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.

Southern California was built on radio.

"I can still hear the jingle KFWB News 98,” wrote  Taline in Los Feliz, during a recent conversation on LAist's daily news show, AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “I grew up hearing that in my dad's minivan on the way to and from school. It has a special place in my heart.”

Back in April, broadcast company Audacy announced KNX News — one of the last-remaining all-news FM stations — was leaving the FM dial where it had simulcast on 97.1 FM since 2021. The station, which is also one of the oldest in L.A., is not budging from 1070 AM where it has been on the air for more than 100 years. The move away from FM officially happened in May to make way for a new sports talk station, which Audacy officials called an area of growth for advertisers in today’s media landscape.

The move is one in a long line of changes for radio and a reminder that before podcasts, playlists and algorithms, many Southern Californians built their days around radio broadcasts.

Radio, a daily ritual

The construction of KNX

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Herman J. Schultheis

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Michael Jackson, a well-known KNX, personality

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Larry Mantle, now in his 41st year hosting AirTalk, remembers being a kid and dreaming of what it might be like to be behind the mic at one of these radio stations.

“ I grew up with KNX," he said. “My dream job as a kid was to be an anchor on KNX or KFWB, the two local all-news radio stations, 'cause there was nothing like hosting AirTalk that even existed at that point.”

Mantle opened up the phone lines on a recent show to hear from his fellow SoCal radio lovers about the shows they miss and the memories they have. Here's what they had to say:

A love for radio, then and now  

A pilot of KMPC's traffic alert helicopter pictured with his daughter and grandson.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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A 1963 picture of Valley State College (now Los Angeles Valley College) preparing to launch KVCM

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Larry Leach

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Los Angeles Public Library

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“When you'd walk down Hollywood Boulevard where the station was, you could hear it playing as you went down the street,” said  Olivia in Glendale about KLAC 570 with Al Jarvis.

 Larry in Yorba Linda shouted out KBCA Jazz for its 24-hour jazz, saying “When I first moved out here in '68 from Phoenix, which had like an hour a week, it was a real wonder.”

 Mark in Glassell Park emailed that he loves KCRW’s Henry Rollins, writing, “I used to bristle at his unique DJ persona, but over time, I came to love him and his crazy eclectic playlists. I find his knowledge in history and punk rock fascinating. He's a gem and a legend."

"I'd like to give a shout-out to all the DJs working at KXLU, the college station at Loyola Marymount University, said  Jeremy in Culver City in an email. “That station's been on the air for nearly 60 years. I believe it's one of the best examples of what's possible with radio."

"KFWB and KRLA back in the day when they were rock music stations —  Dr. Demento, one of my favorite on-air personalities, also had eclectic music taste," said  Carrie in Desert Edge.

“ Dr. Demento was must listening when I was a kid in junior high school at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood,” Mantle added. “Every Sunday night on KMET, we would make sure we were listening to Dr. Demento and his funny records.”

The question remains…

An 11-year-old winning a car in a KMPC contest in 1963.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Listener support is vital to any radio station, and it’s clear KNX has many lifelong fans. AirTalk listeners highlighted their support for household KNX names over the decades like Bill Keene, Melinda Lee, Mike Roy and Jackie Olden.

As KNX makes changes, many are watching closely and thinking about the future of radio.

Listeners like Tommy in La Quinta are left wondering if the radio dial will be the same…

“I’m a hardcore listener, but I don't know about casual listeners [and] if they'll tune to AM,” he said.

After months of hand-wringing, Los Angeles and LA28 have come to a tentative agreement on how Olympics organizers will reimburse the city for its expenses for the 2028 Summer Games.

According to the deal, the private Olympic organizing committee will pay upfront for the estimated cost of services that are not eligible for federal reimbursement, like trash pick-up and traffic control. Under another proposal, the city would also be able to tap an LA28 contingency fund if it isn't fully repaid by the federal government for policing costs at Olympic venues.

The agreement is nearly nine months overdue and still needs approval by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council.

The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games. But L.A. is the financial back-stop for the Olympics, meaning if LA28 goes in the red, taxpayers will pick up the bill.

Beyond that, the city services agreement presents another area where L.A. could incur additional unexpected expenses for hosting the Games. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover earlier this year that a bad deal could "bankrupt" the city.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, and Paul Krekorian, who leads the city's office of major events, said in statements that the freshly inked agreement would help deliver a fiscally responsible Games.

"Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come. This agreement helps deliver that commitment," Krekorian said.

But the contract between the two parties doesn't fully resolve one of the biggest areas of financial risk for the city: the enormous cost of security for an event as extensive and high-profile as the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event." That includes costs for LAPD staffing. LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

To address this, city officials have also proposed an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28. That amendment would establish that if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use those funds for any legacy projects.

But that bucket of money will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been tracking the city's negotiations with LA28, told LAist the agreement was a "PR document" not a deal. She pointed out that if the federal government does not pay up for security spending as expected, L.A. could be in trouble.

" It leaves the taxpayers with a GoFundMe strategy," she said.

The city services agreement lays the groundwork for more negotiations between LA28 and the city. Each venue will require its own agreement, to be negotiated by July 1, 2027. Venues in the city of L.A. include Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The City Council's ad-hoc committee on the 2028 Games will meet Tuesday afternoon to vote on the agreement.