Imperfect Paradise

The L.A. Report is a breakdown of the day's top news from Southern California, featuring the award-winning reporting of LAist 89.3 FM – L.A.'s number one NPR station. Hosted by Austin Cross in the morning and Julia Paskin in the afternoon, it's the smart way to start and end your day. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING is a new show about how difficult – but not impossible – it is to make something actually good in Hollywood. Join LAist and The Black List each week as we put your favorite actors, directors, and writers through the wringer to see if they’ve got what it takes to make a successful movie or TV show – with, of course, an escalating series of helpful studio executive notes. In the process, we’ll poke fun at the industry we know and love, and see if famed screenwriter William Goldman was right when he said, “Nobody knows anything.” NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING is hosted by Franklin Leonard, founder and CEO of The Black List, a platform that helps Hollywood discover great scripts. The show is a production of The Black List and LAist Studios, in partnership with The Ankler. New episodes drop weekly on Tuesdays and can also be heard on LAist 89.3 on weekends.

Deep in the Mojave Desert, there is a little town with a big name and a bizarre history: California City. For decades, real estate developers have sold a dream here: if you buy land now, you’ll be rich one day. Thousands of people bought this dream. Many were young couples and hard-working immigrants looking to build a better future. But much of the land they bought is nearly worthless.  In this new podcast from LAist Studios, host Emily Guerin tells a story of money, power and deception.

From LAist Studios, the creators of The Big One, the second season of The Big Disaster series will provide you with a wildfire survival guide that includes not just tangible safety tips — but hope for our future.  As the world enters a new age of wildfires, science reporter Jacob Margolis hosts Season 2: The Big Burn, a deep dive into personal stories that illuminate the history of how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and maybe even thrive while the world around us burns. Season 1: The Big One -  When The Big One hits it’ll take under two minutes for more than 10 million Southern Californians to lose internet, power, and a sense of security. Host Jacob Margolis and Producer Misha Euceph take you on a journey to understand what the catastrophic earthquake will mean for Los Angeles, the U.S., and the world. This is what you need to know to survive.  Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live, the Strelow Family, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

How to L.A. aims to drop a little knowledge about ALL the things that affect the people of Los Angeles, whether that’s something that makes our city great (tacos!) or something that we need to work on, like the alarming number of traffic collisions. We serve the curious Angeleno who wants to better connect with our city, discover the new, navigate the confusing and even drive some change along the way.  Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

“LA Made” is a series exploring stories of bold Californian innovators and how they forever changed the lives of millions all over the world. Each season will unpack the untold and surprising stories behind some of the most exciting innovations that continue to influence our lives today. Season 3, "LA Made: The Other Moonshot," tells the story of three Black aerospace engineers in Los Angeles, who played a crucial role in America’s race to space, amid the civil unrest of the 1960s.  When Joanne Higgins was growing up in Compton in Los Angeles, she heard her godfather, Charlie Cheathem, tell stories about his key role in the Apollo mission to the moon. As an adult, she realized that his experiences — and those of other Black engineers — had been left out of the history books. She set out to record for the first time the accounts of these men, now in their 90s, whose crucial contributions to the early days of the Apollo mission have been overlooked — or taken credit for by others — despite their ingenuity and determination.  Season 2, “LA Made: The Barbie Tapes,” tells the backstory of the world’s most popular doll, Barbie. Barbie is a cultural icon but what do you really know about her? Hear Barbie's origin story from the people who created her. Co-hosted by Antonia Cereijido and M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll, hear the wild stories from never-before-heard tapes of interviews with Barbie inventor Ruth Handler, her wardrobe designer and the sculptors and fabricators, and the innovative marketers who made her what she is today. This 3-part series premieres July 6, 2023. Season 1, “LA Made: Blood, Sweat & Rockets,” tells the hidden story of the fearless, groundbreaking and ambitious crew who shaped our quest to outer space and ushered in the early days of space exploration at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at CalTech. Known as the “Suicide Squad,” the team’s road to triumph was fraught with controversies involving the occult, a suspected spy ring, unplanned explosions, and a suspicious death. Join writer and life-long aerospace fanatic M.G. Lord as she uncovers their story and reveals the shocking origins of rocket science in this 12 episode season. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This podcast was made possible with support from the Committee for Greater LA in partnership with the Weingart Foundation.