Speaker Series Community Events

Last year the MPCSD community read and discussed The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. This year, we continue promoting childhood independence with an event based on the highly anticipated follow-up book The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price. We are pleased to be joined by Catherine Price as we learn how young people can be empowered to stand up for themselves by choosing a life not dominated by screens. Parents will leave with ideas for how to engage with their children as together we create a community where children grow, explore, enjoy unstructured time, and avoid becoming the next anxious generation.

Award-winning science journalist, speaker, and author Catherine Price is a leading voice in the national conversation about digital devices and how to create healthy relationships with technology. Her books include her bestsellers, How to Break Up With Your Phone and The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, and Catherine and her work have been featured in outlets including, The Best American Science Writing, NPR, The New York Times, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times,  and TIME Magazine, among many others. She is also a former middle school teacher, the parent of a young child, and a core member of the team behind Jonathan Haidt's #1 NYT-bestselling book, The Anxious Generation. She writes the popular Substack newsletter, "How to Feel Alive," and her TED talk on fun has been viewed more than 5M times.

In all of her work, Catherine's ultimate goal is to help people of all ages scroll less, live more, and have fun.

January 21, 2026 • 6:00-7:00 p.m. • Live Zoom Event (Zoom registration link)

Preorder your book in time for our event! Use this special Kepler's webpage.

See Catherine Price and Jonathan Haidt discuss the book on the Today Show December 16!

Are you ready to be your young person's primary sexual health resource? Vanessa Kellam will present the Health Connected curriculum that aims to inspire and help equip parents and guardians to engage their young people in open and honest conversations about sexual health. Join us as we build skills and develop language to be "Askable Adults." This event is especially useful for parents/guardians of 4th-8th grade students, and is meant to complement MPCSD's in-class sexual health curriculum. This event is for MPCSD parents/guardians of currently enrolled students only.

February 4, 2026 • 7:00 p.m. • This is a remote event. The Zoom link will be added closer to the date.

MPCSD is pleased to host this six-week series brought to you by Project Cornerstone, a YMCA of Silicon Valley initiative. The course offers tools for strengthening our relationships with our own kids and those in our community. With other MPCSD parents/caregivers in a supportive, welcoming, and safe environment, you will share, discuss, and practice ways to show caring, give support, set boundaries, and build strong relationships that help the youth in your life succeed. This series is for currently enrolled MPCSD parents/guardians only.

The six sessions are in person at the TERC, 181 Encinal Avenue, Atherton, from 9-10:30 a.m.: March 4, 11, 18, 25, April 1, 15 (no class April 8 because of Spring Break)

Read a past course flyer here. Registration link will be added as the date gets closer.