How To Play: Shift Your Thinking, Inspire Connection & Spark Creativity with Cas Holman | 355

2025-10-22

Most of us were taught to color inside the lines, follow the rules, and get a gold star for staying tidy. Cas Holman has spent her career blowing that up — and thank god. She designs tools, not toys, to spark creativity, collaboration, and imagination. (If you’ve watched Abstract: The Art of Design on Netflix, yep, she’s the genius behind the episode that made you want to ditch your to-do list and build something weird and wonderful instead.) In this episode, we dive into what happens when we stop obsessing over “right answers” and start embracing curiosity, creativity, and — yes...

Most of us were taught to color inside the lines, follow the rules, and get a gold star for staying tidy. Cas Holman has spent her career blowing that up — and thank god. She designs tools, not toys, to spark creativity, collaboration, and imagination. (If you’ve watched Abstract: The Art of Design on Netflix, yep, she’s the genius behind the episode that made you want to ditch your to-do list and build something weird and wonderful instead.)

In this episode, we dive into what happens when we stop obsessing over “right answers” and start embracing curiosity, creativity, and — yes — play. Cas challenges the way we think about learning, design, and work itself. Because what if the secret to solving our biggest grown-up problems is to think a little more like kids?

We explore:

Why play isn’t just for children (and why adults need it desperately)
The danger of over-engineering creativity out of education and work
How designing for possibility creates stronger leaders, teams, and ideas
What Cas learned from creating Rigamajig, and why it’s so damn powerful
Why fun and freedom are the real productivity hacks

Because when we make more space for play, we make more space for brilliance.

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Connect with Cas:

Website: https://casholman.com/

Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/736596/playful-by-cas-holman-with-lydia-denworth/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/casholman/Rigamajig

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cas-holman-7b9baa5/

Abstract: The Art of Design (Season 2, Episode 4, The Art of Play): https://www.netflix.com/title/80057883

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