Game On! Podcast featuring guest Peter Reynolds
In this episode of GAME ON, Adam Bellow interviews Peter Reynolds, a creative force who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his popular book, The Dot. Reynolds is a prolific author and artist, and he and his twin brother run a company called Fablevision. Fablevision has helped organizations like PBS and the Smithsonian scale out their message using storytelling and technology. The episode explores the importance of play, art, and the joy of reading books. Peter Reynolds encourages everyone to jot down their brilliant ideas - whether as a story or a doodle - as an important reminder that everyone can make their mark!
About Peter Reynolds
Peter H. Reynolds is a New York Times best-selling author and illustrator. Published in over 25 languages, his books The Dot, Ish, The Word Collector, Be You, and Say Something!, among others, inspire children and “grown up children” with Peter's messages about authentic learning, creativity, bravery, empathy, and courageous self-expression. Peter illustrated the best-selling I Am series and The Water Princess by Susan Verde and the Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald. His most recent collaboration Peace Train with Cat Stevens reached the New York Times best-seller list in the first week of release. His media company FableVision produces award-winning interactive applications and his educational company FableVision Learning produces applications to inspire creativity in the classroom. Peter and his twin brother Paul launched the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity (TLC), a not-for-profit organization that encourages creativity and innovation in teaching and learning. He lives in the Boston area where he founded The Blue Bunny, a family-owned and operated children’s book, toy & creativity store.
Learn more about Peter’s incredible Work
Game On! – Guests Peter Reynolds - Transcript
Adam Bellow (00:03):Hello and welcome to the Game On! Podcast. My name is Adam Bellow. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Breakout EDU, but I'm also a father, a serial ed tech entrepreneur, and an advocate for positive change in the classroom. Each episode of the Game On! Podcast is going to feature a new voice from someone who's making an amazing impact and helping to pave the way for the future of education. We're going to get to explore their ideas and opinions, as well as learn from those successes and failures from these amazing educational gurus. All right, let's get started.
Alright. Welcome to the Game On! Podcast. I'm your host Adam Bellow, and I'm so excited to be joined with an incredible creative force who I'm very grateful to call a friend, the one and only Peter Reynolds.
Peter Reynolds (00:45): Thanks, Adam. It is wonderful to be using technology to connect the dots. I am on an island off the coast of Italy at the moment, and the theme this year is international, and of course, we're going to be celebrating International Dot Day once again this year. And for people who don't know me, a good place to start is a book that I wrote 20, actually over 20, years ago. It was published 20 years ago, September 15th-ish. This year celebrating 20 years.
Adam Bellow (01:22): Wow.
Peter Reynolds (01:22): And the book is The Dot, originally published by Candlewick Press in London, Walker Books, and then many, many other publishers around the world. So it's been translated into over 25 languages and is also now a musical, and there is this a lovely song by Emily Arrow. So educators out there probably know Emily. She's amazing. She takes pictures and turns them into songs and there's an animated film by Scholastic Western Woods. So, even if that's the only thing I did, I think it would be very hard to be an educator and not bump into the dot, but I've created lots of other books, picture books, and of course they have also become films. There are over 10 films of mine or books that have become films, and then there are also some free films online. If you go to reynoldstlc.org under resources, you'll find some goodies that are not books. They're films, independent films that have traveled around the world in film festivals, and by the way, Reynolds TLC is my – our - I say our because I'm a twin! My twin brother was going to join us, Paul Reynolds, who is an amazing human, and he's also an author and he's an artist too. He hasn't illustrated a book yet, but I'm trying to get him to because he is a great artist, and he is a great teacher too, and a great human and a great father, and also just an amazing person to share the journey with. We work together every day.
Adam Bellow (03:15): That's incredible.
Peter Reynolds (03:16): And we have a company called Fablevision. So some people know us through our work, through Fable Vision which is an interactive studio located in Boston. We focus on creating, helping amazing groups museums and broadcasters like PBS and museums like Smithsonian Jim Henson Productions, helping them scale out their message using storytelling and technology. So we have 30 writers, artists, programmers, musicians in our Newbury Street location. We love to invite teachers into our studio because it's a cool place, but we also say, this is a place where we're constantly learning. And it's a really good model for educators to say, "Hey, you know, this is a really cool learning space." And Adam, I know that you have been passionate about this concept about how do we engage every learner? How do we make learning happen more often and in sort of more authentic, natural ways? How do we tap into kids' curiosity? How do we sort of create that environment? You arrange the furniture so it happens, which includes lighting and comfy places for kids to curl up whether it's with a computer or a book, or with their classmates. I think we have a lot of work to do.
Adam Bellow (04:56): We sure do.
Peter Reynolds (04:56): Right. In making spaces more innovative. So, anyway, that's a little snapshot about what I do and what we do.
Adam Bellow (05:06): That's incredible.
Peter Reynolds (05:07): Yeah.
Adam Bellow (05:08): I’m so glad to have met you along my journey in this space and Paul as well. And I've met your sister Jane, haven't met mom yet, but I know about Mom, so I feel like when you say good humans all around and the messages that you are sharing via your books and all other projects are just so important. And I latched onto them personally as a parent. Your work has been and Paul's work as well has been a staple in our home as our kids have grown, and so, I'm sure listeners know you from the classroom, but also as parents, hopefully as well.
Peter Reynolds (05:49): Appreciate that. It's an honor to be in classrooms with teachers. I know that they've really activated my books, Paul's books as well, and the films and then also parents being able to be on your bookshelf being on parents' bookshelf and I say parents, right? Because I mean, it's the kids' bookshelf, but it's hopefully you're sharing your books altogether, and so it's the family bookshelf, so I'm very honored to be on many bookshelves around the world.
Adam Bellow (06:24): Well, let’s kick it off! I have a couple questions for you. Our level one question here. Play is super important for us at Breakout EDU. I'd love to ask you, what was your favorite game to play as a kid? And it doesn't have to be obviously a video game or anything like that, but what were you guys into?
Peter Reynolds (06:40): Yes, well, having been born in 1961 with my twin brother, Paul. I mean I was automatically born with someone to play with and we were never bored. I have my best friend with me from the get go. And speaking of go from the get go. Do you know the board Go?
Adam Bellow (07:03): Sure.
Peter Reynolds (07:03): I think it's might be the oldest game on record that's still being played actively, and if you haven't checked out Go it's a board game with black and white little stones or pieces. And that kept us busy for many, many, many hours discovered well, paper and pencil. So we started drawing, which is a form of playing. I like to remind people that art supplies are, that's a toolbox, right? That's a play, a sandbox. And early on we discovered a really cool game called the Squiggle Game. And the Squiggle Game, many of you probably have played it. You draw a squiggle and you give it to your friend and they give you a squiggle, and then you use your imagination to create that squiggle into something and I can't tell you how many hours we logged in during that game and I think that kind of mental aerobics was really foundational for both Paul and myself being able to see something, start with a thread and weave a tapestry. It's pretty cool.
Adam Bellow (08:18): One of my family's favorites. I know as a kid I used to play that as well. And now my kids, they're definitely drawn more to the technology , but my son has been drawing on his iPad almost nonstop, and that's what he's doing. I'm always like, why are you on your iPad? He is like, "Oh, no, I'm creating, I'm doing, I'm in Procreate doing whatever."
Peter Reynolds (08:37): That is great.
Adam Bellow (08:38): I was like, all right.
Peter Reynolds (08:38): That is great. Yeah I have a 12 year old son, Henry Rocket Reynolds, and of course he's big on gaming. I mean, he loves, he loves Roblox, all those games but he also loves reading. Fortunately, he's a big fan and he doesn't like reading on his iPad, which I've shown him how to do it and.
Adam Bellow (09:03): Yep.
Peter Reynolds (09:04): He just prefers the book which is kind of a lovely thing. I know you and I both love technology, and it helps us do what we do but yeah, I think that's one of the delightful trends that I've seen is that kids, this next generation still that there's something about the book. It still works and.
Adam Bellow (09:27): Oh, yeah.
Peter Reynolds (09:27): Paul and I also own a bookstore in our hometown, partly because we didn't have one. We looked around 20 years ago, and I was of course having written a book, I'm like, "Hey, I want to see my book on the bookstore. Where's the local bookstore?" We didn't have one. So we opened up a bookstore and so I placed one book and then two books, and then three books, and now I think there are over 75 books with my name on them, maybe more.
Adam Bellow (09:53): Wow.
Peter Reynolds (09:54): There's a checklist somewhere but we have. In our hometown, we have a delightful bookstore called the Blue Bunny, and I know many of your listeners have ventured to our shop. People make a little pilgrimage. If you're coming to Boston, the blue carpet is rolled out and it's a delightful little New England downtown with an old movie theater and an ice cream shop and a bookstore, which also has a coffee shop. So we, Paul and I meet there in the morning. We have our coffee in the morning and then people wander in and we have marvelous conversations with educators and families, meet kids. It's really.
Adam Bellow (10:45): It's wonderful.
Peter Reynolds (10:46): So you're all invited.
Adam Bellow (10:48): And you should go. I mean, I'll tell you, not a plug here, but we went several years ago, and I know every time we bump into each other, I always remind you like you had come over, I think you were in the studio across the street, and you came over and talked to the kids. And I remember you told my sons, who were, I think maybe eight and five at the time, which ages us quite a bit because the older one turned 15 yesterday, but you said, my favorite book is this one, and you handed them one of the books you sold, which was The Blank. And you said, because it could be anything you want.
Peter Reynolds (11:20):The Blank book!
Adam Bellow (11:20): And the educator- father melted. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's perfect."
Peter Reynolds (11:26): That is our most popular book, probably because, shout from the rooftops about that because we thought.
Adam Bellow (11:34): The book is great.
Peter Reynolds (11:34): Our bookshelves are filled with all the books that we grew up with, all the classics and then there's some really, really fine books coming out every month, really, really amazing. And some challenging books too. I mean, picture books that really make you think, and they're telling stories that need to be told that haven't been told. We also have blank books, and those to me, are even more powerful because it is that invitation to have the reader be invited to share their voice with the world. So.
Adam Bellow (12:06): Absolutely.
Peter Reynolds (12:06): So, yeah. And so if you don't have a blank book, you just grab a blank sheet of paper. I always tell people, you don't need that. You don't need the official blank book. Just grab a piece of paper and start taking notes from your head and put it down on paper so you don't forget. Please do not forget your brilliant ideas people. That is one of the reasons why I tell, I'm like, why do we go to school so we can learn how to read and write and to remember, right. Just jot them down, and if you can't, you don't have time to write it down, make a little drawing. Because drawings, right? Drawings are worth a thousand words. So pretty efficient way to get your ideas down.
Adam Bellow (12:44): I love it. Well, speaking of remembering, I want to go to our level two question, which is about kind of your history, right? Everyone has an origin story and you've had such an amazing career. You've touched on so many things that you've been a part of. Where did this all start? Where did the path to becoming Peter Reynolds, the author, the creator, and where did that start?
Peter Reynolds (13:03): Our parents are; dad was born in Argentina. Mom was born in in England. One of her grandparents was from Scotland, another one was from New Zealand. Paul and I were born in Canada. We eventually all, we made it to United States, to the Boston area, and we made a home in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. And we kind of had that United Nations feel in our house. We had foreign guests coming and staying with us. The dinner table was a really important part telling stories around that table, our parents sharing history. Both survived World War II and shared some pretty amazing stories, and my mother - crazy for books. My father was crazy for making bookshelves. He liked woodworking when he wasn't being an accountant so we had a house full of books full of stories and, and full of play as well. We're big fans of play, and one of our really first toys we ever got were marionettes, Pellum puppets.
Adam Bellow (14:22): Oh, cool.
Peter Reynolds (14:23): And we loved our puppets, and of course, puppets do not come, at least the old fashioned ones didn't come with a chip built in with sound. You actually had to supply the story for your puppets. Then we met these two slightly eccentric British kids who lived on our street, Philip and Eric Stanway and the Stanway Brothers, and the Reynolds Brothers teamed up, and we formed SSR Publishing and SSR Productions. So we made our own comic books, our own films.
Adam Bellow (14:58): That's awesome.
Peter Reynolds (15:00): Our own View Magazine. Having mentors that were our same age, that were just passionate about something and there were no courses, there was nothing online, and we would just have to kind of figure it out, and you'd take a few things that you've seen. It's like, okay, we had seen movies and we're like, we could make movies. So I just picked up a camera and started making them. And then fortunately, we also bumped into amazing teachers in high school junior high and high school, who became mentors. And I often talk about a math teacher who noticed I like to draw more than pay attention to him in class. And he challenged me to teach math using story. And so I wrote a story. Well, I created a comic book, and he said, this is also called a storyboard. How would you like to make an animated film? So he introduced me to Jim Morrow up at the high school who actually knew how to make an animated film. So I was introduced not only to Jim, but his wife, Jean Morrow, who was the media teacher at the high school. The two of them were not only filmmakers, but they were grown up kids. They collected comic books, they went to sci-fi conventions. They were silly. They were fun. They played games. They made their own board games, interestingly enough and so.
Adam Bellow (16:25): That's incredible.
Peter Reynolds (16:26): So, we had our eccentric British friend of our same age and then we had these amazing teachers who really showed us what it is to be passionate about something, and also to stay young. You don't have to get serious and put your toys away. You can bring them along with you. And so they were phenomenal mentors for us, and because of those connections, I met my very first employer who was a teacher who was starting his own software company, back in 1982.
Adam Bellow (17:14): It's been a while.
Peter Reynolds (17:14): Tom Snyder, and if people don't know Tom Snyder.
Adam Bellow (17:16): Yeah.
Peter Reynolds (17:16): He to me, is one of the legends. He was and still is, he's an amazing human being, and I just recently dedicated a book to him.
Adam Bellow (17:26): Oh, really?
Peter Reynolds (17:28): Yeah.
Adam Bellow (17:28): That's awesome.
Peter Reynolds (17:29): Dedications of books are a nice way to say thank you. But he was a teacher in Cambridge doing really cool stuff in his classroom, and he discovered that a computer could help manage the chaos that a really good classroom simulation creates. And it remembers where you were on Friday before the long weekend. So he knew where the power of the computer was helpful and where the power of the teacher was still integral and then also how technology could actually invite kids to talk to each other and to collaborate with each other, which I know Adam, that's sort of one of your cornerstones, right?
Peter Reynolds (18:18): Creating a situation where people collaborate and problem solve together.
Adam Bellow (18:22): Exactly.
Peter Reynolds (18:23): So I met Tom, we had lunch. He pulled a dollar out of his wallet, and he said, I will pay you a dollar more than the ad agency, which I had done an internship, didn't really want to.
Adam Bellow (18:40): Oh, wow.
Peter Reynolds (18:40): Go in to advertising. So here's his really cool teacher that looked like John Lennon doing cool stuff in his classroom. And he said, I'll pay you a dollar more. Which believe me, it wasn't much, was peanuts, but it meant a lot to me that he said, I believe in you, and he even said, I'm not sure what you're going to be doing for me, but I just need you. I feel like you need to be a part of this mission, this journey.
Adam Bellow (19:08): Yeah, that's awesome.
Peter Reynolds (19:09): And so I teamed up with him and then spent 12 years with this amazing master teacher, going into the classroom using technology. This is back in the early days- in the eighties and nineties, and just seeing the impact that technology could have and yet not forgetting great teaching and great learning.
Adam Bellow (19:30): Yeah.
Peter Reynolds (19:30):How humans need each other. So all that was very informational. So all the stuff-my books and my films and the activities, they all really were a reflection of that really kind of rich tapestry that was my early days.
Adam Bellow (19:56): Yeah, that's why, I mean, it's amazing. I feel like it's always, when I talk to people about this, when they ask about like, where did you start? There's always that moment of inspiration, whether it be family and parents that provide that launchpad to be like, "Hey, let's, you know, nurture these skills and, and I'll give you the breadth and bandwidth to be able to explore and become who you are", and then those foundational teachers like that. I didn't know about the Tom Schneider thing. I know him through a former professor that worked on him with Fast Math and this is obviously now going back 20 something years as well but that's really cool.
Peter Reynolds (20:29): Yeah. You need to invite him for podcast. He's got some good stories to tell really.
Adam Bellow (20:38): I'm sure.
Peter Reynolds (20:38): The most amazing humans I've met along the journey, and that's what's fun about this sort of informal education space, especially, I mean, there's formal education and there's public education, which I think we as a country need to figure out how do we support innovation in public education? Because private schools, they're better resourced and they also know the value of things like going to a museum and having good speakers and having the right tools, but in public education, we really need to work on funding and policies that allows every citizen a chance to experience stellar education, and stellar, for me it's encouraging kids to reach for the stars and give them the shoulder, he encouragement to say, yeah, you can do this, but you have to tell us who you are. My favorite questions is, who are you and who are you becoming? Who would you like to become? And the more you tell me, I'll be able to find the right book, I'll be able hopefully to maybe find the right mentor, the right experience. I mean, I keep bumping into these amazing human beings so that's why, you know, podcasts like this are great because the message gets out there and it's just wonderful how the message gets to the right ear and the right brain and then people will connect the dots and keep things rolling. And I love creative partnerships so hopefully people who are listening now, let's make this just one of the many dots that we will be connecting. And if you come to our hometown of Dedham, Massachusetts, just 20 minutes south of Boston, not only will you be able to come visit our bookstore, but soon we're going to be opening up TLC studios, which is a hands-on interactive learning space for all ages with a special submission to help teachers recharge their creative batteries because it's not an easy job to be a teacher.
Adam Bellow (23:22): No.
Peter Reynolds (23:22): These past couple of years have been tough, so we're focusing on really helping teachers realize that they have an amazing voice and they're creative humans and they need to take care of their own creative batteries as well.
Adam Bellow (23:41): Yeah, I love that. And I saw some of the early artwork or concepts for the space. It looks incredible.
Peter Reynolds (23:46): Thank you.
Adam Bellow (23:46): So I'll definitely be taking a second pilgrimage once you guys are up and running.
Peter Reynolds (23:52): Yeah, it should be by the end of the year.
Adam Bellow (23:55): Oh, that's incredible.
Peter Reynolds (23:56): It's happening as we speak so.
Adam Bellow (23:59): That's awesome.
Peter Reynolds (23:59): It's going to be a really cool space.
Adam Bellow (24:02): Well, obviously that's something you're super passionate about right now. And I feel like we kind of covered some of the other questions I would've asked you, but I feel like with the Dot Day anniversary coming up and talking about the celebration, which I know at Breakout here, we've done a couple of games in partnership with you, which is awesome. We have another one coming out to celebrate this year for Dot Day as well, and yeah, I mean, what is it, looking back on 15 years, right? 15 years of Dot Day.
Peter Reynolds (24:28): That's Right. 15 years.
Adam Bellow (24:30): That's unbelievable.
Peter Reynolds (24:31): Right.
Adam Bellow (24:32): I feel like the book has a life just completely outside of just the novel itself, and that story just permeates to so many kids must feel incredible.
Peter Reynolds (24:43): It's pretty amazing because I mean, I can remember the exact moment when that pen hit the paper and I actually fell asleep. It was midnight and it must have been 2001 yeah, that's sort of a cool time, 2001, a dot odyssey. I put my pen to paper, fell asleep, and when I woke up there, I had been sleeping, I'm guessing about an hour based on the amount of ink that I had floated out of my pen, and what left behind was this big dot, and I just kind of tossed it to one side, turned off the light, went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning there on my floor was the journal, and there was this big dot, and so I picked up the mark.
Adam Bellow (25:33): That's awesome.
Peter Reynolds (25:34): And I wrote "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds and I said that' it's kind of a good lesson that these things that we think might be mistakes could be one of the best ideas you've ever had. And so that little dot became the dot book, which then became a great teaching tool for teachers talking about confidence because it is certainly about art, but it's more than that. It's creative disposition, it's problem solving, it's kindness and creative thinking in general. And so teachers found it and really activated the book in the classroom. And one teacher in particular, Terry Shay, from Iowa, he took the dot and just ran with it and turn it into a day of celebration of creativity and the whole concept of what does it mean to make your mark and have impact? And teachers they just got it immediately, didn't really have to do much explaining. It's just like, alright, we're going to celebrate creativity. We'll read the dot, we'll make dots, we'll create a gallery, we'll do a community gallery, we'll add music, we'll add food, and it became well, very quickly we realized that there were people in Poland, in Greece, in Japan, around the world celebrating, and so it became International Dot Day, and yeah, so here we are 15, celebrating 15 years, and I think last year was over 190 countries celebrate.
Adam Bellow (27:14): Wow.
Peter Reynolds (27:15): And over 26 million dots made. I think that's, if you visit.
Adam Bellow (27:22): I love it.
Peter Reynolds (27:23): InternationalDotDay.Org, you'll get all the information. There are free resources and we encourage people to register. There are people who don't register,which is fine, but we like people to register because it's just fun to see where everybody's celebrating and how they're celebrating as well.
Adam Bellow (27:46):Yeah, it's an incredible, an incredible story. It's an incredible spread. And I feel like, as I said, we're excited to have some Break Edu games to go along with it, but what else is going on this year? I think you guys have a big event on the 15th as well.
Peter Reynolds (28:01): Yeah, we're going to do, last year we were in New York City, and then for the anniversary of The Dot book, we thought we'd bring it back to our hometown of Boston Mass. So Museum of Fine Arts has signed on as a partner. So they're going to be doing a full day festival of International Dot Day.
Adam Bellow (28:20): That's so cool.
Peter Reynolds (28:20):And they've given us the front lawn so we'll have tents and we'll be reading, I'll be there reading books and signing books, and I think we might be showing the film, dot film and.
Adam Bellow (28:31): Oh, very cool.
Peter Reynolds (28:33): So also to find, I think that is on the ninth, September 9th and then on the 15th we'll be doing a live cast from the Schubert Theater in Boston, one of the oldest theaters in Boston, really gorgeous theater, part of the box center in Boston, and we'll be on stage, my twin brother and I, and some special guests, and I believe there's going to be a birthday cake. That's what I heard.
Adam Bellow (29:07): There'll be cake. That's all you need to know.
Peter Reynolds (29:10): Yeah, so we'll be celebrating not only International Dot Day, but we'll be celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Dot book.
Adam Bellow (29:21): That's awesome.
Peter Reynolds (29:21): And that's a free event, so if anybody is in the Boston area, or if you want to make a road trip, come on down to Boston. Boston's an awesome place. It gets better and better every year, I have to say so
Adam Bellow (29:35): That's great. You shared so much of your story, and I really so appreciate it, just amazed at all the impact you've had. And again, I see that on a micro scale in my own kids, and I see that obviously as a macro level in terms of the education space and the ed tech space at large. But going back to you, I feel like you touched on Tom Schneider, you talked about those relationships that you've had through your career. Is there one piece of advice that you want to share with listeners that is a piece of advice you've gotten or something that you've learned over the way that you'd like to share from yourself?
Peter Reynolds (30:13): Well, I encourage people to take care of their own creativity, be a model for kids, right? I have children; I have a daughter and a son, and I know one of the best ways to teach them is to show them that I like these things that I ask them to be or do, and if I want them to be a reader, I need to show them that I love books. So, I have many, many bookshelves in my studio, in my home, and they actually see me reading my books, and they also see me drawing, which, I'm going to encourage grownups out there just to try to draw a little bit more than you're used to with kids.
I see that for a lot of humans drawing kind of tapers off around fifth and sixth grade and by junior high and high school, a lot of humans have decided I can't draw, and that just drives me crazy. It's like hearing someone say, I can't read. Right. What would be the appropriate response if someone said, I can't read? Don't you feel it in your heart? You're like, "Well, you're going to, you'd love it. If we can get you there and maybe I can't get you there, maybe I'll get you the right book or if someone says, I can't do math, or I can't swim, or whatever it is, the “I can't”. And so if we show kids that drawing it can be a doodle, it could be a flower, it could be a peace sign, it can be.
Adam Bellow (31:58): Yep.
Peter Reynolds (31:59): It can just be just a little swirly doodle or dot could be a dot. I think that's powerful and shows kids that you can, and it's also a very powerful mental wellness tool to express what's inside here. Because a lot of problems come when we as an entire world bottle things up and we don't express, so the more we can practice that, and there are some great recent studies. Fortunately, creativity is being studied hard now and realized.
Adam Bellow (32:42): Yep.
Peter Reynolds (32:42): People are realizing that creativity is an incredibly powerful tool. It is not an extra, it's not just the art class 10 o'clock on Thursdays. It really is a tool that you can use not only across the curriculum, but also in your life, the way you live your life, the way that you have relationships. Creativity is flexibility. It's being able to see things from different points of view. It's understanding, it's generosity. There are some really lovely things that we humans can be. And I wrote a book called Be You and I'm slightly biased. In this book, I try to encourage people to be amazing, be amazing humans, and activate your true potential, and, a lot of us, I think we defer sometimes, oh, we're kind of busy. I'm busy, I'll get to that poem later, or I'll get to my photography later, or that story that's in my head, at some point in time I'll write it down. Well, make time, make time for yourself. Carve out time because you deserve it and you may change the world with your idea.
Adam Bellow (33:53): Can't say thank you enough for being so generous with your time and not only for changing the world with the ideas that you get to share, but also the way in which you do it is just so inspiring.
Peter Reynolds (34:04): Well, thank you Adam. This is an absolute delight. We should do this again soon. I thank you. Lots of good Mediterranean vibes from my undisclosed location here.
Adam Bellow (34:16): Thank you.
Peter Reynolds (34:19): And so I try to make time for myself to carve out, yeah, my thinking time, creative time. And I'm working on some cool new projects, which we'll have to get back together again.
Adam Bellow (34:33): You know I'm always ready.
Peter Reynolds (34:36): So I think I got inspired by seeing The Dot hit the stage. It's touring the country right now, Theater Works USA has produced a one hour fantastic musical so if it's in your neighborhood, check it out it'll be crisscrossing the country for two years. But that inspired me to take what I'm doing and then think of other platforms. So right now I'm working on two television projects that I can't say.
Adam Bellow (35:09): Oh wow.
Peter Reynolds (35:10): Too much about right now because they're in development, but let's say it's a lot of fun and has lots to do with creativity and making this world a better place so, Adam, thank you.
Adam Bellow (35:22): Amazing.
Peter Reynolds (35:23): Thank you for all you do to inspire teachers and kids and families, all that good, positive energy is much needed in this world. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Adam Bellow (35:34): Thanks so much, Peter. We'll talk soon.
Peter Reynolds (35:36): Sounds good.
Adam Bellow (35:37): Alright. Until the next time everyone… Game On!