Who's Next Santa Monica

The second episode of our Mayor's Roundtable podcast features Former Mayor Gleam Davis and activist and researcher Juan Matute. While the focus of this podcast is the city's annual budget, there's also a really interesting mini-discussion at about the eighteen minute mark where we discuss the future of the Civic, Airport (and Airport Park) and how either or both of those properites could be part o...

The first episode of our "Mayor's Roundtable" series at Santa Monica Next features Former Mayor Ted Winterer and local activist Chris Guitierrez to discuss what the city can do to protect its residents and the environment during a Trump presidency. In 2017, Wintermer was mayor at the start of the first Trump presidency. Winterer led Santa Monica's response  focusing on protecting undocumented resi...

This week's episode of Who's Next features an interview with Dr. Paul Drew, familiar to Santa Monia Next readers as the editor/publisher of The Swish, the YMCA's youth basketball newsletter. Every issue, Drew profiles some of the people (players, coaches, refs, etc...) that make the hoops program work. We thought we'd turn the microphone around and point the microphone at Dr. Drew himself so liste...

Damien welcomes back Maya, Emery and Willa for our second "Who's Next" podcast. The three guests are all seniors at Santa Monica High School and leaders of the environmental group Team Marine.  On Wednesday, SMMUSD celebrated becoming a school district completely powered by renewable energy, and in the first ten minutes or so of the podcast, we talk about what achieving that goal means for the Dis...

Welcome to our new podcast series, Who's Next, where we talk to youth leaders in Santa Monica about the issues that are most important to them. With California's primary election next Tuesday, I had a chance to talk with three co-captain's for Samohi's Team Marine.  The conversation jumps back and forth between a discussion of the election and issues that youth are concerned about nationwide and a...

This weekend the American Political Science Association (APSA) rolled into Los Angeles for its annual conference. But this year, the annual confab was roiled in controversy as the association was moving on with its conference  after Unite Here Local 11 asked them to cancel the conference or move it online in a show of solidarity as their strike and picketing against hotels in the region continued....

This week's podcast features Katie Neginsky with the International Women's Resource Center . IWRC is a "community of learning, support, and resources for refugee and immigrant women and their families focused on building joy and momentum." It offers plenty of ways for people to get involved with helping refugees adjust to American culture from teaching classes online, to helping at events, to fund...

The What's Next podcast is back, and this interview is a doozy. Featuring Democratic Club President Jon Katz, we have a wide ranging conversation discussing everything from how the Dem. Club makes endorsements and gets involved in issues, how Santa Monica IS safe, and even why Leslie Nielsen does a great job playing the President of the United States in Scary Movie 3. If you prefer to read a trans...

A recent article at Next discussed the Rent Control Board and how next week they are expected to vote to increase the rent by up to 2.8% for properties governed by the city's rent control laws. To explain the process by which increases are set, the value of rent control for a city such as Santa Monica and other matters related to the vote; we brought on Rent Control Boardmember Daniel Ivanov for t...

Welcome to What's Next, Episode 5 featuring SM Spoke's Cynthia Rose. Cynthia has been involved in mobility, street safety and environmental politics in Santa Monica for decades and we're happy to have her join us as part of our coverage of Bike Month! If you're just joining us, you can catch up on past episodes of Santa Monica Next: Episode 1 with Jesse Zwick , Episode 2 with Kate Cagle , Episode...

Alas, one of Santa Monica's most important and most-underheralded activists, Abby Arnold is leaving Santa Monica after most of her adult life, almost 40 years. Her kids have made lives in Sonoma, and Arnold is planning on joining then for a happy retirement. However, that gives us a chance to have one last interview with the former co-chair of Santa Monica Forward, long-time member of several city...

For the third episode of the What's Next podcast, Damien Newton interviews Rick Cole, the former city manager for the City of Santa Monica. Cole has also served as City Manager in. handful of other Southern California Cities and is currently the Chief Deputy Controller, City of LA. He also served as Mayor of the City of Pasadena. If you enjoy this podcast and want to hear more Rick Cole (or more o...

Welcome to the first episode of Santa Monica Next's new podcast What's Next hosted by Damien Newton. This week's episode features Spectrum News 1 anchor Kate Cagle, who is perhaps even better known to our readers and listeners in Santa Monica from her work at the Santa Monica Daily Press. Listen on and find out what Chase from Paw Patrol and April O'Neal have in common. A full transcript of the ep...

Welcome to the first episode of Santa Monica Next's new podcast What's Next hosted by Damien Newton. And we're doubly proud to introduce our first guest: Santa Monica Councilmember Jesse Zwick! A full transcript of the interview with Jesse can be found at Santa Monica Next . We'd like to give a special thank you to Jesse for being brave enough to be our first guest and all of you for giving us a l...