Headlines From The Times

Latest Episodes:

Why L.A. has fridge-less apartments Jun 14, 2022

Show notes

For most renters across the United States, having a refrigerator come with your unit is a given. Not in Southern California. For reasons no one can fully explain or understand, renters must furnish their living spaces with their own fridges, which has created an underground economy for the essential unit. Today, we try to crack this mystery.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times housing reporter Liam Dillon

More reading:

Why do so many L.A. apartments come without fridges? Inside the chilling mystery

Real Estate newsletter: Where are all the fridges?

Landlords in California aren’t required to provide refrigerators

Hidden clues of a Black family's Bible Jun 13, 2022

Show notes

In the late 1980s, the Diggs family of Southern California came across a family Bible with an incredible backstory. Notes written in the margin documented their family history to an enslaved ancestor who learned to read and write — rare at the time. The Diggs eventually donated their heirloom to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., where it’s now on display. Historians say artifacts like the Bible are rare and offer a valuable portrait into legacy and resistance.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: L.A. Times Washington D.C. reporter Erin B. Logan

More reading:

How a Black family’s Bible ended up at the Smithsonian Institution

Black genealogists get help tracing their roots

Behind these names, you’ll find stories of L.A.’s Black history

The drag mothers of Los Angeles Jun 10, 2022

Show notes

Drag culture is one of the most iconic forms of expression within the LGBTQ community. For outsiders looking in, drag culture looks fun and flamboyant. But for lots of queens, it’s about so much more than the flashy fun. It’s about family.

Today, we dig deep into drag, specifically drag mothers who keep the culture afloat and show us what family can be for some in the LGBTQ community.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Times producer Ashlea Brown

More reading:

All hail the drag queens raising L.A.’s tight-knit families

Essential California: A drag laureate for West Hollywood?

How drag has changed the face of art, fashion, and beauty

How mass shootings affect young voters Jun 09, 2022

Show notes

This year’s midterm elections were expected to be a referendum on the economy, but as gun violence is on the minds of Americans, yet again, millennials and zillennials, who’ve grown up in an era of massacres, might prove a constituency that no politician can ignore. If they show up to the ballot box, that is.

Today, we talk about how gun violence affects the politics of young voters.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times 2021-22 Los Angeles Times Fellow Anumita Kaur

More reading:

Newsletter: Essential Politics: Do mass shootings affect young voters?

School shootings have increased recently; the violence in Texas is among the deadliest

Thousands protest outside NRA convention in Texas days after massacre in Uvalde

What the Summit of the Americas means Jun 08, 2022

Show notes

The Summit of the Americas. It’s when the leaders of all the nations of the Western Hemisphere get together every three to four years and and talk shop. This year’s edition is in the United States, for the second time ever — and the Summit will happen right here in Los Angeles.

Today, we get into this conference — how it began. What usually happens. And whether the U.S. wields the same influence in the Americas as it has for two centuries.

Read the full transcript.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times Washington D.C. correspondent Tracy Wilkinson

More reading:

Summit of the Americas opens in L.A. as U.S. grapples with deteriorating relations and influence

‘No more dictatorships’: The slogan that rings in the streets at the start of the Summit of the Americas

Summit of the Americas hobbles to its opening as Mexico’s president declines to attend

Welcome to Portugal, now go home Jun 07, 2022

Show notes

Ocean breezes, mountain views, stunning architecture, great food. Fala vocé português? Even if you don’t; Portugal is it right now, and has been for years. But recently, more Americans and especially Californians are looking to make their vacations in the small European country permanent.

Today, why more Americans are trading in their SUVs and fast food drive-throughs for the affordable homes and easy living of Portugal. And what that means for local residents.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times European correspondent Jaweed Kaleem

More reading:

Welcome to Portugal, the new expat haven. Californians, please go home

These Californians relocated to Portugal. They share their stories

Goodbye, L.A. and San Francisco. Hello, Riverside and Central Valley. California moves east

Covering COVID on ‘sacred ground’ Jun 06, 2022

Show notes

The U.S. has lost more than 1 million people to COVID — and the virus isn’t done with us yet. Frontline hospital workers have experienced the devastation up close and in real time. And for one L.A. Times photographer who documented the losses and wins against COVID, looking back at the images she captured and revisiting the hospital rooms where people fought for their lives — spaces a hospital chaplain now calls ‘sacred ground’ — has helped her process the pain and remember the moments of connection and hope.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times photojournalist Francine Orr

More reading:

The fight against COVID, a chaplain says, unfolded on ‘sacred ground’

U.S. reaches 1 million COVID deaths — and the virus isn’t done with us

Queer Ukrainians on the frontlines Jun 03, 2022

Show notes

Ukraine was never a utopia for gays and transgender people, but activists there say things have improved over the years. Now, though, people are worried that Russia’s invasion could put all of that progress at risk. Today we talk to two LGBTQ+ Ukrainians, one who’s fighting against Russia for his country — and another who fled Ukraine but is continuing her fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Read the full transcript here.

Host: The Times: Daily News from the L.A. Times producer David Toledo

Guests: L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum

A new militia at the U.S.-Mexico border Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

Patriots for America patrols the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, stops migrants, and questions children. They call it faith-based ministry work; civil rights groups say they’re just another racist group of extremists. Today, we follow them in action. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Molly Hennessy-Fiske

More reading:

Texas border militia stops migrants and shoots video of kids. Rights groups say they’re racist

Texas militia sanctioned by sheriff seeks government support to halt flow of migrants

Minutemen Project begins recruiting volunteers to man U.S. border

California's historic water restrictions Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

Unprecedented water restrictions in Los Angeles County are going to ensure the slow demise of lawns. And now, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is ready to deal green lawns a final blow. Today, how Southern Californians will have to get used to browner lawns — and why even that might not make a dent in a historic drought.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times water reporter Ian James

More reading:

Newsom urges aggressive water conservation and warns of statewide restrictions

California just adopted new, tougher water restrictions: What you need to know

California bans watering ‘nonfunctional’ grass in some areas, strengthening drought rules