PlayGrounding

For some of us adults, the kind of play we remember as kids doesn’t exist anymore in many communities across America. It’s a specific kind of play called “free play.” When I was a kid, I remember run…

Lack of play is a serious problem for us humans. Play geeks like me call it “play suppression.” In the worst cases, studies have shown that children who are kept from playing by their parents tend to…

Have you ever started a passion project only to find it suddenly feels like work? And not the fulfilling kind of work either – just plain, to-do list work. It’s not easy to rediscover the spark that …

He hasn’t been on vacation in years, but if he did, he’d miss what he does every day too much. There’s still so much to create.

Bruce Gray is a prolific artist whose work has been exhibited worldwide…

Kids love to play make-believe. When we talk about bringing back play as adults, this one seems like a stretch. Adults don’t play make believe, do we? Grownups don’t get together and announce that to…

We know that a playful approach to life can lead to better innovations, cooperation and even transform lives. But what about when disaster strikes? Does play still have a role? Desiree Matel-Anderson…

The US Play Coalition believes that everyone in the world should have equal access to all forms of play. Play is a basic need that provides the foundation for all areas of development. It’s an essent…

The fun of a Rube Goldberg machine is watching a task, one that should be simple, being performed through a drawn-out series of seemingly meaningless detours. But we hate detours, right? Not always. …

Ilana Ben-Ari’s startup, Twenty One Toys, is part of a revolution. A toy revolution. On their website they ask: “Our revolution demands answers: Where are creativity, play, teamwork and empathy in ou…

Science tells us how important play is for kids – for the development of their minds and ability to adapt. But what about adults? Once we reach the age of adulthood, and often even in the midst of ad…

Amber Clisura is a force of nature. The good kind. And she has some very strong feelings about the vitality of play to share with us in this episode. She believes that how we play can shape our own l…

As the post-election storms continue to rock the world, a group of play enthusiasts are coming together to ask the question, can play help us heal from this divisiveness and turmoil? One Facebook pos…

“If you think about the human spirit – if we were to evolve to our highest state – what is that? It’s play.” – Artist Patrick Shearn

Patrick Shearn is an artist and founder of Poetic Kinetics. He cre…

No one has ever promised us cozy and secure lives, but many choose to live in a state of denial when it comes to the fact that sometimes our planet is trying to kill us.

As of the day this podcast is…

Chef David Weidman, or “Chef Dave” as he’s known to his admirers, is known for his spectacular mini-cheesecakes and desserts. But his fame among the Burning Man community is due to his generosity, pa…

We don’t always know what we’re going to grow up to be. This week’s guest, AJ Freysteinson, didn’t know, but he followed a play-inspired path from the time he was a child that led him to become one o…

It’s easy to point a finger at over-protective parents, but don’t let yourself away with being over-protective of YOU. You’ll be missing all the fun.

It’s so sad, right? Many kids don’t get to run fr…

When we were kids, everyone thought it was important for us to play. They even set up this weird thing called “recess” where we could encounter the awesome world of the playground. They knew it was g…

Keeping your feet on the ground is the number one cause of boring, uninspired lives. In addition to taking care of ourselves and our families, we have every right to play and lead fun, fulfilling and…

Do you live in a cage? (Of course you don’t. Right?) That’s what we explore in this week’s episode of PlayGrounding. I’ll talk about ideas for how to identify whether you’re really as happy as you ke…