Wingspan! It's Got Birds, Science, Caterpillars - An Ideal Night In

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, News, Nature, Daily News, Astronomy

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wingspan is a board game that brings the world of ornithology into the living room. The game comes with 170 illustrated birds cards, each equipped with a power that reflects that bird's behavior in nature. Wingspan game designer Elizabeth Hargrave speaks with Short Wave's Emily Kwong about her quest to blend scientific accuracy with modern board game design. (encore)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, shortwave. I'm Margaret, the intern. Nice to meet you.
0:03.6	Usually, I like being behind the scenes, but I couldn't help myself today.
0:08.6	I'm here to share with you, Dearest Listener, one of my favorite shortwave episodes of all time.
0:16.2	Many people I know took up a quarantine hobby. Maybe they were knitting or learning a new language,
0:22.4	and I was slightly less industrious with all of my new time.
0:27.2	But not less fun. I got really in to board games. WingSpan combines science and board games.
0:35.9	It's full of all these cool bird facts. It's got caterpillar tokens, and it's kind of my ideal night in.
0:44.2	Since it's released in 2019, it sold almost a million copies, and it's even a video game now.
0:50.8	And it has a spin-off, birding, field guide. So today, I'm sharing with you an episode on what started as a little indie board game with a big dream,
1:01.8	and is now a huge avian success. Let's listen to this episode, which originally aired in February of 2020,
1:09.3	and see if you can discover your inner birder with me. Here's the show.
1:14.4	You're listening to shortwave from NPR. Hey, everybody. Maddie,
1:21.1	Sophia here with shortwave reporter Emily Kwong. Hey, Maddie. So last weekend, I did something extremely nerdy.
1:26.6	On brand, continue. Hi. Okay. Well, I organized a science-themed board game day.
1:33.6	So we're at Crossroads Tabletop Tavern in Manassas, Virginia. My partner Duncan and two of our colleagues,
1:39.1	Emily Vaughn and Rebecca Ramirez, gathered to play Wingspan, which is a competitive bird collection game,
1:46.0	and one to five players. A bird collection game, huh? A fiercely competitive bird collection game.
1:53.1	We're going to play the less competitive version because I know who you all are.
1:57.0	You don't want to end some friendships today. Remember the last time we played charades?
2:01.3	I remember I won. Yeah, we're not going to talk about that. So in Wingspan, you are a bird enthusiast.
2:10.8	Got it. Trying to attract birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Makes sense.
2:15.6	And the birds are represented through 170 illustrated cards. You'll have a painting of a bird in the
	...

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