Welcome back to The Spark, NPL's podcast about art and creativity.

Today, we're joined by Alex Kimerling, the president of Nashville-based board game publisher Hootenanny Games to talk about the process of taking a board game from concept to reality and how the deeply human pastime of play can engage and connect us with each other.

Find more about Hootenanny Games at https://playhootenanny.com/

Join us for The Spark every third Thursday!

Theme song by Joey Frevola

Faced with a drought, two ducks decide to leave their shrinking lake in hopes of finding a more hospitable home. But when they go to bid farewell to their friend, and old turtle, he begs them to take him with them. Will the ducks come up with a plan that will bring all three to a new and more comfortable home?

A soldier agrees to help a witch recover a family heirloom of sorts – a tinder-box that had belonged to her grandmother. It’s in an underground chamber, accessed through a hollow tree, and guarded by three mystical dogs. In return, the soldier can take all the money he can carry from the chamber. But what is so special about the tinder-box, and who will get the best of this bargain?

Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards, also known as Amelia B. Edwards, was an English novelist, journalist, traveler, and Egyptologist. Her literary successes included tonight’s ghost story The Phantom Coach," the novels Barbara's History and Lord Brackenbury, and the travelogue of Egypt, A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877).