Welcome to LA

This is a piece I helped produce for the The New Yorker Radio Hour and Transom. A few months ago, the great American historian and writer Jill Lepore shared a documentary with us that was presented by the National Park Service for the nation's bicentennial in 1976. In it, Americans shared what they thought about the 200th year of the republic: how the country was doing, what it meant to be an American, how they planned to celebrate (or not). Jill said the piece reminded her of The Listeners, Transom's hyperlocal storytelling project. The Listeners is all about ordinary people and the stories of everyday life that add context to the news. We watned to try to represent, as best we could, people of every age, gender, race, socioeconomic class, and political belief. So we reached out to reporters across the country -- rural, urban, suburban, north, south, east, west, middle: The Peabody Award winning producer Erica Heilman, in rural Vermont, who helped create The Listeners at Transom and whose podcast Rumble Strip is a major inspiration for the project. Yohance Lacour, in Chicago, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his incredible show, You Didn't See Nothin. Eve Abrams, an incredible independent producer in Metro New Orleans (urban and suburban areas). Eve's most recent work is Wetlands Radio, all about coastal erosion in Louisiana. Scott Carrier, in Utah, a stalwart independent who has created some of the greatest radio stories of the past few decades. Scott was assisted by the terrific independent producer Jenny Ament. And finally, David Weinberg, Transom's lead teacher and a brilliant independent journalist who recorded both in Los Angeles and in the Salton Sea. To hear how Jill incorporated it into The New Yorker Radio Hour, including excerpts from the original Park Service film, listen here.

Architect Trevor Pan built his first building with his own hands in a barren patch of Arizona desert. It didn't have running water or electricity, but it got him some attention in the architecture world and his career was off to a promising start. But then Trevor made a decision that, from the outside, seemed completely insane.

Luis Gutierrez Sanchez, a hot dog street vendor also known as "Grace of the Sea," lived in a garage in South LA for six years. Miraculously good at finding beauty in dark places, he tells his story of surviving as a gay undocumented immigrant in Los Angeles.

Tyreek Bilal has gone through many transformations in his life. He's been barber for powerful celebrities, a husband to six wives, a celibate religious scholar. Now he's taking a stand against changes at his neighborhood mosque.

Kevin Gage played villains in Hollywood action movies of the mid-90s. But in 2003 he went to federal prison. He tried to start a new life in Mexico but Los Angeles sucked him back in. We find Gage in a new role at the Paradise Motel on Sunset Boulevard.

Drifters and dreamers in the great American mirage.