Jared Fishman is quite a guy.
Schooled in wargaming by his father back in the 1970s, with his tools of choice being mainly 15mm Napoleonic miniatures from Minifigs and Mikes Models, Jared has covered the gamut of wargaming and roleplaying both as a hobby and, perhaps more interestingly, as a tool to deploy in the classroom – and the boardroom.
Jared is one of those rare people who has the intellectual capacity and experience to see our hobby not only as a fantastic way to help children learn about history, but also how to socialise and discover just how much fun research and its application can be. This is a man who has had classrooms full of kids learning about and roleplaying the Congress of Vienna and the Black Death!
His experience in the classroom and love of wargaming has, more recently, enabled Jared, together with his friend and colleague Kelly Mcmanus, to establish 20Sided Gamified LLC as a business in order to deliver corporate and professional training workshops and seminars, game days and speaking engagements to a wide range of businesses and educational establishments.
This would, of course, in many ways, be a dream gig for many of us!
Jared’s confidence and effusive enthusiasm is apparent throughout and it was certainly one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve conducted, as well as one of the most technically straightforward because Jared himself is the host of a highly successful podcast of his own! The 20 Sided Gamified Podcast has already amassed more than 70 episodes and features interviews with many of the great and the good in the hobby, as well as live reports from shows like Historicon.
So sit back and relax, or pick up that paintbrush and prepare to be beguiled by this remarkable New Yorker whose lacklustre early education has driven him to achieve the most remarkable things when it comes to educating others.
Henry
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