Podcast Episodes

Imperfect Paradise: Meet the filmmakers who love AI (Redux)

This episode originally aired on March 19, 2025.

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 mach…

Published on 6 hours ago

Imperfect Paradise: How AI became a Hollywood villain – especially for animators (Redux)

This episode originally aired on March 12, 2025.

Hollywood taught us to be afraid of a super powerful artificial intelligence that will one day conquer humanity. So not surprisingly, many screenwrite…

Published on 1 week ago

Imperfect Paradise: Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission for a new home and space exploration

Los Angeles is an integral part of space shuttle Endeavour’s journey. The California Science Center is building a new, larger home for the shuttle, which will make it the only place in the world to s…

Published on 2 weeks ago

Imperfect Paradise: Residents left behind at elder care facilities in LA raise serious questions about evacuation preparedness

In the early morning hours of January 8, the Eaton Fire raced closer to the MonteCedro retirement community in Altadena, California. Nearly 200 of the facility’s residents were evacuated, but two wom…

Published on 3 weeks ago

Imperfect Paradise: Altadena childcare providers' struggle to rebuild raises questions about government disaster response

At least 280 childcare spaces were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires in January. LAist reporter Libby Rainey and early childhood senior reporter Elly Yu followed two women who ran childcare b…

Published on 4 weeks ago

Imperfect Paradise: Gender-affirming care for transgender youth is at risk in LA and nationwide

Nearly 3,000 patients have been forced to find gender-affirming care elsewhere after the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles closed their LA Center for Trans Youth Health and Development in July. The clo…

Published on 1 month ago

Imperfect Paradise: Health workers say ICE agents at hospitals are compromising patient care

Amid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, there’s been an uptick in ICE presence in hospitals across the country. At Adventist Health White Memorial hospital in Boyle Heights, doctors…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Imperfect Paradise: California's new free public preschool program for 4-year-olds

All four-year-olds in the state of California now have access to a free preschool program in their local school district. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a plan to expand the state’s transitional kindergart…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Imperfect Paradise: Who pays for the 2028 Olympics? LA taxpayers may be on the hook

In less than a thousand days, Los Angeles will be hosting the summer Olympics. Many cities worldwide have been put into debt by the games, so what could they mean for Los Angeles? LAist reporter Libb…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Imperfect Paradise: Why the site of the largest methane leak in US history still hasn’t been shut down

Regulations on gas storage facilities have been tightened since the detection of the Aliso Canyon leak, which started in 2015 and lasted nearly four months. But residents remain worried about long te…

Published on 2 months ago