"Off Press" — The Podcast of LMU Magazine

Los Angeles is a rare city with a significance in America that is equally powerful as both myth and reality. Writer Lynell George '84, who is native to this place, has spent years exploring L.A. and its meaning. Here she talks about the inspiration and unease she finds by sinking roots in L.A.'s ever-changing landscape.

With 23 candidates, the Democrats' presidential primary process looks like a dinner party with too many guests. Richard Fox, LMU professor of political science who specializes in U.S. elections, discusses the fight for money, contenders' motivations and how President Trump may try to intervene in the dynamics of the race.

Without women, the sound and substance of today's rock and pop music would be unimaginable. Evelyn McDonnell, director of the LMU journalism program, music writer and co-editor of "Women Who Rock," discusses female artists who for years have confronted and overcome glass ceilings, limited air play and musical prejudice while shaping America's musical heritage.

Gerrymandering, it has been said, creates elections in which politicians choose their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives. Justin Levitt, an expert in constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, tracks gerrymandering around the country. Listen as he explains a tried-and-true method of influencing elections and the possibilities for limiting it.

Carlos Soto '16 started his tequila company, Nosotros, as an undergraduate. Since then, he's mastered everything from recipe to production, bottling, international sales and delivery. He's even faced rocky U.S.-Mexico trade relations. Listen to our podcast to hear Soto talk about all he's learned about the risks of being an entrepreneur.

Los Angeles is considered one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States, and its culinary culture is just as wide-ranging. As food editor of Los Angeles Magazine, Garrett Snyder '09 probably has encountered as many dishes as a chef at the United Nations. Snyder talks about L.A.'s unique food culture, the oddest thing he's ever eaten and some of the city's next hot food trends.   

The fish you order at your favorite seafood restaurant may not be the fish you get. Demian Willette, LMU biology professor, studies species substitution — the substitution of one fish for another. Using Environmental DNA testing, he hopes to improve on a problem in the food chain that begins on fishing vessels and ends on restaurant tables right here in L.A.

In July 1961, Robert Singleton, retired LMU professor of economics, and Helen Singleton M.A. '85 left Los Angeles for New Orleans, where in defiance of state segregation laws, they boarded a train bound for Jackson, Mississippi. Veterans of the civil rights movement's legendary Freedom Riders, the Singletons talk about the fight against segregation and their jail time in Mississippi's Parchman Sta...

After being exiled from Ethiopia, his homeland, Elias Wondimu turned to producing books that help document his country's history. Wondimu is now publisher of LMU's Marymount Institute Press and Tsehai Publishers, which together have created the Harriett Tubman Press, an imprint devoted to African-American fiction and nonfiction. He discusses his former life under the military socialist government...

Don Klosterman '52 set national records as a Loyola Lions quarterback and found even greater success in the pro game as general manager of the Los Angeles' Rams and Express (USFL). Former L.A. Times sportswriter Chris Dufresne, who knew and wrote about Klosterman, talks about a man who was "larger than life" and helped shaped this city's football history on the field and in the front office.

Lisa See is the author of 10 novels and a nonfiction book that explore Chinese and Chinese-American experiences in the United States. Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch talks with See about her new novel, "The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane," and her days as an LMU undergraduate, when she was certain she'd never be a writer.