Just Foaling Around: The Science of Play

Video Episode Available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/zk8fpi9gA2g

Why do animals play — and why do humans seem to stop?

In this episode of The Daily Ride, Morgan explores play as something much bigger than entertainment. Play is a biological system found throughout the animal kingdom, and research suggests it plays an important role in brain development, cognitive flexibility, emotional resilience, and our ability to adapt when things don’t go according to plan.

We’ll look at how scientists actually define “true” play, what happens in the brain while we’re playing, and why young animals spend so much time chasing, wrestling, pouncing, exaggerating movements, and deliberately putting themselves in situations where they aren’t completely in control. In a sense, play may be practice for the unexpected: a safe place to experiment, make mistakes, recover, and try something different.

We’ll also get into what happens when animals are deprived of opportunities to play, what that research might tell us about human development and animal welfare, and why play tends to disappear from our lives as we get older. Somewhere along the way, being bad at something becomes embarrassing, productivity starts taking over our free time, and activities without an obvious purpose can begin to feel like a waste- but maybe purposelessness is part of the point!

Finally, Morgan shares some simple ways to bring play back into adult life as an opportunity to be curious, experiment, laugh, move, create, and occasionally be terrible at something- just because it’s fun.

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Full Research Reference List available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/zk8fpi9gA2g

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Special thanks to Ben Dellenbach for the original intro music and ⁨@darylbrownproductions⁩ for the video mentorship.

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