In this conversation, Lisa Goddard and Adrianne Bacelar de Castro situate play within the story of early childhood education and consider how it has been shaped by developmental expectations and neoliberal pressures. Drawing on everyday moments from Lisa’s work in early childhood settings, we will reopen possibilities for how play might be reconceptualized or even deconceptualized in the context of the Anthropocene. Together, we will think about play not as preparation for the future but as a way of creative world-making.​