Episode 236: The Times
Sep 07, 2025•14 min
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Summary
The Memory Palace delves into the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, a pivotal event in American labor history. It explores the rise of time bomb use by unions, the anti-union stance of LA Times owner Harrison Gray Otis, and the tragic, unintended consequences when a planned property damage explosion resulted in 21 deaths, profoundly shaking the labor movement.Episode description
Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate.
Music
- A couple by C. Diab: Tiny Umbrellas and Crypsis
- The beginning of Cats Cradle (Iris) by Hannah Epperson
- Dawning and Wind by Shida Shihabi
- A couple from Ceeys: Neighbour II and Union
Notes
- I really enjoyed reading both Lew Irwin's Deadly Times: the 1910 Bombing of the L.A. Times and America's Forgotten Decade of Terror, and Bread and Hyacinths: the Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles, by Lionel Rolfe
- As an, at this point, long-time Angeleno, I highly recommend visiting the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
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