L.A. World

Election Day is next Tuesday, and L.A. is about to choose between Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman. L.A. Material reporters Matt Hamilton and Tomo Chien break down the final sprint, from DSA’s national leadership threatening to un-endorse Raman and expel her from the organization to Rick Caruso ultimately backing Bass, his former rival. Then L.A. Material editorial director Julia Wick walks us through some of the rest of the city ballot: six charter reform measures, a city attorney race pitting a law-and-order prosecutor against a DSA-backed deputy AG, and two City Council runoffs, including a historic one in South L.A. Plus, Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc. explains what early mail-in ballots can (and can’t) tell us, why we probably won’t know the winner on election night, and the sleeper statewide race he’s watching.

Last week, the Dodgers got swept by the Milwaukee Brewers, ending the dream of a World Series three-peat. This week, L.A. Material creative producer and lifelong fan Pablo Goldstein joins us to figure out what went wrong, from the oldest lineup in baseball (they call themselves Los Viejitos) to Shohei Ohtani’s late-season slump. We also meet some of Dodger Nation’s biggest characters, including a man whose wife paints his head like a baseball. Plus, Jesse Nuñez, who oversaw Spanish media and Latino initiatives for the Dodgers from 2014-2018, explains how the Dodgers built the most devoted Latino fan base in American sports, and why he thinks the team now takes it for granted. And we look ahead to a possible lockout and what happens to L.A. when Ohtani gets old.

Tourists flock to it from all over the world, and most Angelenos avoid it at all costs. This week, we’re taking you to Hollywood Boulevard. On the Walk of Fame, we meet the costumed characters who work the sidewalk, including a duct-taped Freddy Krueger and a 22-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator who can make $700 on a good day. We also learn who controls the stars (and what one costs), and why a statue of Anna May Wong has been sitting legless at La Brea for more than a year. Plus, the boulevard’s strange origin story, from a would-be Christian temperance colony to a French painter who drew thousands of tourists a month. And we look ahead to the long-delayed plan to remake the street, and the car-free experiment planned for the 2028 Olympics.

With 26 days until the mayoral election, Matt Hamilton is back for another installment of Campaign Supernova. We break down the latest candidate forums, the L.A. Times/UC Berkeley poll that has Nithya Raman ahead of Karen Bass with a third of voters still undecided, and which campaign is winning on social media. Plus, we welcome our first-ever outside guest: Rep. Laura Friedman, the former Hollywood producer who now represents Burbank, Glendale, West Hollywood and parts of Los Angeles and Pasadena. She tells us how she got Jon Voight and President Trump behind her bipartisan bill proposing a federal film tax credit, and whether it could actually bring production back to Los Angeles. And she weighs in on the Cinerama Dome's comeback and the speed cameras arriving on L.A. streets.

Mosquitoes are biting harder than ever, with numbers in L.A. running at least 30% above the five-year average, so we're devoting a whole episode to the pests taking over our city. We ask the Vector Control District whether those striped ankle-biters are here to stay. Plus, a flea-borne typhus outbreak in Wilshire Center has put six people in the hospital and we explore why cases hit a record countywide last year. Then, we follow the reporter who took a jar of worm-like creatures from the Adelanto Detention Center's water and figured out what they were. Finally, on whose advice is Ari Emanuel eating a daily cup of live worms? We track the potential origins of the health regimen he describes in his new memoir.

Twenty-five years ago, a scrappy little movie about street racers living in Angelino Heights turned L.A.'s underground car scene into a global franchise that has since traveled to Tokyo, Brazil, and outer space. Now the Fast & Furious franchise is back home as a roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the cars, crowds, and risks it glamorized are still very much part of the city. We also ask a veteran of L.A.’s street racing scene why he doesn't consider today's street takeovers car culture at all, as the LAPD cracks down with mass arrests and hype videos of its own. Plus, a field report from the new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster, where the merch is selling better than expected and the screams have Toluca Lake neighbors up in arms. And we dig into the brain injuries and deaths tied to Six Flags Magic Mountain's X2 coaster to examine who's actually looking out for riders. How much danger are we willing to court for a thrill?

Drive the length of Wilshire Boulevard, from downtown to the beach, and you'll come across places that reflect L.A.'s most pressing challenges and greatest ambitions. We picked three stops along the way that capture the city's past, present, and future. First, the E. Clem Wilson Building, the art deco tower on La Brea known for its giant red "hat," to find out how the hat got there and what the building tells us about development and preservation in the city. Plus, a visit to MacArthur Park in the wake of recent DEA raids and the DA's photo-op picnic, to see whether the crackdown on drugs and homelessness is working. And we dig into Metro's own progress reports on the next phases D Line subway extension to find out whether it'll really be ready before the 2028 Olympics -- and whether Los Angeles is really becoming a city that doesn't require a car to cross.

Show notes:

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Wilshire Boulevard, a Main Street that stands apart, by Christopher Hawthorne, friend of the show and writer behind the weekly architecture newsletter Punch List.

Steve Ballmer and the Clippers just got hit with the harshest penalties in NBA history for circumventing the salary cap for star player Kawhi Leonard — we get into the story behind the story, including how so many reporters seemed to get it so wrong. Plus, after a string of fatal crashes involving elderly drivers, including one at the Fairfax Trader Joe's parking lot, we look at California's license-renewal rules for seniors. And with the Emmys airing Monday, we run the numbers on how many of this year's top nominees were actually filmed in Los Angeles.

Street vending has suddenly become a flashpoint in the mayor's race — we unpack the actual scale and legal status of Los Angeles' vending economy. Plus, a new report claims a single 2014 ballot measure, Prop. 47, drove 7,000 Californians into homelessness and fueled an 8% jump in serious drug use — how did that happen? And L.A. Material's Tomo Chien explains a century-old quirk buried in the city charter that bars Los Angeles from selling almost anything — including its own asphalt — without a vote, and why that could finally change this November.

Show notes:

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How one man rebuilt his life, 100 miles at a time, the Imperfect Paradise episode for which Antonia won a national Edward R. Murrow award

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Crime after Proposition 47 and the Pandemic, the PPIC report about Prop. 47's impact

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On the Ballot This November: Can L.A. Sell Asphalt? by Tomo Chien

The mayor's race has ten weeks to go! L.A. Material senior reporter Matt Hamilton joins us to break down the state of the race. Plus, the city just signed a financing deal with LA28 — we dig into the numbers to answer the question: Will the Olympics end up in the red? And will taxpayers be on the hook? And we untangle what a potential Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger could mean for thousands of workers in L.A.'s entertainment industry.

Mark Walter just sold the Lakers after only a year of owning them — we dig into the federal investigation of his insurance business and ask whether a sale of the Dodgers could be next. Plus, LAX's long-promised "people mover" is still stuck at 99.6% complete, and a make-or-break lender deadline is just seven weeks away — we untangle the lawsuit-filled feud between the airport and its contractor. And LA Material Editorial Director Julia Wick joins us to talk through her reporting on how the LA Jazz Festival, a hundred-plus-event celebration set to be headlined by John Legend and Janelle Monáe, collapsed hours before it was supposed to begin.

Show notes:

Ratings Firm Accused of Grade Inflation Vouched for $40 Billion of Insurer Debt by Shane Shifflet and Heather Gillers

The Cash Machine on Mispriced Assets

2024-2025 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report including LAX Automated People Mover

The REAL Story Behind the LAX People Mover Fiasco by Nick Andert on Youtube

How the Inaugural LA Jazz Festival Fell Apart by Julia Wick

El Niño is back, and this year looks like a bigger deal than usual — how worried should you be? Plus, RFK Jr. and HUD Secretary Scott Turner visit L.A. to lambaste the city and county's homelessness response — we predict what changes could be coming to how L.A. shelters unhoused people. And L.A. County D.A. Nathan Hochman charges an LAPD officer with 16 counts of felony eavesdropping for secretly recording colleagues making racist remarks — a move that's stunned even people in his own office.

LA World is a production by L.A. Material.

Hosts: Antonia Cereijido, Hayes Davenport, and Julia Turner

Producers: Ruben Davis and Liam Hoole

Theme song by: Michelangelo Rodriguez

Production and marketing support: Miguel Contreras, Cole Schiffer, 7EQUIS, Eilythia Penati, Yana Savitsky, Nikki Fancy, and Sarah Wick

Don't forget to follow us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@laworldpod, and sign up for our free weekday newsletter at http://lamaterial.com/subscribe.

L.A. World, hosted by Hayes Davenport, Antonia Cereijido, and L.A. Material Editor-in-Chief Julia Turner, coming to you this summer.