Click here to listen to a conversation with Tamela Aldridge. 

Tamela’s path from professional actor to Executive Director of Only Make Believe  is a testament to the healing power of imagination. In this conversation, she shares how her parents’ early encouragement to “daydream” shaped a career that merges artistry with service. From her beginnings as a teaching artist in New York City to founding Only Make Believe’s Washington, D.C. chapter in 2012, Aldridge has held fast to a simple conviction: theater can give children a voice, restore autonomy, and spark joy—even in the most difficult circumstances.

The interview charts the organization’s growth, from in-person performances in hospitals and special education classrooms to the swift pivot toward virtual programming during the pandemic. That shift not only expanded the reach of Only Make Believe nationwide but also underscored how play and storytelling remain essential forms of connection for children, families, and healthcare providers. Aldridge highlights the reciprocal nature of this work: children’s laughter soothing parental anxieties, teachers adapting creative strategies for their classrooms, and hospital staff rediscovering their own imaginations.

Looking ahead, Aldridge envisions Only Make Believe evolving into a truly international presence while staying rooted in its core mission—to bring the power of play to children navigating medical challenges and developmental disabilities. What shines through is her conviction that the “permission to daydream” is more than a personal gift; it’s a public resource, capable of transforming hospital rooms into stages, caretakers into collaborators, and children into storytellers of their own lives.

Debuting this September, Feeding the Good Wolf  is a new Mindworks series, hosted by Tony Errichetti and Sue Kenney,  that will explore the fraught intersections of medicine, political movements, ethics, and history.

Through historical inquiry, expert voices, and reflective dialogue, we interrogate how discourse, narratives, and rhetoric have been used to justify harm —and how they can be reclaimed to heal, reckon, and repair.

Discourse  means more than just talk. It refers to systems of language  and meaning-making that shape how we understand the world.

For a 2:45 lesson in discourse, click here  to listen to George Carlin's routine Baseball vs. Football,  a playful but sharp comparison of the two great American sports.

On the surface, it’s a joke about their differences — but underneath, it’s a commentary on how language reflects cultural values, and about how language, metaphors, and rhetoric reveal the cultural imagination of a society.

Stay tuned!

The Good Wolf Parable

A grandfather is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The grandfather simply replied, “The one you feed.”