Published Aug 18 2023

‘What Happens Next?’: What Happens When We Stop Playing?

Susan
Carland
Academic, author and social commentator
Margaret barrett
Professor, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance
Xavier ho
Lecturer, Department of Design
Rob walker
Author, “The Art of Noticing”
Mike rucker
Author, “The Fun Habit”

Peter Pan didn’t want to grow up – and maybe for good reason. Play, which comes so easily to us as children, has a profound effect on our learning and development, but also our creativity and wellbeing. What do we lose when we transition from carefree children to adults with responsibilities, jobs and full diaries?

In a world where productivity often reigns supreme, you won’t want to miss the season-eight premiere of Monash University’s podcast, What Happens Next?. An all-new season of the Signal Award-winning podcast kicks off with a fun topic – fun itself.

 

In today’s episode, host Dr Susan Carland and expert guests in music, mindfulness and more discuss the consequences of growing up and losing touch with the innate creativity we had as children.

The discussion ranges from the roots of our musicality, which begins in the womb, to the repercussions of discounting leisure time in adulthood. Along the way, experts weigh in on why – and when – we begin to deprioritise play, and how technology may be robbing us of great fun and creative exploration.

Listen: Are We Hustling Ourselves to Death?

In part one of this two-part series, Susan is joined by Professor Margaret S Barrett, head of Monash’s Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, whose work offers fascinating insights into the foundations of creativity. Gaming expert Dr Xavier Ho discusses how play can help us understand ourselves and the world around us.

Rob Walker, the author of The Art of Noticing and its popular associated newsletter, weighs in on why, even though actively engaging our minds generally leaves us happier, we’re so tempted by digital distractions.

Finally, you’ll hear from Dr Mike Rucker, author of The Fun Habit, on why today’s adults are in a unique position that makes finding the time to take a break and have some fun so much more challenging.

“Just the same way we need to charge our smartphones and our laptops, if we're not charging ourselves, we don't have anything else to give.” – Dr Mike Rucker

If you’re feeling burnt-out and tired, it may be time to challenge your notion of play as a relic of childhood. Discover why it’s an integral part of our lives – and what will happen if we continue to take ourselves too seriously.

Don’t miss a moment of season eight of What Happens Next? – subscribe now on your favourite podcast app.

Already a subscriber? You can help other listeners find the show by giving What Happens Next? a rating and review.

 
 

Listen to more What Happens Next? podcast episodes

About the Authors

  • Susan carland

    Director, Bachelor of Global Studies, and Lecturer, School of Language, Literature, Cultures and Linguistics

    Susan's research and teaching specialties focus on gender, sociology, contemporary Australia, terrorism, and Islam in the modern world. Susan hosted the “Assumptions” series on ABC’s Radio National, and was named one of the 20 Most Influential Australian Female Voices in 2012 by The Age.

  • Margaret barrett

    Professor, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University

    Margaret is a leading figure in Australian and international music education, and Head of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance at Monash University. Among her achievements, she was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship in 2018 to undertake preliminary investigations of children’s singing and song-making in the archives of the Smithsonian Institute, and the Library of Congress (Washington DC). She is currently Founding Director of the Pedagogies of Creativity, Collaboration, Expertise and Enterprise (PoCCEE) research focus at Monash. Her research encompasses the investigation of the role of music and the arts in human cognition and social and cultural development. Her research has addressed problems in the areas of aesthetic decision-making, the meaning and value of arts engagement for young people, young children's musical thinking, young children's identity work in and through music, teaching and learning practices in the arts, and the pedagogy and practices of creativity.

  • Xavier ho

    Lecturer, Department of Design

    Xavier is the creator of Roguelike Universe, Smoke and Fire, and other interactive data visualisations. He is a hybrid design and software practitioner-researcher appointed at Monash Art, Design and Architecture. Prior to joining Monash, Xavier led the Graph Visualisation Engineering team at CSIRO designing visualisations for machine learning on networked data. He has more than seven years of industry experience in co-designing interactive data visualisation tools for research, government, businesses, and the everyday citizen.

  • Rob walker

    Rob Walker is a journalist covering design, technology, business, the arts, and other subjects. He writes the BRANDED column for Fast Company and has contributed to The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, NewYorker.Com, Design Observer, The Organist, and many others. His latest book is The Art of Noticing (Knopf). He is on the faculty of the Products of Design MFA program at the School of Visual Arts.

  • Mike rucker

    Dr. Mike Rucker is an organizational psychologist, behavioral scientist, and charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association. He has been academically published in publications like the International Journal of Workplace Health Management. His ideas about fun and health have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fast Company, Psychology Today, Forbes, Vox, Thrive Global, Mindful, mindbodygreen, and more. He currently serves as a senior leader at Active Wellness and is the author of the best-selling book The Fun Habit, which is out now.

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