How To LA

Episodes

Listen • 50:06

Listen • 50:06

This Old House Radio Hour: Designing for Disaster: How Los Angeles Builds Back Smarter + Saving The Outsider’s House + Four DIY Fixes: Chimneys, Circuits, Ceilings, and Steam

This week on This Old House Radio Hour—what does it mean to rebuild not just homes, but entire communities?

Sunset Magazine editor-in-chief Hugh Garvey joins us to discuss the magazine’s special issue devoted to the rebuilding of Altadena and Pacific Palisades in the wake of January’s devastating wildfires. Sunset, a voice in California architecture for over 125 years, has assembled an extraordinary coalition of architects, planners, artists, and historians. Together, they offer not just a plan, but a call to action—for fire-resilient homes, culturally grounded design, and a West that can weather what’s coming.

Then we travel from the hills of Los Angeles to the streets of Tulsa, where Danny Boy O’Connor—from House of Pain—takes us inside his remarkable second act. After bottoming out, he bought a run-down house for $15,000... and it just happened to be the house from The Outsiders. What followed was a full restoration, a pilgrimage, and a new life. We take a tour of the Outsiders Museum and meet the community that made it possible.

Later, Cheap Old Houses is back—Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein spotlight a dreamy 1870s Victorian in Fredonia, Kentucky and an off-the-grid cabin on federal forest land in Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, both for under $100,000.

Plus, another round of House Rules, our listener-powered game that tests your home renovation know-how. And in The Simple Fix, we show you how to find a stud in your baseboard—without breaking the wall.

And as always, we’re taking your calls. Got a house problem, project hurdle, or just need a little advice? Call us at (877) 864-7460.

All that and more, coming up on This Old House Radio Hour.

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Listen • 15:38

Listen • 15:38

The 10 Freeway Closure Shows That We Can Rethink Our Commutes

#182: Update: Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday the freeway could open up before Thanksgiving.
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The 10 Freeway is shutdown for a few weeks due to fire damage. The closure has disrupted the commute of hundreds of thousands of daily commuters...but people are adjusting.

How To LA podcast host Brian De Los Santos traveled to the area near Alvarado where the freeway is closed to test the traffic flow himself and talk to folks who work around there and are feeling the impact. He also speaks to Marlon Boarnet, an urban planning professor at USC, about how the fix it plan may resemble the response to damage sustained in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and what it means to communities more broadly to have a freeway, much less a broken one, cut through it.

Guest: Marlon Boarnet, Professor of Public Policy and Spatial Analysis at USC's Price School Of Public Policy and Director of the METRANS Transportation Consortium at USC.
Listen • 14:31

Listen • 14:31

The Egyptian Theater Has Finally Reopened. How It Helped Establish Hollywood

#181: The historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood officially reopened its doors after a three-year closure and extensive renovation. It's sale to Netflix in 2020 drew some criticism but moviegoers so far have been enthusiastic about it being able to sit in its seats once again to watch a film.

The theater has a long history in Los Angeles. When Sid Grauman first opened it in 1922 it helped establish Hollywood as a destination and the city as a place for the movies.

How to LA producer Victoria Alejandro caught a movie herself at the Egyptian and joined host Brian De Los Santos to talk about the significance of it opening back up.

Additional Guests: Ross Melnick, theater historian who teaches film and media at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Grant Moninger, Artistic Director at the American Cinematheque
Listen • 11:23

Listen • 11:23

The 'Outrageous' Impact Of LAUSD's Process For Counting Students

#180: Even if you are not a parent in the Los Angeles Unified School District, you are probably aware of its size and the challenges of managing a system of 14-hundred schools and 400,000 students from Sylmar to San Pedro, from Westwood to El Sereno.

In many respects it’s like managing a small country.

Now imagine having to configure EVERY classroom… EVERY year… for EVERY school based on an EXPECTATION that a certain number of students show up on the first day of school.

You’re hiring teachers and staff to support the students, balancing the number of kids in each class and juggling whole bunch of other stuff. Then at the start of the school year, some of these students don’t come. And everything needs to change.

Sounds like a logistical headache, right?

Well, it’s a process that continues to plague LAUSD every year. It's called "Norm Day" and we’ll get into how it works…what’s at stake …and what one school is doing about it.

Guest: Mariana Dale LAist K-12 Education Reporter
Listen • 16:26

Listen • 16:26

The Actors' Strike Is Over. Now What?

#179: After 118 days, the longest strike in the history of the Screen Actors Guild is over. The strike officially ended at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday after the union and the group representing film and television studios reached a tentative agreement on a new contract on Wednesday.

There’s still a lot that isn’t known about the deal. And SAG members still need to vote on it. But regardless, its going to be a long road before things are back to normal, especially for those non-union Hollywood businesses that have been out of work.

LAist reporter Robert Garrova has been covering the Hollywood strikes since the Writers Guild first hit the picket line back in May and joined us to explain what's known so far about the deal.

And later in the episode we check back in with Pamela Elyea who co-owns the prop shop "History for Hire" in North Hollywood – and hear how she has managed with writers and actors on strike for so many months and why she is calling for a Business Interruption Fund.

Next Time You Watch A Film, Think About The Props
Listen • 22:58

Listen • 22:58

After Fire, Who Rebuilds Our Trails In The San Gabriel Mountains?

#178: Fire and flood are ravaging Southern California like never before. Agencies like the Forest Service are allocating more and more resources towards fire management – but that leaves little time and money for trail rehabilitation. Enter volunteer groups like Lowelifes Respectable Citizen's Club. They work with the forest service to fill in the gaps, rebuilding trails destroyed in the Angeles National Forest.

HTLA Producer Evan Jacoby and LAist climate emergency reporter Erin Stone recently joined the Lowelifes on the Kenyon Devore trail on Mt. Wilson, to find out what it really takes to build our trails... and why groups of volunteers are the ones doing it.

For more information about the history of rehabbing these trails, and some great photos of the crew at work, check out Erin Stone's reporting on LAist.com:

The Forest Service Can’t Keep Up With What The Climate Crisis Is Doing To Our Trails. Volunteers Are Filling The Gap

How The Historic Mount Wilson Trail Is Being Rebuilt After Fire And Flood
Listen • 16:15

Listen • 16:15

Five Years After The Woolsey Fire: Did We Learn Anything From It?

#177: The devastating Woolsey Fire in Malibu – deemed an "unstoppable monster" – was five years ago today.

The fire burned 97 thousand acres across the Santa Monica Mountains, killed three people and destroyed 1600 structures – a quarter of them were homes in the city of Malibu.

But what did we learn?

Today, HTLA speaks to LAist's science reporter Jacob Margolis about what happened, what we've learned...and what we haven't. Jacob also shares tips to keep you safe this fire season (which is happening now!).

Guest: Jacob Margolis, science reporter for LAist.

Jacob is also host of the Big Burn podcast, which dives 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 burns. Take a listen here.

For more, check out Jacob's recent articles on wildfires:

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/this-la-home-was-built-to-be-fireproof-will-it-survive-the-next-major-blaze

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/big-tests-ahead-for-a-tiny-community-led-fire-department-in-bell-canyon

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/topanga-canyon-wildfire-risk
Listen • 15:33

Listen • 15:33

The Fight Against Putrid Odors in Southeast LA

#176: The small, industrial city of Vernon in Southeast L.A. is home to a number of rendering companies that process animal parts and other waste. The processing has led to complaints from residents who have reported a terrible smell that has irritated people’s eyes and throats.

A recent investigation by LAist reporter Julia Barajas including scores of interviews with longtime Southeast L.A. residents and workers – and data obtained through public records requests – shows that neighbors have complained for decades about adverse effects. One company, Baker Commodities, Inc. is now at the center of that fight.

Today, we speak to Julia about her investigation and the environmental issues that have long affected communities in Southeast L.A.

Guest: Julia Barajas, reporter for LAist

Read Julia's stories:

Companies That Recycle Animal Carcasses Must Post Signs Saying Where To Report Odors. Compliance Has Been Spotty

How Decades Of Environmental Woes Have Hurt, And Mobilized, Southeast LA

Companies That Recycle Animal Carcasses Must Post Signs Saying Where To Report Odors. Compliance Has Been Spotty
Listen • 18:07
Listen • 18:07

A SoCal Punk’s ‘Ode’ To LA’s Backyard Gigs
#175: Today on How To LA, we’re talking about punk rock. Specifically, about the evolution of the backyard punk scene that sprouted up in East L.A. starting in the 1980s, and how backyard shows, rooted in Latino spaces in the city, influenced punk rock and made backyard gigs a thing in California.

Guest: Journalist and producer Stephanie Mendez, author of the recent SPIN magazine article, “Ode to East L.A. Punk and the Backyard Gigs We Inherited." She was also featured in a documentary called "Los Punks” about the scene.

More on this:
- Javier Cabral’s coverage of the East L.A. punk scene for LA Weekly
- "Teenage Alcoholics: Punk Rock in East Los Angeles" by Jimmy Alvarado for Razorcake
- "East Los" documentary series by Vans
- Nothing Less Booking on Instagram
Music featured in this episode from:
- The Stains
- The Voids
- Corrupted Youth
- Union 13
- Underground Alliance (clip from "East Los" doc series)