All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. With the average American work week getting longer and longer, are we becoming a nation of dullards? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why we all need more playtime -- from remedial lessons in playing for adults who've forgotten how, to the spirituality of knitting.
Steven Spielberg, Universal Studios and Sega Enterprises are collaborating to create hi-tech entertainment palaces for adults. They're called Game Works and the first one just opened in Seattle. Newsweek entertainment correspondent Corie Brown tells Jim Fleming what sort of games are available there. Also, former college professor and current professional player, Fred Donaldson tells Judith Strasser how pre-schoolers taught him to play and how he uses those lessons to teach everyone from autistic children to gang members to police officers.SEGMENT 2:
Historian Benjamin Hunnicutt tells Steve Paulson that leisure is disappearing. Our nineteenth century ancestors brought enjoyment to a lot of things we'd consider chores, while we trivialize all our time outside of "work." Hunnicutt teaches Leisure Studies as the University of Iowa and is the author of "Work without End" and "Kellogg's Six-Hour Day."SEGMENT 3:
Writer Susan Gordon Lydon tells Anne Strainchamps that while she set off to become a master knitter to improve her products, she began to view knitting as a spiritual practice. She says women's spirituality is often encoded in the domestic arts. Lydon is the author of "The Knitting Sutra: Craft as Spiritual Practice."
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