The Brief

Somewhere between childhood and the corner office, a lot of us are taught that play is something that you outgrow.

But what if that trade-off is actually draining us and leaving us feeling stuck? That's the topic of a new book called The Playful Way: Creativity, Connection, and Joy Through Everyday Moments of Play.

Author Piera Gelardi argues that reclaiming a sense of curiosity, fluidity and aliveness isn't just fun. It's a path to deeper connection, stronger creativity and even a way to move through hard things like grief. Gelardi spoke with LAist’s Austin Cross on AirTalk on her theory of fun and how to be more playful in life.

What made you want to write this book?

Gelardi: I had the privilege of growing up in a really playful family, so I got to see what playfulness looked like in adulthood as my parents built businesses, grew their family, navigated grief and illness, and life-lifeing, and I also had really playful grandparents.

So playfulness was something that was really woven into my life from a young age. As a grade-schooler, our family's favorite activity was doing business brainstorms around the kitchen table, but they would be really wild, really absurd. So we would be saying, "Oh, let's start a kids' karaoke club," and then my dad would say, "Ooh ooh, we can call it kidio-ke."

"The Playful Way" by Piera Gelardi

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Courtesy HarperOne

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Moving through my life, I really brought that into building my own business. I brought it into my personal life. And during the pandemic, I was in this big period of transition where I was leaving my company that I'd been at for 15 years. I was navigating the identity transformation of becoming a mom. I was feeling really stuck. What I ended up doing was leading these play workshops for adults throughout the pandemic on Zoom.

It was the most aligned and alive thing I've ever done. People were telling me, "This is helping me with my anxiety, this is helping me with my depression, this is helping me connect to my mom who's on another continent."

I just became fascinated by why that was, and I did so much research about the power of play in adulthood, and I realized that I was creating this space that was giving adults permission to play.

She worried no one would take her seriously

Gelardi: But... I was worried I wouldn't be taken seriously if I dedicated this chapter to play.

I asked the universe for a sign, and I went for this walk, and first I saw a playground, but it looked like a medieval torture device, and so I decided, "Sorry, universe, not my sign."

I walked down to the river's edge, and I heard a clinking noise, and I looked down at my feet, and there was a message in a bottle, and I fished it out of the river.

I couldn't believe it. It was a message from this 7-year-old, Eliano, and he talked about his love of play.

Cross: That's a sign, right? If ever there was one.

Gelardi: If ever there was one. His mom's email was on the letter, so I emailed her, and actually, this message in a bottle was a project they did during the pandemic to connect with people through play at a time when we were all so isolated.

Listeners called in to LAist's AirTalk to share how they incorporate play into their daily lives.

Are we in a play recession?

Gelardi: I think we're in a play recession. As we grow up, we get this messaging that ... play is frivolous, that it's unserious, that it's the opposite of work.

We start to pack away those playful qualities, and what that does to us in adulthood is that it makes us less resilient, it makes us less connected, it makes us less joyful. We become play deprived. It's at the root, I think, of a lot of burnout.

Don't pack away your play

Gelardi: I was sitting in meetings. I didn't ask a question because I didn't want to be seen as not knowing. I didn't float big ideas because I didn't want to look unrealistic. I didn't make a joke because I didn't want to seem like a joker. And as I did that, I started to lose intrinsic motivation.

I started to lose the connection to the people around me, and I started to lose the joy in the day-to-day. So it wasn't until I realized that I was overworked and underplayed that I started to weave play back into my day-to-day, that I saw the power of those qualities in my work and in my life.

Think about your child self

Gelardi: I often tell people to go to the lost and found — think about the child version of you.

What made you lose track of time? What were you so passionate about? And then what might be an adult version of that? For me, it was beachcombing as a child, and now I walk around New York City doing wonder wanders with those beginner's eyes looking for delight.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

California has had a spate of abnormally large marine heatwaves in the past 12 years. Typically, they’ve started far offshore in the spring, reached our coast by the fall, then receded by late winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA.

But the current heatwave has stuck around pretty much all year — since last May, particularly off the Central and Southern California coastline.

“The only time you ever see that would be during an El Niño, but we're not in El Niño yet,” said Andrew Leising,  an oceanographer with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

El Niño is likely to hit our region in the coming months, though it remains to be seen how strong it could be. El Niño is a natural global climate pattern that occurs every three to seven years, when trade winds — the prevailing east-to-west winds that circle the Earth near the equator — weaken, and waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific warm up.

The key point, said Leising, is that El Niño isn’t here yet. So why is the ocean so warm?

'A new normal' 

It’s likely a sign of how human-caused climate change — driven by the pollution we’ve pumped into our atmosphere — is making natural cycles more extreme, experts say.

"Approximately 30% to 45% of the affected ocean area is experiencing conditions that are at least six times more likely due to human-caused warming," according to Climate Central.

A NOAA expert said the evidence of climate change's effects on ocean temperatures has been growing since 2014.

“ How much that is, whether there's feedback with the atmosphere, that's what's really difficult to quantify just because it's never one thing acting on its own," said Elliott Hazen, an NOAA ecologist.

The latest conditions of the ongoing marine heatwave off our coast.

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Courtesy NOAA

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Leising called the regularity of these marine heatwaves “a new normal.”

“It's very possible that the long-term change in the atmosphere is what's flipped the switch between fewer and now more heatwaves,” he said.

2014 was a major turning point. That’s when a massive marine heatwave dubbed “The Blob” started, persisting until mid-2016. It caused harmful algae blooms and mass dieoffs of marine life. It also coincided with El Niño.

So far this marine heatwave’s effects aren’t as widespread as The Blob’s. But the current pattern is echoing what led to that devastating event.

An uptick in dead and emaciated seabirds along our coast is one possible sign. Scientists are increasingly pointing to the deaths as related to the heatwave. Why? As birds’ typical food sources move into deeper, cooler waters where birds can’t reach, the birds starve.

The forecast

The warm waters are unlikely to let up anytime soon with El Niño on the horizon.

For us on land in Southern California, that could mean less June gloom, a hotter, humid summer and a dangerously wet winter.

For animals underwater, such as stingrays and juvenile white sharks, those warmer temperatures can be something of a boon — experts are predicting more stingray stings and shark sightings this summer at our local beaches.

A round stingray, the most common type of stingray living along our shore and the most likely to sting you.

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Courtesy CSULB Shark Lab

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But for other creatures, such as nesting birds or sea lions, as well as kelp forests that support that life, such heating can be devastating. Just like humans, living in high temperatures for a prolonged period can be deadly for marine plants and animals.

“We might just roll from one thing into the next, and that's really where some of the biggest impacts lie, is that cumulative stress on the animals,” Leising said.

Warmer waters also mean less upwelling — when deep, cold ocean water rises to the surface.

That means “less nutrients, and just less total productivity,” Leising said. “So there's just not as much stuff at the bottom of the food web to feed everything else.”

There’s still a lot unknown about these escalating marine heatwaves, but cuts to NOAA under the Trump administration could jeopardize ongoing research.

“That kind of work is critical to understand how to respond,” Hazen said, “because the longer we take to respond, the more species end up dying, and the more economic consequences too.”

Ontario boosters are tired of being defined by how far the city is from downtown Los Angeles.

“The Greater Ontario region is truly the ultimate point A,” said Kelsie Woodward, director of marketing and communications for the Greater Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Inland Empire city, 40 miles east of DTLA, has got a new, shiny $100 million minor league baseball stadium, and its own team, the Ontario Tower Buzzers.

“The stadium is gorgeous… it's probably one of the nicest minor league stadiums that I've been in,” said Jonathan Campos, President of the Ontario Mountainview Little League, who has visited half a dozen minor league stadiums.

But even there it's hard to get out of L.A.'s shadow. The Ontario Tower Buzzers are the Single-A affiliate of the most talked about team in Major League Baseball — the L.A. Dodgers.

And players on the team high-five each other after a victory while Randy Newman’s “I love L.A.” plays in the background.

Do I need to repeat that? Ontario’s not even in L.A. County.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon says ONT Field will attract more than baseball fans to the city.

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Screenshot: Ontario Economic Development Agency

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“Who said we want to be L.A. anyway,” said a teen girl on a soccer field in a video promoting this year’s Ontario state of the city.

I won’t even venture into whether Ontario’s got some kill your father, marry your mother issues it’s resolving outside the therapist’s couch.

Ontario officials hope the new stadium brings more visitors to the city, and are on a mission to prove its value as a destination. They point to a whole slew of things to do, both new attractions and beloved long-time offerings.

So in that spirit, here’s LAist’s guide for things to do in Ontario.

1. ONT Field

ONT Field. The home of the Ontario Tower Buzzers, the Dodgers’ single-A affiliate. The team’s roster includes recent high school and college graduates, playing in a stadium with a family friendly wiffle ball park, grassy outfield berm, and playground. The season ends September 6. The stadium will also host concerts and community events.

Ontario Sports Empire is a 190-acre sports fields and facilities complex.

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Screenshot: Ontario Economic Development Agency

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The new, 190-acre Ontario Sports Empire is set to attract baseball, soccer, and flag football youth tournaments from around Southern California.

2. Toyota Arena

Toyota Arena opened in 2008 and hosts events from Los Tucanes de Tijuana to Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live. As well as professional sports such as the Ontario Reign hockey team, the Ontario Fury soccer team, and the Agua Caliente Clippers of the Ontario basketball D-League.

3. Ontario Mills

Ontario Mills. California’s largest outlet mall, it’s been Ontario’s big shopping attraction for three decades. Take your pick from more than 200 stores that sell brand name apparel jewelry, sporting goods, and more.

4. Logan's Candies

Logan's Candies in Ontario makes Dodger Canes, a top seller.

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Screenshot: Logan's Candies

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Logan's Candies opened in 1933, before all the above were even a thing. The shop sells over 200 varieties of candies made on the premises. The candy making process has gone so viral on Tik Tok that you need a ticket to watch it in person.

5. Topgolf

Take care of your indoor sports fix with Topgolf. It’s a driving range and more, with mountain-range backdrops as you tee off with a meal and drink.

6. K1 Speed

K1 Speed is an indoor kart racing track for the thrill-seeker and race junkie with the need for speed.

7. iFly Indoor Skydiving

iFly Indoor Skydiving gives people the thrill of free-fall in a vertical wind tunnel without having to jump out of an actual plane.

8. Ontario Museum of History & Art

The Ontario Museum of History & Art mounts art exhibits as well as educational programs for people of all ages.

9. Cooper Regional History Museum

The Cooper Regional History Museum is just outside Ontario city limits and features Indigenous history of the area and other aspects of local history.

10. Cultural events

Cultural events such as the Ontario Art Walk are scheduled for May 16, August 15, November 21 as well as an Arts Festival on October 17. The city has also organized book fairs and film festivals.

Six people died in California immigration detention centers over the past year as the crowded sites struggled to provide basic medical care, according to a new state investigation detailing conditions inside the facilities.

The 175-page report released Friday offers the most detailed look to date inside the detention centers that are often in remote areas of the state and hard to access for attorneys, families, and advocates.

It documents the highest death toll since the state began conducting inspections of the centers seven years ago. In 2024, there were zero deaths in California detention centers, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association's list of Immigration and Customs Enforcement press releases tracking them, and the Attorney General’s office.

The deaths occurred as the Trump administration carried out a mass deportation campaign — starting in Los Angeles — that drove up the population inside detention centers by more than 150%.

Eighteen people have died in facilities this year across the country, around one person a week. Since the start of the Trump administration, 48 people have died in detention. A study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the current rate is nearly seven times higher than fiscal year 2023 levels at 88.9 per 100,000 people.

In California, four of the deaths occurred at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County. Two other people died at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility near the U.S.-Mexico border in Calexico. In all four of the Adelanto cases, families of the deceased allege the facility failed to provide adequate medical care, the report states.

The inspections by the California Department of Justice are required under a 2017 law enacted in response to concerns about conditions. Investigators and medical experts did two-day site visits at each facility and interviewed 194 people from more than 120 countries.

Last year, inspectors focused on lapses in mental health care across the six facilities operating in California in the early months of the second Trump administration. This year, state investigators drilled in on how the dramatic surge in detainee populations strained conditions and access to medical care at all of the facilities now operating across California.

Some detainees described only having beans and bread to eat, which gave them diarrhea, and extremely cold temperatures that caused them to try to turn their socks into extra arm sleeves. At one facility, investigators documented not enough toilets to serve the population, with detainees reporting dirty bathrooms.

Several detainees cried as they relayed the conditions of their confinement in California City to state investigators. Most of the people detained have not been convicted of any crime.

“This is cruel, inhumane, and unacceptable,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, adding that his office “worked tirelessly to shine a light” on the conditions.

State investigators wrote that the detention centers had not increased medical staffing to match the dramatic rise in the number of detainees. At a new detention center that opened in a former state prison in California City last year, investigators described “crisis-level” medical staffing that contributed to delays in care. At the time, the center had only one physician for nearly 1,000 detainees.

All of the detention centers are managed by private companies under contracts with the federal government. State investigators wrote that the companies and the federal agency are failing to meet their own standards of care.

CalMatters reached out to ICE and the three private prison companies that operate facilities in California.

A spokesperson for MTC, which operates the site in Imperial County, said the company takes the report seriously and is conducting a review of its findings. "Our focus is on the people in our care, the Imperial-specific findings, and the continued work of providing safe, humane, and standards-compliant care," said MTC spokesperson Emily Lawhead.

Christopher V. Ferreira, a spokesperson for the private prison company GEO Group, in a written statement said detainees have access to "around the clock" medical care and other services.

"In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive," he said.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for the private prison company CoreCivic, said "all our immigration facilities where we provide healthcare adhere to federal detention standards, including staffing."

Diminished civil rights protections

State investigators also described in their report how the Trump administration rolled back federal protections for detainees.

Since January 2025, the federal government has defunded legal programs to inform people of their rights, shut down Department of Homeland Security civil rights oversight offices, and stopped protections for transgender detainees, the report states.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement stopped including congressionally mandated data on transgender people in its biweekly statistical reports in February 2025, the report says. The agency also removed from its website a policy memo that committed the agency to creating a safe environment for transgender people.

Loba, a transgender woman from El Salvador who was detained at California City for six months in 2025, told CalMatters she experienced traumatizing sexual harassment and intimidation from guards while being housed in the male dorms. She asked CalMatters to only identify her by her first name because she fears retaliation for speaking about the conditions and for her safety in her home country.

The situation was so stressful, she said, that she finally decided to sign her voluntary departure paperwork to go back home to El Salvador.

“That is absolutely the reason,” she said. “I have been fighting my immigration case for two years, and then after not being around my community and the lack of support for the LGBTQ+ community inside detention centers, and then being a victim of harassment, it was really intimidating. It was very traumatizing.”

The report also looked into other complaints raised by detainees and their families.

During one incident at Adelanto, a person reported to state inspectors that guards deployed pepper spray in a confined room holding about 50 people.

At the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, investigators flagged concerns about strip-searching. The report states Otay Mesa is the only facility in California that has a policy of strip-searching detainees after every visit they have with someone who is not a lawyer.

Women described the searches as “humiliating” and “denigrating” after being searched in front of male officers, sometimes even while menstruating. Both males and females described feeling “violated” by the practice. One person told inspectors they had stopped visiting their family altogether to avoid the searches.

The Central Valley Annex in McFarland on July 8, 2024. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Two new detention centers

At the time of the investigators’ visits, 6,028 people were held in immigration detention in California. That was up 162% from the 2,300 held during inspections in 2023. California has the third highest ICE detainee population, behind Texas and Louisana. 

California is also home to two of the seven largest facilities nationwide. Detainees in California were mostly from Mexico, India, Guatemala, El Salvador, China, Russia, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, and Honduras.

California Democrats during both of Trump’s terms have adopted policies that were meant to block the detention centers from operating. In 2019, California tried to ban private for-profit detention centers from operating in the state, but GEO Group successfully sued to stop it. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the ban violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause by preventing the federal government from conducting immigration enforcement.

ICE opened two detention centers in California over the past year, first the one in California City and then one in McFarland called Central Valley Annex. It began receiving detainees in April 2026 while the report was being finalized, but the state says it will begin monitoring that detention center as well. Both of the sites were previously used to hold state prison inmates under contracts with California’s corrections system.

This year California Democrats are carrying a range of bills to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. One by Assemblymember Matt Haney, a San Francisco Democrat,  would tax detention facilities, with the funds going towards immigrant rights groups, effectively making it unprofitable to keep detention centers in the state.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.