What you can learn from summer camps to benefit the kids in your life with Matthew Kaufman

Release date: February 23, 2026

There are summer camp fanatics, individuals who attribute their best qualities to the counselors they had, the songs they sang, the skits they performed, and the friendships they made in mosquito-infested cabins in the woods near a lake. My guest this episode, Matthew Kaufman, is one such individual. Matt attended summer camp, was a counselor, and, eventually, became a camp director. But he did not stop there. Matt sought to understand the science behind the positive experiences that he and other people were having at summer camps in hopes of bringing those experiences to more people in more locations. The result was his book, The Campfire Effect: How to Engineer Belonging in a Disconnected World. Matt and I discuss his book and things that you can do to bring the summer camp experience to the kids in your life. More information about Matt and his book is below.

Biography of Matthew Kaufman

Matt Kaufman trained as an engineer. He has spent over thirty years applying that discipline to the most complex system imaginable: human belonging. His laboratory is summer camp.

What began as a summer job became a lifelong study of what makes groups of strangers become families. As a camp director, Matt has watched thousands of children cross the threshold from fear to courage, from isolation to belonging. He has decoded the invisible architecture that made these transformations possible.

In The Campfire Effect, Matt translates the principles of camp into practical tools for leaders, educators, and families. He shows how to bring the warmth of the campfire into the cold of the conference room and the quiet of the kitchen table.

Matt continues to believe that every organization, every classroom, and every home can become an intentional community.

Links

The Campfire Effect: How to Engineer Belonging in a Disconnected World

https://a.co/d/02HGfVdL