The Brief

Lauren Caspian is a god. Or, so he thinks.

In Peacock's new streaming comedy In The Know, Caspian is the protagonist and NPR's third most popular host. And although he's a claymation figure, the self-obsessed radio host persona that co-creator Zach Woods wants Caspian to embody is very real.

Woods, who also voices Caspian, has made a career of being a character actor and is best known for his roles on shows like The Office and more recently Silicon Valley, where he plays introverted supporting roles that stand out through their subtlety.

This latest role, however, serves as a fitting evolution of past characters into a comedic lead that has more of his personal touch.

Woods recently spoke to Larry Mantle on LAist's daily news program AirTalk about his appreciation for public radio and how he channeled it into the show.

A good job at getting the humor out of public radio ... All Things Considered

Woods said he came up with the essence of the show and its characters through his work with co-creator Mike Judge on HBO's hit series Silicon Valley.

"He noticed. .. that there is an undeniable public radio essence that seems to waft around where I am, just in terms of my body type, my references, my non-confrontational personality, and I think he thought it would be good to combine those things into a show," he said.

Woods says another source of inspiration came from conversations with the show's other co-creator Brandon Gardner, about "inexcusable liberal hypocrisies." He mentioned an experience he had walking through Larchmont Village, where he passed by a multimillion dollar home that featured a "defund the police" sign next to a house noting it was protected by ADT Home Security.

"I thought that was so funny to be like, 'defund the police,' but also we have armed guards that patrol the neighborhood 24 hours and protect our palace," Woods said. "Then I went to some coffee shop and led my ridiculous privileged life and felt sanctimonious while being essentially the same person as whoever lives in that house."

Finding Lauren's 'NPR voice'

When it came to finding Lauren Caspian's voice, Woods acknowledged that it was a simple turning of the dial as self-described avid listener to NPR programming and the New York Times podcast The Daily.

"When we were talking about promoting the show," Woods said, "we were like what if we made ... an NPR Instagram filter ... which gave everyone kind of a bulbous frontal cortex and inserted random pregnant pauses into whatever you're saying."

From there, he honed in on the monotonous speaking patterns many public radio hosts had — you may have heard it referred to as "NPR voice."

Actor Zach Woods discusses the show "Silicon Valley" at Build Studio on May 10, 2017 in New York City.

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Woods said the speaking affectations would then build this dialect into more of what he called an "intellectual puckishness." In that process, he said he wanted to share with viewers a character whose personality was as self-centered as much as it was intellectually self-conscious.

"[The way that] it's about kind of tickling people's intellects as opposed to getting to the truth of a thing always drives me bananas. So I wanted to try to embody that as best I could," Woods said.

Getting the interview energy right

Woods said producing the interviews on the show, which feature Lauren's claymation character interviewing actual people like Mike Tyson, Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness and model Kaia Gerber was unique for the In The Know team.

"We thought if we can put them in strange enough circumstances, where they're talking for an hour to a stop-motion NPR host, perhaps that will take them outside of their comfort zone in a way that doesn't make them personally uncomfortable...and that happened a fair amount."

Woods said the production team still wanted the interviews to seem real, which meant researching guests, developing questions in advance and having a somewhat believable conversation, even though the real guests were talking to a fictional host. The goal, he said, was trying humanize the guests beyond just celebrities with talking points.

"I think a core assumption of the show is that people are more than one thing. And that hopefully goes for the characters and I think the guests also demonstrate that — your idea of a person lacks the dimensionality of the actual human being."

All six episodes of In The Know are now streaming on Peacock.

Listen to the conversation

"Two or more races" or "other": These are the types of boxes that a lot of multiracial people default to checking off on forms and applications. But it paints a narrow picture of the often complicated identities of multiracial people.

So: How do multiracial people identify themselves? What terms do they actually use when talking about their own, often unique and individual identity? On a recent episode of AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news program, host Larry Mantle encouraged mixed-race listeners to call in and share the terms they prefer to use when identifying themselves ... and, on the flip side, the ones they take issue with.

Some things they said:

• Many rejected labels they felt were imposed on them by others.
• Many callers said their identity was primarily informed by how they were raised and their lived experiences.
• Some shared the hybridized terms they coined for themselves.

Listen to the full episode above: to hear from one listener who dubs himself a "Filexican."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department failed to secure felony convictions against most of the 102 protesters arrested in four major cities last year on charges of assaulting federal authorities — a record far below the norm in federal assault prosecutions.

All of the dozen cases that made it to trial, mostly in Los Angeles, ended in acquittal, mistrial or dismissal. Experts say that’s surprising for a department known for its ability to win at trial. The last three felony assault cases, in L.A. and Portland, will go to trial this fall.

The dismal record has raised questions about rushed investigations and aggressive charging tactics by prosecutors under pressure to show the Trump administration is cracking down on people who assault law enforcement. It comes as the Justice Department is facing broader setbacks in politically charged investigations, with grand juries repeatedly refusing to return indictments and trial juries granting acquittals.

“Prosecutors tend to win because they control what cases they pursue and they have a lot of resources and discretion,” said Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of Washington.

The fact that the government failed to win any felony assault convictions at trial calls into question “whether or not these charges should have ever been brought in the first place,” she said.

AP tracked the outcome of 167 arrests

The Associated Press’ analysis focused on arrests made during protests last summer and fall in L.A., Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. — cities with significant protests where President Donald Trump sought to or successfully deployed the National Guard.

Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said those who interfered with federal law enforcement would face “severe consequences.”

Most of the arrests — 102 — were for felony assault on a federal officer, which can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Of those cases, 41% were dismissed and 34% were pleaded down to misdemeanors. Ten people pleaded guilty to felony assault. Nine people got prison time.

Of those arrested on other charges, seven were sentenced to prison for offenses including arson and obstructing law enforcement. A handful of defendants have diversion agreements, meaning their case will be dismissed if they demonstrate good behavior.

The AP’s analysis shows that the Justice Department’s record failed to meaningfully improve since December, when an initial assessment showed early struggles to prosecute people on the charges for which they were arrested.

The Justice Department said in a statement that federal prosecutors are right to prioritize cases against people accused of assaulting federal officers and that “each case is based on the facts.”

“If there are mitigating factors identified in a case, then prosecutors must also act appropriately to inform the court, and in some cases downgrade or drop charges,” the department said.

Protesters clash with authorities in downtown Los Angeles, June 8, 2025, following the night’s immigration raid protest.

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Juries and judges were unconvinced by prosecutors

It’s rare for federal prosecutors to lose at trial. In 2024, 82% of defendants charged with felony or misdemeanor assault were convicted at trial or with a plea deal, according to data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. AP’s analysis found that less than half of the protesters charged for either felony or misdemeanor assault were convicted.

In Portland, a jury couldn’t reach agreement on felony assault charges for Oriana Korol, who was playing clarinet in a marching band demonstrating outside the city’s ICE building last October when a scuffle involving officers broke out. Officers pepper sprayed her and pushed her to the ground, where she struck one with her foot, according to court documents.

After a mistrial, prosecutors filed a reduced misdemeanor assault charge. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced Sept. 1 to time served and one year of supervised release.

Her attorneys wrote in a court filing that she “has accepted responsibility for the bad choices she made over a few seconds that caused no injury.”

Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, was acquitted of assault on a federal officer after a three-day trial. He was accused of throwing a tear gas canister deployed by immigration agents back at them while protesting a raid at a Southern California cannabis farm.

Caravello said he was trying to get the canister away from the crowd. Videos showed he had tossed it high above officers’ heads and it landed far behind them. The jury acquitted Caravello after a quick deliberation.

“They’re trying to get a chilling effect out of these charges,” said Caravello, who turned down a misdemeanor plea deal.

Michael Rabbitt was among six co-defendants accused of felony conspiracy to impede a government vehicle from accessing an ICE facility near Chicago last September.

The vehicle slowly advanced despite being surrounded by protesters, leading some to put their hands on it, Rabbitt said.

After the government dismissed charges against two of the defendants, defense attorneys requested transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to the conspiracy indictment. The government eventually dropped the conspiracy charge and proceeded on misdemeanor counts of impeding a federal officer.

The judge later reviewed the unredacted transcripts and admonished prosecutors for improper behavior before the grand jury. The charges were dismissed days before trial.

Rabbitt said he was proud they fought the charges.

“This case was bigger than us,” he said. “I’m proud that we won this case, not just for us, but for protesters across the country.”

Many protesters pleaded down to misdemeanors

Though many federal criminal cases end in plea deals, some legal experts say it’s rare for felony assault to be pleaded down and may signal overcharging — filing a more severe initial charge so defendants will be more willing to plead guilty to one with a lighter sentence.

“I think when prosecutors bring charges ethically, they should be prepared to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

The U.S. Attorney’s office overseeing Los Angeles said it brought the prosecutions in response to a “wave of violence against law enforcement officers who were doing their jobs.” It voluntarily dismissed charges against some defendants after further investigation, it said.

L.A. prosecutors have arrested three additional people for felony assault at immigration-related protests this year. One pleaded guilty to a felony and two to misdemeanors.

In Chicago, all but one of 19 felony assault cases were dismissed. The U.S. Attorney’s offices in the Northern District of Illinois, District of Columbia and Oregon did not respond to requests for comment.

DOJ has won notable cases around the country

A man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a hotel outside Los Angeles where federal authorities were staying was sentenced to five years in prison. Two others were sentenced to more than three years after pouring lighter fluid on a burning California Highway Patrol vehicle.

Federal judges sentenced eight people to decades in prison for their participation in a demonstration outside a detention center in Texas last July where a police officer was shot in the neck.

Three people were convicted at trial of conspiracy to impede or injure an officer for protesting outside a detention facility in Spokane, Washington, last June. The Spokane and Texas cases were not included in AP’s analysis because they did not occur in one of the four cities where Trump tried to or deployed troops.

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Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington.

Bob Mackie, a prolific costume and fashion designer whose dazzling, over-the-top creations helped define some of the most memorable moments in 20th century entertainment, died at 87 years old Monday of pneumonia in Palm Springs, Calif.

Mackie's official Instagram channel shared news about the designer's death.

"It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Mr. Bob Mackie passed away today," the statement on Instagram said. "He lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a Fashion and Costume Designer, which is all he ever wanted to do. His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world."

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Mackie dressed generations of stars from Bette Midler to Taylor Swift. Some of his designs became as famous as the performers who wore them, such as Marilyn Monroe's risqué, rhinestone-encrusted sheath dress worn while singing to President John F. Kennedy in 1962 (which he sketched for his employer, French designer Jean Louis), and Cher's jet-black, bondage-inspired ensemble topped with a feathered Mohawk headdress at the 1986 Oscars.

"The way you dress is your way of telegraphing to the person that's looking at you, who you are and where you're coming from," Mackie told NPR in 1990.

Cher and Bob Mackie attend the premiere of "Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion" in 2024 in Los Angeles. The pair enjoyed a long performer-designer partnership.

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While Mackie was celebrated as a haute couture designer, he was far more passionate about crafting one-of-a-kind looks for entertainers. "I think there are people who design runway fashion who say they're like telling a story. No, they're not. They're just making a cute frock and hope somebody buys it," he told the NPR-distributed podcast Bullseye with Jesse Thorn in 2025.

Growing up in Southern California, Mackie's fascination with glamour came from Hollywood, not high fashion. "I never looked in a fashion magazine when I was a kid. But I looked in all the movie magazines and theater magazines," he said on Bullseye. "That was more interesting to me."

Mackie dropped out of his studies at the Chouinard Art Institute — now part of California Institute of the Arts — when he was spotted by the legendary designer Edith Head and landed a job sketching for Paramount Studios in 1961. His career quickly took off, and he forged lasting relationships with such entertainment royalty as Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Carol Burnett.

For The Carol Burnett Show, which started in the late 1960s and ran for more than a decade, Mackie designed an estimated 17,000 costumes — about 50 per week. One of his most famous creations was the outrageous dress for Burnett's 1976 Gone With The Wind parody where she appeared as "Starlett O'Hara" wearing a green velvet dress made from curtains — with the curtain rod still attached. That dress now resides in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

"Not all of our sketches were gems. Some were bombs," Burnett recalled in a 2003 Fresh Air interview. "Sometimes he would put me in stuff that would literally save the sketch."

Perhaps nothing captured Mackie's theatrical sensibility more than the ludicrous Donald Duck costume — complete with webbed booties and oversized rear end — that Elton John wore while performing at a 1980 concert in New York's Central Park.

"It was very difficult for me to play the piano, plus the fact I'd never walked in flippers before," John reminisced in Who Is Mackie?, a short film about the designer. "I was dancing across the stage, falling over myself, and I just couldn't sing for laughing – because it looked ridiculous, but it looked fabulous."

Miley Cyrus in Bob Mackie as she performs onstage in 2024 at the 66th GRAMMY Awards in Los Angeles.

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Mackie continued dressing major 21st-century stars such as Miley Cyrus, Zendaya and Pink. He also collaborated with Mattel on a line of Barbie dolls. His awards included nine Emmys, a Tony Award, three Oscar nominations, and lifetime achievement awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and RuPaul's Drag Race. He had served as the show's first guest host and jokingly referred to himself in some media interviews as "the patron saint of drag queens."

"I know exactly which outfits he did because there is a rhythm and a movement and a choice of proportions of color that no one else does like that," RuPaul said in the 2024 documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion. "That's how you know that someone is channeling the divine."
Copyright 2026 NPR

A month into the school year, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are still adapting to the district’s new policy that bans screen time for its youngest kids and will soon place significant restrictions on older students.

One first grade teacher has switched to jigsaw puzzles instead of having her students complete activities on a learning app. A middle school science teacher is considering how to teach Newton’s Third Law of physics with toy cars instead of a video simulation. Some teachers say they are struggling to adjust after years of technology woven into their curriculum.

“Our goals haven’t changed whether we’re on screens or not,” said Armaghan Khan, an eighth grade teacher at Johnnie Cochran Jr. Middle School. “The idea is still to provide quality standards of mind instruction. And so, what does that look like when you’re not on a screen? And for a lot of the newer teachers, myself included, we’ve never really taught that way.”

Passed in June, LAUSD’s policy generally prohibits use of district-issued devices for students in early education through first grade. It places caps on every other grade level — the higher the grade, the more screen time is allowed. And by the time students reach high school, they are allowed up to 90 minutes per week in each subject area.

The new policy followed months of organizing by parents who argued that students — and teachers — had become too dependent on digital devices in classrooms. They argued that schools should prioritize teacher-led instruction, hands-on activities and interaction with peers. Some also said their children’s struggles to regulate their emotions were a direct result of using screens in the classroom.

But the new restrictions on screen time have also meant that teachers have to rethink lessons built around laptops, tablets and digital instructional programs. Many are concerned about students with disabilities and English language learners who may disproportionately rely on technology, even though accommodations are possible.

Corinne Hyde, a professor of education at USC, said she worries that the policy could unnecessarily restrict teachers’ ability to use technology when they believe it would benefit students.

“We should trust teachers to make good instructional decisions, and that as long as we equip them with appropriate professional development and support, that they are fully capable of making the appropriate decisions about how to use technology in their classrooms, or if they should use technology in their classrooms,” said Hyde.

No screen time for LAUSD’s youngest learners

Last year, the youngest daughter of Julie Edwards, a parent and member of the group Schools Beyond Screens, would come home obsessed with JiJi, a penguin cartoon that appears on a gamified learning platform. Now, Edwards’ first grader comes home eager to talk about her friends and her school’s ticket-based rewards system, she says.

“There’s still more work to do,” said Edwards. “But I think everything is like moving in such a great direction, and I’m just really hoping that because this is happening on an institutional level, it really starts to filter down into families’ personal lives.”

Edwards’ daughter’s teacher has made a number of changes to go screenless. So has Martha Medina, a first grade teacher at Logan Academy of Global Ecology, who also lost other classroom support. This year, she no longer has instructional coaches, who help with targeted learning interventions, or teachers’ aides.

Medina had planned to have students rotate among three 15-minute stations so she could provide individualized attention. One station would be with her, another in the library and a third would use a learning app on an iPad.

Under the new policy, Medina can no longer use the app as planned. Instead, students at the third station work on jigsaw puzzles or art-related activities designed to reinforce uppercase and lowercase letters.

She said the changes have made it much more difficult to run the three groups, limit constant disruptions and keep children on task.

“Parents are worried that the kids are going to be on the iPad all day,” she said. “That’s just not the case in primary. There’s no way we can have the kids on iPads all day. There’s too much to teach.”

Teachers prepare for changes ahead

Khan is among the upper-grade teachers who are adjusting their lesson plans to comply with limits that will go into effect in January.

Under the policy, middle school students will be limited to one hour of screen time each week in each subject area.

“I feel a lot of times the district leadership comes up with these ideas, and however well intentioned they are, they leave it to the rest of us to kind of figure out how to implement them, or just what the best case looks like,” Khan said.

He added that he has spent the past eight years building his curriculum around electronic devices. Like many schools nationwide, his school had been a “one-to-one,” meaning each student has access to a device. Those devices had largely replaced textbooks, and, to some extent, paper and pencil.

“We were using a lot of digital resources, and some of them have been really amazing,” he said.

One of Khan’s favorite tools is Gizmos, a program that allows him to show students simulations to explore science concepts that can be difficult to demonstrate in a classroom. For example, students visualize the heart pumping blood through veins and arteries throughout the body. Or, they can explore Newton’s Third Law — the concept that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — through a simulated car crash.

“I can always get two toy cars and have them crash together so they can see the law and effect,” Khan said. “But with the simulation, it lets me just get much more granular and just deeper into just how it applies to their everyday lives.”

He also said technology has been particularly important for students with disabilities and English language learners, who may rely on digital tools for accommodations and language support.

The district told EdSource that it has made professional learning opportunities available to school administrators and teachers, both in-person and virtually, to help with the transition.

“Our goal is to ensure that all school sites are well-prepared with the tools, understanding, and support needed to effectively implement these guidelines in a way that supports student learning and well-being,” LAUSD said in a statement.

Khan said he has not had access to that support yet. Still, despite what he described as “growing pains,” he remains optimistic about the changes.

“I do think there is merit in the idea. I don’t just want to be doom and gloom about having to switch,” Khan said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”