Patrick's Playground

In the final episode of the series, Patrick interviews Anne, a 77-year-old whose lifelong love of games offers a joyful perspective on how play evolves over time. Anne shares a journey that includes dolls, sports, cards and more: From classic games with names that have evolved over the decades to the ways parenthood reshaped her view of play through her children’s eyes. Patrick also returns to his...

In this episode Patrick interviews Jessica, a 50-year-old who has experienced play from multiple perspectives—as a child, a mother, and now as an adult with her own favorite pastimes. Jessica shares memories of the games and toys that shaped her childhood and reflects on the new types of play her own children embraced. Together, they discuss what it means to “grow out of” Symbolic Play and how cer...

Patrick explores the ways technology changes our relationship to play with Christina, a Millennial whose childhood spanned the digital revolution. Her personal history and professional experience as a teacher has given her a unique perspective on how children today encounter all new forms of play— both online and off. From Roller Coaster Tycoon to Wordle, what happens when you “let the technology...

In the second part of our exploration of how play evolves through childhood and adolescence, Patrick sits down with his older brother, Liam, to compare notes on their different approaches to play. Liam loves a long Game with Rules, but doesn’t connect with “imaginary” Symbolic Play. How does his perspective compare with his siblings? And what draws different members of the same family to different...

In the first of a two-part exploration of how play evolves from childhood through the teenage years, Patrick interviews someone he’s observed closely since birth: his younger brother, Rory. From Hungry Hungry Hippos to hockey, Rory charts the evolving nature of play and a growing interest in games with rules. When do we love a game for the sake of the game and when does it depend on the people we’...

Join Patrick as he begins his investigation into our relationship with play and how it evolves across a lifetime, interviewing people from age 3 to age 77 over the course of this 6-episode series. How have their favorites games and pastimes changed as they’ve grown? And how have innovations like computers and technology changed the way younger generations play? These are just a few of the question...