Two Bit Circus Founders Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman
By Spectrum News Staff Los Angeles
PUBLISHED 10:15 AM ET Feb. 18, 2019
As founders of Two Bit Circus, Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman are engineers, inventors, roboticists, and humanitarians. The innovative duo is using cutting-edge technology and creative inspiration to revolutionize play, education, and community in Los Angeles.
On the latest episode of Spectrum News 1’s prime-time series, LA Stories, the Two Bit Circus founders talk to Giselle Fernandez about their mission to use tech to bring people together, by creating what they call 21st century “community play centers.”
Located in the Downtown L.A. Arts District, the new Two Bit Circus micro-amusement park is the first in the world of its kind. The park’s success has led to an influx of offers from entertainment and retail giants, calling on the Two Bit Circus founders to partner up and open new micro-parks globally.
Meanwhile, the Two Bit Circus Foundation operates in nearly half the schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The foundation has trained 5,000 teachers and reached over 300,000 students. The foundation’s STEAM/clean waste creative classroom programs focus on at-risk students and has garnered praise from the likes of Richard Branson and Elon Musk.
Our LA Stories cameras were given access to witness first-hand the impact that Bushnell and Gradman are making with students in schools in Hawthorne and Compton.