1KHO 642: Most People Are Starved for Connection | Ben Swire, Safe Danger

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Kids & Family, Parenting

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a world where adults avoid risk, children grow up on screens instead of playgrounds, and workplaces drift toward loneliness, Ben Swire argues that what we’re really missing is experiential connection. In this conversation with Ginny, Ben—an introvert who once dreaded team-building—shares how “safe danger” transformed both his life and his work. From IDEO’s culture of curiosity to biweekly “creative play dates,” he explains why people blossom when they’re given space to try, fail, try again, and be seen. Together, Ben and Ginny explore how joy, optimism, vulnerability, and play aren’t personality traits but skills that grow only through experience. They talk about the crush of conformity, the epidemic of loneliness, and why pessimism is really fear in disguise. You’ll walk away with practical ideas for your home, workplace, or classroom. This is an episode that gently reminds us: people don’t just want fun, or comfort, or entertainment. They want to grow. They want to belong. Most of all, they want connection. Get your copy of Safe Danger here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Ginny Heriton, the founder of 1000
0:04.0	Hours Outside. And I have a new friend here today. And he wrote a book called Safe Danger,
0:10.0	which really drew me in because we are in a day and age where people are taking less risks.
0:15.4	The subtitle is an unexpected method for sparking connection, finding purpose, and inspiring
0:20.1	innovation. The author
0:21.0	Ben Swire is here. Welcome, Ben. Well, thank you. I'm really looking forward to this.
0:25.7	Okay, so I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book Save Danger, which I would
0:30.0	imagine maybe you get that feedback sometimes. It just came out. But I had this experience. I was a
0:35.3	teacher before I ended up then staying home with our kids and I'm a podcaster.
0:40.2	But when I went through my master's degree, one of the classes I took, it was actually the only
0:44.8	class I liked in probably my favorite class of my entire college career, both undergrad and
0:50.9	master's degree.
0:51.9	It was called gaming and simulation. And I took it just because
0:56.3	it fit into my schedule. It was this two week class that was like, you know, a long, like three hours a day
1:01.1	or something for a couple weeks. And it was all about, it was all about using gaming and in different
1:07.8	types of simulations in to everybody else was not teachers they were like
1:12.5	working in HR departments to engage people and I loved it I loved it we did all these like
1:18.5	simulations where it was like role playing and you and I am like you I was like I hate this stuff
1:24.1	but it was really well done and I ended up using so much of it with my high
1:29.7	schoolers. So much. So many of the games I learned, it was the most valuable class I took. And
1:35.8	if you do it right, it appears to work. So can you give us your history? You say you are an
1:43.0	introverts intro.
	...

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