LA Made: The Other Moonshot

Proposition 50 is part of a nationwide battle over control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Californians are being asked to take a side: Should the state be temporarily allowed to redraw congressional maps to counter the Trump administration and redistricting in Texas? LAist Civics & Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze and Civics & Democracy Engagement Producer Brianna Lee break...

A charter reform commission was created in 2024 in response to multiple Los Angeles city government scandals, including the leak of a racist tape featuring City Council President Nury Martinez. One of the commission’s aims was to modify the LA charter, which is basically the city’s constitution. But reports indicate that this commission is struggling to do its job. There are calls for...

A new report details the Eaton and Palisades fires, including failures in the emergency response. But this report bears striking similarities with another -- which chronicled the response to the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Southern California. LAist science reporter Jacob Margolis discusses the reports and what they mean for L.A. County moving forward. This LAist podcast is supported by Amazon Autos. Buy...

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. In addition to those companies, colleges like the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University are also joining the movement to push back against labor groups. If this movement su...

After the George Floyd protests of 2020, California took steps to rein in violent policing of protests by passing laws restricting how law enforcement uses less-lethal weapons, like tasers and rubber bullets. But high profile protests in 2024 and 2025 – including this summer’s protests against the ICE raids in Los Angeles – have revealed major flaws in those laws. LAist Senior Ed...

Censorship efforts at libraries nationwide have increased steadily over the last several years. In the 2023 - 24 school year, more than 10,000 book bans were counted in the country’s public schools. These efforts have become a cornerstone of a larger national debate over cultural influences and parents' rights to restrict those influences. LAist Orange County Correspondent Jill Replogle...

In the final episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": Despite several stopgaps and hiccups, the moon landing is a monumental success, although many Black Americans feel it’s come at a cost to their progress. The discrimination Charlie, Nate and Shelby  faced at work finally makes it into government hearings. And the trio today reflect on their contributions to the space race, expressin...

In this episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": The launch of Apollo 6. Nate and Charlie must choose how to respond when their work is undermined by superiors, leading to tense stand-offs. Meanwhile Shelby works on a project which will define his legacy — and our view of Earth.  Workplace pay disparities come to light, while the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. reveals tension...

In this episode of "LA Made: The Other Moonshot": Were these three engineers set up to fail? The space race starts to hit debilitating roadblocks, and the Black aerospace engineers are beginning to feel the weight of the workplace — and the clock ticking. Shelby, Nate and Charlie develop different ways to cope with the pressure. A tragedy during an Apollo 1 flight simulation raises the stake...

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...

When Joanne Higgins was growing up in Compton in Los Angeles, she heard her godfather, Charlie Cheathem, tell stories about his key role in the Apollo mission to the moon. As an adult she realized that his experiences — and those of other Black engineers — had been left out of the history books. She set out to record for the first time the accounts of these men whose crucial contributi...

In this episode, Ruth and Elliot Handler are gone, and the new Mattel team, led by a man who feared the volatility of the toy business, diversified the company and made a big gamble on electronics. It didn’t work. Fortunately, Barbie ends up in the sure hands of some trailblazing women executives, who could see that the culture was moving in a direction very compatible with Barbie’s persona. From...

For Barbie, the cultural upheaval of the 60s and 70s incites one identity crisis after another as Mattel tries to keep up with the times. On top of that, she has a new boyfriend to deal with. Ken's creation is a big hit for Barbie fans, but he’s facing a few growing pains of his own. In this episode, we investigate Ken's origin story, delve into the inner workings of Mattel, and hear how Barbie's...

When Barbie arrives on the toy scene in 1959, her celebrity is instantaneous, and not just because of her controversial appearance. Worldwide, Barbie is still the best-selling doll of all time. But Barbie has always been more than just a doll - she's a cultural touchstone. From prototype to prestige, this episode kicks off the origin story of Barbie as told by her creators in their own words. This...

Season 2 of “LA Made” tells the true story of the making and marketing of the most famous doll in the world, Barbie, told by the people who did it. We’ll hear from Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler, who spent years trying to convince her own company to make a teen aged fashion doll. From LAist Studios, “LA Made: The Barbie Tapes,” coming July 6, 2023. 

It's been more than 50 years since an American has set foot on the moon, or even gotten close to it. But on Monday, NASA named the four astronauts who will crew the upcoming Artemis II  mission. One of the astronauts selected,  Victor Glover , a Southern Californian from Pomona graduated from Ontario High School in 1994 and went on to study engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before enlisting...

What is it about gazing at the stars that inspires humans — including our very own Suicide Squad — to attempt the impossible? And what is it about sunny Southern California that inspires them to do it here? In this episode we find out.   Support LA Made: Blood, Sweat & Rockets by donating now at LAist.com/join

We go inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and get a tour that’s not available to the public: watching technicians build spacecraft with Kobie Boykins, hanging out with Nagin Cox at the Mars Yard, and demystifying a campus famous for its secrecy.

Frank Malina’s legacy has often been eclipsed by flashier figures in American aerospace (like Jack Parsons and Werner Von Braun). But in this episode, we’ll show how Malina’s work paved the way for modern spaceflight — and the future missions of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

When Jack Parsons dies in an explosion, conspiracy theories foment. Was it murder by a disgruntled ex-cop? Assassination by the US government? In this episode we wrestle to make sense of both the circumstances surrounding Parsons' death and the legacy he left behind.

After WWII, the U.S. hired and promoted Nazi aerospace engineers in a program called Operation Paperclip — yet it drove away its own rocketeers, Malina and Tsien, for alleged communist activity. In this episode, we unpack that paradox.

While Frank Malina escaped the worst of the FBI's treatment, Suicide Squad member Tsien Hsue-Shen was not so lucky. This episode chronicles the shocking story of how the United States wound up losing one of its most brilliant minds in rocketry to China. 

Malina leaves behind military work and brings his idealism to a new life and a new organization: UNESCO, in Paris. Back in the US, the FBI fumes, arrests Sidney Weinbaum, and makes every attempt to extradite Frank Malina.

Horrified that his new rocket design will become the vehicle for a nuclear warhead, Malina leaves JPL… just in time for the Red Scare to ramp up. Malina flees to France, but the FBI is hot on his trail. And one of Malina’s former Aerojet colleagues seems more than happy to tell them about Malina’s communist past.

Jack Parsons’s involvement in sexmagick threatens his position at Aerojet. And his troubles at home reach a breaking point when a red-haired, thirtysomething science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard walks into his world… and catches the eye of Jack’s girlfriend.