Today, in Episode 2 of our Drought Week series, we go to Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. As water shortages become a permanent part of life in the American West, battles are brewing everywhere for what little remains. Even in long-verdant areas like the Beaver State. We’ll talk to L.A. Times reporter Anita Chabria and Don Gentry, the chairman of the Klamath Tribes. The tribes get first rights to the water of Upper Klamath Lake, which they use to help sustain a fish important to their cult...
Jul 27, 2021•25 min
Today we launch Drought Week, a five-part series looking at how water shortages across the West are profoundly changing life. We’ll swoop around, from Oregon to the Sonoran Desert, from cities to national parks, from Joshua trees to lawns. To start Drought Week, it’s only natural — pardon the pun — that we take the bigger view first with our Masters of Disasters, the L.A. Times reporters who focus on natural calamities. So get your five-gallon buckets and put them next to you when you shower, ’c...
Jul 26, 2021•29 min
Because of California Proposition 187, conservatives turned into liberals, apathetic people got motivated and Latinos in the state truly found their political voice. Now members of that generation are all over Capitol Hill. Today, we speak with Los Angeles Times political reporter Sarah D. Wire about how Congress has changed, what has stayed the same, and whether Donald Trump's presidency created a new moment that galvanizes Latinos and makes them jump into politics. This is a brand-new coda of ...
Jul 23, 2021•15 min
When we originally recorded "This Is California: The Battle of 187," we tried and tried to get an interview with former California Gov. Pete Wilson. He’s the man most responsible for making Proposition 187 a success. But Wilson’s people kept saying he was too busy — likely story, am I right? Then, one sunny morning, Wilson decided he was ready to talk. This is Part Four of our rerun of the L.A. Times-Futuro Studios 2019 podcast series “This Is California: The Battle of 187,” about the 1994 Calif...
Jul 22, 2021•56 min
California's Proposition 187 won alongside Gov. Pete Wilson in the 1994 election. But the victories proved to be a double-edged sword. Wilson, who had aspirations to run for higher office, never won another election. And although Proposition 187 eventually was declared unconstitutional, torpedoed the California GOP and inspired many Latinos to get involved in their communities, it also laid lay the political groundwork for successful xenophobic campaigns nationwide. That paved the way for Donald...
Jul 21, 2021•23 min
We hear from the Latinos who were about to lose the battle over Proposition 187 — but ended up winning California. This is Part Two of our rerun of the L.A. Times-Futuro Studios 2019 podcast series "This is California: The Battle of 187," about the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead radicalized a generation of Latinos in the state. Further reading: Giant steps: Walkouts against 187 trace the growth of an issue into a cause...
Jul 20, 2021•27 min
This week, we’re re-airing "This is California: The Battle of 187," a four-part podcast the L.A. Times did back in 2019 in collaboration with Futuro Studios (and we'll wrap up the week with a brand-new update). The series is about Proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead ended up radicalizing a generation of Latinos — and set the stage for Donald Trump to win the presidency in 2016 on a xenophobic platform. ...
Jul 19, 2021•23 min
This year, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made his country the first in the world to embrace bitcoin as legal tender. That means that come September, Salvadorans will be able to pay bills and taxes in bitcoin and that all businesses will be required to accept the digital currency — from McDonald's to the fruit vendor on the corner. Today, L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum explains how El Salvador got into the cryptocurrency game. More reading: How a California surfer help...
Jul 16, 2021•17 min
For a century, California sterilized women in its prisons and hospitals, often without their consent. Government officials did it in the name of eugenics — of trying to curtail the number of working-class people and people of color. The Golden State apologized for its actions in 2003 but didn’t ban the practice until 2014. Now the state will try to address the wrong of its forced sterilization program with a historic move: It wants to pay survivors reparations. On today's episode, we speak with ...
Jul 15, 2021•21 min
Shootouts. Armed guards. Stolen water. Killings. It’s not the dramatic climax of a Wild West movie. It’s what’s happening in California’s southern desert right now — thanks to illegal marijuana farms. Although marijuana is legal in California, it still isn’t in most of the United States. So drug cartels and out-of-state growers have set up scores of illegal farms among Joshua trees and tortoise reserves. And locals are begging law enforcement to do something about it. Today, we speak with L.A. T...
Jul 14, 2021•22 min
QAnon or New Age? Increasingly, in California’s vast health, wellness and spiritual worlds, there's an intersection between the two communities so pronounced that the phenomenon has a new nickname: “Woo-Anon,” and it’s coming to a yoga studio near you. Today, we speak with L.A. Times investigative reporter Laura J. Nelson and yoga instructor Seane Corn about the growing movement, as well as the broken friendships and business partnerships that are happening in a once-placid scene. More reading: ...
Jul 13, 2021•29 min
For over 40 years, Daniel Ortega has loomed over Nicaragua like few others. He was part of the Sandinista rebel forces that in 1979 overthrew the Somoza family dynasty that had ruled the Central American nation for decades. Ortega then became part of the transitional government that instituted democratic elections, and served as president from 1985 to 1990, and again since 2007. Over those 40 years, critics say, Ortega has transformed into the very dictator he once fought against. Today, we talk...
Jul 12, 2021•22 min
Danny Trejo has lived a life worthy of a book. Addict. Prisoner. Actor. Owner of a donut and taco shop. And, now, author of a memoir. "Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood" tells his life story with many jaw-dropping anecdotes. Today, we pass the mic over to L.A. Times culture reporter Daniel Hernandez, who talks to Danny Trejo. Come for the "Machete," stay for the Edward James Olmos incident! More reading: Danny Trejo opens up about being typecast — and a close call with the Mexic...
Jul 09, 2021•19 min
Landing a job at one of the prisons in the northeastern California town of Susanville has been a sure way to get a middle-class life for decades. Now, one of the prisons, California Correctional Center, is scheduled to close. And this charming town of just over 13,500 residents, roughly 40 percent of whom are incarcerated, must confront a truism of small-town American life: when you rely on one industry for your economy, you’re eventually going to get left with the bill. Today, we get the story ...
Jul 08, 2021•20 min
Conviction overturned. Those words cut through social media last week after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court freed Bill Cosby from prison. He was there on a 2018 indecent assault conviction, a significant victory for the Me Too movement. Today, we check in with Nicki Weisensee Egan, host of the LA Times podcast “Chasing Cosby.” After Cosby’s release, she spoke with several women who’ve accused him of sexual assault in the past. We also talk to John Manly, a lawyer who has long gone after sexual pr...
Jul 07, 2021•26 min
California's junior U.S. senator, Alex Padilla, is used to making history. The son of Mexican immigrants was the youngest-ever president of the Los Angeles City Council, at age 26. He became California’s first Latino secretary of state in 2014. Then last winter, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Padilla to replace Kamala Harris as U.S. senator — the first-ever Latino to represent the Golden State in this role. Today, Sen. Padilla joins us to talk about his roots, his career, and how he’s using his Cal...
Jul 06, 2021•22 min
Behold, a special episode of The Times. It’s a crossover edition with our podcast colleagues at The Envelope. We’ll hear the conversation that Yvonne Villarreal, who covers television for the L.A. Times and cohosts our Envelope podcast, had with Academy Award winning actor Kate Winslet. They talk film, TV — and all about Kate’s latest starring role in the critically-acclaimed HBO series “Mare of Easttown." Going to the popular convenience store chain Wawa for research was a requirement to prepar...
Jul 05, 2021•23 min
On July 1, the Chinese Communist Party kicked off its 100th anniversary by celebrating China’s economic success and ambitions to create a new world order. The festivities, of course, are carefully choreographed. For decades, the Communist Party has crushed any counter-narratives to promote a whitewashed version of Chinese history. Those who deviate from the party’s official narrative suffer retribution — and in recent days, records of that punishment have been expunged as well. Today, we focus o...
Jul 02, 2021•30 min
Two years ago, the world watched as millions of people in Hong Kong marched in the streets to call for autonomy from China. Beijing responded by passing a national security law last summer that broadly defined acts of subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism. Critics say the law crushed civil liberties. Since it was enacted, many people have fled Hong Kong — some to neighboring Taiwan. Yet Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its territory, is at risk as well. Today, we start ...
Jul 01, 2021•30 min
Today, we examine the Afghan Air Force — its history, its success, its tenuous future. We talk with two of my L.A. Times colleagues who went on a helicopter ride-along... that came under attack. Since 2010, the U.S. military and other allies have poured in $8.5 billion to support the Afghan Air Force, which dates back to 1918. In a long war characterized by inefficiencies and failures, it has proven one of the few success stories. Now, its days might be numbered. More Reading: Afghanistan’s air ...
Jun 30, 2021•19 min
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón has a policing pedigree like few others. Army veteran. Patrol officer in Los Angeles. Police chief in San Francisco before becoming D.A. there. Now, he’s in charge of the D.A.’s office in L.A., one of the largest in the country. He’s part of a wave of progressive district attorneys who have won elections in some of America’s largest cities with a promise to radically reform their offices. And he’s currently the subject of a recall effort. Today, we ta...
Jun 29, 2021•23 min
People expressing their sexuality in public by dressing up in kink fashions — leather, rubber, furry, dom and a whole other universe of expressions — have been mainstays of Pride parades and festivals since the earliest celebrations in the 1970s. But as these celebrations have slowly mainstreamed, some groups say the kink factor should go down, if not disappear altogether. And the attacks aren’t coming from the right. Today, we talk about kink — what’s its role in Pride, and how does its express...
Jun 28, 2021•19 min
Point Roberts, Wash., long prospered as an appendage of Canada. Its economy thrived on sales of gasoline, groceries and alcohol at prices considered a bargain by Canadians, whose frequent visits helped make the border station one of the busiest crossing points between the two countries. Then on March 21, 2020, in response to the pandemic, U.S. and Canadian officials abruptly closed the border to nonessential travel — squeezing the peninsula like a tourniquet. It’s stayed closed ever since. Today...
Jun 25, 2021•22 min
In 2018, Katie Hill made national news when she beat an incumbent to win the 25th congressional district in Southern California. She was part of a wave of progressive, women Democrats who promised to take on then-President Trump. But less than a year later, congresswoman Hill resigned. Intimate photos of her leaked online. She was a victim of revenge porn. Now, the former congresswoman is pushing her former colleagues to make the sharing of intimate pictures without consent a federal crime. On t...
Jun 24, 2021•14 min
Despite mass vaccinations and lower rates of infections in the U.S., the post-COVID-19 recovery is far from over. This includes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, to new or continuing symptoms with little to no relief available. Today, we’ll talk about the lingering physical and emotional effects of COVID-19, and how we can get to a place where those afflicted can heal. Our guests are Dr. Jonathan Sherin, director of Mental Health for Los Angeles County, and Fiona Lowenstein, a COVID-19 survivor wh...
Jun 23, 2021•23 min
Whether by horse, on foot, or in a car, Americans have loved watching lawmen chase bad guys for ages, going all the way back to colonial times. In this era of social media and livestreaming, high-speed car pursuits are as popular as ever and now are broadcast everywhere. Today, we'll talk to University of South Carolina criminology professor Geoffrey Alpert, who studies car chases, and to Zoey Tur, a pioneering TV news helicopter pilot who was one of the first people to ever cover them in Los An...
Jun 22, 2021•23 min
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for a year, a debate has been raging in Japan and beyond over whether the worldwide competition should even happen. The vast majority of the country doesn’t want the event to go on, even as the Japanese government and Olympic officials push ahead. But for athletes who have trained for years, if not a lifetime, to represent their country in the Olympics, canceling the Games would be devastating — and a global reminder that we’re s...
Jun 21, 2021•23 min
Nearly a century ago, government officials pushed a Black family from their beachfront property in the Southern California city of Manhattan Beach. Now, in what could be a landmark in this nation’s efforts to correct past injustices to African Americans, the County of Los Angeles wants to give Bruce’s Beach back to the family that once owned it. Today, our senior producer Denise Guerra speaks with the historians, family members and grassroots organizers who championed this cause for years until ...
Jun 18, 2021•24 min
Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Central America and Mexico as part of the Biden administration’s strategy to address this country’s immigration issues. Supporters expected a kinder approach than that of the Trump administration. But with three simple words — “Do not come” — Harris ignited controversy. Today, we talk to L.A. Times immigration reporter Cindy Carcamo about the backlash over Harris’ remarks, and whether President Biden’s immigration policies are markedly differen...
Jun 17, 2021•20 min
The greaser. The hot tamale. The gangster. The maid. The narco. These and other stereotypes are how Hollywood has traditionally portrayed Latinos for over a century. Even as they have become America’s largest minority, and as their box-office clout has increased, tired tropes continue. Today, the L.A. Times published a huge package about Hollywood's Latino culture gap, and this episode is a continuation of that coverage. We’re going to talk about this forever trend with legend Edward James Olmos...
Jun 16, 2021•25 min
