Not by the Playbook - So bored!
LA is the spiritual home of skateboarding. But it has come a long way from its past as “counterculture” and is now part of the Olympic games which return to Los Angeles in 2028. When Skateboard Hall of Fame inductee, Jaime Reyes started out in the 1990’s she was all alone in a man’s world. Her rise to the top of the sport was as much about her own personal success as it was about getting other girls to see what is possible.
When we play a board game, we can get 5 or 6 friends around the board at the most but imagine playing your favourite game with 20,000 others. You need somewhere pretty big for that. So how about the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York? Brennan Lee Mulligan did just that with his version of the game Dungeons and Dragons.
Simon Parker heads to Hawaii, the birthplace of surfing, to find out how the sport developed into an Olympic discipline. And we hear from Garrett McNamara of the who broke the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed officially judged to be 78ft.
And how do you go about creating a new board game? Well Professor Mary Flanagan has a Games Lab at Dartmouth University* to research board games! She explains the hidden messages in every one we play.
Katie Smith provides the weekly brain teaser from the Women's Euros in Switzerland
Photo: (Original Caption) 2/16/1965-New York, NY-Alfred Hitchcock won't reveal the subject of his next movie, but he's obviously bored with the former friends who starred in his scare-film "The Birds." The maestro of mayhem was caught in the "ho hum" mood when he dropped in at the Rizzoli Bookstore on New York's Fifth Avenue, to check on the latest "Ghoulology." CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
*We incorrectly stated in the podcast the university that Professor Mary Flanagan has her Game Lab. It is in fact located at Dartmouth.
Published on Friday, 18th July 2025.
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