Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with preservationist John Girodo about his struggles to preserve Hollywood’s historic built environment as that small neighborhood experiences hyper-gentrification. We’ll also visit with social justice advocate Adrian Riskin of...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we get an education from two devoted parks interpreters: LuAnn Thompson shares her favorite things about the landscape and creatures found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and Andy Fitzpatrick introduces us to the Providence Mountains State...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with Donald Spivack, former Deputy Director of Policy & Operations for the CRA-LA, about the two biggest challenges facing Los Angeles: Homelessness and Open Space. We’ll also visit with Leonard Bernstein, second-generation proprietor of...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with author Brad Schreiber about his book Revolution's End: The Patty Hearst Kidnapping, Mind Control, and the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze and the SLA and the upcoming Esotouric bus tour inspired by his research. We’ll also visit with...

  Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month for a special episode dedicated to the iconic Civic Center artworks created by Joseph Young (1919-2007), and the various ways that the City and County of Los Angeles are maintaining them. We talk with Clare Haggarty, Deputy Director of...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with Gordon Pattison, Bunker Hill native son, about the reopening of Angels Flight Railway and other ways in which his lost Victorian neighborhood survives.  We'll also visit with Elona Anthony, to hear about how her late husband Steven...

Download Podcast Episode! Once Upon A Time in French-Speaking Los Angeles & Early Days of Angels Flight on Old Bunker Hill Join us this month as we talk with C.C. de Vere, creator of the Frenchtown Confidential blog, who pulls back the velvet curtain to reveal the deep yet forgotten Gallic...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month for an episode dedicated to the vibrant, historic and soulful neighborhood of Boyle Heights, centered on the southeast corner of 4th Street and Camulos. We'll talk with Yolanda Diaz, who recently purchased Ray & Roy's Market, which was founded by a...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month for an episode dedicated to Llano del Rio, the socialist cooperative experiment that hosted its final May Day celebrations in the Antelope Valley one hundred years ago this month. Our guests are historian Paul Greenstein & artist-archivist Karyl...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with preservationist Steve Luftman about his efforts to save Kurt Meyer’s Lytton Savings, a mid-century landmark threatened with demolition because it sits on the land where Frank Gehry hopes to build a huge mixed use development. We’ll also...

Download Podcast Episode! Join us as we go deep inside master architect Paul R. Williams’ SeaView tract home development in Rancho Palos Verdes, as architect and historian Alan Hess and resident-historians Price Morgan & Larry Paul share insights into the tract’s development and style,...

Listen to Episode #116! Download Podcast Episode! And we're back from hiatus! Join us this month as Alan Hess, architect and architectural historian, walks us through his Palos Verdes Art Center exhibition on Aaron G. Green's mid-century modern organic architecture.  We'll also visit with land use...

Listen to Episode #115! Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with acclaimed Hollywood historian and preservationist, the recently deceased Bob Birchard, about his golden youth spent treasure hunting in Hollywood Boulevard’s legendary bookshops. (Bob was honored this past weekend...

Listen to Episode #114! Download Podcast Episode! Join us this month as we talk with Jonathan Shaw, influential tattoo artist and novelist, as he shares his current projects, including the new exhibition and book documenting a century of tattoo flash art rescued from old school American ink...

Listen to Episode #113! Download Podcast Episode! In this special mid-month episode, we’ll talk with Alan Hess, architect and architectural historian, about the imminent threat to two important William L. Pereira buildings: the 1963 Metropolitan Water District headquarters on Sunset Boulevard just...

Listen to Episode #112! Download Podcast Episode! Join us as talk with Michael Weinstein, President and co-founder of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, about his work in helping to establish the Chris Brownlie AIDS Hospice at Barlow Sanitarium in Elysian Park, the first such hospice in Los Angeles...

Listen to Episode #111! Download Podcast Episode! Join us this time for a special episode dedicated to the influential Los Angeles artist Wallace Berman (1926-1976). Our guests are Hollywood gallerist Michael Kohn, who walks us through the retrospective exhibition “Wallace Berman—American...

Listen to Episode #110! Download Podcast Episode! Join us this week as we talk with Jean Bruce Poole, historic museum director of El Pueblo from 1977-2001. We’ll also visit with Don Swickard, whose family ran the Strand Theatre in East Los Angeles from 1930-1952. We’ll also discuss the...

Join us this week as we talk with Patricia Diefenderfer, Senior City Planner with the City of Los Angeles, about the new HI Ordinance (Hybrid Industrial Live/Work Zone), and with Peter Lynn, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, about the programs which exist and...

Join us this week as we talk with 99-year-old Margaret Freed about her adventures running the legendary gift shop at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Elysian Park. We’ll also visit with Elisha Shapiro, L.A.‘s very own Nihilist performance artist. This week we’ll also discuss...

Join us this week as we talk with Brian Kite, managing partner at SRK Architects, about his 1994 restoration of the Spanish Colonial Revival masterpiece, Monterey Park’s tile-drenched El Encanto. We’ll also speak with Miriam and Victoria Caldwell about their mother, Vilma, the El Monte girl whose...

Join us this week as we talk with Romy Wyllie, co-founder and director of the Caltech Architectural Tour Service (CATS), and with docent Kenon Breazeale of Los Angeles Public Library, about the enduring legacy of the East Coast architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue on both of these...

Join us this week as we talk with George Redfox, president of the Downey Conservancy, about the white-knuckle preservation saga of Downey’s legendary Harvey’s Broiler, a core site in Southern California’s cruising culture, illegally demolished and rebuilt to original plans as a...

Join us this week as we talk with Joan Jobe Smith about her new memoir, Tales of an Ancient Go-Go Girl, and about bikers, bars, Charles Bukowski, and her loving father, Avner. We’ll also visit with filmmaker Alina Skrzeszewska to learn about her current project, Game Girls, a documentary...

Join us this week as we talk with Ansley Davies, Associate Curator for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks \& Recreation about the otherworldly Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park off Highway 14. We’ll also visit with Interpreter Jean Ryne of the California State Parks System to get...

Join us this week as we talk with architect Wade Killefer, partner at Killifer Flammang, about the firm’s recent renovation of the 19th century Pershing Hotel at the corner of 5th and Main. We’ll also visit with Donald Spivack, former Deputy Chief of Policy and Operations for the...

Join us this week as we talk with realtor Jack Nendel, President of Friends of The Historic Lafayette, about that former hotel in downtown Long Beach. We’ll also visit with Brian Kaiser, Southern California’s tile expert, as he recounts the rescue, restoration and prominent exterior...

Join us this week as we talk with Downey historian George Redfox about one of his city’s gems, the oldest surviving “golden arches” style McDonald’s drive-in restaurant. We’ll also talk with artist Kim Stringfellow about “After the Aqueduct,” a multimedia...

Join us this week as we talk with realtor Jack Nendel, President of Friends of The Historic Lafayette, about that former hotel in downtown Long Beach. We’ll also visit with Brian Kaiser, Southern California’s tile expert, as he recounts the rescue, restoration and prominent exterior...

Join us this week as we talk with George Redfox, President of the Downey Conservancy, about the grassroots campaign to save the original Taco Bell restaurant building in Downey. We’ll also visit with curators Christina Rice and Wendy Horowitz to learn about their LAPL Central Library exhibit...

Join us this week as we talk with Bill Martinet, a retired employee of the Sunkist corporation, about the year he spent working in the gorgeous, now-demolished Sunkist Building (1935) opposite L.A.‘s Central Library. We’ll also visit with Donald Spivack, former Deputy Chief of...

Our focus this week is on the Trails, a legendary Western-themed Route 66 roadhouse that operated in Duarte, California from 1952-2001. We talk with Duarte City Planner Jason Golding, who shares colorful memories of his first job, as a Trails busboy. We also visit with Larry Moon, co-owner of...

Join us this week as we talk with Ansley Davies, Associate Curator in Planning and Development for the County of Los Angeles’ Department of Parks and Recreation, about the extraordinary collection of architectural features at East L.A.‘s City Terrace Park, including a Mid-Century...

Join us this week as we talk with Donald Spivack, former Deputy Chief of Operations and Policy for the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, about Bunker Hill’s Grand Avenue and its multiple reinventions over the past four decades. We’ll also visit with Jon Christensen, editor...

Join us this week as we talk with Myllie Taylor, longtime La Mirada resident and historian, about Bill Neff, whose sale of his grandfather’s 2,000+ acre citrus and olive farms in the early 1950s led to the community’s development. We’ll also visit with Claudia Heller, President...

Join us this week as Louise Ivers, Long Beach architectural historian and preservationist, pays last respects to a pair of Mid-Century Modern Long Beach municipal structures facing imminent demolition: the Port of Long Beach Administration Building and the County Court House. Along for the trip is...

Join us this week as we visit with Louise Ivers, Long Beach architectural historian and preservationist, for an overview of that city’s rich and quickly disappearing architectural legacy. We’ll also talk with writer Steffie Nelson about the people and ideas that have helped shape her...

Join us this week as we visit with amateur historian Dennis Harbach, who has recently completed the herculean project of identifying almost all the names inscribed in the guestbook at Charles Fletcher Lummis’ historic Highland Park home, El Alisal. We’ll also talk with Jeremiah...

Join us this week as we visit with Steve Lech, historian and docent with the Mission Inn Foundation, to learn about that hotel’s rich history, which dates back more than a century. We’ll also talk with Erin Gettis, Principal Planner and City Historic Preservation Officer for the City...

Join us this week as we talk with Diana McIntyre, Curator and Docent Coordinator of the Point Vincente Interpretive Center, about the upcoming whale watching season, and their museum, which is home to the world’s largest collection of Marineland memorabilia. We’ll also visit with Tanya Finney,...

Join us this week as we head south to Orange County, where we’ll talk with Cynthia Ward about the pleasures and challenges she’s experienced as a Trustee of the historic Anaheim Cemetery. We’ll also visit with archivist Angel Diaz to learn about her work with the...

Join us this week as we visit with Scott Rubel to get the story of his uncle Michael’s Rubel Castle, a breathtaking folk art environment in Glendora. We’ll also visit with Mitchell Crawford, who recalls his family’s San Gabriel Valley retail empire, including the legendary...

Join us this week as we talk with Tim Whalen, Director of the Getty Conservation Institute, about the decade of work the Institute and the city's Office of Historic Resources have spent creating SurveyLA, an online framework for cataloging historic resources across Los Angeles. We'll also visit...

Join us this week as we talk with Kate Eggert & Krisy Gosney of the Save the Santa Monica Boulevard Streamline Moderne campaign, for the riveting saga of their astounding grassroots preservation efforts to save these important structures from what looked to be certain demolition. We’ll...

Join us this week for a special episode dedicated to South L.A.‘s tiled folk art environments, from the celebrated to the obscure. Our guests are Alison Bruesehoff, executive director of the Rancho Dominquez Adobe Museum, and Brain Kaiser, Southern California’s tile expert, talking...

Join us as we talk with the irrepressible Myllie Taylor, Boyle Heights native daughter, about her suburban adventures in the newly-formed community of La Mirada in the early 1960s. We’ll also visit with Louis Alvarez, managing partner of the Sycamore Inn in Rancho Cucamonga, a venerable...

Join us this week as we visit again with Emma Roberts, Rare Books librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library, as part of an ongoing guided tour of some of the gems in her care. We’ll also talk with Richard Adkins, past-President of Hollywood Heritage, about the how a series of owners have...

Join us this week as we talk with Ellen Calomiris, Executive Director of the historic Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, about the past three decades of curatorial strategies for preserving and interpreting this time capsule of California’s Rancho days. We’ll also visit with the Los...

Join us this week as we talk with Philip Mershon, owner/operator of the Felix in Hollywood Tour Company about his abiding passion for recapturing the past and making it tangible to us today. We’ll also visit with Denise (yes, just Denise), bartender at Duffy’s Tavern in La Habra, to...

Join us this week as we talk with Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison about his childhood memories of Angels Flight, the neighborhood’s iconic incline railroad. We’ll also talk with Donald Spivack, former Deputy Chief of Operations and Policy for the Los Angeles Community...

Join us this week as we visit with author David Boulé to learn about “The Orange and the Dream of California,” his new book packed with juicy citrus lore. We’ll also talk with Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge about his dear friend Huell Howser, and Huell’s abiding...

Join us this week as we visit with Richard Adkins, past-President of Hollywood Heritage, for insights into the early years of the legendary Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, home of the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. We’ll also talk with April Dammann, about Exhibitionist: Earl Stendahl, Art...

Join us this week as we talk with writer Jon Boornstin about his non-fiction novel “Mabel & Me,” which chronicles the adventures of silent screen comedienne Mabel Normand. Next we’ll drop down to Fullerton meet Kevin Carter and hear about his high-concept coffee house Max...

Join us this week as we talk with Albert Okura, founder of Southern California’s rotisserie chicken restaurant chain Juan Pollo, and self-proclaimed “fast food king” of the Inland Empire, to learn about his 50-year-plan for success and musings on the mercurial nature of the industry. We’ll also...

Join us this week as we visit with Rev. Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission, for an update on the humanitarian and public policy crisis facing Skid Row. We’ll also talk with Cal State Los Angeles History Professor Mark Wild about Garfield Bromley Oxnam, a Methodist Minister who came to...

Join us this week as we talk with preservation advocate Kate Eggert about the grave threat facing two notable West Hollywood buildings, a 1938 Wurdman & Beckett Streamline Moderne animal hospital and a 1959 Barry Berkus Mid-Century Modern office building. We’ll also visit with architect...

Join us this week as we talk with Gordon Pattison in a food court in the Wells Fargo Plaza—the site of his beloved childhood neighborhood, which was leveled in the early 1960s for the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project. We’ll also visit with downtown’s coolest senior citizens,...

Join us as we focus on the Boyle Heights community that has rallied to protect the Wyvernwood Garden Apartments (David J. Witmer and Loyall F. Watson, 1939) from threatened redevelopment. We’ll hear from Cal State Los Angeles professor Bidhan Roy, community activist Rigo Amavizca and poet...

Join us this week as we talk with Bob Adjemian about his golden youth clerking at the legendary Pickwick Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard. We’ll also visit with Brian Kaiser, Southern California’s tile expert, to explore the design and manufacture of the tile for Union Station, the last...

Join us this week as we visit with State Parks Ranger Jean Rhyne for her tips for exploring nature in the Antelope Valley this summer. Then we’ll dip down to Long Beach, where poet-machinist Fred Voss shares the early morning fantasies of his 4th Street commute. We’ll also discuss the...

Join us this week as dip down to Long Beach where Kerstin Kansteiner shares the inspiration behind her popular establishments Portfolio Coffeehouse and Berlin Bistro.  We'll also visit with poet Joan Jobe Smith to hear about her mentor Charles Bukowski and how her writer's voice has evolved...

Join us this week as we talk with City Archivist Michael Holland about more exciting relics from Los Angeles’ past he’s uncovered in “The Vault.” We’ll also visit with author Stephen Gee to hear about Union Station’s 75th anniversary and its architect, recently...

Join us this week as we visit with the colorful Antonio Pellini, whose Eatalian Café is a culinary oasis in industrial Gardena. We’ll also talk with Swami Atmatatvenanda about the mystic British writer Gerald Heard’s time at the venerable Vedanta Society ashram in Hollywood....

Join us this week as we talk with Cathee Shultz, who with her husband J.D. runs the eclectic and macabre Museum of Death in Hollywood. We’ll also visit with Bob Adjemian, manager of the Vedanta Press, to learn about the writer Christopher Isherwood’s abiding influence on the Press and...

Join us this week as we talk with the magnificently mustachio’d historian Paul Greenstein about the old Llano del Rio colony in the Antelope Valley and its upcoming May Day centennial celebration. We’ll also visit with Chris Nichols to learn about “Bowlarama,” his...

Join us this week as we visit with Altadena’s own compost guru, Tim Dundon, for a mind-expanding primer on how to get composting in your own backyard (or balcony) in no time. We’ll also talk with Professor Paul Rood about the surprising Jewish influence on BIOLA, Downtown LA’s...

Join us this week as we drop by City Hall, the most iconic Film Noir location in Los Angeles, to talk with poet and educator Suzanne Lummis about the Poetry Noir genre and National Poetry month. We’ll also visit with Ranger Jean Rhyne of the California State Park Service to get her personal...

Join us this week as we talk with Gail Pierce of the Historic Neff House in La Mirada, the childhood home of architect Wallace Neff. We also visit with poet Cece Peri to discuss the origins and techniques of that most cinematic literary genre, Poem Noir. We’ll also discuss the unfortunate...

Join us this week as we talk with Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Urban Planning Professor and an Associate Dean at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, about the sidewalks and other public spaces of Los Angeles, the challenges they face and the promise they hold. We’ll also visit with Anna...

Join us this week as we talk with historian Philip Mershon as he reveals the inspirations behind his 90-minute Sunset Boulevard entertainment history walking tour and his Felix In Hollywood Tour Company. We’ll also visit with 80-something Myllie Taylor, a colorful longtime resident of La...

Join us this week as we slip into the Bradbury Building and find actress Dale Raoul lurking on a mezzanine, in the mood to muse on April’s Poem Noir-themed LAVA Sunday Salon, and the poems of fellow Salon presenter Suzanne Lummis. We’ll also visit with Brian Kaiser, Southern...

Join us this week as we talk with Cathee Shultz, who with her husband J.D. runs the eclectic and macabre Museum of Death in Hollywood. We’ll also visit with Southern California tile expert Brian Kaiser to discover the fascinating history of John Roebling & Sons, the family business that...

Join us this week as we talk with historian Jim Dawson about his book “Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction’s Mean Streets and Film Noir’s Ground Zero!” and how this lost neighborhood has infiltrated the collective consciousness of film buffs the world over....

Join us this week as we talk with Marc Chevalier, historian of the Oviatt Building, about debunking myths and bringing L.A.‘s past back to life. We’ll also visit with Terence Eagen, who is restoring Henry Huntington’s century-old “faux bois” (artificial wood) arbors...

Join us this week as we talk with Gale Banks, the guru of automotive turbo-charging, about the mentors and apprenticeships that shaped his career in high performance. We’ll also visit with Erick Lopez, a Los Angeles City Planner, to learn about about zoning changes intended to create a more...

Join us this week as we talk with Jackie Miller of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson’s Heritage Center on Echo Park about the celebrated evangelist’s motion picture connections, including Charlie Chaplin’s mentorship and her friendship with the young Anthony Quinn. We’ll also...

Join us this week as we talk with historian Don Lattin about the British expatriate writers Gerald Heard & Aldous Huxley and their work with Eastern Mysticism and psychedelics. We’ll also pay a visit to Tim Dundon, aka Zeke The Sheik, Altadena’s composting master and...

Join us this week as we talk with Dan Lewis, Chief Curator of Manuscripts at the Huntington Library, about “Remarkable Works, Remarkable Times,” the permanent installation in the Library’s newly renovated Exhibit Hall. We’ll also visit with Justin, an artist who works in the Los...

Join us this week as we talk with Ed Nordskog, senior arson investigator for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, about his new book, “Fire Raisers, Freaks and Fiends: Obsessive Arsonists in the California Foothills.” We’ll also visit with historian Marc Chevalier,...

Join us this week as we talk with Gale Banks, the guru of high-performance automotive turbo-charging, about his time as a child prodigy on the Southern California evangelical circuit in the 1950s. We’ll also visit with Craig Berry of the Star Sapphire Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis, for...

Join us this week as we talk with actor/producer Paul Sand about his “Song Story” of Brecht-Weill tunes, a 1920’s German, waterfront cabaret act with pretty girls, and handsome men singing songs of revenge, murder and broken hearts at the far Western edge of the Santa Monica...

Join us this week as we talk with writer Rick Baudé about his research into the little-known Great Eleven cult, a fascinating group whose eccentricities and brash proselytizing provide backdrop to “The Kept Girl,” our Kim Cooper’s forthcoming novel about Raymond Chandler in 1920s...

Join us this week as we talk with novelist Martin Turnbull about the celebrated and much lamented Garden of Allah, from its humble beginnings as a fixer-upper for silent screen star Alla Nazimova to its halcyon days as club house for the Hollywood “Smart Set” to its demolition in 1959....

Join us this week as we visit with Jackie Miller, historian at the Parsonage of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, about the design and construction of the monumental Angelus Temple which opened on New Year’s Day, 1923 at the north end of Echo Park. We’ll also talk with Tom Rothmann, the...

Join us this week as we talk with Dave Judson, the 5th generation proprietor of the Judson stained glass studios (founded 1895) about the rich legacy of the Arroyo Guild of Craftsmen and its role in the Southern California Arts & Crafts movement. We’ll also visit with Frank Gallagher, a...

Join us this week as we talk with Carolyn Paxton, proprietor of Urban Radish, about the inspirations behind her new gourmet market in the Arts District. We’ll also visit with curator Terry Ellsworth to get a cross-section of life at the corner of Traction & Hewitt in the late 1980s, when there...

Join us this week as we talk with Ken Bernstein, Manager of the Office of Historic Resources of the City of Los Angeles, about that organization and its creation and oversight of the city’s Historic Preservation Overlay Zones. We’ll also visit with Tom Sitton, Curator Emeritus of the...

This week we visit with Michael Holland, acting City Archivist, as he unearths civic treasures from deep in the vault, among them early photos of the soon-to-be-demolished 6th Street Viaduct. We’ll also talk with Kevin Mulcahy of RAC Design Build Studios about his daring proposal to save a...

Join us this week as we talk with LA Public Library map librarian Glenn Creason about the resources the collection can offer the curious urban researcher. Then we dip down to San Diego, for a visit with Louise Torio, board chair of the Friends Of the Villa Montezuma, to learn about an astonishing...

Join us this week as we focus on the Watts Towers, a unique folk art environment in south Los Angeles. We’ll visit with conservator Sylvia Dorsch to learn about the work the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has undertaken to stabilize and strengthen the site. Then we’ll talk with tile...

Join us this week as we talk with Los Angeles poet Suzanne Lummis about poetry in the Southland, from her grandfather Charles Fletcher Lummis’ day to Charles Bukowski’s and into the present. We’ll also visit with Patricia Adler-Ingram, Executive Director of the Southern...

Join us this week as we focus on the history of the landmark Parley Johnson House in Downey. We’ll visit with Florence Towers, President of the Downey Assistance League, to learn about the League’s stewardship of the 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival hacienda, which was designed by Roland...

Join us this week as we talk with longtime Downtown LA resident Terry Ellsworth about the deep sense of community he found while living in the American Hotel in the Arts District. We’ll also visit with “Big John” Maljevic, who shares his father’s astonishing life story, a thrill-packed early 20th...

Join us this week as we talk with Rare Books Librarian Emma Roberts about some unusual gems in the Los Angeles Public Library’s collection. We’ll also visit with Ken Bernstein, Head of the Office of Historic Resources for the City of Los Angeles, to explore the symbiotic relationship...

Join us this week as we visit with pioneering Downtown restaurateur Judith Markoff Hansen about her remarkable journey opening Gorky’s at 8th & San Julian in 1981. We’ll also visit with acting City Archivist, Michael Holland, for an introduction to the hidden treasures waiting to...

Join us this week as we visit with Alison Bruesehoff, Executive Director of the Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum, to talk about 18th century rancho life and the site’s prominent role in early California aviation. Then we meet Southern California’s tile expert, Brian Kaiser, at the former...

Join us this week as we talk with Cal State Los Angeles history professor Mark Wild about his research into the contentious world of street speaking in early 20th century L.A. Then we cross the campus to visit the laboratories of the Criminalistics Department, for a glimpse into the cutting edge...

Join us this week as we visit with raconteur and West Hollywood nightclub owner John Maljevic, to talk about his fifty-year friendship with the celebrated Western silversmith Charlie Sample. We’ll also sit down with Mike the PoeT (aka Mike Sonksen) to get the scoop on his new poems and new...

Join us this week as we talk with J. Scott Smith about his 29 Palms photographic series, celebrating the varied beauty of Southern California’s palm trees. We’ll also visit with performance artist Tim Youd, while he types a Charles Bukowski novel in the bed of a rented pickup truck...

Join us this week as we talk with Paul Rood, Professor of Political Science at Biola University, and biographer of one of Los Angeles’ great philanthropists, Union Oil man Lyman Stewart. We’ll also talk with Donald Spivack, former Deputy Chief of Operations and Policy for the Los...

Join us this week as we talk with Stephen Gee, author of a new book on the legacy of the iconic Los Angeles architect John Parkinson. We’ll also visit with Pat Adler Ingram, Director of the Southern California Historical Society, to discuss Charles Fletcher Lummis, early L.A. booster, librarian,...

Join us this week as we talk with Jennifer Bastian, Visual Resources Specialist at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, about her flavorful new “Exhibition in Six Courses: Testing Recipes from the Clark’s Manuscript Collection.” We’ll also visit with Brian Kaiser, Southern...

Join us this week as we talk with Mona Leirich at the Villa Aurora, about the far reaching legacy of the literary lion Lion Feuchtwanger, who escaped the Nazis to come live in exile in the Pacific Palisades. We’ll also visit with Marcia Harris, who portrays Long Beach’s own firebrand...

Join us this week as we talk with Elaine, caretaker for evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson’s 1920s Moorish castle in Lake Elsinore, about the building’s history, design and role as Sister Aimee’s cherished retreat from the limelight. We’ll also visit with Donald Spivack,...

Tune in to Episode 22 of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Southern California tile expert Brian Kaiser about the German exile culture that flourished amidst the lovely tiles of the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades. We’ll also visit with retired National Guard Lt. Col. Tom Lasser, to...

Tune in to Episode 21 of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Peggy Ronning, curator of the Antelope Valley Indian Museum, about the museum’s fascinating origins as a Hollywood set decorator’s fantasy getaway, his controversial collecting methods, and how the State Parks Service is...

Join us this week as we talk with Philip Estes, Regional Planner for the County of Los Angeles, about his work developing a new historic preservation ordinance. We’ll also sit down with community advocate and gallery director Jonathan Jerald and former CRA/LA urban planner Donald Spivack to...

Tune in to Episode Twenty of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Phyllis Comstock about Tomo-Kahni near Tehachapi, the historic winter home of the Kawaiisu tribe and one of the most remarkable parks in the California State Park system. We’ll also visit with artist Jori Johnson to discuss...

Tune in to Episode Nineteen of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Dave Peters, Professor of Political Science at Biola University and board member the of La Mirada Historical Preservation Advisory Council, for the story of the school’s rich history, from its roots a hundred years ago in...

Tune in to Episode Eighteen of the Esotouric podcast as we sit down with two artists about their site-specific artwork in downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District. Photographer Irving Greines has spent the past ten years documenting the layers and transformations of the poster-covered east wall...

Tune in to Episode Seventeen of the Esotouric podcast as we visit with John Maljevic, manager of nightclubs in West Hollywood’s wild and golden age. We’ll also talk with Mickey Gallivan, Executive Director of the Historical Society of Pomona Valley, about the architectural gems in her...

Tune in to Episode Sixteen of the Esotouric podcast as we sit down with historian Marc Chevalier to debunk myths about the Oviatt Building and its influence on the American Art Deco style. We’ll also talk with Professor Don Johnson of Cal State L.A.‘s Criminalistics Department, for a...

Tune in to Episode Fifteen of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Jenny Watts, curator of photographs at the Huntington Library, about the accession and digitization of 70,000 negatives from the archives of Southern California Edison, documenting electricity in the southland from the late 19th...

Tune in to Episode Fourteen of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Jessica Holada, curator for the current Occidental College Library book arts exhibit, Where Bohemians Gathered, about early 20th century literary culture in North East Los Angeles. Then we’ll visit with our dear friend and...

Tune in to Episode Thirteen of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with filmmaker Alina Skrzeszewska about her work capturing a vanishing neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Well also visit with the much beloved Ruth Ann Dome, dispatcher for the bus company we work with, and learn...

Join us as we visit with Vince Lugo, direct linear descent of Don Antonio Maria Lugo, whose 19th century Spanish Land Grant helped define Southern California. Vince will talk about his family and his father’s pride and joy, San Gabriel’s beloved—and recently...

Tune in to Episode Ten of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Gale Banks, holder of many land speed racing records, about Harvey’s Broiler in Downey, custom car culture and the evolution of California’s creative engine. We’ll also talk with Jackie Miller, who is the curator of...

Tune in to Episode Nine of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Dan Fante, poet, playwright, and novelist about Los Angeles, the creative process, fathers and sons and his new memoir. We’ll also talk with Julie Rivett, grand daughter of Dashiell Hammett, about her grandfather’s...

Tune in to Episode Eight of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Marcia Harris, living history docent at Rancho Los Cerritos, about Fanny Bixby Spencer, an early 20th century suffragette, teetotaler, social reformer, and Long Beach’s own inspirational firebrand—the subject of her new book....

Tune in to Episode Seven of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Maja D’Aoust, the White Witch of Los Angeles, about the Southland’s occult legacy, the real meaning of Karma, and the incredible library at Manly P. Hall’s Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz. We’ll...

Tune in to Episode This week we talk with Joe Holliday at East Jesus, an extendible, inhabitable art work in progress on the south eastern shore of the Salton Sea. We also check in with Brian Kaiser, Southern California’s tile expert, on saving antique tile, George Washington Smith--the father of...

Tune in to Episode Five of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Michael Dawson, of Dawson’s Book Shop-a Los Angeles institution since 1905-about his work on the newly-published photo book `William Reagh, A Long Walk Downtown,’‘ which chronicles the destruction of 19th century...

Tune in to Episode Four of the Esotouric podcast as we talk with Dwain Carlo Crum, LAVA's Visionary of the Year for 2013, world traveller and blogger, about the hidden gems of the San Gabriel Valley and the stewardship of swizzle stick collections. We’ll also check in with Terry Ellsworth,...

Tune in to Episode Three of the Esotouric podcast as we visit with Gordon Pattison, who grew up on old Bunker Hill in the Castle and the Salt Box, the last two Victorians to stand in the way of the CRA’s Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project in the late 1960s. Gordon experiences a return of childhood...

In our latest podcast for the week of January 28th, 2013, we interview Jerry Blackburn of the Aerospace Legacy Foundation about the demolition last month of the last remaining workshops and assembly rooms from the former Downey Space Plant. These were spaces where the command module for the Apollo...