Podcasts about playgrounding

Spirituality and religion are linked to positive physical and mental health outcomes, but at times, unhealthy teachings can cause more problems than they solve. On this episode, Gary Ware interviews Kara, the host of PlayGrounding. Through her work toward interfaith ordination, she’s begun the process of uncovering her own story of religious trauma, sexual assault, and finding her way back to a healthy spiritual life. None of it would have been possible without rediscovering the power of play as an adult.

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 time.

October 23, 2017 – From cabs to buses to ride sharing, getting around on the strip has never been easier. This episode is part 1 of a closer look at transportation on the strip. The show opens with a couple of returning guests. Cousin Vito shares the details about the upcoming travel and gaming conference ZorkFest. Then we hear from an old friend, Todd Gades, who has an update to his travel tip about taking a bus in Vegas. Then, Kara Stewart Fortier from the Playgrounding Podcast shares an uncomfortable cab ride story. Last, Vegas cab driver Dustin provides some useful tips and talks about what it’s like to be a cabbie in Sin City. For more information about the topics we talked about on this episode: The Return of Vegas Bright twitter: @vestroe website: VegasBright.com New Vegas Podcasts Vegas BunBoy – website: Vegas BunBoy  twitter: @VegasBunBoy Vegas Confessions – website: VegasConfessionspod.com twitter: @VegasConfessionsPod ZorkFest info: Cousin Vito’s Casino Podcast: Episode 59 ZorkFest Todd Gades – Find his eBook “How A Math Nerd Plays Craps” on the You Can Bet On That Website. Twitter: @YoEleven_ Playgrounding Podcast website: Playgrounding.com twitter: @karafortier Dustin twitter: @vagascab Dustin on Jobstr.com CrowdRise Zappos For … Continue reading

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 play comes in. I hope you enjoy today's episode, and as always, please feel free to reach out to me at kara(at)playgrounding.com if this episode resonates with you. Not to be on the podcast, just because I'd love to hear from you and maybe be an ear if you don't feel comfortable talking about these kinds of things with anyone else. Episode Links: Moderation Management #100daysofplay - Visit Ben's Blog

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 puzzle each week that will challenge your kids’ brains – or yours. Enjoy! Show Links:  Visit Eric’s website Discover puzzle hunts on Shinteki  Learn about Eric’s books about The Puzzling World of Winston Breen Sign up for Puzzle Your Kids, a puzzle every week – free! Solve Eric’s New York Times Crossword Puzzle on August 15, 2017 on your electronic device or even try a pencil! (or pen…) 

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 are any indication of what’s to come, you’re going to want to keep this book launch on your radar!  Shepherd Siegel grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the midst of the Sixties counterculture. He was a professional rock and jazz musician who switched it out for his career as an educator (in music, career & technical and special education), earning his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.  He has over thirty publications in the education field.  Career Ladders, his internship program for high school students, is represented by over twenty school districts, a corresponding book, and an award from the US Department of Labor.  From 1996-2012 he led the School to Career and Career + Technical Education (CTE) initiative for Seattle Public Schools.  He joined Project Lead the Way in 2012 after having strong success with their STEM program in ten Seattle middle and high schools, until 2015.  He is a Past President of the Washington Association for Career and Technical Education, serving from 2012-2015.  He was the 2004 Outstanding Career and Technical Educator for the state of Washington, and a national finalist for the Association for Career and Technical Education 2005 Outstanding Career + Technical Educator.  The KAPPAN published his article about a meaningful high school diploma in 2010.  He has returned to his countercultural roots, currently writing a book, Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture, about how play and the creative impulse could transform our society. Show Links: Visit Shepherd Siegel's website

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 studies showing possible connections between child rearing practices and the likelihood that those children will tolerate authoritarian forms of government. We’ll also talk about how free play helps us learn to handle opposing ideas and work toward consensus. I hope you enjoy the episode and as always, please feel free to submit your own ideas in the comments or by contacting me to keep the conversation going. Pratik Chougule is an executive editor at The American Conservative. He was previously the managing editor at The National Interest and served as the policy coordinator on the 2016 presidential campaign of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Chougule has contributed to projects for the Trilateral Commission, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, and Baron Public Affairs. He has assisted a number of senior officials with their memoirs, including former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. From 2008-2009, Chougule was a Bush appointee at the State Department in the Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security. Chougule graduated from Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University and holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.

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 than play. We do specific activities to achieve specific results. But not everyone gets results, even when we try to follow the rules. And this is only one piece of a larger problem: our culture’s epidemic of mental illnesses like body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Brian Bristol, a small business owner whose worked in outdoor sports for over a decade, wants to tackle this problem head-on, but he needs your help. It’s not as easy as it might seem to bring fitness and play together in one place – especially for adults. He wants to open an alternative indoor playground filled with movement-based activities and programs so youth and adults can experience play together in a way that is healthy, productive AND fun. He’s on the PlayGrounding Podcast seeking YOUR insights and ideas to re-think play and fitness so that his dream can come to life.  You’ll be hearing more from Brian in future episodes. He’ll be joining me to interview some other fitness and play experts as we go through the series to find out what’s already being done to make movement fun instead of painful for those of us who don’t already gravitate toward the fitness world. Links: Submit your ideas to join the conversation! Visit Brian’s Website, Firefly, to Rethink Play MovNat

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 evaluation instruments. She is currently working to broaden Spark!Lab’s impact beyond the National Mall, working with partner institutions across the country to integrate Spark!Lab activities into their programs, and has overseen installations of Spark!Labs in Anchorage, Detroit, Kansas City, Reno, and Greenville, SC, with additional sites scheduled to open. She has led Spark!Lab projects in India and Ukraine, and will oversee the installation of a “pop up” Spark!Lab in London in July 2017. In collaboration with Smithsonian Enterprises and Faber-Castell, she launched the Spark!Lab Inventive Creativity™ consumer product line to extend Spark!Lab’s unique approach to hands on learning to homes everywhere. Links: Learn more about Spark!Lab, where museum visitors become inventors! Check out Spark!Labs Try This At Home Learn more about the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation  

April 7, 2017 – With recreational marijuana use now legal in Nevada, I talk to Matthew Janz from The Apothecarium Las Vegas to find out how accessible will cannabis be to tourists. I also have Matt Seibert from the MR BS Show who shares his first time experience in Vegas and gives a pro tip about mixing weed and alcohol. If you’d like to hear the episode where he and his friends talk about the Adventure Combat Ops experience in Las Vegas, click here. I also share a story about a rude awakening from my recent trip to Vegas. If you’d like to read about some of the other things I experienced while in Vegas, like Gordon Ramsay’s Fish & Chips, I’ve written about it at YourTripReports.com. For more information about the topics we talked about in this episode: KushTourism.com BudAndBreakfast.com TheTravelJoint.com Special thank you’s to Scott from Vital Vegas, Vito from Cousin Vito’s Casino & Kara from Playgrounding for having me on as a guest on their podcasts recently. If you’d like to hear these episodes: Vital Vegas Podcast – We chat about why FnA went dark for 6 months. Cousin Vito’s Casino Podcast – Todd Gaddes and I … Continue reading

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 post really caught my imagination. It was entitled, “Can Play Save Us?” Mathias Poulsen, Co-founder & Chairman of the Board of the NGO CounterPlay in Denmark, began his post by saying, “I need to act.” He went on to explain how a playful perspective is more vital than ever right now and therefore, so is his crusade. Between his words and the many inspiring comments, I’m re-energized to keep going as well. So this episode is my refection on what I’ve been learning so far about play from PlayGrounding guests and how we might be able to answer the question, can play save us? In a special conversation with Amanda Coolong, Co-Chairman of the Board at WITI - Women In Technology International and former PlayGrounding guest, actress Michelle Barton, we’ll look at how play can pull us out of negative, non-productive thought patterns and open us up to inspiration and action. We’ll also learn from other former guests, Meg Athavale and Megan Sadd about play’s role in battling addiction and depression. This is not my way of definitively answering Mathias’ question. It’s my starting place. I hope many more voices join in to help answer the questions he poses in his call for proposals for the CounterPlay Festival/Conference in 2017: We wish to explore the potential role of playful participation, for individuals, communities and society at large. How might it facilitate a stronger sense of agency and become a catalyst of adaptability and change? In what ways can play inspire and encourage us to question the status quo and challenge the rules? When will our innate playfulness spark our imagination and curiosity, and will it enable us to see that the world could be transformed into something else? Should we consider play a political act that can shape societies? Could it even make democracy come alive through new forms of participation? Can play bolster our courage, so we dare to speak out and challenge established power structures and hierarchies? Let’s start figuring it out together. Show Notes The Play Summit Mathias Poulsen's Inspirational Facebook Post The CounterPlay ’17 Conference/Festival on Facebook Meg Athavale's Full Interview (a.k.a. Meg Rabbit) Lumo Play - Meg Athavale's Interactive Projection Toy Stuart McMillen’s Graphic Novel – Rat Park Megan Sadd’s Full Interview  Charlie Hoehn’s Book, Play It Away, A Workaholic’s Cure for Anxiety Follow #100daysoffun with The Flying Raccoon Michelle Barton's Full Interview Life Vest Inside

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 interesting lives. It's one thing to know that and another to figure out how to do it. Especially if your feet have been on the ground for so long you forget how to have fun. This episode is the introduction to a series about finding a playground that sets you free to really experience the power of play. The last PlayGrounding episode, Escaping Your Cage, was about identifying and plotting a course away from the things that tie us down. But for what? There has to be a second step. Sometimes our discontent is so ingrained, it’s hard to know what to do when you actually get out. It might even seem easier just to go back inside the cage. But there IS more to life (as I might have mentioned). Finding Your Playground Over the next few episodes, we’ll talk about how to create the circumstances that make play possible – real play – the kind that can help us burned-out adults rediscover our childlike exuberance for life. We'll talk about how Dr. Stuart Brown defines transformative play in his book, Play. According to Dr. Brown, play: Is apparently purposeless (done for its own sake) Is voluntary Has inherent attraction Gives us freedom from time Allows us to feel a diminished consciousness of self Has improvisational potential Now we just need to find a playground that allows us to really experience these things. All of our playgrounds will be different, but I stumbled upon one where I experienced all of these things at once: Burning Man. It's a huge cultural phenomenon and a healing experience for so many people all over the world, that I thought I'd use it as an example of a playground that truly sets people free. What will yours playground look like? That's what we're going to explore in the next few episodes, so be sure to subscribe! The Links I Promised You: Get the book - Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Dr. Stuart Brown Visit the official Burning Man website My all-time favorite podcast episode ever - TED Radio Hour's "Press Play" episode The Neverending Stor

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 keep telling yourself you are, then help you identify your own personal cage so that you can start making plans to break out. And it was all inspired by a dog. Here’s what I promised you from this week’s episode: WOOP – A scientific strategy that people can use to find and fulfill their wishes and change their habits. Including the book, Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabriele Oettingen. NPR’s Hidden Brain Podcast with Shankar Vedantam: WOOP, There It Is! 4 Steps To Achieve Your Goals Joy – Staring Jennifer Lawrence Meg Rabbit’s Story – Episode 2 of PlayGrounding, Child’s Play and Grown Up Decisions