California City

Part 8:

Adolfo finds new information about the night Oscar died, and has to have a difficult conversation about what really happened to Oscar.

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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.

T...

Part 5:

Was Oscar going to leave the Chicano student movement? Adolfo discovers new information about Oscar’s last months. 

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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...

Part 6:

Adolfo reckons with his own relationship to his past and the Chicano student movement. And he finds someone who may have clues about what happened the night Oscar died. 

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Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angel...

Part 3:

Adolfo gets his first lead on a person possibly involved in Oscar’s death.

Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise

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 ...

Part 4:

Adolfo finds a briefcase with information that could lead to clues about Oscar’s death. 

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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 Co...

Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary, the 2022 podcast from LAist Studios, has been optioned by Participant and is simultaneously being developed as a scripted and documentary limited series. 

Part 1:

Oscar Gomez was a star of the 1990s Chicano student movement and then, unexpectedly, he died. A rattling event in host Adolfo Guzman-Lopez’s life spurs him to investigate Oscar’s death. 

Grow your business–no matter ...

Part 2:

Adolfo learns that there was a dark side to Oscar’s experience in the Chicano student movement. 

Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise

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...

Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido is joined by LAist Senior Health Reporter Jackie Fortier and Higher Education Correspondent Adolfo Guzman-Lopez to break down their investigation into why many students and faculty across California's public universities don't know that medication abortion is mandated on their campuses. This is the latest LAist Investigates episode on Imperfect Paradise that highlights reporting from our ne...

Part 4: Half a year after Star Garden reopens as a union club, the dancers are still negotiating a contract. LAist producer Emma Alabaster brings you the latest. Plus, some of the dancers have set their sights on a different dream: a worker-owned cooperative strip club. 

Here are some resources that informed our reporting:

• LA Co-op Lab
• U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Part 3: The Star Garden Topless Dive Bar reopens as a union strip club, but the fight doesn’t end there. What happens after the victory? LAist Producer Emma Alabaster has the story.

Here are some resources that informed our reporting:

• Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex  (In particular, the essay "White Supremacy in Organizing" by Domino Rey)

• Yes, A Stripper Podcast

Part 2: When the Star Garden strippers go public with their union campaign, they get pushback from the club’s management and a group they didn’t anticipate - other strippers. LAist Producer Emma Alabaster reports. 

Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that q...

Part 1: In 2023, North Hollywood’s Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the U.S. LAist Producer Emma Alabaster tells us the behind-the-scenes story of the workplace conditions that pushed the dancers into action. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes sensitive content about sexual assault.

For sexual assault and harassment support and resources, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673, whi...

Imperfect Paradise Host Antonia Cereijido speaks with philosopher and author of Elite Capture: How The Powerful Took over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) Olúfemi O. Táíwò. They examine the question: are identity politics over? It’s a question that was raised and we began to explore with Imperfect Paradise’s Nury & The Secret Tapes series. Antonia examines...

Imperfect Paradise: Yoga's "Queen of Conspiracies": Part 4: RFK Jr. - The Presidential Candidate for Wellness Conspiracists?
A year after Yoga’s “Queen of Conspiracy Theories” first release, Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido explores a new, unexpected chapter in this story with Conspirituality podcast host Matthew Remski, Politico journalist David Freedlander, and LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin, who reported the series...

Part 3: Kundalini Yoga’s #MeToo Moment
In early 2020, just as fears about coronavirus are worsening, women begin accusing the founder of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, of sexual assault. Guru Jagat’s surprising response sets the stage for her radicalization during the pandemic.

CONTENT WARNING: Mentions of Sexual Assault

(Original Air Date: Jan. 18, 2023) 

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Part 2: Kundalini Royalty
Katie Griggs, a young woman from rural Maryland, discovers Kundalini yoga in her early 20s and goes all in. She transforms herself into Guru Jagat, a beloved and controversial yoga and wellness influencer in Los Angeles. In this episode, her friends, family, and coworkers grapple with how she changed in the final years of her life. And we explore the connections between yoga and conspiracies like QAnon.

Before her sudden death in 2021, Guru Jagat had become a famous Kundalini yoga teacher based in Los Angeles. But as the global pandemic grew, she started talking like a far-right coronavirus conspiracy theorist. What does her journey down the rabbit hole tell us about the appeal of conspiracies in the yoga and wellness community?

Yoga's "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" explores Guru Jagat’s rise to fame and follows along as she resp...

This week, Imperfect Paradise is featuring Part 3 & Part 4 of a four-part series from How To LA. 

HTLA host Brian De Los Santos and producer Evan Jacoby are taking a closer look at L.A. Mayor Karen Bass's "Inside Safe" program. They also recap some of the big questions we've asked throughout the series, and bring a new question to many of our guests from the previous episodes: "What should the relationship be between mutual ai...

This week, Imperfect Paradise is featuring Part 1 & Part 2 of a four-part series from How To LA. 

Unsheltered life in L.A. can be dangerous and even deadly — and there has been a massive increase in the death rate for unhoused people in the county over the last few years.
There is work being done by the mayor’s office to get people off the street and into temporary housing. But the promise of services — whether in the form ...