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Wingspan - A Stealth Ecology Lesson
A game for birders and nonbirders!
© Kim Euker
The board game Wingspan came out this year to a lot of buzz. The bird-themed game is fun — but it’s also having a surprising impact. It’s gotten nonbirders hooked on birds. And it’s also gotten birders hooked on board games. Meanwhile, everybody’s learning something!
For more great stories, check out the podcast Today, Explained from the Vox Media Podcast Network. Host Sean Rameswaram picks one essential news story each day and sits down with some of the world’s best journalists, academics, and policymakers to help us understand it. Subscribe to it for free in your favorite podcast app.
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Wingspan - A Stealth Ecology Lesson
Written by Mark Bramhill
MB: This is BirdNote.
The board game Wingspan came out this year to a lot of buzz. The bird-themed game won the most prestigious award in board games, and has been almost continuously sold out or backordered since it launched. Players say the game is fun — but it’s also having a surprising impact.
Josh Ward has loved board games for years, but he never really cared about birds before he heard about Wingspan. His wife had a feeder in the back yard. But now?
JOSH WARD: We've added more feeders since playing Wingspan, and I've been noticing House Wrens and goldfinches and cardinals and all these other birds coming around. We've picked up a couple of field guides that are sitting on the kitchen table, so we can look outside say Oh, what's that?
MB: And - on the flip side - it’s also gotten birders hooked on board games. Take Adam Wilson.
ADAM WILSON: I hadn't really played board games for a number of years, probably even close to a decade.
MB: But when he heard about Wingspan, he had to try it.
AW: It's really opened my eyes to a whole new world of games.
MB: You can hear our full story about Wingspan on the BirdNote podcast or on our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Mark Bramhill.
For more great stories, check out the podcast Today, Explained from the Vox Media Podcast Network. Host Sean Rameswaram picks one essential news story each day and sits down with some of the world’s best journalists, academics, and policymakers to help us understand it. Subscribe to it for free in your favorite podcast app.
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Producer: John Kessler
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2019 BirdNote December 2019 Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# wingspan-02-2019-12-12 wingspan-02
Mark Bramhill
Writer