Kellian does amazing things – all while looking supernaturally adorable. Kellian Adams Pletcher is the founder and mastermind of Green Door Labs, a company that works with informal education organizations to create playful mobile and location-based learning experiences.
Kellian got her start in game design in 2007 as the senior manager for production at Shanghai-based gaming company Active Chinese. She left a year later to return to the U.S. and earn a master’s degree in teaching.
After grad school, Kellian got a job at SCVNGR (now LevelUP), working with museums and nonprofits to build games at locations like the Smithsonian, the National Archives and the Science Museum of London.
Kellian started Green Door Labs in 2012. Her company has taken on projects like Murder at the Met with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Agents of Change with Washington, D.C.-area museums, and Edventure Builder, a game-building platform.
She’s the brains behind Club Drosselmeyer, an amazing interactive, immersive musical theater show – a sort-of 1940s Nutcracker in swingtime. Kellian also teaches game design at Northeastern University.
Here are a couple of her all-time favorite podcasts:
Hub History
My recent favorite podcast is about the history of Boston. It’s probably not so relevant to anybody outside of Boston, but I’ve been thinking more local lately, with our country falling into a pit of lava and all. It helps me remember why I gravitated to this city, and how I’m part of the ongoing story of my town.
It talks about such interesting issues in really tangible ways: people of color in Boston politics, sailor riots on the Revere Beach pier, the history of the “Over the River and Through the Woods” song. It’s really cool to hear about things that are so real and close to me.
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
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Witness History Podcast
I love this podcast from the BBC because it’s real, authentic audio from another time — it’s listening to history told by the people who lived it. It’s like a time-travel portal. Listening to people talk about D-Day and the beaches of Normandy days after it happened really puts it in perspective.
I also recommend [the Audible Original Series] The Home Front: Life in America During WWII. It isn’t technically a podcast, but it has [podcast-style] one-hour episodes. I really like [that just like Witness History, it features] the original audio from people in history. It especially deals with issues of racism and sexism on the American home front, which isn’t something you can always find a lot of sources for.
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Click here for more on Kellian Adams Pletcher & Green Door Labs.