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A River Runs Through Los Angeles
Episode 589
When you hear the word "river," you probably picture a majestic body of water flowing through a natural habitat. Well, the LA River looks nothing lik…
1 year, 7 months ago
As Slow As Possible
Episode 588
When you go to a concert, you might try to get there right when the doors open. Or perhaps you take your time and skip the opening act. But generally…
1 year, 7 months ago
The Containment Plan (rebroadcast)
Episode 279
It’s hard to overstate the vastness of the Skid Row neighborhood in Los Angeles. It spans roughly 50 blocks, which is about a fifth of the entire dow…
1 year, 8 months ago
Backfired: The Vaping Wars
Episode 587
When two Stanford graduate students set out to create a new kind of cigarette that wouldn’t kill them, they didn’t foresee all the obstacles that lay…
1 year, 8 months ago
The Power Broker #6: Mike Schur
This is the sixth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro.
This week, Roman Ma…
1 year, 8 months ago
Category 6
Episode 586
After Hurricane Camille caused widespread death and destruction along the US Gulf Coast in 1969, two scientists created the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane …
1 year, 8 months ago
The Los Angeles Leaf Blower Wars
Episode 585
The leaf blower is one of the most hated objects in the modern world. They’re loud, they pollute, and… how important is a leafless lawn anyway? In a …
1 year, 8 months ago
Fact Checking the Supreme Court
Episode 584
For a long time, the Court operated under what was called Legal Formalism. Legal formalism said that the job of any judge or justice was incredibly n…
1 year, 9 months ago
Uptown Squirrel [update]
Episode 352
In late 2018, two hundred people gathered at The Explorer’s Club in New York City. The building was once a clubhouse for famed naturalists and explor…
1 year, 9 months ago
The Lost Subways of North America
Episode 583
Los Angeles actually used to have a massive electric railway system in the early 1900s, called the Red Car. Jake Berman, the author of The Lost Subwa…
1 year, 9 months ago