Imperfect Paradise

Part 5: Was Oscar going to leave the Chicano student movement? Adolfo discovers new information about Oscar’s last months.    Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. Th...

Part 6: Adolfo reckons with his own relationship to his past and the Chicano student movement. And he finds someone who may have clues about what happened the night Oscar died.    Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality j...

You’re at Union Station when the big one hits. The next two minutes are terrifying. By the time you make your way outside, the Los Angeles you know is gone. In Episode One, you experience what the first hours after a massive earthquake could be like. Get Ready For The Big One. What You Need To Know     Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial peri...

Part 3: Adolfo gets his first lead on a person possibly involved in Oscar’s death.   Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by th...

Part 4: Adolfo finds a briefcase with information that could lead to clues about Oscar’s death.    Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible...

Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary , the 2022 podcast from LAist Studios, has been optioned by Participant and is simultaneously being developed as a scripted and documentary limited series.  Part 1: Oscar Gomez was a star of the 1990s Chicano student movement and then, unexpectedly, he died. A rattling event in host Adolfo Guzman-Lopez’s life spurs him to investigate Oscar’s death. ...

Part 2: Adolfo learns that there was a dark side to Oscar’s experience in the Chicano student movement.  Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made po...

Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido is joined by LAist Senior Health Reporter Jackie Fortier and Higher Education Correspondent Adolfo Guzman-Lopez to break down their investigation into why many students and faculty across California's public universities don't know that medication abortion is mandated on their campuses. This is the latest LAist Investigates episode on Imperfect Paradise th...

Part 4: Half a year after Star Garden reopens as a union club, the dancers are still negotiating a contract. LAist producer Emma Alabaster brings you the latest. Plus, some of the dancers have set their sights on a different dream: a worker-owned cooperative strip club.  Here are some resources that informed our reporting: LA Co-op Lab U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives 2021 Worker Cooperative...

Part 3: The Star Garden Topless Dive Bar reopens as a union strip club, but the fight doesn’t end there. What happens after the victory? LAist Producer Emma Alabaster has the story. Here are some resources that informed our reporting: Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex   (In particular, the essay "White Supremacy in Organizing" by Domino Rey) Yes, A Stripper Podcast Unequal Desires: Race a...

Part 2: When the Star Garden strippers go public with their union campaign, they get pushback from the club’s management and a group they didn’t anticipate - other strippers. LAist Producer Emma Alabaster reports. Grow your business–no matter what stage you’re in. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/paradise Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Cr...

Part 1: In 2023, North Hollywood’s Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the U.S. LAist Producer Emma Alabaster tells us the behind-the-scenes story of the workplace conditions that pushed the dancers into action.  CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes sensitive content about sexual assault. For sexual assault and harassment support and resources, call the National Sexual Assau...

Imperfect Paradise Host Antonia Cereijido speaks with philosopher and author of  Elite Capture: How The Powerful Took over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)  Olúfemi O. Táíwò. They examine the question: are identity politics over? It’s a question that was raised and we began to explore with Imperfect Paradise’s  Nury & The Secret Tapes  series. Antonia examines that question more deeply...

Yoga's "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" Part 4: RFK Jr. - The Presidential Candidate for Wellness Conspiracists? A year after Yoga’s “Queen of Conspiracy Theories” first release, Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido explores a new, unexpected chapter in this story with Conspirituality podcast host Matthew Remski, Politico journalist David Freedlander, and LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin, who r...

Part 3: Kundalini Yoga’s #MeToo Moment In early 2020, just as fears about coronavirus are worsening, women begin accusing the founder of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, of sexual assault. Guru Jagat’s surprising response sets the stage for her radicalization during the pandemic. CONTENT WARNING: Mentions of Sexual Assault (Original Air Date: Jan. 18, 2023)  Grow your business–no matter what stage you...

Part 2: Kundalini Royalty Katie Griggs, a young woman from rural Maryland, discovers Kundalini yoga in her early 20s and goes all in. She transforms herself into Guru Jagat, a beloved and controversial yoga and wellness influencer in Los Angeles. In this episode, her friends, family, and coworkers grapple with how she changed in the final years of her life. And we explore the connections between y...

Before her sudden death in 2021, Guru Jagat had become a famous Kundalini yoga teacher based in Los Angeles. But as the global pandemic grew, she started talking like a far-right coronavirus conspiracy theorist. What does her journey down the rabbit hole tell us about the appeal of conspiracies in the yoga and wellness community? Yoga's "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" explores Guru Jagat’s rise to...

This week, Imperfect Paradise , the show about hidden worlds and messy realities brings you an episode of Jo Piazza’s - podcast Under the Influence with Jo Piazza. Last December, Jo had LAist reporter Emily Guerin on to talk about Imperfect Paradise: People vs. Karen , the story about a white mom-fluencer who falsely accused a Latino couple of a crime and their fight to hold her accountable If you...

This week, Imperfect Paradise is featuring Part 3 & Part 4 of a four-part series from How To LA .  HTLA host Brian De Los Santos and producer Evan Jacoby are taking a closer look at L.A. Mayor Karen Bass's "Inside Safe" program. They also recap some of the big questions we've asked throughout the series, and bring a new question to many of our guests from the previous episodes: "What should th...

This week, Imperfect Paradise is featuring Part 1 & Part 2 of a four-part series from How To LA .  Unsheltered life in L.A. can be dangerous and even deadly — and there has been a massive increase in the death rate for unhoused people in the county over the last few years. There is work being done by the mayor’s office to get people off the street and into temporary housing. But the promise of...

Part 4 : What’s the history behind the on and off-stage gender dynamics in Western magic? And what impact did the summer of 2020 have on the field of DEI? Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido explores these questions with magic historian Margaret Steele and Amber Johnson, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff of the Division for Equity and Inclusion at UC Berkeley. For more, visit http...

Part 3 :  Carly Usdin is at risk of getting kicked out of the Magic Castle. Plus, after 2020, the Magic Castle makes changes to address issues of inclusion, including setting up a Diversity and Inclusion Committee. LAist Senior Producer Natalie Chudnovsky explores how the Castle’s promises to do better pan out, several years later.  For more, visit https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise Support LAist...

Part 2 : Once inside the iconic members-only Magic Castle, queer hobbyist magician Carly Usdin starts to become disillusioned with the club. LAist Senior Producer Natalie Chudnovsky dives into how this comes to a head in 2020, when the Magic Castle faces allegations of racism and sexism.  For more, visit https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise Support LAist Today: https://LAist.com/donate Go to Hellof...

Part 1 : When Carly Usdin moved to Los Angeles, they became obsessed with getting inside its iconic members-only club for magicians, the Magic Castle. LAist Senior Producer Natalie Chudnovsky tells the story. For more, visit https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise Support LAist Today: https://LAist.com/donate Go to Hellofresh.com/50imperfect and use code 50imperfect for 50% off plus 15% off the next 2...

Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido is joined by LAist reporter Elly Yu for a special single episode of LAist Investigates , the first of many to come episodes dedicated to one of our newsroom’s investigations. Elly breaks down the history and reality of treatment that led to the “warehousing” of mental health patients in nursing homes across California. Support LAist Today: https://LAist.co...