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ICE raids began last Friday across Southern California. People have been detained and there have been confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. What exactly went down and where does Los Angeles go from here? We hear from family members of people detained by ICE and talk with LAist Civics and Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze about the unprecedented week that Angelenos just experienced. Also we take a look at the hi...

In 2009, Gloria Arellano de la Rosa was banned from re-entering the U.S. for ten years, finding herself separated from her four children and husband. But unlike Daniel Zamora, she didn’t remake her life in Mexico. Every day she waited to go home to the U.S. Fernanda Echavarri tells the story of what happens when Gloria finally returns to the States and reunites with her family.

Grow your business–no matter what stage yo...

In the days after LA’s early-January wildfires, tenant advocate Chelsea Kirk noticed a trend: rent gouging. Rents were shooting up past their legal limit. In the wake of the fires, as natural disaster collided with LA’s severe housing shortage, we trace how a collective of volunteers organized themselves to bring rent gouging to light in LA County. What did they find? And where do we stand on rent gouged listings and ch...

When Portland, Oregon-based reporter Leah Sottile began covering extremism in the American West a decade ago, she was interviewing ranchers, fundamentalist Mormons and “sovereign citizens” who did not believe the federal government should own land. During the pandemic, she began noticing that New Age wellness leaders were talking about many of the same ideas. “I just couldn't quite reconcile the aesthetic differen...

Journalist Alexis Madrigal is obsessed with the port of Oakland. He even has a tattoo of a shipping container! In his new book, The Pacific Circuit, he makes the case that Oakland is where the real-world impacts of globalization are felt, and serves as a warning for other port communities. He documents the impact that the tech/logistics industry has had on his hometown, and profiles a Black environmental j...

Amid the devastating Palisades and Eaton Fires that killed more than two dozen people, a political conflict came sharply into focus surrounding the funding of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). Finger-pointing as to who was to blame included former LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley and LA Mayor Karen Bass. The two women would be lambasted for their handling of one of the most destructive natural disasters in Southern California hi...

The biggest question hanging over most people in Los Angeles who lost homes in the Palisades and Eaton Fires is whether to rebuild or leave -- a question that's especially fraught for Altadena's Black community, who faced a long history of redlining.

Charel Bailey’s parents have lived in Altadena since 1977, and she desperately wants them to rebuild after the fire. Her dad has been on the fence. We follow the Baileys as they ...

Renée DiResta joined the Stanford Internet Observatory to analyze how propaganda spreads online. But in 2023, she went from studying the online disinformation machine to becoming its target. We dive into what happened when a right-wing conspiracy made Renée its villain, as well as how disinformation has changed over the last three presidential elections and where Renée is finding hope for a better future online...

This episode originally aired on June 12, 2024.

LA was rocked on March 4 when Dave Fink, a golf influencer, posted a viral video on Instagram detailing how brokers - largely using a Korean messenger app- were snatching up prime time tees at Los Angeles’ public golf courses and reselling them. Here’s how an unlikely crew of golf enthusiasts’ fight to keep golf in L.A. accessible and affordable is paying off. Host A...

It’s hard to find people in Hollywood who are willing to speak publicly about their enthusiasm for AI, for fear of being seen as “siding with the machines.” And yet, many people are quietly using the technology already. In this episode, we interview two enthusiastic early adopters of AI in filmmaking about how they’re using it, its strengths and limitations, and how they respond to people who say AI is going...

Hollywood taught us to be afraid of a super powerful artificial intelligence that will one day conquer humanity. So not surprisingly, many screenwriters and actors are very skeptical of AI, and concerns about AI were central to the Hollywood labor strikes in 2023. But animators may actually be the most at risk of losing their jobs to AI.

In this episode, we’ll talk about why the first AI generated movies you will ...

Tucked away in Highland Park - a neighborhood that’s been dubbed “ground zero” for gentrification - sits a small park dotted with native plants and spiraling mosaic sculptures. La Tierra de la Culebra Park was established in the early 90s by guerilla artist Tricia Ward. In the decades since, the neighborhood has transformed massively and a battle has emerged between the founder and the new stewards of the park ove...

In the final episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": Despite several stopgaps and hiccups, the moon landing is a monumental success, although many Black Americans feel it’s come at a cost to their progress. The discrimination Charlie, Nate and Shelby faced at work finally makes it into government hearings. And the trio today reflect on their contributions to the space race, expressing their sense of pride and wonder, as wel...

In this episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": The launch of Apollo 6. Nate and Charlie must choose how to respond when their work is undermined by superiors, leading to tense stand-offs. Meanwhile Shelby works on a project which will define his legacy — and our view of Earth.  Workplace pay disparities come to light, while the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. reveals tensions that the engineers can no longer ...

In this episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": Were these three engineers set up to fail? The space race starts to hit debilitating roadblocks, and the Black aerospace engineers are beginning to feel the weight of the workplace — and the clock ticking. Shelby, Nate and Charlie develop different ways to cope with the pressure. A tragedy during an Apollo 1 flight simulation raises the stakes even further, while outside the c...

In this first episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": America aims for the moon. President John F. Kennedy stands proudly behind the mission to advance the country and welcomes a diverse team to get the job done. That team includes three Black engineers who have a studded background — Charlie Cheathem, Nathaniel LeVert and Shelby Jacobs. However, the three men quickly realize that social progress is slower than scientific a...

Some of the most striking images to come out of the Los Angeles wildfires are photos of a single intact house, surrounded by rubble. We wondered: why do some houses burn down and not others? Is it possible to build a fire-proof house? Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido, correspondent Emily Guerin, and host of the LAist Studios podcast The Big Burn Jacob Margolis, look at what preventative measures you can take to try to save...

The same factors that make Los Angeles an appealing place to live, like large urban scale development intertwined with nature, are also the reason we need a fundamentally different approach to fire. Host Antonia Cereijido and science reporter and host of LAist podcast The Big Burn Jacob Margolis dive into what makes Southern California’s ecology unique and what that means for fire management.

Grow your business–no matte...

When Joanne Higgins was growing up in Compton in Los Angeles, she heard her godfather, Charlie Cheathem, tell stories about his key role in the Apollo mission to the moon. As an adult she realized that his experiences — and those of other Black engineers — had been left out of the history books. She set out to record for the first time the accounts of these men whose crucial contributions to the early days of the Apollo...