The Re-Scape Podcast

28/10/2022

Have you ever wondered why we’re wired to play?

Play, it seems, is critical to our well-being. For children, adults, and animals alike. We are born with a biological drive to play. The play circuits buried deep in our brains have evolved over millions of years. And so play is a deep, instinctual need.

Research has shown that play is not just for fun and amusement. It is critical for learning and preparing children for challenges in childhood and throughout adulthood. Through Play, we learn to cooperate, laugh, think actively, and tell stories. It teaches us to learn and facilitates fun and social connections.

24/10/2022

What does play mean to you?

It is an escape? A hobby? A means to connect with others? Does it offer you an outlet for fun and enjoyment? A break away from the everyday responsibilities of work and life. Is it where you find yourself taking a time-out from time itself? Do you use play as a way to let go and de-stress?

In the words of author and psychiatrist Stuart Brown, “Play is all around us. It is like oxygen”. And so, it is clear, it means something.

20/10/2022

Did you know that soccer icon David Beckham plays with Lego to control stress?

27/09/2022

In the player’s mind, the possibilities are endless.

23/09/2022

The cessation of play is the death of spontaneity, of creativity, and a severance with your true self. To those who have stopped playing as you got older, we encourage you to take up an activity that introduces more enjoyment into your life.

21/09/2022

For the busy minds who need a break, play offers us a chance to revitalize ourselves with engaging activities and the company of others.

26/08/2022

Mitigate the build-up of stress by introducing more play into your day.

Play has been shown to release endorphins, improve brain functionality, and stimulate creativity. But what is play?

Join us on the Re-Scape Podcast as we set out to explore and define the value and necessity of play.

Upcoming guests to be announced soon.

23/08/2022

Play helps to:

✅ Relieve stress
✅ Improve brain function
✅ Stimulate the mind and boost creativity
✅ Improve your relationships and connection to others
✅ Keeps you looking young and energetic
✅ Releases your mind and body

What is your favourite way to play?

10/08/2022

Colm O’Shea is a Clinical Associate Professor at New York University, where he teaches writing at Tisch School Of The Arts. His research explores the relation between metaphysics and culture—especially film, animation, and game design. His essays can be found at Bright Lights Film Journal, Film Philosophy, Cagibi, and Quillette. His poetry is anthologized in Initiate: An Oxford Anthology of New Writing and Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century (Bloodaxe Books) and his plays have been staged at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club and Theater for the New City. His book on non-dual metaphysics and depth psychology (James Joyce’s Mandala) is forthcoming from Routledge in 2022, as is his first sci-fi novel Claiming De Wayke (Crossroad Press).

09/08/2022

It is the child’s dream to play for a living.

As children, we naturally voice our dreams when asked the question: What do you want to do when you grow up? Yet as adults, we lose this part of ourselves. The expectations of others and society at large weight heavy on our minds when choosing our careers paths. And so, we are often forced to settle for less. We may seek to please others rather than find work that’s imaginative, self-directed, intrinsically motivated, and inherently playful.

Realize that it’s never too late to look further afield and find work you love.

04/08/2022

Robbie O’Driscoll is a neuromuscular therapist and physical educator. In 2015 he hand-built Cork’s first movement café (Café Move), where he designed and conducted games to promote social interaction and able-bodiedness through physical play. There he also hosted workshops led by Tom Weksler, Mikael Kristiansen, Yuri Marmerstein, and Emmet Louis. Robbie has studied under Tom Weksler and Fighting Monkey, and in workshops around the globe for over a decade on movement, bodywork, and wellbeing. His research interests involve the intersection of culture and physiology—particularly the influential interplay between environment, behavior, and relationships.

&wellbeing

03/08/2022

When was the last time you engaged in an activity for enjoyment and recreation, rather than a serious or practical purpose?

Play, which was natural to us as children, often becomes alien to us as adults.

And so, we must learn to play again as adults. Because it is through play that one develops the skills of empathy, creativity, humility, humour, listening and problem-solving.

28/07/2022

The Rescape Project is a commitment to playing with the question of play itself. Like a will- o’-the-wisp, a strict definition of play is elusive; try to pin it down and it slips away. But one thing we can call it is a necessary nutrient. In the preliminary stages of The Rescape Project, we spoke with adults who compared the facilitation of play in their lives to remedying a deficiency they didn’t know they had. They described a new sense of expansiveness, meaningfulness, and clarity once play became a daily experience. How many of our modern ills—both personal and societal—can be traced, in one way or another, to this deficiency? How might the propagation of play communities transform the world as we know it? We’re interested in the effect of play and games on culture; in diagnosing and describing the play-deprived state we call “the rut”; in the value that innovative game design might bring to 21 st century living. We grapple with these questions through constant conversation. The Rescape Project opens this conversation to all who sense its importance—through the Rescape podcast and, eventually, a book. The Rescape is about escape from the rut, yes, but also a return to a spontaneity and creativity that is our birthright. What forms, what shapes, might our exit from the rut take? It’s never too late to observe our existence anew, to notice what might be missing from the landscape of our lives.

26/07/2022

Join us and discover the value of play.

26/07/2022