I could ask you as a parent and any other parent that's listening with a young child, say a child over three but under 12.

And if you just observe them and don't try and direct them and watch what it is they like to do in play.

You often will see a key to their innate talents. And if those talents are given fairly free reign,

then you see that there is a union between self and talent. And that this is nature's way of sort of saying, this is who you are and what you are.

And I'm sure if you go back and think about both of your children or yourself and go back to your earliest emotion laden visual and visceral memories of what really gave you joy,

you'll have some sense of what was natural for you and where your talents lie.

Who knew that we learn empathy, trust, irony and problem solving through play?

Something the dictionary defines as pleasurable and apparently purposeless activity.

Dr. Stewart Brown suggests that the rough and tumble play of children actually prevents violent behavior,

that play can grow human talents and character across a lifetime.

Play as he studies it is an indispensable part of being human. I'm Christopher Tippett and this is on being.

Stewart Brown founded the National Institute for Play at the age of 63 after too many years as he puts it as a workaholic doctor.

His mission is to bring the unrealized knowledge, practices and benefits of play into public life. I interviewed him in 2007.

Where I'd like to start with you is where I start with every interview, whatever the subject is.

I'd like to just hear a little bit about let's say your background spiritually as well as your background as a person who plays.

Well, you know, I'm reasonably old and I'm sorry if only got 90 minutes.

I did see somewhere you made a reference to Midwestern Presbyterians.

I believe speaking of your parents and they're not famous for their playfulness.

Well, I had a they were Midwestern Presbyterians. I grew up on the Southwest side of Chicago and my mother was one of the trustees of the Moody Bible Institute.

Oh, wow.

My father was an organic chemist, an inventive fellow very playful.

So I grew up in an atmosphere that had kind of free play and also religious overtones.

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