California Love (old feed)
California Love is a blend of memoir, pop culture analysis and oral history. The newest season, K-Pop Dreaming, is about the rise and history of K-pop in the United States, as told from the point-of-view of the Korean diaspora in Los Angeles. Host Vivian Yoon takes listeners on a journey from K-pop’s origins in Korean trot music and American presence in post-war South Korea to the 1992 LA Uprising and the booming global popularity of K-pop in the present day, all juxtaposed against Yoon’s own coming-of-age as a second generation immigrant in Los Angeles, struggling to fit in and come to terms with her own identity. In the first season Walter Thompson-Hernández was inspired by Tupac and Dr. Dre's "California Love"- a love letter and anthem for a generation. Walter invites listeners to join him in his family home, on horseback through the streets of Compton, and up into the sky to examine belonging.
Episodes
Host Walter Thompson-Hernández returns home to L.A. and reflects on how much the city has changed since he was a child.
California Love sponsors include:
Stream We Are Freestyle Love Supreme beginning July 17, only on Hulu
This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist
Walter was just eleven years old when he was admitted to L.A.'s infamous Scared Straight program for graffiti related crimes. In this episode, Walter, through a chance encounter, checks-in with his friend who went through the program with him, their anti-tagging arch-nemesis, and how they have turned out after all these years.
California Love sponsors include:
Stream We Are Freestyle Love Supreme beginning July 17, only on ...
A story about a wild party line that many Los Angeles’ teenagers used to create a fantasy world.
California Love sponsors include:
Stream We Are Freestyle Love Supreme beginning July 17, only on Hulu
This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist
Walter dives deep on what Kobe meant to him in his life and how the icon’s death spurred a collective mourning throughout the city.
This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist
California Love is a limited series with 8 episodes. Show support by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.
A first-parrot perspective into legends and myths of how L.A. became home to the world’s largest population of green parrots.
This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist
California Love is a limited series with 8 episodes. Show support by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.
There’s a horse ranch in the heart of Compton that may hold the answers for salvation and redemption for the city’s black cowboys.
Read the original NYTimes article, "For the Compton Cowboys, Horseback Riding Is a Legacy, and Protection."
Read Walter Thompson-Hernández's book The Compton CowboysThe New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland
Eleuteria “Ellie” Hernández moved to Los Angeles from a small town in Mexico when she was 14 and fell in love with the city. In this episode, Walter sits down with Ellie, his mother, to understand her relationship to L.A. and how it shaped his own.
California Love sponsors include:
UCLA Extension Fall Quarter starts September 28. Enroll now at https://www.uclaextension.edu/
We close the series with a meditation on how 28 years after the 1992 Riots, for many in L.A., things feel exactly the same.
Censorship efforts at libraries nationwide have increased steadily over the last several years. In the 2023 - 24 school year, more than 10,000 book bans were counted in the country’s public schools. These efforts have become a cornerstone of a larger national debate over cultural influences and parents' rights to restrict those influences. LAist Orange County Correspondent Jill Replogle joins us to talk about how censors...
After the George Floyd protests of 2020, California took steps to rein in violent policing of protests by passing laws restricting how law enforcement uses less-lethal weapons, like tasers and rubber bullets. But high profile protests in 2024 and 2025 – including this summer’s protests against the ICE raids in Los Angeles – have revealed major flaws in those laws. LAist Senior Editor Jared Bennett joins us to talk...
Big companies like Amazon and SpaceX are claiming that the National Labor Relations Board – an independent federal entity in charge of overseeing unionizing efforts – is unconstitutional. In addition to those companies, colleges like the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University are also joining the movement to push back against labor groups. If this movement succeeds, it could make unionizing ha...
A new report details the Eaton and Palisades fires, including failures in the emergency response. But this report bears striking similarities with another -- which chronicled the response to the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Southern California. LAist science reporter Jacob Margolis discusses the reports and what they mean for L.A. County moving forward.
This LAist podcast is supported by Amazon Autos. Buying a car used to be a whole day af...
A charter reform commission was created in 2024 in response to multiple Los Angeles city government scandals, including the leak of a racist tape featuring City Council President Nury Martinez. One of the commission’s aims was to modify the LA charter, which is basically the city’s constitution. But reports indicate that this commission is struggling to do its job. There are calls for transparency around its very struct...
Popular Podcasts
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.