The Play Experiment: What Happens When We Put Play First, featuring Daniel Teitelbaum

In this episode, Ali Walker is joined by her first guest- Daniel Teitelbaum from Playful Thinking to unpack a simple but confronting experiment: what happens when we prioritise play for an entire week.Ali shares how choosing play - through dancing, dressing up, and being more light-hearted with her kids - dramatically shifted her energy and sense of aliveness. But play didn’t just bring joy. It also unearthed the reasons she avoids it: fatigue, responsibility, fear, and the unspoken rules we absorb about being 'serious' adults.Together, Daniel and Ali explore why play is not a luxury but a biological and psychological need, how it generates energy, connection, and resilience, and why returning to old patterns is so easy once the experiment ends.This is a conversation about play as regulation, leadership, and self-trust - and why small experiments matter if we want lasting change.