Human/Nature

In the days after LA’s early-January wildfires, tenant advocate Chelsea Kirk noticed a trend: rent gouging. Rents were shooting up past their legal limit. In the wake of the fires, as natural disaste…

When Portland, Oregon-based reporter Leah Sottile began covering extremism in the American West a decade ago, she was interviewing ranchers, fundamentalist Mormons and “sovereign citizens” who did no…

Journalist Alexis Madrigal is obsessed with the port of Oakland. He even has a tattoo of a shipping container! In his new book, The Pacific Circuit, he makes the case that Oakland is where the real-w…

Amid the devastating Palisades and Eaton Fires that killed more than two dozen people, a political conflict came sharply into focus surrounding the funding of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). …

The biggest question hanging over most people in Los Angeles who lost homes in the Palisades and Eaton Fires is whether to rebuild or leave -- a question that's especially fraught for Altadena's Blac…

Renée DiResta joined the Stanford Internet Observatory to analyze how propaganda spreads online. But in 2023, she went from studying the online disinformation machine to becoming its target. We dive …

This episode originally aired on June 12, 2024.

LA was rocked on March 4 when Dave Fink, a golf influencer, posted a viral video on Instagram detailing how brokers - largely using a Korean messenger …

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…

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 conce…

Tucked away in Highland Park - a neighborhood that’s been dubbed “ground zero” for gentrification - sits a small park dotted with native plants and spiraling mosaic sculptures. La Tierra de la Culebr…

Some of the most striking images to come out of the Los Angeles wildfires are photos of a single intact house, surrounded by rubble. We wondered: why do some houses burn down and not others? Is it po…

The same factors that make Los Angeles an appealing place to live, like large urban scale development intertwined with nature, are also the reason we need a fundamentally different approach to fire. …

Larry Mantle has been a radio host in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years. Over the course of hosting his live, daily, public affairs call-in show on LAist 89.3, he’s covered the region’s biggest triumph…

Los Angeles County has been ravaged by multiple fires. Thousands of structures were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of Angelenos have evacuated. Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido and cor…

Struggling with addiction and reentry after multiple stints in prison, Cesar Quijano discovers ultrarunning, a hobby that turns into his addiction and salvation. Through Cesar’s story to complete  a …

This episode first aired on August 14, 2024.

Jackie and Shadow are two beloved bald eagles who live in Big Bear, a ski town a couple hours northeast of L.A. They went viral in 2024, as people tuned i…

This episode first aired on August 7, 2024.

The first deadly black bear attack in California’s history was confirmed recently in a small mountain town in Northern California. While wildlife officials…

This episode first aired on July 31, 2024.

If the mountain lion is thought of as a celebrity, then, many would think of the coyote as a villain. LAist Correspondent Emily Guerin looks into why we vil…

This episode first aired on July 24, 2024.

One of Hollywood’s recent celebrities wasn’t a person, but a feline. The famed mountain lion made headlines in Los Angeles and nationwide. He became a house…