--- title: Five Best: Play Can Be A Powerful Force of Innovation description: Play can be a powerful force for driving innovation, tasers are deadlier than we think and more. canonical: https://time.com/4923027/play-can-be-a-powerful-force-of-innovation/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-31T16:00:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:31.813Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Play Can Be A Powerful Force of Innovation og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4923027/play-can-be-a-powerful-force-of-innovation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Play Can Be A Powerful Force of Innovation twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Play Can Be A Powerful Force of Innovation by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 31, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 31, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Play can be a powerful force for driving innovation.**](https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2017/08/value-play-driver-innovation/) By Shane Parrish at _Farnam Street_ **2\.** [**Tasers — intended as a non-lethal alternative to a police officer’s sidearm — are deadlier than we think.**](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-taser-911/) By Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Tim Reid and Grant Smith at _Reuters_ **3\.** [**Focusing on communities of color and ignoring credit scores, this loan fund has helped create 420 jobs in Detroit.**](http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-chase-detroit-entrepreneurs-of-color-fund-2017-8) By Matt Turner in _Business Insider_ **4\.** [**The FDA has approved the first gene therapy — a ‘living drug’ — for a deadly cancer.**](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/08/30/547293551/fda-approves-first-gene-therapy-treatment-for-cancer) By Rob Stein at _NPR_ **5\.** [**Can video games help kids get active? This four-time Olympic gold medalist thinks so.**](https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/esports-can-get-kids-physically-active/) By Angela Ruggiero at the _Aspen Institute_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4923027/play-can-be-a-powerful-force-of-innovation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4923027/play-can-be-a-powerful-force-of-innovation/"},"headline":"Play Can Be A Powerful Force of Innovation","datePublished":"2017-08-31T16:00:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:31.813Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4923027/play-can-be-a-powerful-force-of-innovation/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Jobs","Innovation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4923027/play-can-be-a-powerful-force-of-innovation/","name":"Play Can Be A Powerful Force of Innovation"}}]}] ```