Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Podcast

#31-Matching Minds as Text Book

July 24, 2026·38 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

This episode looks at how Matching Minds with Sondheim is used as a college textbook. Eric Zimmerman describes integrating the book’s design-principle lists into a puzzle unit at New York University where students build puzzles under constraints, while former student A. Raph Corwin explains how Sondheim’s principles shaped her narrative puzzle work and led to founding Pigeon’s Path Games, creating location-specific outdoor puzzle game books such as A Haunting in Greenwich Village. 00:00 Scam Warning Intro 09:56 Episode Setup and Guests 12:19 Eric Class Breakdown 14:55 Puzzle Unit in Practice 17:03 Sondheim Meets Game Design 18:29 Teaching with Principles 22:15 Rules Literacy and Humor 24:14 Design Principle Spotlight 25:25 Workshops to Business 28:47 Pigeons Path Games Launch 30:32 Praise and Viability Lessons 33:35 Wrap Up and Credits Special Links: Eric Zimmerman A. Raff Corwin and Pigeon Path Games NYU’s Game Center Colm Molloy Ann Morrison Mateo Chavez Lewis Thanks to everyone who contributed behind the scenes to this episode: the Musical Stingers composed by Mateo Chavez Lewis, our line producer Dennis Caouki, and the theme song to our podcast with lyrics and music by Colm Molloy and sung by the one only Anne Morrison, currently on the road starring in Kimberly Akimbo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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