Play

Inventors, explorers, athletes, advocates, scientists, and mystics of the kinesthetic realm speak on the subject of sport, on the environment, creative pursuits, religion, neuroscience, fear, flow, mortality, and discovery - one who walked on the moon, marginal characters who helped to make mountain biking mainstream, a B.A.S.E. jumper, a boulderer, Gidget, and those many others who would harness the power of play for oftentimes transformative ends.

Interviews and essays combine to create a portrait of risk and reward through physical feats and through interactions with the natural world. The time period centers itself on the second half of the 20th century into the 21st. The people, places, ideas, and anecdotes in question are of historical and cultural relevance to the world of adventure, athleticism, and the outdoors.

Who invented the bungee jump? What are the limits of human endurance, of speed up a mountain, or survival at sea? How did it all begin? What motivates those who go in search of the unknown? When will it all end, and what's the point of it anyway?

"It's the spirit of innovation and anti-conformity and doing things differently," says one Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, a founding member of England's Dangerous Sports Club (an experiment in weird adventures and alternative sporting events). "A manifestation of joy," "a Don Quixote adventure," "the most exhilarating moment that you'll ever feel in your life," and "a great step into the unknown," according to others.