Playgrounding

Meet Cathy Salit and Fernanda Liberali, founders of The Global Play Brigade, a volunteer community of play and performance activists, improvisers, clowns, musicians, educators and therapists who have come together in response to the global pandemic and the distressing, inequitable state of our world. 

"Heavenly Brown Body" is Leslie's most recent installation, based on a haunting poem by the late Mark Aguhar called "Litanies to My Heavenly Brown Body." His work is challenging and for some of us, myself included, it’s really hard to take in. But we’ve all been learning that the most important first step toward healing as our nation responds to the murder of George Floyd, is to listen.

Mary Catanzaro, Founder of POGO Events in New York City, left her career in the corporate world to bring people together for scavenger hunts and game nights throughout the city. Hear how she built her business like a family and is dedicated to keeping it running through this tough time so that anyone, anywhere, can have access to connection and fun.

Death has been heavy on our minds during the Coronavirus pandemic. Most of us don't like to think about it, but this conversation with interfaith Death Midwife Rev. Maggie Burbank Yunoki is a great way to open up to new ways of thinking about death and seeking deeper meaning for our lives.

The whole world is going through a trauma right now. And your part is no smaller than anyone else's. It's vital right now to find the courage to face our emotions and find ways to enjoy life. Even if it takes baby steps to get there.

Therapists often tell us how important it is to play and enjoy life. But what about playing IN therapy? Apparently, that’s actually a thing. Jamie Lynne McCoppin is a Drama Therapist who can help you discover your play personality and rediscover parts of yourself you probably haven’t encountered in a very long time.

The very idea that play is important is a hard sell - especially for stressed-out grownups with responsibilities and long to-do lists. But if we don’t cut ourselves some slack, we’re setting ourselves up for a fall.

When I’m burned out, the last word I want to hear is adventure. But thanks to Stacey Newman Weldon of Adventure Wednesdays, I learned that adventures don’t have to be over-complicated vacations. Adventures can start small, stimulate our creativity, keep our minds sharp and our hearts full.

In a mental health crisis, play is a vitally important part of our healing process. So why can it be so hard to give ourselves permission actually do it? Join Kara for an exploration of the things that get in the way of play and our pursuit of joy.

In this episode, I (Kara Fortier, you know, the host) will talk about how I finally became an adult who plays. A playful mindset came so easily to us as children, but we adults build up lots of roadblocks keeping us from it. Incorporating play has been a process. It wasn’t as easy as just deciding to “do” play. I’ve spent some time reflecting on the stages I went through that finally got me here. I can now say that not only do I understand how important play is, I’m experiencing the power of play firsthand. It’s already started changing the way I think and approach big life decisions. For instance, the recent career decision I’ve made about the future of PlayGrounding. These six steps are the stages I observed in myself and have helped me put context around what I’m learning from the PlayGrounding interviews so far. I hope you enjoy this episode and rest assured - we’re going back to interviews next week and most importantly… disaster has been averted. PlayGrouding is back and sticking around for a long, long

With all of this talk about kids and play, it's about time we hear from an educator here on the PlayGrounding Podcast. Doug Smith has been a physical education teacher for nineteen years. In this episode, we discuss the state of physical education in schools today such as the focus on testing and how many states are losing PE classes altogether. But don't worry, we talk about the fun stuff too, such as the importance of playgrounds that fire kids' imaginations. He helped to build a beautiful one inspired by a book by Richard Louv called Last Child in the Woods. Doug's story is also inspiring for us adults. His love for play led him to participate in a self-imposed challenge to play 30 sports in 90 days in 2011 and wrote a blog about his play adventures to share with his students. Doug is a National Board Certified Physical Education Teacher in Charlotte, NC.  He has been teaching elementary PE for 19 years.  He has a passion for guiding his students towards a healthier lifestyle and helping them to be physica

This is a deeply personal episode for me, Kara, the host of PlayGrounding. This is the second part of my conversation with Sabrina Must. Last week, we explored the role of playfulness in facing and handling grief. Sabrina and I kept talking on the day of our interview and we went in a completely different direction, but with the same sense of vulnerability and depth. In this episode, you'll hear the second part of my conversation with Sabrina Must - this time about health and fitness. After that, I'll be sharing with you some of the personal challenges I've been inspired to face based on my conversations with PlayGrounding guests like Sabrina over the past year. I'll talk about how I'm planning to incorporate play into my effort to get healthy - specifically my effort to take on a bad habit I developed to combat anxiety over the past few years: wine. I've recently started attending Moderation Management meetings to try to change that habit and find new ways to handle times of great stress - and that's where p

It might seem counterintuitive to have a conversation about play and grief. We often associate play with frivolity, silliness and escape. But what we learn from this conversation with Sabrina Must is that a playful approach to life can take us deeper and more in touch with who we really are, even in periods of deep grief and loss. Sabrina’s book, Must Girls Love, is her memoir on the suicide death of her sister. This episode goes deep and for some, it might touch on aspects of life and grief you’d rather not think about. But if you’ve experienced devastating loss, as Sabrina has, you might find this a refreshingly honest conversation. If you haven’t, there’s something in it for you as well. It’s a window into the hearts and minds of our friends who we might be called upon to hold space for and comfort in times of sorrow. Sabrina Must is an author, blogger and speaker who unapologetically shares about her life to inspire you to share your story, live more honestly, and have more fun! Joys and struggles, it's a

Puzzles are powerful. Have you ever had a hard time putting worries aside - blocking out your to-do list and experiencing a moment of real focus in a no-stakes, playful situation? Try a puzzle. I’m not just talking about sitting with a puzzle on paper or your smart phone. I’m talking about escape rooms and city-wide puzzle hunts. Solving puzzles alone or together is practice for when the stakes are high and we need to come up with new creative solutions to difficult problems. You’ll learn all about that in today’s episode of PlayGrounding with game designer and puzzle creator, Eric Berlin.  Eric is a writer, former playwright and game designer. He’s the author of the young-adult mystery series, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen. He’s a graduate of the Juilliard School's playwriting program and also creates crossword puzzles for the New York Times, among others. In fact, he has one coming out next week on August 15, 2017. In addition, he has a website called Puzzle Your Kids, where you can download a new puz

Dada, the Beats and the Hippies - what do they all have in common? The way they played was a problem for the authorities, for the people in power trying to instill black and white order on the world.  This week on Playgrounding we’ll be talking to Shepherd Siegel, an educator and author whose work explores disruptive play and protest. We’ll explore the role of the trickster as passed down to us through mythology from many diverse cultures, then learn about cultural movements led by pranksters who laid the groundwork for some of the methods used to protest the Vietnam war. Shepherd is completing a book that will be launched this fall called Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture, about how play and the creative impulse could transform our society. In this episode, we’ll meet Shepherd and learn about the background behind his message. This fall, Shepherd will be back for a second interview where we’ll dive deeper into the book itself. I’ve had a sneak peek at the intro and first chapter. If they

Some people train for a sport from the time they’re very young and become elite. Some people don’t even begin to get active until much later in life but become high level competitors. This week’s guest is here to remind us to never underestimate what we can accomplish regardless of age, even those of us who’ve spent most of our lives as couch potatoes. Our guest this week is Fitness Trainer and Coach Robin Legat, host of the Seasoned Athlete podcast. It’s your home for stories, inspiration, motivation, training tips and more directly from elite athletes from a wide variety of sports who all share one common bond: they are all over 40 years old. We're here to prove one story at a time that age does NOT have to prevent you from achieving bold athletic and fitness goals, and living your best life. Robin herself is a "late in life athlete". After spending most of her life as a self-proclaimed music and theater nerd, Robin discovered the full-contact sport of roller derby at age 28. She played for eleven years bef

Free play, also known as child-directed play, is becoming more and more restricted for American kids. We’ve talked on PlayGrounding many times about the importance of free play, how it’s where many children first encounter risk and freedom. It’s where they first begin to encounter “otherness,” where they find ways to work together with kids of various ages and backgrounds in an undefined arena. Play helps us cope in the realm of personal relationships, helps us develop innovative minds and healthy bodies. But today we’re taking a step back from the benefits of play to us as individuals and diving into what it could mean for our society, for the health of our democracy, when we restrict free play in the lives of our children. Pratik Chougule, an executive editor at The American Conservative, wrote an article entitled Is American Childhood Creating an Authoritarian Society? I was immediately fascinated by the idea that there could be political implications to a lack of free play. In this episode, we’ll discuss

Do you remember what it was like to be a child at the playground? When you first arrive and see the equipment, the sand, the grass? I remember that feeling well – the desire to jump, crawl, run, do summer saults and cartwheels. But somewhere along the line, that feeling began to fade. For many of us, our enthusiasm for physical play went out with our teddy bears and blankies. I think many adults have these memories and, dare I say, even the desire to be able to play that way again, but our bodies are very different than they were when we were children. If we tried to crawl, jump, do somersaults and cartwheels, we’re afraid we’d end up in the ER. But JJ and Brian would like to challenge us all to give our bodies another chance to embrace physical play again. In this second episode of the “Can Fitness Really Be Fun?” series, I’ve invited personal trainer JJ Kovacevich to join me and Brian Bristol to explore how adults can re-learn the basic movements children take for granted. We also discuss the role of shame

Fitness fun? For most of my life, I would have answered NO WAY to that question. It’s the one challenge I’ve had to my belief that whatever is true about play for children is also true for adults. Children play very differently from adults. They play with their whole selves, their imaginations, their creativity and especially their bodies. Physical play comes naturally to children. They run and jump, swing, slide, do cartwheels. We talk a big game here on PlayGrounding about adults and play, but what about play through movement? Is “exercise” an unpleasant necessity after you reach a certain age? Or can grownups experience the same kind of joy a child does when they run out onto a playground? This episode is the first in a series seeking to answer the question, can fitness really be fun? I mean really? Fitness for adults seems to be a series of measured movements meant to affect the body in specific ways – to help with strength, stamina and to help us lose weight. To me, that’s always seemed more like work th

Did you ever stop to think that you have what it takes to be an inventor? If you’re a human being, you are by your very nature an innate problem solver and creative thinker. The question is, are you tapping into that potential? Tricia Edwards wants to change the stereotype of WHO invents and invite us all to BE inventive. Her work not only demystifies invention, she reminds us that the next great invention can come from any one of us, from a single mom in the midwest, to a third-grader living in the developing world. On this episode of PlayGrounding, you’ll learn how developing a playful mindset can help you become a more creative problem solver, whether you’re inventing the next version of the lightbulb or creating more efficient ways to do your job. Tricia Edwards is the Head of Education for the Lemelson Center. She develops the conceptual framework for the Center’s educational programs and activities, including Spark!Lab, a hands-on invention lab, and develops related instructional materials and evaluatio