The Big Disaster: The Big Burn

JB Hamby is the dealmaker from California, and at 28 years old, he’s the youngest and least experienced among the representatives from the seven states involved with the Colorado River water negotiations. LAist correspondent Emily Guerin explores the beginnings of Hamby’s understanding of water growing up in the Imperial Valley, a desert farming area in California.

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The Colorado River is in the midst of one of the worst water crises in recorded history. Climate change and overuse are taking a significant toll. Seven states, including California, must compromise and reach a solution to prevent the river from collapsing.

In late 2023, the tensions were running high between the major players in the water world as they convened at the annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas. LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin was there, seeking to learn as much as she can about the people with the most power on the river.

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She Has A Name is set against the backdrop of the drug epidemic in 1980s Detroit. The new podcast hosted by NPR's Tonya Mosley blends elements of investigative journalism and memoir to tell a story about loss and redemption, mending broken family ties, and the trauma experienced by countless individuals who've lost loved ones to violence.

Listen to all episodes of She Has A Name from APM Studios and Truth Be Told Presents here. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode of She Has A Name includes discussion of some heavy topics, including murder and other acts of violence. Listener discretion is advised.

For support and resources, please visit:

Project Cold Case
National Organization for Victim Assistance
VictimConnect Resource Center

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Part 8:

Adolfo finds new information about the night Oscar died, and has to have a difficult conversation about what really happened to Oscar.

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This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Part 7: 

Adolfo learns about the dangers of Santa Barbara’s bluffs and gets a second opinion on Oscar’s death report. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions about fatal injuries and suicide.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers services to talk to a skilled counselor. If you are feeling distressed and need to talk to a counselor, please call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or visit https://988lifeline.org/.

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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. 

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Part 5:

Was Oscar going to leave the Chicano student movement? Adolfo discovers new information about Oscar’s last months. 

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Part 4:

Adolfo finds a briefcase with information that could lead to clues about Oscar’s death. 

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Part 3:

Adolfo gets his first lead on a person possibly involved in Oscar’s death.

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Part 2:

Adolfo learns that there was a dark side to Oscar’s experience in the Chicano student movement. 

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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. 

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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 that highlights reporting from our newsroom.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes first-hand description of an outpatient abortion procedure.

For additional information and resources, you can visit https://abortion.ca.gov/

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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:

For more resources 

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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:

Click here for more resources 

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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.

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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 Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673, which is a service of RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network).

For more, visit https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise

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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 with Táíwò and presses him on why he believes identity politics have failed to deliver on their promise to create greater social equity and what he thinks is the more effective political alternative. Antonia’s conversation with Táíwò kicks off the first Imperfect Inquiry, a recurring Imperfect Paradise segment in which Antonia interviews thinkers, experts, and stakeholders on themes, issues, and questions that we examine on the show. 

For more, visit https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise

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Imperfect Paradise: Yoga's "Queen of Conspiracies": 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, Politicojournalist David Freedlander, and LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin, who reported the series. This episode examines how the conspiracy theories, once relegated to a subset of yoga and wellness communities, are being brought into the political mainstream through the presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is campaigning on a mix of conspiracies from both the wellness world and the far right.

For more, visit https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise

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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) 

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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 yoga and conspiracies like QAnon.

(Original Air Date: Jan. 11, 2023) 

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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 fame and follows along as she responds not just to the pandemic, but to a #metoo movement scandal that rocked the Kundalini yoga world in early 2020. It also explores themes of misinformation, how a healthy distrust in government and medicine can turn dark, the "relativism around truth" in the wellness industry and the influence of social media on radicalization.

The series first came out in December 2022. We're republishing it because it's one of our favorites and remains relevant. We've updated the series with a fourth episode.

In this first episode, Guru Jagat starts the pandemic with an understandable skepticism of official medical advice, but quickly grows to embrace an array of far-right conspiracy theories. 

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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 the relationship be between mutual aid volunteers and government agencies?"

If you want to learn more about mutual aid in Los Angeles, check out Evan's reporting on LAist.com

Or, if you want to learn about mutual aid groups in your neighborhood and maybe join them, check out these resources:

Los Angeles: 

National:

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains strong language and includes sensitive content about drugs, rape, suicide, and death.

For substance dependency and mental health support and resources, call SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or text 988.

Guests in Part 3: Nono, unhoused resident of an Inside Safe motel in Palms; Nick Gerda, LAist Unhoused Communities Reporter; LA Mayor Karen Bass; Councilmember Kevin de León of Council District 14; Councilmember Nithya Raman of Council District 4; Hawk, U.S. Veteran & Skid Row Resident

Guests in Part 4:Aria Cataño, founder of WaterDrop LA; Ndindi Kitonga, founder of Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid (PUMA); Councilmember Nithya Raman of Council District 4; Benjamin Henwood, PhD, professor of social policy and health at the University of Southern California

Music in Part 3 episode composed by:Chris Schlarb, Dexter Thomas, Evan Jacoby, Geir Sundstøl, Meitei, Ricky Eat Acid, Woo

Music in Part 4 episode composed by:Dexter Thomas, Evan Jacoby, Ill Considered, Meitei, Nala Sinephro, Ricky Eat Acid

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This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

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 services — whether in the form of housing, treatment for substance addiction, or mental health counseling — cannot help if people aren’t alive in 6 months, a year — or 5 — to receive them.
While they wait, many unhoused people have come to rely on mutual aid volunteers to cover their immediate needs, from overdose prevention to fresh drinking water.
In this mini-series from How To LA, host Brian De Los Santos and producer Evan Jacoby explore what these mutual aid groups actually do for our unhoused neighbors, and where these service gaps come from in the first place.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains strong language and includes sensitive content about drug overdose and death.

For substance dependency and mental health support and resources, call SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or text 988.

Guests in Part 1:Ndindi Kitonga, founder Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid (PUMA); Jesse Goldshear, volunteer with PUMA and postdoc researcher studying public health at the University of California, San Diego; Aria Cataño, co-founder of WaterDrop LA; Sade Kammen, volunteer with WaterDrop LA and social worker in Skid Row

Guests in Part 2:LA Mayor Karen Bass; Councilmember Kevin de León of Council District 14; Councilmember Nithya Raman of Council District 4; Hawk, U.S. Veteran & Skid Row Resident; Sade Kammen, Volunteer With WaterDrop LA; Nick Gerda, LAist Unhoused Communities Reporter

Music in this episode composed by:Chris Schlarb, Dexter Thomas, Evan Jacoby, Floating Points, Geir Sundstøl, Ill Considered, Imaginary Softwoods, indiegamemusic.com, K. Leimer, Laurie Spiegal, Nala Sinephro, Laurie Spiegal, Meitei, Ricky Eat Acid, Woo

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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 https://LAist.com/ImperfectParadise

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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Part 4: LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin and Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido explore how and why Sadie and Eddie Martinez’s accuser, Katie Sorensen, went viral with her false accusation, plus how mom-fluencers can spread conspiracies. With insights from “Momfluenced” author Sara Peterson.  

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#SadieMartinez #ImperfectParadise #LAistStudios

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Part 3:  The white woman who falsely accused a Latino couple of attempting to kidnap her kids faces an investigation and goes on trial after her accusers fight to hold her accountable. Can the same criminal justice system that so-called Karens abuse be used to bring them to justice? LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin reports.

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#SadieMartinez #ImperfectParadise #LAistStudios

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Part 2: When a Latino couple, Sadie and Eddie Martinez, is falsely accused by a white woman of attempted kidnapping, their lives are upended as the accusation goes viral. LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin examines how the police’s investigation takes an unexpected turn and how the dark corners of the internet may have influenced the couple’s accuser. 

CONTENT WARNING: Sensitive subject matter

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Part 1: Sadie and Eddie Martinez, a Latino couple, were falsely accused of attempted kidnapping by a white mom-fluencer in Petaluma, California. LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin tells us about Sadie’s quest to hold her accuser accountable, amid the “Karen phenomenon” when multiple white women were caught in viral videos falsely accusing people of color of crimes.

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In the year since the L.A. City Council tape scandal, a lot has changed.

Efforts are underway to reform the redistricting process. Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo are gone from the council. Only Kevin De León remains. Progressive shifts in the council are influencing its policies, and new elected members are working to forge a new way forward in L.A. This is the last episode of Nury & The Secret Tapes.

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Host Antonia Cereijido presses former L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez to account for the racist, hurtful comments she made on the secret recording that rocked Los Angeles and led to her resignation.

CONTENT WARNING: Sensitive subject matter. 

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Before the L.A. City Council tape scandal, Nury Martinez, the former council president, was known as a champion of working class immigrants. After, she became the poster child of anti-Blackness and colorism in the Latino community. Host Antonia Cereijido examines how Nury's upbringing influenced her politics and the divisions that emerged within the council under Nury's leadership, leading up to the secretly-recorded conversation.

Listen to Imperfect Paradise.

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We take you behind the scenes of the L.A. City Council tape scandal, a year later. The secret recordings of the conversation among four of the city’s most powerful Latino leaders making racist, derogatory insults – exposed thorny, unresolved issues of race and politics. Host Antonia Cereijido explores those issues and speaks with the people who were most affected by the tapes, including former councilman Mike Bonin. And for the first time since resigning, former L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez breaks her silence.

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This podcast is supported by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.*

“Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes” tells the story of the biggest political scandal in recent Los Angeles history. A secret recording leaked online in 2022 exposed then-LA City Council President Nury Martinez making racist and derogatory remarks. A year after the scandal and her resignation, Nury breaks her silence in an exclusive interview with LAist.

From LAist Studios, “Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes,” coming September 27, 2023.

We are excited to announce LAist Studios' award-winning narrative podcast "Imperfect Paradise" relaunches in September as a weekly show with Antonia Cereijido as our host!  Be sure to follow and subscribe to "Imperfect Paradise" wherever you get your podcasts. 

From LAist Studios: "Imperfect Paradise", new weekly episodes coming September 27th. 

Why do people stay during wildfires and how did the Wild West culture shape the people who live on this hilly, chaparral-covered coastline? A history of Malibu, the evolution of surf localism, and the genesis of the Point Dume Bombers. We meet the obstinate Queen of Malibu whose determination and love of this land shaped the culture of one of the best surf spots in the world.

This is an episode from Sandcastles, a podcast about home, how we create it, and why we fight so hard for it. Sandcastles is hosted and created by Adriana Cargill. To listen to the full season, visit https://www.wavemakermedia.org/ or find Sandcastles wherever you get your podcasts. 

Loss, hope and resilience in the face of one of nature's most terrifying forces: wildfire. We meet a group of surfers called the Point Dume Bombers who stayed in Malibu during the 2018 Woolsey Fire and find out how they survived the most destructive fire in Los Angeles County history.

This is an episode from Sandcastles, a podcast about home, how we create it, and why we fight so hard for it. Sandcastles is hosted and created by Adriana Cargill. To listen to the full season, visit https://www.wavemakermedia.org/ or find Sandcastles wherever you get your podcasts. 

K-Pop has put Koreatown on the map for a lot of people who might not have known about the neighborhood otherwise. Fans from around the country visit the area for concerts, special K-Pop events, and to find rare or one-of-a-kind merch. Learn what these establishments in K-town reveal about the history of the neighborhood and the music, and how those connections have shaped Korean Americans who have grown up in Los Angeles. Features Ryan Lee Wong, author of the novel, “Which Side Are You On”.
(originally published April 6, 2023)

Support K-pop Dreaming and other LAist Studios podcasts by donating now at LAist.com/join 

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming 

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

The LA Uprising exploded racial and economic injustices simmering under the surface of Los Angeles into the open. From LAist Studios, season 2 of California Love: K-Pop Dreaming, host Vivian Yoon takes a look at the events leading up to the Uprising, and the efforts following the protests to promote racial harmony in Los Angeles, including the staging of an African music festival in South Los Angeles that featured a performance by an up-and-coming Korean American rapper named Tiger JK. Years after the festival, he would go on to make a name for himself in South Korea as the “Godfather of Korean Hip-Hop”. (Originally published March 23, 2023)

Support K-pop Dreaming and other LAist Studios podcasts by donating now at LAist.com/join 

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Save 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Dreaming 

This episode is brought to you by your local Kia dealers. Visit kia.com to discover movement that inspires.

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

We get into our feelings. 

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

Jacob and retired LA County Fire Captain Derek Bart answer your burning questions. 

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

We check out an unconventional solution to wind-driven fires.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

Why prescribed burning won’t solve all of our fire woes.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

Digesting what we’ve learned. Plus, how other places in the U.S. have figured out fire management.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

We know prescribed burning is a major solution…so why aren’t we doing more of it?

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

What it’s like to put good fire to the ground.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

Gold, genocide and colonialism: our path to seeing fire as the enemy.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

Why trees that are adapted to living with fire are now burning… and how we might save them.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

We examine one particularly pivotal wildfire - the Tubbs fire of 2017.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/bigburn and get on your way to being your best self.

As the world enters a new age of wildfires, science reporter Jacob Margolis dives deep into personal stories that illuminate the history of how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and maybe even thrive while the world around us burns.

We’re back at Union Station, moments before the Big One hits, but this time you, our hero, and the city are prepared. And then back to reality and the team from TBOYSG reflect on the lessons they have learned while making the show. 

In this episode, a rat learns to skateboard and we learn how our brain processes (or doesn't) the idea of a big one. 

After six months of research, Jacob finally makes an earthquake kit and ends up asleep outside in the rain on Christmas Eve. 

The Buildings Every day when you walk into work you assume your building is safe. What if it's not? We try to get answers about two 52-story towers in downtown L.A. built using construction methods that structural engineers no longer use. 

After the big one, the Los Angeles economy will be shook. Hollywood might be too big to fail but what does an economic hit like this mean for you? 

You wake up in a city that feels unfamiliar and watch as neighbors choose to hunker down or head out. The aftershocks are unrelenting and you are almost out of clean water. Will you stay or will you go? 

A polar bear killer, a Sputnik-inspired scientist, a man who uses the past to see the future and seismologist Lucy Jones. What do they all have in common? Without them, we wouldn’t understand the what, when, why and how of the big one. 

No car, the trains are down, the road's a mess and you need to get home. In this episode, you walk 15 miles back to your house through a city that feels unrecognizable.  

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.