‘The person we become as adults has everything to do with how we play as children.’ I first came across Cas through the Netflix documentary Abstract, the Art of Design. My interest was piqued by the fact we share the same surname, but I soon became utterly absorbed in Cas’s brilliantly iconoclastic approach to creativity. For Cas play is a fundamental part of the human experience, shaping the people we become and the world we make for ourselves. Through her company Heroes Will Rise Cas designs tools for the imagination. Much more than toys, these are objects which invite curiosity, experimentation and original thinking. In this conversation, recorded earlier in the summer, and down the line, so please forgive the occasional audio glitch, we talk not only about Cas’s philosophy of play but also how she came to be where she is today. Cas tells me how she got thrown out of school only to end up chasing lizards on the Galapagos islands. She talks about her time on the drag scene in San Francisco. She explains why every designer needs an existential crisis now and again. And there’s a great story about her grandpa’s steel toe boots.