You might remember from middle school science that protecting the ozone layer in our atmosphere is vitally important — but ozone near the ground is actually a dangerous air pollutant. And as temperatures rise, the formation of ground-level ozone becomes increasingly serious here in the Valley. In fact, Clark County has recently issued an ozone warning through September. Kevin MacDonald from the Clark County Department of Environment & Sustainability shares insight into the science behind ozo...
May 17, 2023•20 min
Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown made history last year when she was elected to the North Las Vegas mayoral seat — and became the first Black mayor in the state of Nevada. Mayor Goynes-Brown sits down with co-host Vogue Robinson to talk about her vision for North Las Vegas, the city she grew up in, from her ambitious plan for downtown to commercial redevelopment, affordable housing, and the ongoing struggle to help the residents of the sinking neighborhood of Windsor Park. Thoughts? Questions? Let us k...
May 16, 2023•22 min
Deep in the Colorado River, monsters lurk in the murky waters — monster fish, that is, some the size of large person. But they aren’t invulnerable. Today on City Cast Las Vegas, co-host Dayvid Figler talks with National Geographic channel host Zeb Hogan, co-author of Chasing Giants , a new book about the world’s biggest freshwater fish. Zeb grew up on the Colorado, but by the time he was paddling on its waters, most of the truly big fish on our stretch of the lower Colorado had already died out....
May 15, 2023•17 min
This week’s roundup deals with two of Vegas’ favorite topics, traffic and entertainment. The possible elimination of HOV lanes has pros and cons, but how will those lanes be repurposed? Also, after years of uncertainty, Brightline West’s high-speed rail from LA to Las Vegas seems to finally move forward and a new trend among Strip headliners to lock up phones gets mixed reviews. Co-hosts Dayvid Figler and Vogue Robinson share their hot takes with lead producer Sonja Cho Swanson. We’re on social ...
May 12, 2023•32 min
The world of Las Vegas wine has traditionally been dominated by master sommeliers and snooty connoisseurs — at one point, 10% of the world’s master somms worked in Las Vegas. But there’s a new wine on the block: natural wines are cloudy, funky and little bit weird. And Las Vegas based writer Meg Bernhard tells co-host Dayvid Figler, you should give them a try. Today on City Cast Las Vegas, Meg talks about her time working on vineyards in Europe, where to get “nattywines” in Vegas (and why you ma...
May 11, 2023•22 min
Take it from these old-timers: Navigating and surviving Las Vegas can be tricky. We’re an odd big-little town, where tourists outnumber the locals twenty-fold. So today, we’ve got co-hosts Vogue Robinson and Dayvid Figler, along with lifelong Las Vegan Andrew Kiraly, publisher of thelist.vegas , to help you out. From car culture to comp karma, with tangents on making friends and the things you should never say to gamblers, we’ve got you covered with 15 rules for how to survive (and thrive) in La...
May 10, 2023•26 min
Congresswoman Dina Titus has been representing Nevada’s First Congressional District since 2013, and before that she served in state government for two decades. So, it’s no surprise that she has opinions on some of the biggest issues Las Vegas is facing right now. Today she joins co-host Dayvid Figler to talk about water allocation, gaming, a not-so-old beef with the Nevada State Legislature, and more. We’re on social media! Follow us @CityCastVegas on Twitter and Instagram . You can also call o...
May 09, 2023•23 min
Las Vegas is arguably the spectacle capital of the world — and yet, when it comes to popular-but-not-quite-stadium-sized musical acts (like The Cure, Boy Genius, and Bruce Springsteen), many of them skip Vegas but land in cities like Reno, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. Yep, RENO. So what’s going on? Co-host Dayvid Figler sits down with Seth Yudof, a longtime entertainment producer in Las Vegas, about the unique entertainment economy in our spectacle-drenched town, and how things could (just maybe...
May 08, 2023•22 min
The Nevada Democratic Party saw two of their members, Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones and Chairwoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, make headlines this week that were critical of their recent actions: Jones was sanctioned by a judge for deleting text messages related to developer Jim Rhodes’ efforts to build homes in Red Rock Canyon — some people even called for his resignation at a public comment meeting. Meanwhile, the GOP criticized Monroe-Moreno for comments she made about parents in a discus...
May 05, 2023•29 min
Las Vegas is only 117 years old, which is young in comparison to Los Angeles’ 241 years. (Not that we wanna be LA) But we do think Las Vegas is still learning how to preserve its own history. One of the things we do cherish is our restaurants, especially our steakhouses! On today’s episode, co-host Vogue Robinson talks with artist and food writer, Brent Holmes about some of Vegas’ oldest and newest eateries that make up the quintessential Las Vegas menu. Restaurants mentioned: Bob Taylor’s Ranch...
May 04, 2023•21 min
The circus arts are a major attraction for Las Vegas, but have you heard of the Las Vegas Circus Center? Where performers, celebrities, hobbyists and everybody else can take classes and practices their acrobatic skills. It is a true hidden gem in the city of glitz and glamour where the fundamentals of the performers we see all over the strip are honed and perfected. So our host Dayvid Figler invited acclaimed acrobat Scott McDonald, both instructor and student at the center, to tells us about th...
May 03, 2023•22 min
After years of effort from activists, government officials, and Indigenous tribes, President Biden finally protected Avi Kwa Ame by declaring it Nevada’s fourth national monument in March. The 380,000 acres of land includes Spirit Mountain and is sacred to over 12 tribes. While celebrations happened all over the state, Governor Lombardo slammed the decision saying it was a “ historic mistake ” and that it would slow the development of affordable housing and disruptmining plans. Back in August, c...
May 02, 2023•16 min
As the Nevada 83rd legislative session continues multiple bills have been introduced in an effort to curb rising rent cost in the state and it has not been a clean process. With many of these bills missing their deadline to pass last week, 5 of them have made it through. In an effort to makes sense of this messy debate host Vogue Robinson is joined by Nevada Current Reporter and friend of the show Michael Lyle to break down the difference between rent control vs. rent stabilization and what do t...
May 01, 2023•21 min
This Friday news roundup is a fun one: co-hosts Vogue Robinson and Dayvid Figler are joined by Nevada Current reporter April Corbin Girnus to break down new legislation on illegal towing, explain some very Vegas neon sign laws, and a chauffeur service to LA with a big price tag. We’re on social media! Follow us @CityCastVegas on Twitter and Instagram . You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719 . Want some more Las Vegas news? Then make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter here ....
Apr 28, 2023•27 min
Recently Vegas has joined the ranks of cities throughout the nation to approve cottage kitchen laws. These laws allow for people to run small food businesses out of their private residences. But it isn’t all peaches and cream. In fact, the food items produced in cottage kitchens cannot contain uncooked cream, custard, nor cream cheese due to food safety regulations. Brett Boyer and his husband, Brendon Wilharber started their bakery, Desert Bread in 2018 and despite the challenges that rise, the...
Apr 27, 2023•20 min
We are nearing the end of poetry month and the City Cast Las Vegas team couldn’t let it go by without celebrating our vibrant and bustling community. Luckily, our co-hosts are two poets who have been performing, organizing, and representing our city for 10+ years. But how did we cultivate a thriving and dedicated poetry scene in a city where the people and venues are constantly changing? Producer Layla Muhammad sits down with the co-hosts, former Clark County poet laureate Vogue Robinson and lon...
Apr 26, 2023•23 min
Tax season may have officially ended last week, but some Las Vegans may still be feeling the heat. According to Fidelity National Financial , Las Vegas ranks #2 for biggest tax procrastinators. To get some insight into our tax aversion (not to be confused with tax evasion), lead producer Sonja Cho Swanson talks to Jodi Mobley, executive director of Nevada Free Taxes Coalition . They are a nonprofit that helps low and middle income people file their taxes, even after Tax Day and into the extended...
Apr 25, 2023•18 min
Graduation season is upon us! We’re starting to see high schoolers and college grads descending on scenic spots around Las Vegas to take portraits — sometimes with elaborate additions to their stoles, gowns, and mortar board graduation caps. In fact, decorating grad caps is a fairly recent tradition that Dr. Sheila Bock, a folklorist at UNLV has been studying. She and co-host Dayvid Figler talk about why the messages on grad caps (even the silly SpongeBob ones) are so significant, why cultural e...
Apr 24, 2023•24 min
The A’s have just signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a new stadium near Tropicana and Dean Martin. Does that mean they’re really coming to town? And how do we feel about that? On today’s news roundup, co-hosts Vogue Robinson and Dayvid Figler sit down with lead producer Sonja Cho Swanson to talk about the Oakland-slash-Vegas A’s, a controversial HOA bill being debated in the legislature (and the problem with HOAs), and what happened when the Animal Foundation was called before the C...
Apr 21, 2023•31 min
Cooking with cannabis has moved beyond the college dorm weed brownie. Today on City Cast Las Vegas, co-host Vogue Robinson sits down with Veronica Marquez, AKA Chef Vee, a Cordon Bleu-trained private chef who creates cannabis-infused fine dining feasts for celebrity clients — we’re talking clams stuffed with cannabis aioli, scallops basted in cannabutter, and steaks with CBD-laced chimichurri sauce. Chef Vee shares hilarious stories from the world of high dining, gives home cooks some tips for i...
Apr 20, 2023•22 min
Artificial intelligence has arrived in Las Vegas, and it’s here to stay. Both Resorts World and the Cosmopolitan already use A.I. chatbots with friendly names like “Rose” and “Red” to answer guest queries about where to go and what to do. There’s even a laser-eyed robot bouncer on the Strip. But how will A.I. evolve, and will it take over our city’s legendary hospitality industry? Could A.I. make gambling even more addictive? Are the A.I.-enhanced robots going to replace us all? Geoff Carter, se...
Apr 19, 2023•24 min
The two most common legal options for funerals in Nevada (the traditional burial and cremation) are not the most environmentally friendly. That could change with a bill currently being debated in the Nevada Senate for a greener option: natural organic reduction, or human composting . Assemblyman Max Carter II tells lead producer Sonja Cho Swanson about the issues with current burial options, how natural organic reduction can help the environment, and what made him want to sponsor the bill. Would...
Apr 18, 2023•20 min
The dams built along the Colorado River some hundred years ago paved the way for Western cities to boom. Las Vegas wouldn’t exist without Lake Mead, our nation’s largest reservoir. But these dams came with a cost: environmental impact, cultural loss, and fraught political battles. So as Western states stare down a deadline for figuring out our Colorado River allocation, we gotta ask: Was the creation of Lake Mead… a mistake? Today, co-host Dayvid Figler sits down with UNLV hydrology professor Da...
Apr 17, 2023•21 min
It’s one of the more hotly-debated legislative items this session: Nevada is one of just five states without a lottery. We already have gambling, so what’s the big deal? In today’s news roundup, co-hosts Vogue Robinson and Dayvid Figler along with newsletter editor Scott Dickensheets break it all down, and debate the pros and cons of a lottery in our state. They also discuss the MSG Sphere’s upcoming launch (and what they’d actually want to see in the sphere). And last but not least, we ask why ...
Apr 14, 2023•28 min
Many of the foods we think of as quintessentially Filipino (chicken adobo, lumpia, and pancit) are actually the result of centuries of colonization and cultural influence from Spain, China, Malaysia, and even the U.S. So what exactly makes Filipino food… Filipino? That’s the question driving Walbert Castillo, creator of the brand-new Filipino pop-up series Istorya — along with chef Catherine Carlucci and a team that includes culinary historians and cultural advisors, Istorya is peeling back the ...
Apr 13, 2023•21 min
Many Vegas natives wouldn’t think gardening in our climate makes a lot of sense, but as our spring weather finally evens out and we spend more time outside, you may be glad to hear that gardening is possible for us! As our city grows and apartment living gets more common, our co-host Vogue Robinson asks Cheyenne Kyle, master gardener at the Obodo Collective, how to start a spring patio garden for any small space. From planting a watermelon in a bag to transitioning your garden for the summer, Ch...
Apr 12, 2023•22 min
When Jordan Clark saw an e-bike in the lobby of his hotel a few years ago, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to ride it. At 330lbs, he wasn’t doing much cycling. One ride later, and he was hooked. Today, Jordan is 245lbs and now owns several e-bike stores in the Valley — and he’s not just an enthusiast, he’s an evangelist. As Jordan points out, people with limited mobility like the elderly and infirm can tackle rides that they wouldn’t have otherwise. But not everyone is happy about e-bikes and how fa...
Apr 11, 2023•22 min
Nevada lawmakers are discussing a bill that would decriminalize psychedelics like shrooms and ketamine. Advocates argue that this will help open the door for more research on psychedelics’ clinical uses in mental health. But what’s the experience of using psychedelics really like? Perhaps no one is more qualified to talk about this than Shane Mauss — he’s a comedian, science podcaster, and self-described psychonaut who has been exploring the world of psychedelics (bothfirst-hand and through inte...
Apr 10, 2023•22 min
The historic Huntridge Theater will light up its marquee neon sign tonight for the first time in two decades (event details here ) — which developer J Dapper says is a sign to the community that the space is on its way to renovation. But soon — and how likely is it to happen? In today’s news roundup, co-hosts Vogue Robinson and Dayvid Figler, along with contributor and thelist.vegas publisher Andrew Kiraly, discuss the Huntridge relighting and the “Lucy’s football” promise of the theater’s reope...
Apr 07, 2023•31 min
During the pandemic, Victoria Flores started a food pantry from her home to help her community on the Eastside have better access to nutritious foods and essentials. Two years later, as SNAP benefits , or food assistance, that some Nevadans have been receiving since the pandemic began comes to an end this month, Victoria tells co-host Vogue Robinson how The Solidarity Fridge has been embraced by the community and will continue to meet people where they are at, no questions asked. Learn how you c...
Apr 06, 2023•19 min
