our community and have everybody feel invited and connected?

I think so often in our in-person gatherings, the role of the host, there's so much physicality that's helping you. People are going under doorways, they're walking through hallways, they're perhaps taking off their jacket, which is actually a moment of transition. They're getting settled. In a virtual gathering, whether that's a Zoom or whether that's a podcast, people are doing all sorts of different things. You actually have the role of the host is to create a psychological togetherness. And so what does that mean? My advice to you would be to start with an opening or a beginning that feels authentic to you both. You're beginning this podcast both this week, but also in every single episode by gathering yourself, gathering your guests, gathering your producers, which your listeners may not even hear, but they're part of this gathering, and then gathering and welcoming your listeners. But the element to create a shared experience is if you invite your guests to be part of the same ritual. It could be as simple as three deep breaths, and you're all taking it together, and they can do that anywhere they want. Having some opening ritual that allows each person just to mark the day and say, I'm here, even if I'm walking in the park with my dog or I am biking to work, I'm having a shared experience with you both.

Okay, besties, you heard Priya. What could we, all of us, do together as an opening ritual? Send us your wildest ideas. I'm talking wild. Anything and everything at hello@thebrightsidepodcast. Com, and we might just try them out on air. Coming up after the break, How Not to be Like Me, the Chill Host with the Not-So-Chill gatherings.

All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting, that's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it.

We saw amazing effects.

I really felt like the cloud in my brain dissipated. There's no turning back from me.

Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I used to have so many men.

How this beguiling woman in her 50s-She looked like a million bucks.with zero qualifications.

She had a Harvard plaque.

Tricks her way past a wall of lawyers and agents.

She's got all of these Maseratis and Bentley's all in the driveway.

Is it like a mansion? Yes, it's a mansion. This queen of the con uses to scam some of the biggest names in professional sports out of untold fortunes.

About six million. Approximately $11 million.

Nearly $10 million was all gone.

Employing whatever means necessary to bleed her victims dry.

She would probably have sex with one of her clients.

Hide your money in your old Richmond because she is on the proud.

Listen to Queen of the Con, Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Priya, I want to talk about your background a little bit. You actually have a background in conflict resolution and as a facilitator around race relations, conversations on college campuses. How did your work in conflict resolution teach you more about how to host more meaningful gatherings?

It's core. I'm biracial. I grew up in two households. My mother is Indian, my father is white American. I'll maybe just go back to the story a little bit because it actually deeply informs my conflict resolution. I grew up in these two households. They divorced, and then they each remarried other people, and they had joint custody. I went back and forth between these two homes every two weeks. And that meant leaving my mother and stepfather's home, which was this Indian, British, Buddhist, vegetarian, incense-filled, progressive household, and then travel 1.4 miles and enter my father and stepmother's home, which was and still is a white, American, evangelical, Christian, conservative, Republican household. Meat eating, softball playing household. And my husband often jokes, it doesn't take a shrink to explain how Priya got into the field of conflict resolution. And so there was part of me that has always been very interested in many ways of being. And when I went to the University of Virginia and learned about this process called Sustained Dialog there. The first question I was asked as a student was always, What are you? I learned very quickly, meant racially, like what's my background?

And long story short, as a student, I started this program with other students and friends at the University of Virginia more than 20 years ago. I learned from this guy named Hal Sanders, a process called Sustained Dialog. As facilitators, we were taught to hold conversations and create space for conversations that we didn't fully know how to have, that often happened behind closed doors, that build trust. We learned how to create moments of risk and safety and connection. How do you set up a room so that people rip up the notes in their pocket and say, You know what? I'm not going to say my prepared marks because I was really touched by what you said. And instead of giving their stump a speech, like a PR publicist, they give a Sprout speech with their voices shaking, and they say something that they're not even fully sure themselves. They haven't spoken out before. And so the core of my work as a dialog facilitator is actually helping people have the right conversations, the right groups have the right conversations, and ask the right questions to go back to your comment on questions. But conflict resolution at some level is a deep training to help people hold healthy heat and relevance and bring themselves to a conversation while still being curious to others.

I am also a biracial woman, and so everything you're saying about that need for belonging and what it feels like to straddle two worlds, that so deeply resonates with me. How do you think gatherings can help us build bridges between worlds?

When I researched for the art of gathering, one of the things I was, and maybe it's obvious, but it was an aha to me, which is traditional communities, ancient communities, tribal communities, in which people were born on the same plot of Earth. They prayed to the same God. They followed the same dietary restrictions. They had inherited ways of being. They know how to gather. They have shared ritual. In our modern life, in a diverse life where people like you and I, and so many are biracial and bicultural and bi-religious, where norms are breaking and shifting around who gets to wed and who is out in the workplace, and we get to choose our friends and our friends, on our faith, on our God or not God. Basically, we no longer have shared ways, shared assumed ways of making ritual together. In trying to not offend one another, We end up doing nothing. Modern gathering, at the deepest level, it's not gathering around kin or belief. It's gathering around shared need and finding creative ways, innovative ways, life-giving ways that help people create meaningful connection without all having to be the same, but still getting to temporarily have a shared experience.

It takes thought and it takes coordination, but it is absolutely possible.

Hosting is a huge part of gathering, and our title now is quite literally podcast Host. Can you describe what the role of a host is?

I'm so glad you asked. A host is someone who should practice what I call generous authority. Generous authority is using your power for the good of the group to help achieve its purpose. A good host has three roles. The first is to connect your guests to each other in appropriate ways that are relevant to the purpose. The second is to protect your guests from each other. If you're at a volunteer training and all of a sudden one person is taking over the whole thing, it's the role of the host to make sure that that person is not dominating the entire meeting. If you're hosting a party and there's one guest that's cornering all of your friends. It's the role of the host to protect your guests, right? So we tend to think the only way to bring people together is to connect them. But there's also a lot of problems that happen when people come together. And so the role of the host is how do you protect them, right? And then finally, to temporarily equalize your guests so that they feel like they belong here.

When I read your book, I realized I was the chill host. I was the worst host you could possibly have. For everybody who hasn't read the book yet, it's the It's the host who doesn't put out place cards or name cards. It's the host who doesn't say you should wear this or that, just come in, whatever. I thought that I was relinquishing power because I was like, Who cares? Just come as you are. But you actually say that you need rules, you need boundaries. Why is that?

What I mean by that is we tend in many places to think by letting our guests be, we're giving them a good time. And that is certainly sometimes the case. If you're listening to this and you have a group of friends and you love the way you hang out, keep doing that. You're lucky. If you feel like, Oh, I love my people and we are good, God bless. This is really about for those moments where you're wanting to really up the ante, up the meaning factor, up the sense of connection, and also particularly when people don't know each other. Because basically, gathering is about connection, but it's also about power. If you don't give some guidance as to either what is this for or give some common shared context, someone else is going to come up and do it for you. People just need a little bit of shared context to connect, to banter, to have a way into each other. The really good host finds just enough structure. It doesn't need to be place cards necessarily, but just enough structure and no more to help the group take off.

Priya, you have left us with so many incredible insights about gathering. We talked about some of the mistakes people commonly make, so not setting a clear intention, not having enough structure, not using generous authority. Is there one more major faux pas that we tend to do with Hosting & Gathering that you want to leave us with today?

I might reframe the faux pas in part because part of what this work is, is it's a realization that we don't really know how to do this anymore. We're writing our own rules. And if anything, the invitation is to think deeply, to ask, How do I want to spend my time? And host gatherings that you're like, Oh, my gosh, I want to go to that. If you're dreading something, that's data. Think about, Okay, so what is it that I want to do? And so instead of thinking about there's a wrong or a right way to do this, it's just literally an invitation to start paying more attention. If this all feels totally overwhelming, my deepest advice to you is to start thinking about how to be a better guest. Guests have a lot of power in gatherings. They can shift it. You can feel when people are disengaged, you can feel. You send out an email and the one friend, Sanjay, is like, I'll be there. I can't wait. How can I help? And you're like, Thank you, Sanjay.

Yes.

Be either an enthusiastic yes or a connected no. Thank you so much for the invitation. I can't make it. I love that you're doing this. I'm so grateful that you thought of me.

It's like the person at the wedding who is the first to the dance floor. The people that are getting married are Thank you.

Exactly. How do you practice being a generous guest? How do you help people? And then how would you be intentional about what you would attend? When we choose how we spend our time also, and that doesn't mean not to have any obligation, We also come in with a lot more energy.

That is the perfect note to end our conversation with you today. Priya, thank you so much.

Priya, you add so much to people's lives. When we were thinking about who could christen our first week, we were all hoping that you would say yes. So thank you for sharing your time with us.

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for modeling beautiful hosting. You're already hosts that are paying attention to honoring the guests that you're bringing in. And bringing yourselves to it and making it relevant to your listeners. And it's such a pleasure and privilege to be part of the opening parts of your journey.

Thank you so much for saying that.

Thank you, Priya. What joy it was to speak with Priya. She has completely transformed how I think about bringing people together. With that in mind, here's your spark of the day.

We're going to end on a quote from Priya, reverse engineer an outcome. Think of what you want to be different because you gathered, and work backward from that outcome. So with all that, we're going to gather intentionally, meaningfully, and build beautiful community. If you want to improve your gathering skills, Priya has a free workbook for all of our Bright Side besties. It's called The New Rules of Gathering. You can find it at priaparker. Com/thebrightside.

And remember, we want to hear from you. What opening rituals do you love? Which should we try right here together on The Bright Side? Send a voice memo to hello@thebrightsidepodcast. Com.

Tomorrow on the show, we're looking to the stars with the Queen of Astralogy herself I'm Chani Nicholas.

Listen and follow The Bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You can find me, Simone Bois, on Instagram and TikTok at Simone Bois.

And I'm at Danielle Robé on Instagram and TikTok.

We'll be back tomorrow with a brand new episode. Same time, same place.

All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology. But we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects.

I really felt like the cloud in my brain dissipated. There's no turning back for me.

Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox and take the Body Electric challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I used to have so many men.

How this beguiling woman in her 50s-She looked like a million bucks. Scams a bunch of famous athletes out of untold fortunes.

Nearly $10 million was all gone.

It's just unbelievable.

Hide your money in your old Richmond because she is on the proud.

Listen to Queen of the Con Season 5, The Athlete Whisperer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.