The 2 Best California City Podcast Episodes
1) How I Found Out About California City
It was supposed to be a simple story about the California drought. Instead, reporter Emily Guerin became obsessed with the bizarre history of a sprawling, half-built desert city.
2) Turning Desert Dust Into Gold
In 2017 Ben Perez goes to a Mojave Desert resort for a free vacation and ends up signing away his life savings. Turns out Ben is one of tens of thousands to believe a version of this dream over the pa...Show More
3) Imperfect Paradise: The legal and political battle over sensitive voter data
A federal judge just dismissed the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against California over full access to the state’s voter registration database. The decision comes months after the depar...Show More
4) 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 screenwriter...Show More
5) 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 tw...Show More
6) 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, do...Show More
7) 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 ter...Show More
8) Imperfect Paradise: How union organizing is being upended by private universities in Southern California
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. ...Show More
9) Imperfect Paradise: Why California's protest law is flawed and the consequences to protesters
After the George Floyd protests of 2020, California took steps to reign in violent policing of protests by passing laws restricting how law enforcement uses less-lethal weapons, like tasers and rubber...Show More
10) Imperfect Paradise: An update to the Bass vs. Crowley feud
Last month, former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristen Crowley filed a legal claim against Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, alleging defamation, retaliation and negligence in the wake of Bass’ firing of...Show More