MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Have you got a plan yet for how to spend the long, lazy days of high summer? For that feeling when, no matter how old you are, school is out, the usual schedule has been chucked out the window and there is maybe time to be bored, to play? Who knows what you might come up with to pass the time. Well, the mother-daughter duo of podcaster Kelly Corrigan and her daughter, Claire Corrigan Lichty, took that idea and ran with it, and the result is a new children's book, "Marianne The Maker." Hi, you two.
KELLY CORRIGAN: Hi, Mary Louise.
CLAIRE CORRIGAN LICHTY: Hi.
KELLY: Hey there. So, OK, Marianne - introduce us. So she is how old, roundabouts?
CORRIGAN: I'm going to say she's 8.
CORRIGAN LICHTY: I'd say 6.
KELLY: Six, 8, OK.
(LAUGHTER)
CORRIGAN: Already disagreeing.
KELLY: First point of disagreement. Let's go with 7. The gist is, she is a girl who has told a lie to get out of soccer practice so that she can stay home and do what she wants. I would love to invite you two to read the first page or two to us so we get a taste of it.
CORRIGAN: (Reading) Marianne loved to build new things with tape and wire and dreams and strings. But today, she had a soccer game, and for that, she had her dad to blame. He signed her up, as all dads do.
CORRIGAN LICHTY: (Reading) I love this sport, and you will, too.
CORRIGAN: (Reading) The whistle blew. Her stomach ached. The soccer thing was a big mistake. She tripped and stumbled on the field, all the while her mind cartwheeled. Distracted in goal, left wing and center, inside she screamed...
CORRIGAN LICHTY: (Reading) I'm an inventor.
KELLY: (Laughter) And Claire, what does she invent?
CORRIGAN LICHTY: I think she invents all sorts of things, but that afternoon, she goes on to invent what she calls a moodleboot (ph)...
KELLY: A moodleboot.
CORRIGAN LICHTY: ...Which is kind of parachute, balloon, very Oz-ian (ph), very Dr. Seuss-ian, to go and help her explore. And she builds it with her dog, who is named Patrick Swayze (ph).
CORRIGAN: (Laughter).
KELLY: Because, obviously, we all should have a dog named Patrick Swayze. To people listening who may be saying, that sounds great. Sure, it would be lovely to have time to play and invent. That is a luxury I do not have - you say what?
CORRIGAN LICHTY: I say that so many of the things that we have to do to take care of ourselves, like, by adding intentionality to those, we can actually turn those into what Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen, who wrote this book called "Your Brain On Art," they call it small-C creative acts.
KELLY: Kelly Corrigan, your take on this question. For people who say, you know, I would love to have time to play. I am overly scheduled. I am working for a living. This is not a luxury that I have.
CORRIGAN: Well, I mean, the really amazing thing that we learned is that the research shows that you can get the same - as Wendy Suzuki says from NYU - the same neurochemical bubble bath of serotonin and dopamine via beholding. So it's not just making. People who have tried to sew a shirt will be better at beholding fine tailoring. People who have tried to make a souffle will eat croissants with more gratitude. And so beholding and noticing at a really deep, fine level is like a lifetime skill, and it gives daily benefits.
KELLY: I don't know how we feel about spoilers for a children's book, but I have to close by asking, does Marianne's dad come around? Does he become persuaded that her time is better spent making and not running around the soccer field?
CORRIGAN: Marianne does a nice job apologizing. No excuses, no defensiveness. She claims her identity as Marianne the Maker. And then the closing lines are...
(Reading) And on this afternoon momentous, her dad became her new apprentice.
KELLY: The book is "Marianne The Maker." It's illustrated by George Sweetland and written by Kelly Corrigan, who hosts the podcast "Kelly Corrigan Wonders," and her daughter, Claire Corrigan Lichty. Thank you.
CORRIGAN: Thanks, Mary Louise.
CORRIGAN LICHTY: Thanks so much.
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