The Brief

In an exclusive interview with LAist Studios, former Los Angeles City Council president Nury Martinez speaks publicly for the first time since she resigned nearly a year ago over a leaked audio recording that captured her making racist and disparaging remarks.

“I've thought about that particular day, God, a thousand times, if not more,” Martinez says in an interview with Antonia Cereijido, host of LAist Studios’ Imperfect Paradise. The new season of the award-winning podcast, “Nury and the Secret Tapes," begins on Wednesday, Sept. 27, and the trailer is available now.

What the podcast covers

Martinez spoke to Cereijido in a wide-ranging interview for a four-part story that looks back at the scandal and examines the political context leading up to the leaked audio tapes. She also addresses the specific language that she used about former L.A. city council member Mike Bonin’s son and her hurtful comments directed at the Black and Oaxacan communities.

The first episode will focus on the scandal itself — what was said in the room where it all happened, and how did key players in the scandal react to the tape? In the second episode, listeners will get a deep dive into Martinez’s upbringing in the San Fernando Valley and her rise to becoming one of the most powerful women in Los Angeles politics. In the third episode, Cereijido asks Martinez to answer for the comments that she made in that room.

The series features a frank conversation between Martinez and Cereijido about how her comments are connected to anti-Black racism and colorism in Latino communities. Martinez says she has not commented on the scandal since resigning as council president in October 2022 because she has been afraid that she may say something wrong and face further criticism.

“I'm not gonna lie, I am nervous,” she said in the interview. “I don't want my words to get misinterpreted.”

A complex picture

Martinez describes what her life is like now, and speaks about the other council members heard on the leaked tapes, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León.

Bonin is also featured in the series. He shares how he felt when he first learned about the contents of the secret tapes and in particular her disparaging comments about his young son.

“I was livid that she talked about beating him down. And I was beside myself when I heard, you know, the specific comments …” Bonin says in the first episode, referring in part to Martinez’s description of his son, who is Black, as a changuito — Spanish for “little monkey.”

Throughout the series, Cereijido delves into the complex picture of what was happening behind closed doors in the Los Angeles city council leading up to the now infamous meeting, including deep divisions on the council over homelessness and the economic response to the pandemic.

The series features experts like Tanya Hernández, a Fordham University Law School professor who has written extensively about anti-Blackness among some Latinos. Hernández analyzes why Martinez’s words had the powerful effect that they did in Los Angeles.

“What the audio tapes opened up now was just how systemic and much of a pattern across the communities that this actually is,” Hernandez says. “That is the message that Latinos, Latine, Latinx can also harbor anti-Black bias and sentiment.

Listeners will also hear from Odilia Romero, the executive director of Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an Indigenous-women-led human rights nonprofit in L.A., who said the tape, “shows what we've always known as Indigenous people, that the other Mexicans have always discriminated against us.”

Cereijido also spoke with current L.A. city councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Nithya Raman, Eunisses Hernandez, and other crucial figures in Los Angeles politics who were deeply intertwined in the scandal.

“I hadn't heard the jealousy and resentment of Black people,” Harris-Dawson said of the discussion on the tapes. “That's something that they wouldn't talk about in front of me.”

About the series

Cereijido was previously the executive producer of LAist Studios, and also hosted The Barbie Tapes with MG Lord and Norco 80. Before that, she was a producer on NPR’s Latino USA. Senior producer Emily Guerin, who hosted California City, previously produced the Imperfect Paradise season focused on former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

New episodes of “Nury and the Secret Tapes” will be available every Wednesday, starting Sept. 27, and will also be broadcast on-air at LAist 89.3 on Sundays at 7 p.m. Pacific.

It’s taken over a decade and $1.3 billion, but Hollywood Burbank’s new terminal is finally ready for action. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the first passengers will be taking off and arriving at the brand-new structure.

Visitors note: The new terminal entrance has moved from Thornton Avenue to the intersection of Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. There’s also a central security checkpoint and an indoor baggage claim.

The project stemmed from Burbank’s Measure B, passed in 2016.

LAist reporter Cato Hernandez got a sneak peek inside the building last week and reported on the scope and the thinking behind the decor.

William Contreras hit a tying homer in the fifth and singled home the go-ahead run an inning later as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Four relievers combined to retire the last 15 Dodgers batters in order as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead over the two-time defending World Series champions in this best-of-seven series, which heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Brewers are chasing their second pennant and first in the NL. They made their lone World Series appearance in 1982, when they were in the American League.

Los Angeles is trying to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series. The Dodgers last rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a series in 2020, when they beat the Atlanta Braves in a seven-game NLCS before going on to win the World Series.

The Dodgers will need more punch from their lineup to have a chance at getting back to the Fall Classic. They mustered just three hits Monday and went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position to drop to 2 for 26 in those situations this postseason.

Los Angeles couldn’t even get a boost from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who entered 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances. Yamamoto lasted just 2 2/3 innings for his shortest postseason start.

The Dodgers took the lead on three occasions in the first five innings. Milwaukee responded each time, the last coming when Contreras tied the game with a 436-foot homer to center off Kris Bubic in the fifth.

That turned the game into a battle of the bullpens, where the Brewers again had the edge.

Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined to shut down the Dodgers after Logan Henderson’s early exit.

The score was tied 4-all when Milwaukee’s David Hamilton was hit by a pitch from Brock Stewart to lead off the sixth. Stewart attempted a pickoff throw that went off the glove of first baseman Freddie Freeman and into foul territory for an error, advancing Hamilton to second.

After Jackson Chourio grounded out, the right-handed Stewart walked the left-handed-hitting Brice Turang to face the right-handed Contreras, who had homered in his previous plate appearance.

Contreras singled to left this time to bring home Hamilton with the go-ahead run.

Turang and Jake Bauers added RBI singles in the eighth to extend Milwaukee’s lead.

Neither starter lasts long

The anticipated pitchers’ duel between Yamamoto and Henderson didn’t work out according to plan.

In three previous playoff starts following Dodgers losses, Yamamoto had gone 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA. When he faced the Brewers in last year’s NLCS, he threw the first playoff complete game since Justin Verlander did it in 2017.

This time, Yamamoto couldn’t even make it out of the third inning before leaving with the Dodgers behind 3-2.

Henderson entered Monday having not allowed more than three runs in any of his 24 career starts (including the postseason). That streak ended when he allowed four runs over four innings.

Because Henderson committed two errors — matching his previous career total — only two of the runs were earned.

Milwaukee trailed 2-1 in the third when Bauers capped a 12-pitch plate appearance by taking a 3-2 offering in the dirt to load the bases with a walk. Christian Yelich followed by lining a single up the middle that brought home two runs and knocked Yamamoto out of the game.

Los Angeles bailed out Yamamoto by scoring twice in the fifth.

After Kyle Tucker hit a leadoff double, Tommy Edman sacrificed him to third. Henderson fielded the bunt and made a wild throw to first, enabling Tucker to score and moving Edman to second.

Edman advanced to third when Mookie Betts grounded out, and scored on Freeman’s sacrifice fly.

Henderson also had made a wild throw to first on a pickoff attempt in the third inning that allowed Edman to score from third.

Up next

Robert Gasser (5-5, 3.87 ERA) is expected to start for Milwaukee in Game 3. Gasser allowed one run over five innings when the Brewers won 3-1 at San Diego to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers hadn’t announced their Game 3 starting pitcher.

Actor and disability rights advocate RJ Mitte, who brought a lifetime of experience with cerebral palsy to fictional family struggles in an essential role on “Breaking Bad,” died Monday at age 34, authorities and his representatives said.

Cameron County Justice of the Peace Cyndi Hinojosa told The Associated Press she declared Mitte dead at about 1:30 p.m. at what she believed was his home in Brownsville, Texas. She said she was unable to provide a cause, but an autopsy will be performed.

Mitte played Walter White Jr., the son of Bryan Cranston’s chemistry teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White on nearly every episode of the five seasons of the AMC show, which recently ranked as the best of the 21st century in a New York Times poll.

Diagnosed at age 3, Mitte told the AP in 2014 that his disability and the surrounding struggles with physical therapy, family problems and exorbitant medical bills — all key subjects on the show — made him better at his job.“You develop a different mentality and you develop a different look at how the world sees you and how you see the world,” he said. “You’re able to use that. And I think it’s an asset instead of something that would hinder.”

Mitte was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.

He landed small guest roles on sitcoms after moving to Los Angeles to act in 2006. Like his character, he was in his mid-teens when he began his work on “Breaking Bad,” starting in 2007. The show ran from 2008 to 2013.

“Mitte brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion,” the actor’s representatives said in a statement announcing his death. The statement said he used “his platform to challenge stereotypes and promote greater representation.”

His later credits included the ABC Family series “Switched at Birth” and the superhero satire series “Guardians of Justice.”

He was also a producer of several independent films.

As an advocate, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s. He was also president of his own Mitte Foundation supporting philanthropic and community initiatives around disabilities.