6 Podcast — JIAS

The R&D phase of JIAS is supported by Creative Scotland's Go See Share fund, which enabled JIAS founder Anthea Moys to travel to Denmark to participate in CounterPlay 2026 — an international festival of play — and to interview nine practitioners whose conversations form this podcast series. The podcast series was produced with support from Altered Lens (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the Really Terrible Orchestra (Edinburgh), whose rehearsals open and close every episode. This website was designed by Francis Burger (Johannesburg, South Africa).

The Joyful Institute of Adequate Studies Podcast.

Episode 6. Max Alexander — Slow Down and Shut Up

Ep.6. Max Alexander — Slow Down and Shut Up

Max Alexander started Play Radical as a blog. They were working at a playground and wanted to write about it. Artists started getting in touch. Slowly, Play Radical became something.

What it became is hard to describe. Which is probably appropriate.

The most useful thing Max said: slow down and shut up. That's it. That's the core of working well with neurodivergent adults. Not a framework. Not a toolkit. Less talking. More space.

It sounds simple. It's extraordinarily hard. Especially when your instinct is to fill the silence.

Max knows when a session is working because it feels like the wind dying down. That lull where your whole body goes: oh. That's when you know something is happening.

The reliable income, for the record, is training and talks. The work Max cares most about requires seeking out and funding. That gap between what pays and what matters is one of the most honest things in this conversation.

stop drawing