My guest today, Jane McGonagall, is a game designer and best-selling author.

She believes that games can be a powerful force for good, helping people to recover from

injury, become their best selves, solve pressing social problems, and even predict the future.

I was really the first person to put my hand up and say, well, I want to study how playing

games changes our sense of who we are, what we're capable of, and what challenges we

feel called to help solve, not just in the game, but in our real lives.

Welcome to People I Mostly Admire, with Steve Levitt.

Jane McGonagall earned a PhD from Berkeley in Performance Studies back in 2006.

She was one of the first scholars to examine the social implications of computer games.

Now she's the director of game research and development at Institute for the Future.

She's also the author of three books on the topic, the most recent of which is called

imaginable.

How to see the future coming and feel ready for anything, even things that seem impossible

today.

Now I have to admit, when I first heard about Jane, I was extremely skeptical.

I expected her to be a shallow, self-marketer, a hack.

But people whose judgment I trust told me to read her books with an open mind.

And I was really surprised at the subtlety and originality in her arguments.

She's changed my thinking on games.

I suspect we're going to have a really fun conversation.

How do you feel about games?

Because I've known two sets of people.

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