Boiling Point

Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times

Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

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  1. 13 hrs ago

    California’s Offshore Drilling Nightmare

    When a pipeline off Gaviota Coast cracked in 2015 and spewed 123,000 gallons of oil into the ocean, local officials shut it down for 11 years. But this past spring, A federal emergency declaration helped Sable Offshore Corp. get a fast-track to pump again and it has led to a flurry of lawsuits.   Host Miranda Green speaks with LA Times reporter Grace Toohey, economist Severin Borenstein, and surfing legend Shaun Tomson about how this seemingly local fight has become a national litmus test over the future of oil extraction. Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

  2. Jul 23

    Presenting: Season 2 of Boiling Point

    Join “Boiling Point” in its second season as independent investigative journalist Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country. Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

  3. 2025-12-11

    Smoglandia Pt 6: FUTURE ELECTRIC, FUTURE TROUBLE

    Decades ago, some unhappy Angeleno wondered why cars couldn’t just run on nice, clean … water? Not for want of trying – cleaner power has created lots of engine experiments, most dramatically Caltech versus MIT in the great electric car race of 1968, a story you’ll hear from the winner. Not all is fresh air and plug-ins: smog has been especially devastating on communities of color, and the Trump administration may pull the plug on that have let California clear its own air. Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

    Smoglandia Pt 6: FUTURE ELECTRIC, FUTURE TROUBLE

  4. 2025-12-04

    Smoglandia Pt 5: SMOG CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK

    Whaddya know – the federal government sees the wisdom of working with California and its “queen of green” for cleaner air – up to a point. The Golden State gets its own “secret recipe” gas, but new partners mean new frictions over the smog check program familiar to every behind-the-wheel Californian.  Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

    Smoglandia Pt 5: SMOG CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK

  5. 2025-11-20

    Smoglandia Pt 4: SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT, BESTIES?

    Well, it took long enough. We finally realized that smog didn’t stop at some city limits line … that burning the family trash in the backyard incinerator wasn’t a good idea … and California started putting muscle into getting the air clean. Governor Ronald Reagan made the Caltech “father of smog” the head of the new state air resources board, TV stations began reporting smog alerts along with weather forecasts, and one stubborn LA county supervisor started his ten-year letter-writing crusade scolding the Big Four automakers about cleaner-burning engines. And a Louisiana gal named Seraphine was tooling around smoggy LA in her Triumph convertible and gas mask. Spoiler: she still lives here. Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

    Smoglandia Pt 4: SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT, BESTIES?

  6. 2025-11-13

    Smoglandia Pt 3: COUGH COUGH

    Living with smog was like living with an obnoxious neighbor. Angelenos tried protesting at city hall. They kept their coughing kids inside. A couple of actors manufactured joke cans of “genuine smog” and sold them to tourists. A few came up with earnest but crackpot solutions, like drilling a smog tunnel in the mountains. But serious pollution cost us serious money. Hollywood shoots had to shut down or move farther out of town to avoid it. And Southern California’s billion-dollar agriculture industry was being literally killed off by smog. One story we tell – of the Kaiser Steel plant in Fontana – made it look like LA had to choose between good jobs and good air, between pink slips and pink lungs. Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

    Smoglandia Pt 3: COUGH COUGH

  7. 2025-11-06

    Smoglandia Pt 2: SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE

    By the late 1940's, Los Angeles had experienced several extreme smog days -- or "gas attacks" as they were called back then. Everyone had their eyes on wartime factories that had sprung up and were shooting black plumes into the air, but someone had a feeling that the cause might be something else. Arie Haagen-Smit, a Dutch professor at Caltech who would later be deemed the "father of air pollution," was technically supposed to be studying the taste and smell of pineapples when he first began to conduct research into smog. Through letters and interviews with Caltech faculty and historians, we piece together how Haagen-Smit discovered the recipe to smog, and how after he published his results, people weren't exactly ready to hear that their beloved cars were at the root of the problem.  Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

    Smoglandia Pt 2: SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE

  8. 2025-10-30

    Smoglandia Pt 1: L.A. SMOG – VERY OLD-SCHOOL

    Don’t blame us – blame our geography! Modern LA earned its first smoggy nickname 450 years ago, as the “bay of smokes.”  At the La Brea tar pits, we take a short walk through a long history with curator Regan Dunn, who explains how and why the first Angelenos, 130 centuries ago, would have set fires that filled the broad bowl of LA and foretold the curse of smog. Fast forward thousands of years to the early 1940s, and the renowned artist Helen Pashgian, who grew up in Altadena back when the light around LA – once so radiant and cool – was slowly smothered by the blight from wartime industries that hurt her schoolgirl lungs and blotted out the once-glorious vistas. Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

    Smoglandia Pt 1: L.A. SMOG – VERY OLD-SCHOOL
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Ratings & Reviews

3.5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Join Boiling Point in its second season as independent investigative reporter Miranda Green walks listeners through the climate challenges and solutions facing our natural world. Produced by LA Times Studios, the weekly series will feature interviews with Los Angeles Times reporters, state officials, business leaders and scientific experts discussing the latest news and trends impacting Californians and the country.

Information

  • Channel
    Los Angeles Times
  • Creator
    LA Times Studios
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    55
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Boiling Point - L.A. Times Studios
  • Show Website
    Boiling Point
  • Provider
    Los Angeles Times

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