L.A. After Hours

AfroLAPodcasts

L.A. has a whole night, and nobody covers it unless something goes wrong. This is AfroLA’s podcast about Los Angeles after dark — the food, the culture, the nightlife, and the people who keep the city running.

Episodes

  1. 6h ago

    Night Markets: L.A.’s food scene after the raids

    You can find night markets in neighborhoods all over Los Angeles, and they are a small version of the food scene in one of the great food cities in the world. Then the immigration raids came through in 2025. A year later, foot traffic is still down and workers are still nervous. Myron Kaplan spends an evening at El Gato Night Market with vendor Natalie Leonardo and cook Antonio Simon, and talks to Amada Armenta of UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute about what her team found: of 75 Latino small business owners surveyed, 59% reported sales drops of more than half, 68% closed temporarily or cut hours, and 95% were still under financial strain nearly a year on. The story of whether the markets come back is also the story of whether this part of L.A.’s food culture survives. In this episode Natalie Leonardo, vendor, El Gato Night MarketAntonio Simon, cook, El Gato Night MarketAmada Armenta, director of the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute and associate professor of urban planningPlaces El Gato Night Market, 941 S. Union Ave., Los Angeles What we read The Cost of Fear: The Impacts of Immigration Enforcement on Small Businesses and Latino Entrepreneurs in LA County (UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute, July 2026)Inclusive Action for the City, a community lender working with L.A. street vendors and a co-publisher of the studyOne thing worth knowing about the numbers: The study’s dollar-loss figures cover storefront businesses and leave out street vendors, food trucks and home-based operations — which is most of the night market economy. The people hit hardest are the ones hardest to count. Hosted and produced by Myron Kaplan.  Produced and reported by Marina Peña.  Edited by Dana Amihere.  Theme music by Myron Kaplan and Nico Del Castillo. L.A. After Hours is from AfroLA, a nonprofit newsroom covering Los Angeles. [Get our newsletter] · [Support our reporting]

About

L.A. has a whole night, and nobody covers it unless something goes wrong. This is AfroLA’s podcast about Los Angeles after dark — the food, the culture, the nightlife, and the people who keep the city running.