LAist Studios Launches Podcast Slate With California-Focused Audio Series

EXCLUSIVE: LAist Studios, the podcast division of Southern California Public Radio, is launching a slew of new audio series.

The company, which is behind series such as California City, Norco ’80 and California Love, has set six new shows for 2022.

Developed under LAist Studios executive producer Antonia Cereijido, the slate includes Imperfect Paradise, Snooze, K-Pop Dreaming, Lost Chapter: The Forgotten Revolutionary, Human/Nature and The Big Burn (full details below).

Herb Scannell, President and Chief Executive Officer, SCPR said, “When LAist Studios launched over just two years ago, we committed to creating a space for vibrant and innovative voices that reflect the ethos of Los Angeles to harness the power of audio storytelling. The diversity of our city is what makes LA so special and LAist Studios seeks to capture that in all that we do, beginning with our commitment to being a studio where all areas of production are staffed by creators and storytellers of underrepresented backgrounds. This ambitious slate tells a breadth of LA stories to the world that will resonate here and beyond borders”

The upcoming slate from LAist Studios includes:

Imperfect Paradise (January 27, 2022)

Imperfect Paradise is a seasonal show about stories of the reality behind the dream. Each season takes on something essential about California that will help frame a national or even international issue — its progressiveness, its reputation as a home for dreamers and schemers, its heartbreaking inequality, its varied and diverse communities, its unique combination of dense cities and wild places, and breaks it down into three, 20-30 minute episodes that will be released on Thursdays.

In this first story, KPCC and LAist senior reporter Jill Replogle follows a former-punk-rocker-turned-activist on a quest to address the homelessness crisis in Orange County, one of the wealthiest places in America, while going up against a community of fearful neighbors. This podcast will be edited and produced by Emily Guerin, host of the investigative narrative podcast California City.

Snooze (Spring 2022)

From Megan Tan, producer of California Love, a show about things people put off, how they conquer them, but most importantly, how they conquer themselves. In each episode, Megan sits down with a new guest to help them face their fears and devise an action plan to overcome tasks big and small that have been put on the back burner, tapping into advice from prominent creatives and experts along the way. As she helps those around her, Megan in turn winds up tackling a significant goal that she’s been snoozing on.

K-Pop Dreaming (2022)

K-pop has taken over much of the music industry in the United States. But despite what feels like a sudden explosion, the rise of K-pop has taken place over the span of decades. It’s a history that has to do with Korean soft power, the internet and a fanbase with multiculturalism in its DNA. It’s also a history that has to do with Los Angeles – especially LA’s vast Korean diaspora and the influential neighborhood of Koreatown.

On K-Pop Dreaming, LAist Studios will tell the history of the K-pop genre, connecting the dots between its conception as a “soft power” export by the Korean government, to its utter omnipresence in today’s culture. K-pop isn’t just impacting the way we listen to music or how we dress, but even how we vote. K-pop fans in the U.S. tend to democratic leaning ideologies and will often flood a hashtag with which they don’t agree with videos of their favorite stars. K-pop fans even impacted a Trump presidential rally by buying up tickets so actual supporters couldn’t attend. And much of the K–pop trend in the U.S. started by way of L.A. This podcast will look at how the Korean American diaspora and enclaves like LA’s Koreatown have helped shape the sensibility of K-pop and, conversely, how K-pop is shaping global culture.

Lost Chapter: The Forgotten Revolutionary (Spring 2022)

Lost Chapter is a new seasonal limited run series exploring mysterious stories of American history that have been left out of the history books. In the first season, Lost Chapter: The Forgotten Revolutionary, KPCC and LAist reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez presents an investigative noir exploring the Chicano students rights movement of the 1990s and unravels the mysterious death of one of its leaders – Oscar Gomez.

In the early 1990’s, Gomez was one the most prominent voices of the movement, galvanizing the public through the power of radio as the host of the KDVS’ radio show, La Onda Chicana. But on November 17, 1994, Oscar was found dead on the Santa Barbara shore. Police never determined his manner of death.

Through new interviews and found audio, the series follows Guzman-Lopez as he investigates Oscar’s death and recovers his own Chicano voice, while introducing listeners to a forgotten generation of activists who went beyond fighting against racist laws to demand a centering of indigenous identities in education, media and the arts. The voices of this story are the connective tissue between the civil rights movement of the 60s and antiracism struggles of today.

Human/Nature (Early 2022)

We are facing an anxiety epidemic, and with a quick glance at the news, it’s easy to understand why. Studies show one simple thing that can help ease anxious minds – stepping outside. In this weekly series, host Marcos Trinidad becomes a guide to the world beyond our doorsteps, helping awaken curiosity about the great outdoors. We are held captive by social media sites that know how to manipulate us into doom-scrolling or numbing out for hours. Marcos will show us how to break free from the algorithm, get in touch with our humanity and reclaim our attention. Spending time in nature isn’t just good for our minds – in this tech obsessed culture, it’s ultimately a form of resistance.

The Big Burn (Fall 2022)

As the world enters a new age of climate change-driven megafires, science reporter and host Jacob Margolis (The Big One: Your Survival Guide) 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 even thrive – while the world around us burns.

Ultimately, the series aims to not only help people come to terms with where we’re at, but to offer the audience hope and a practical roadmap for success at the individual, societal, and governmental levels to help reform the way that we think about wildfires in the age of climate change.