An excerpt from my interview with Michael Lansing - a look at how industrialization eventually led to product diversification, marketing and advertising, and more sophisticated food distribution.

What’s in a cardboard box that brings a happiness that money can’t buy? It’s imagination of course! A Buzz Lightyear doll is exactly what it appears to be. But a box? One day it’s a space ship, the next day it’s a shopping cart, and the day after that it’s a doll hotel.

Imaginative, unstructured play was the best! But today, it feels like the exciting exception and not the rule - despite the fact that Amazon now delivers us more cardboard boxes than ever!

I talk to a toy expert, two family educators, and my own group of friends to answer the question: where did all the free play go and can we bring it back?