Videos

In this Book Talk, Kelli Dunlap chats about her book, The Psychgeist of Pop Culture - Bluey. https://playstorypress.org/books/the-psychgeist-of-pop-culture-bluey/ Bluey is an award-winning animated children’s series centering on the titular Bluey: a curious, inexhaustible 7-year old (in human years) anthropomorphized Blue Heeler puppy, and her family – little sister Bingo, mom Chili, and dad Bandit. Although each episode is brief, they’re full of love, heart, and valuable life lessons for both kids and adults. The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Bluey features both academic and memoir chapters which highlight the parent-child duality of Bluey viewership as well as the show’s playful way...

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In this Book(s) Talk, David Thomas talks about Professors at Play and the three books that Lisa Forbes and he edited, as well as their Playposium events. https://playstorypress.org/all-professors-at-play/ Professors at Play is a global community of like-minded educators interested in transforming higher education through the power of play. Grounded in the concept of playful pedagogy, the community looks to increase student outcomes, faculty engagement and overall joy inside the academy. https://youtu.be/BYRmeabQQ5Y

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In this Book Talk, Arienne Ferchaud chats about her book, The Psychgeist of Pop Culture - The Umbrella Academy. https://playstorypress.org/books/the-psychgeist-of-pop-culture-the-umbrella-academy/ The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Umbrella Academy takes a deep dive into the world of the Hargreeves family and sheds new light on the gothic allure of this series. In this collection of essays, readers will dive deeper into the complexities of the Umbrella Academy and learn why we root for Delores and Five, why we would likely join Klaus' cult, and why, despite the fact they all make morally ambiguous decisions, we continue to hope for the siblings' success...

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In this Book Talk, Camillla Zamboni, Matthew Farber, and William Merchant share about their book, Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-Playing Games to Use in the Classroom. https://playstorypress.org/books/roll-for-learning/ Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-Playing Games to Use in the Classroom is an edited book featuring a curated collection of original micro tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Micro TTRPGs have grown in popularity in recent years, particularly in the game jam space, and offer great potential for classroom use, as these games are intended to be easy to learn and quick to play. Further, TTRPGs are also an emerging field...

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In this Book (& Game) Talk, Dana Gold chats about Broke: The Game, and her book, Broke: How I Made Poverty a Game. https://playstorypress.org/books/broke-how-i-made-poverty-a-game/ POVERTY IS NOT A GAME! After growing up poor and working for decades in shelters and halfway houses, Dana Gold created a board game to help people of goodwill understand how families get ensnared in poverty and how difficult the struggle is to overcome structured inequity. The first version of the game was a sheet of paper, circles traced from a toilet paper roll, and movers Dana swiped from her kid’s Chutes and Ladders game. The...

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In this Book Talk, Rachel Kowert chats about her book, The Psychgeist of Pop Culture - The Witcher. https://playstorypress.org/books/the-psychgeist-of-pop-culture-the-witcher/ In a world where mean are monsters and monsters are men - who is the real monster? The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Witcher delves into the psychology of the characters and stories of this popular franchise. From the original book collection to best-selling video game series, to the hugely popular Netflix show, The Witcher is a transmedia experience that has captivated hearts and minds across the globe. In this series of edited essays, we explore the psychology behind what makes...

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In this Book Talk, Suzanne Richardson and Ed Chang share about their book, Roll with Advantage: Creative, Collaborative, and Critical Responses to Dungeons & Dragons. https://playstorypress.org/books/roll-with-advantage/ This book is an interdisciplinary, multi-genre, mixed-form anthology featuring poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essays, interviews, and analytical scholarship about and inspired by D&D—the game, the legends, the media, and the people. The book is a playful, imaginative, and critical response to D&D’s pop cultural renaissance, particularly during and after the global pandemic, with its appearances on television shows like Stranger Things, Community, and The Big Bang Theory, celebrity players like Vin Diesel, Deborah...

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In our first Book Talk, we chat with Dr. Rachel Kowert about the Psychgeist of Pop Culture Book Series. https://playstorypress.org/all-psychgeist/ Over the last few decades, interest in pop psychology has grown faster than most of our Netflix backlogs. This series from Dr. Rachel Kowert highlights iconic pop culture content from television, film, literature, and video games through an examination of the psychological mechanisms that endear us to these stories for a lifetime. https://youtu.be/5KVqle5N5Gc  

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Play Story Press hosted a Publishing How-To Zoom Roundtable. The session focused on a variety of innovative ways to share scholarly ideas to make the most impact. We also offered tips for building communities of practice to help grow fields of knowledge. The panelists shared their stories and perspectives, and helped facilitate group discussions and Q&A with attendees: -Drew Davidson & Brad King - Editors at Play Story Press -Lindsay Grace - Knight Chair in Interactive Media at the University of Miami -Zoe Wake Hyde - Director at Radish Press -David Thomas - Co-Founder of Professors at Play Key Takeaways...

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