Show 1025: Get SuperBetter: How Games Can Improve Your Health and Your Life

When computer game expert Jane McGonigal suffered a concussion, she had a hard time recovering from the constant headaches, fatigue, confusion and depression. To give herself achievable goals and make her recovery more attainable, she invented a game she calls SuperBetter. The Benefits of a Gameful Mindset: You can use the gameful approach she describes to transform your own life. Find out how to adopt a challenge mindset and how activating power-ups can translate into real-life benefits. You’ll also learn about particular computer games that have been developed specifically to help people meet serious health challenges, such as the game Re-Mission, for kids with cancer. Do you need a more playful approach in your life? This Week’s Guest: Jane McGonigal, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, CA. Her first book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, was a best seller. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Wired, and The New York Times. Her TED talks on games have been viewed more than ten million times. Her latest book is SuperBetter, A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient-Powered by the Science of Games. Her website is: http://janemcgonigal.com/ The photo of Dr. McGonigal is by Kiyash Monsef. Listen to the Podcast: The podcast of this program will be available the Monday after the broadcast date. The show can be streamed online from this site and podcasts can be downloaded for free for four weeks after the date of broadcast. After that time has passed, digital downloads are available for $2.99. CDs may be purchased at any time after broadcast for $9.99. Buy the CD Download the mp3