🗣 Locals to Know: Meet Dave Bindewald, consultant on play and divergent thinking

Today’s Local to Know helps adults rediscover their imaginations. Meet Dave Bindewald, who helps people find their inner child and improve their creativity. Full disclosure, I worked with Dave in a previous role, and he’s a super nice guy! Without further ado, let’s hear about how Dave works and plays in the ’Burgh…

Hi, Dave! Tell our readers about your work.

I direct the Center for Play & Exploration. We help adults recover their sense of curiosity and strengthen their divergent thinking muscles both professionally and personally.

Wax poetic for a second and tell us: what brings you most alive about this city?

I love the perfect combination of tough-as-nails blue collar, cutting edge technology, and boundary-pushing higher education. I love that half my neighbors have been born in our neighborhood and the other half just moved here from all over the world.

What’s your favorite Pittsburgh memory?

I was at the Cueto Game.

If you could eat only one meal from a local restaurant for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Dave & Andy’s.

Outside of the obvious stop above, share your other top three destinations for where you’d go on your perfect Pittsburgh day.

I’d have coffee and breakfast at Madeleine Bakery & Bistro in Regent Square, forest bathe in the Laurel Highlands somewhere, and take in “The Rock ‘n’ Roll” at either Mr. Small’s or Stage AE outside.

If you could give any one piece of advice to locals, what would it be?

The solution to “big, hairy adult problems” is to approach them and attack them as child-like adults with the child-like virtues of curiosity, divergent thinking, and freedom to fail.

How does Pittsburgh help you do what you do/influence your work?

The close-knit community and small town connections keep me meeting new people and nurturing old friendships.

What’s an unpopular opinion you have about the city?

The Pittsburgh Left is illegal and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

What are you most looking forward to this year?

The changing colors, dropping temperatures and refreshment of fall.

For more on Dave’s work with the Center for Play & Exploration, visit www.playandexploration.com.

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