I talk the business of toys and pop culture, and what goes into making a documentary series about their history, with The Toys That Made Us producer/director Brian Volk-Weiss. Brian has lots to say about the hidden world behind toys and popular

Singapore at Play

Apr 4th, 2019 27m 56s

An experimental piece on a travel experience of mine last year. I went to Singapore for a week with my fiancée in July and was surprised to find lots of playful touches, despite — or maybe because of — the reputation it has for law and order. A

Bonus/micro ep: The play of professional Minecraft building

Feb 1st, 2019 10m 24s

I'm back! Well, partly. New episodes are on the way, and in the meantime I thought you might enjoy this excerpt from an interview I conducted a couple of years ago about professional Minecraft building (i.e., people getting paid to build elabor

Episode 12: Playful Mapping

Aug 10th, 2018 43m 28s

Geographer Chris Perkins, co-author of the book Playful Mapping in the Digital Age, shares his love of maps and helps me explore the deep connection between mapping and play.Thanks to my awesome Patreon backers for covering my running costs a

Re-issue of the Chaim Gingold (Earth Primer, Spore) segment from Ep1

Jan 9th, 2018 16m 53s

In celebration of the release of a Mac version of the award-winning app Earth Primer — a science book for playful people — I thought it'd be nice to dig out the segment I did with its creator, Chaim Gingold, back in episode 1, and clean it up f

Episode 11: The Hide & Seek World Championship

Dec 20th, 2017 39m 1s

On the Nascondino World Championship, a yearly hide and seek tournament that attracts teams from all around the globe. I talked to Alan Jones, the co-captain of the Australian team, the Nascondingos, and Giorgio Moratti, one of the organisers o

Episode 10: Beyond Monks (If Monks Had Macs part 2)

Jul 16th, 2017 39m 44s

Life after If Monks Had Macs aka What Brian Thomas did next; ruminations on photography and the politics of art and play. (Based on an interview conducted in early January 2017.)Relevant links:Ludiphilia websitePatreonIf Monks Had MacsP

Episode 9: If Monks Had Macs

Apr 13th, 2017 35m 46s

It all started with a Macintosh ad: 'You too can be a knowledge worker.' This is the story of Brian Thomas' 15-year odyssey at the helm of one of the strangest pieces of multimedia software ever created — If Monks Had Macs.You can learn more

A Brief Note on the Delay

Mar 20th, 2017 3m 9s

I know I said I'd have a new episode out in February, and now we're in the second half of March. There's a reason for that.The short version is that I'm waiting to publish the new episode until after I sort out a problem with iTunes. Because

Episode 8: Locke

Jan 24th, 2017 18m 55s

We're back! So sorry it took so long. Regular service (new episodes every 4-6 weeks) will now resume.On the eve of the Industrial Revolution and the morn of the English Civil War, one man reinvented educational thought.Special thanks to my

Episode 7: Ausretrogamer

Aug 9th, 2016 35m 55s

When Alex Boz dug his Commodore 64 out of storage, he was transported instantly back to his childhood, and that set him on the path to rediscover a lost passion and find a community he could call home.Thank you to everyone who's donated via P

Episode 6: The Manhole

May 27th, 2016 33m 28s

How brothers Rand and Robyn Miller built worlds from a manhole. This is the story of the beginning of Cyan, the company that went on to develop Myst — the all-time top-selling adventure game and one of the most influential videogames ever made.

Episode 5: 5 - Where the City (Simulation) Stops

Apr 12th, 2016 14m 24s

I love SimCity. It's a wonderful simulation of the urban machinery around us, and a playground for messing with our cities. But it turns out the original game, at least, doesn't actually work the way it seems.Music by Three Chain Links, Jesse

Episode 4: Fernando Pessoa

Mar 3rd, 2016 24m 10s

On Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa and the playful freedom of creating as someone else — someone distinct, and unique, but non-existent. (Pessoa wrote under hundreds of names, all of which belonged to people he called "heteronyms," or "non-ex

Episode 3: Avatars in Need

Feb 1st, 2016 27m 56s

Sometimes we don't realise that we need saving. Sometimes it's fun to pretend we do. For one woman, pretending made all the difference. This is the story of how one middle-aged woman relearned to play while residing in Second Life, and of the S

Episode 2: Mercy

Dec 23rd, 2015 38m 11s

[Audio levels should be fixed now. Sorry about that.]A devoted wrestling fan hacks and modifies an old Nintendo 64 game called WWF No Mercy to help deal with the pain of his shattered dream, and gets more out of it than he'd bargained forYo

Episode 1: Playful Pedagogical Primers

Oct 1st, 2015 34m 29s

For the first episode of Ludiphilia I've gathered two stories about learning by playing systems-driven games. One is about the educational value of Minecraft, and the other is about a guy who studies something he calls play design and who devel