Composition won't play

Good day,

I'm finally expanding my horizons and learning Ae. I have been using Pr and other Adobe products for a decade now, but new to Ae. I'm creating a new project and when I went to play it, it won't play (meaning that the playhead does not move). I did research and saw where changing the audio source could help. I did and it played, once. I saw where purging memory and disk cache would work, but that didn't work. Here are more points:

1. A couple of times as I was researching this issue, without engaging with Ae, the audio would play, but only a portion. A few times it played back at a slower rate. I would look over and the playhead was still at the beginning point of the composition. It never moved. 

2. I tried a new composition and added a video. I tried to play that, it did, for a moment, but at a slower rate. 

3. For some reason I do not have the option for MME, which I see people recommending. 

4. The audio settings are the same as I have in Pr but have no issues there. 

5. I have tried using the play button and the spacebar. Neither works.

6. Adobe says it is up to date - 24.5.0 (Build 52)

7. I even uninstalled and reinstalled it, which doesn't seem like it does anything. Plus, I literally installed it just before I started the project I'm on. 

8. Audio sources I have tried: the iMac itself, a connected TV, and a pair of headphones connected by 3.5 MM cable. 

I'm using a Mac (please see the included screenshot to show system info). 

I also included a screenshot of my audio preferences, in case I'm missing something but I even played with the sample rate with no luck. 

I'm hoping one of you brilliant people can help me here. 

Thanks!