What’s in a cardboard box that brings a happiness that money can’t buy? It’s imagination of course! A Buzz Lightyear doll is exactly what it appears to be. But a box? One day it’s a space ship, the next day it’s a shopping cart, and the day after that it’s a doll hotel.  Imaginative, unstructured play was the best! But today, it feels like the exciting exception and not the rule - despite the fact that Amazon now delivers us more cardboard boxes than ever! I talk to a toy expert, two family educators, and my own group of friends to answer the question: where did all the free play go and can we bring it back?

Was Is Could Be

It's All Child's Play

“A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.” In the first part of this episode, we describe this predication made by Nikola Tesla about the cell phone. But could Tesla also have predicted that these pocket phones would come to take place of watches, of letters, of maps, and of computers as a whole? This is Was Is Could Be and this is the 2nd part of our series on phone communications in America - this time focusing on the cell phones.

Functioning in Pre-Cell Phone America, Part 2

 In 1926, Nikola Tesla - the famed inventor - sat down with John B. Kennedy of Collier’s Magazine for an interview. In it, he predicts that people will be able to carry phones in there pocket, and will be able to see and hear one another as if we were right next to one another. But could he have predicted the way that mobility has changed the way we live? And if he did, would he have approved? In this 2-part series, I talked to a telephone expert and a good friend to ask the question: Has mobility improved or hindered the way we communicate today?

Functioning in Pre-Cell Phone America, Part 1

In March 1974, a Japanese bookseller flew to the island of Lubang in the Philippines to order the surrender of a Japanese intelligence officer. The officer — Hiroo Onoda — was still carrying out his mission from World War II — nearly 30 years after the war’s end. So why, 30 years later, were Japanese men still fighting in that war? This is, actually is a story about information — how we get it, and what we choose to believe. But as I researched the topic of news history and the rapid changes we’ve experienced in the news, I think the more important question became this: is having a lot of news sources to choose from really all that bad? Could we ever go back to having less information at our fingertips? And should we? Or do we risk ending up like Hiroo Onoda - isolated in a jungle? I talked to a news expert, a news junkie, and an expert on depression to find possible answers to these questions.

Extra! Extra! All the Time

Spending on outdoor recreation accounts for 2.2 percent of the American economy at just over $400 billion a year! This seems pretty incredible to me, especially since more expensive pursuits, like domestic oil and gas extraction, technically account for less of the economy So why is it that Americans are so willing to spend our precious paychecks to get outdoors? Why not just spent it at the gym? Or just walk outside for free? I talked to an outdoor educator, a fellow hiker, an exercise physiologist and a burnout expert to answer the question — what can being outside really do for us?

Take a Hike. Seriously.

 In March 1827, Beethoven's most famous letter - a love letter - was found in his apartment, with no name to identify his past lover. How can a love letter to no one still be regarded as the most romantic love letter of our time? And how can we know the value of love letters if the most beautiful one in the world left a brilliant man alone to his painful death? I talked to a Beethoven scholar, a wedding photographer, a psychologist, and the happiest bride I know to answer the question: are love letters dead? If they didn’t work for Beethoven, can they still work for us - even in this instant world of Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram and text messages? 

Are Love Letters Dead?

By the time I hit 25, I felt like every conversation with my friends was cut from the same cloth - "remember when...?" Armed with a tape recorder and a love for learning from others, Liz tells the stories of how we used to live - finding the joy in things past, plain and simple.

Was Is Could Be is Liz Russell's journey to find the joy in things past - plain and simple. Through interviews with historians, authors, hobbyists, and average Joes we rediscover the lifestyles of our past and ask the question - what if we still did this today?

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Was Is Could Be

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