The Recess Life with Louise Wo

Holy moly, where has the year gone? I jump on the mic to say hello and share a quick life update. I talk about what I am learning in this season of life and what this might mean for the future of the podcast. (Hint: the topics of lifelong play and creativity isn’t going anywhere!) Have an amazing end of 2021 and happy new year!

For the shownotes from this episode visit http://louisepanwo.com/s4e9. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes! 

We are starting 2021 with more tensions than ever. What is it going to take to bring us together from all across the different spectrums? Could play be the answer? In this episode I speak with Jeff Harry, positive psychology coach, speaker, workshop facilitator and my favorite person to collaborate with on TikTok! We discuss the choice between understanding and being right and the power of play to heal our divisions. We talk about what Jeff has learned about how play can change the world through everything from consulting for companies like Google and Facebook to being a black man. 

• Why the lack of shared humanity has contributed to the divisions we see in our world today
• How play can help us to see each other's shared humanity
• What you need to do before engaging with someone who shares different beliefs than you.
• Examples of how play has healed relationships and divisions in our world

For more on Jeff and the shownotes from this episode visit http://louisepanwo.com/s4e8. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes! 

*Content Warning: This episode contains a slur word that refers to black people that is shared in the context of a story from Jeff's past (46:50 - 47:15).

When Shawnrey Notto describes embodiment, it sounds like it has a lot in common with play: engaging the senses, feeling fully alive, savoring every moment. Yet most of us understand play as a concept way more than embodiment. 

In this episode,  I speak with Shawnrey, a sex and intimacy coach and dancer about how embodiment and play are interconnected and how both are key to feeling fully alive. How can we feel good when a lot of our worldly pleasures have been stripped away from the pandemic? Embodiment might just be the answer. 

• The definition of embodiment and how it relates to play
• How Shawnrey came to discover embodiment through trauma
• How to feel embodied when we are isolated during a pandemic
• The challenges that come with culture's conflation of sensuality and sexuality

For more on Shawnrey and this episode's shownotes visit louisepanwo.com/s4e7. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes! 

Thanksgiving is upon us and some of us are having trouble finding gratitude this year. I don't blame you AT ALL.

It would be easy to brush off finding gratitude as a silly tradition and one that is unnecessary this year but I want to offer a different perspective. 

In this episode I share some science and studies on the importance of gratitude and a different way to approach it than your daily "5 Things to be Grateful for" list. I help you to think of gratitude as a fun playful activity and where to find the opportunities in our constraints this holiday season. 

For shownotes: louisepanwo.com/s4e6

Right now it's easy to look around and wonder if our country can get to a place of collective joy. In this expansive conversation with Emmy award-winning creative director, author and speaker, Gwen Gordon, we talk about how play and joy is the foundation for the world we want to create. The transformation starts with a belief of safety, love and connection. Get ready for a heart-warming and beautifully challenging episode.

In this conversation

• why safety is at the core of transformation
• how play is possible no matter our life circumstances
• why play doesn't need to be a part of the mainstream conversation
• how we can talk about play in a world that is filled with uncertainty

For more on Gwen visit louisepanwo.com/s4e5. You can also follow us on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode please share this with a friend and give us a review on iTunes! 

In 2004, William Hung was thrust into the limelight with the American Idol audition heard around the world. His famous rendition of "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin received attention that ranged from praise to ridicule. I talked to William about his journey from his American Idol audition and beyond and how he has maintained a positive playful spirit in the process. We discuss embracing the uncertainty of following your curiosity and his current transition to move back in to the public spotlight.

In this conversation

• his journey to get on American Idol
• how he dealt with the attention of becoming an overnight sensation
• what it felt like to quit his day job and decide to follow his heart back out into the public spotlight
• how he handles the negative criticism he gets with a playful positive attitude

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Follow The Recess Life on Instagram @therecesslife. If you enjoyed this episode share it with a friend and leave us a 5 star review!

Falls are the leading cause of death for seniors aged 65+. Of those seniors that survive a fall a majority of them will never live independently. That is a scary statistic that Stephen Jepson decided he would do something about. Stephen is the creator of Never Leave the Playground, where he teaches his philosophy of lifetime activity and play. At 80 years old he can juggle, tight rope walk and ride a unicycle. That's just scratching the surface of what he can do! He believes these activities will change everyone's lives, not just seniors, to live a long, healthy and playful life.

In this conversation we talk about

• how Stephen discovered his love of play and movement
• how his training helped him recover from a traumatic injury
• some of the simple activities and exercises that we can all do to start our own journey with movement and play
• why these kinds of activities strengthen both the body and the brain.

As an immigrant and refugee the last thing on your mind would likely be anything creative and playful. For Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants Paul and Millie Cao, this was their story until a few years ago. The documentary short Walk Run Cha Cha explores their story of fleeing Vietnam and how they are reinventing themselves now through ballroom dance.

In this episode, I spoke with Laura Nix, the Oscar-nominated director of Walk Run Cha Cha about her process in creating the film and the themes she explored around dance, immigration and reinvention in middle-age. 

We talked about how creating the film changed Laura as a person and filmmaker, the motivation behind a creative pursuit, why the freedom to be playful and creative is not a given for everyone and the reality of a career in the arts. I also talked about how Paul and Mille's story relates to my parents' story of being immigrants and refugees.

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You are born to dance. Yes, you. Think about it. As babies we wiggle about and giggle when we hear music that piques our curiosity. No one teaches us how to do that - we just know! So why do we grow up and become balls of anxiety when we see a dance floor? Dr. Peter Lovatt's work in dance and psychology explores that question. He is a former professional dancer, psychologist, author and keynote speaker who is leading the way for us to look at dance differently in our culture.

We had a wonderful conversation that expanded beyond dance and into the way creativity and the arts are valued in education and our society. If I ever feel guilty for having a solo dance party in my room I will listen to this conversation to remind myself again that I am just doing what I was born to do.

In this conversation

• dance as innate and natural in all of us
• teaching himself how to read in his 20's and how dance helped him with that.
• how the education system did not nurture him as a creative person and dancer
• the fear of judgment from others that holds us back
• the stories we tell about ourselves that keep us stuck

We are back with part two of the conversation with Alison Calhoun. In this episode we tackle our perspectives on coronavirus and break down her Facebook post: "When you stand up for something you believe in and people don't like it you've officially detached yourself from the chains of approval. Feels darn good. Keeping abortion clinics open as an essential business during a pandemic that threatens the lives of the vulnerable is the biggest double standard on the face of this planet. Please don't tell me this shutdown is a good idea because it saves lives and then fund the killing of unborn babies (Yes I realize you can't "catch" an abortion but you darn well can support it...making it a pandemic) You've lost my trust. You've lost credibility. You've raised many eyebrows as to what the agenda is behind this virus. This is why I have not and will not trust your numbers and the rigging of them. Good day! (Insert an image of me skipping away)" 

In this conversation

• How we both have approached understanding COVID-19
• How Alison's Christian beliefs informs her understanding of COVID-19
• What freedom means to both of us
• The conspiracy theories that Alison believes to be a possibility 
• Why Alison doesn't believe we should have social distanced

At the end of the episode I reflect on my own learnings from the conversation and share my tips for what you can do if you choose to have a conversation like this. I share how I think this conversation relates to play. Use what I've learned to your advantage to have more polarizing and challenging conversations.