LA Made: The Other Moonshot

At least four people have died in custody at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California. A recent lawsuit alleges that living conditions there are inhumane, and some are comparing the facility to "concentration camps." LAist reporter Julia Barajas has been reporting on Adelanto and takes us there – she tells us about detainee experiences and how California lawmakers are trying to enfo...

Los Angeles Unified School District could face an open-ended strike if multiple labor deals are not made by April 14. The potential strike comes at a time when the district faces significant challenges, including a budget deficit and a superintendent under FBI investigation. LAist K-12 Education Senior Reporter Mariana Dale breaks down how we got here and the consequences for the district's 400,00...

A whistleblower at the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) filed a complaint alleging a colleague with a history of sleeping on the job was in charge of emergency workers sending evacuation alerts during critical moments of the Eaton Fire. LAist Climate and Environment Senior Reporter Erin Stone breaks down the complaint, what happened at OEM when the January 2025 fires broke out, and...

The Academy has historically favored men when it comes to giving out its Oscars statuettes.  Women are once again not only underrepresented among this year’s Best Picture nominees, but also fared worse than last year. Emily Tarinelli analyzed how much female characters speak across the 10 nominated films, including top contenders like Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Chloe Zhao’s...

As Route 66 celebrates its centennial anniversary, we look back at its enduring impact as an iconic road that stretched from Illinois to California — and some of its darker past. It wasn’t just a mode of transportation for family road trips. The historic route was also a primary path for Black Americans to escape the South during the Jim Crow era, all while navigating around sundown to...

California has spent billions of dollars on a free universal preschool program available to all eligible 4-year-olds in the state. However, there are no official plans in place from the state to evaluate the success of the program, also known as transitional kindergarten, or TK. LAist Early Childhood Senior Reporter Elly Yu joins Imperfect Paradise to discuss why experts say research is needed, wh...

LA 2028 Olympics head Casey Wasserman is facing growing pressure to resign from his post after recently released Epstein files revealed emails Wasserman exchanged with Ghislaine Maxwell. The board behind LA28 — the private planning committee in charge of organizing the 2028 Games — has voted to keep Wasserman at the group’s helm, despite many city officials calling for his resign...

As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown continues, we explore what’s happening on the legal side of immigration enforcement. A group of court observers at Santa Ana Immigration Court is trying to help immigrants and asylum-seekers who appear there get a fair shot under the law. LAist Orange County Correspondent Jill Replogle tells us about her experience following the court...

Catastrophic fires are becoming more and more common across California. After-action reports about the fires and other disasters can help officials prevent past mistakes. But the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or CalOES, has failed to deliver legally mandated reports on time following disasters for years. LAist Science Reporter Jacob Margolis looks at why the agency is s...

In this first episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": America aims for the moon. President John F. Kennedy stands proudly behind the mission to advance the country and welcomes a diverse team to get the job done. That team includes three Black engineers who have a studded background — Charlie Cheathem, Nathaniel LeVert and Shelby Jacobs. However, the three men quickly realize that social p...

Sithy Yi and her family fled Cambodia to the U.S. following the takeover of their home country by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. But Yi’s visa application process has taken years, and despite complying with ICE, she’s been detained. LAist Watchdog Correspondent Jordan Rynning joins us to breakdown Yi’s story and how new policy changes from the Trump administration will affect Yi&...

The 2028 LA Olympic Games were initially promised to be no-cost to taxpayers. However, the Los Angeles Police Department requested nearly $100 million from the city for additional resources to police the games. LAist reporter Libby Rainey tells us what’s in LAPD’s request, how this could impact the city budget, and what it means for your tax dollars.  Grow your business–no m...

The legal battle with the Trump administration to get access to your sensitive voter data began in Orange County, but is now playing out nationally. The outcome could affect hundreds of millions of people across the country and determine how the federal government uses your private voter information. Shortly after suing Orange County, the Justice Department sued California and 22 other states, alo...

It’s been one year since two of the most destructive fires in California’s history – the Eaton Fire in Altadena and the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades – killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. In this episode, we talk with LAist Climate and Environment Reporter Erin Stone on how families in the Palisades and Altadena are rebuilding. We'll also h...

This episode originally aired on March 19, 2025. It’s hard to find people in Hollywood who are willing to speak publicly about their enthusiasm for AI, for fear of being seen as “siding with the machines.” And yet, many people are quietly using the technology already. In this episode, we interview two enthusiastic early adopters of AI in filmmaking about how they’re using i...

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 screenwriters and actors are very skeptical of AI, and concerns about AI were central to the Hollywood labor strikes in 2023. But  animators may actually be the most at risk of losing their jobs to AI. In th...

Los Angeles is an integral part of space shuttle Endeavour’s journey. The California Science Center is building a new, larger home for the shuttle, which will make it the only place in the world to see a complete shuttle system with its equipment in launch position. The project – years in the making – still has a long road ahead. LAist reporter Makenna Sievertson takes Imperfect...

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 two women were left behind, raising serious questions. In this episode of  Imperfect Paradise, LAist Health and Housing Reporter Aaron Schrank looks at what went wrong, who should be held accountab...

At least 280 childcare spaces were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires in January. LAist reporter Libby Rainey and early childhood senior reporter Elly Yu followed two women who ran childcare businesses out of their homes until the Eaton Fire destroyed them. In this episode of Imperfect Paradise , they look at how these two childcare providers are rebuilding their lives and businesses, the c...

Nearly 3,000 patients have been forced to find gender-affirming care elsewhere after the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles closed their LA Center for Trans Youth Health and Development in July. The closure comes amid threats of cuts to federal funding for providers of gender affirming-care and other attempts to restrict LGBTQ rights nationwide. LAist producer Kevin Tidmarsh joins us to talk ab...

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, doctors say that hospital administrators have even allowed immigration agents to interfere with patients’ medical care. LAist correspondent Jill Replogle has been reporting on the hospital. She te...

All four-year-olds in the state of California now have access to a free preschool program in their local school district. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a plan to expand the state’s transitional kindergarten, or TK, program in May 2021, as part of a broader move to create the largest free early education program in the U.S. So what does transitional kindergarten offer kids and what are the challen...

In less than a thousand days, Los Angeles will be hosting the summer Olympics. Many cities worldwide have been put into debt by the games, so what could they mean for Los Angeles? LAist reporter Libby Rainey joins Imperfect Paradise  to look back at the history of the games when LA last hosted them, the financial outlook for the city, and what role the federal government might play.  Thi...

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 term health effects following the leak. LAist Climate and Environment Reporter Erin Stone discusses the 10-year anniversary of the disaster and what’s standing in the way of the facility being clos...

The Trump administration’s immigration policies have resulted in raids and protests in Southern California and across the country, and the administration has also moved to tighten who gets citizenship. Recently, the federal government pushed out new guidelines for naturalization. The situation has raised fundamental questions around what it means to be a U.S. citizen and how the process to b...