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 • 16:17

Listen • 16:17

HTLA Presents: L.A. On The Margins - Free The Land

Today we're bringing you another installment of LA on the Margins.This is a collection of pieces produced by students at USC, which profile people in our community as they work through the many challenges we face in our city.

Along South L.A.’s Figueroa Corridor, activists have been calling for the closure of motels they say are complicit in sex trafficking and drug dealing. A campaign called “Free The Land,” run by the nonprofit Community Coalition, seeks to shut these businesses down and convert the buildings for other uses, like housing for L.A.’s unhoused population.

Erick Treviño meets the people behind the campaign, and learns how their own experiences growing up on the corridor have shaped their activism.

For more information, check out Community Coalition.
Listen • 16:34
Listen • 16:34

How Giving Back Can Make You Feel Less Alone
#294: Today, we're talking about volunteering your time to a cause, and how doing so can make you feel a lot less alone.
Call it selfish, but doing some community service is a really great way to create connections, broaden your perspective of life, and ultimately give you a greater sense of belonging.

Producer Megan Botel is at Growing Hope Gardens in Santa Monica to get her hands dirty in some soil and talk about the benefits of volunteering.

Guests: Carolyn Day, founder and executive director of Growing Hope Gardens; Eleu Navarro, garden and farm team coordinator; Cat Moore, director of belonging at USC.
Some places to volunteer around the city:
Listen • 22:04

Listen • 22:04

Social Calendar with Chris Estrada: Summer Hangs

#293: Social Calendar is back! This time with comedian and tv writer Chris Estrada. He's the co-creator and star of Hulu's This Fool, and today he's sharing his favorite memories of serial killers in parks and giving some recs on how to best spend your weekend in LA.
Join HTLA host Brian De Los Santos and guest co-host Antonia Cerejido for some LA history, documentary recommendations, and some ideas to spruce up your summer nights.
Listen • 14:56

Listen • 14:56

HTLA Presents: L.A. On The Margins - Faces Of Hunger

We are back with another installment of LA on the Margins —USC student produced profiles of people in our community who are working through the many challenges life in the city can throw you. Today: Hunger.

About 30% of households in LA County are food insecure. Reporter Nova Blanco Rio explores this shocking statistic through intimate snapshots of his time volunteering with food distribution organization Seeds of Hope.

For more information about Seeds Of Hope and how you can help, or be helped, head to https://www.seedsofhopela.org/ or call 213-482-2040 (Ext. 234)
Listen • 8:46

Listen • 8:46

The Origins Of Juneteenth In LA

#292: Juneteenth marks the day federal troops showed up in Galveston, Texas in 1865 – two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed – to tell enslaved Black people that slavery was over.

The first Juneteenth celebration was held in Texas the following year, and then the celebrations spread.

Here in L.A., the Leonard family is credited with bringing the tradition from the Lone Star State to Leimert Park.

Ariyana Leonard and AyEsha Leonard McLaughlin are the daughters of Jonathan Leonard, one of the founders of the Juneteenth celebrations in the neighborhood.

How To LA associate editor Aaricka Washington also joins today's episode to talk about Juneteenth events going on this year in L.A.
Listen • 15:45

Listen • 15:45

HTLA Presents: L.A. On The Margins - Hollywood Disenchanted

Over the next few weeks, HTLA is bringing you a series of stories produced by journalism students at USC: L.A. On The Margins. The series profiles Angelenos who have struggled with things like mental health, food insecurity and homelessness.

In this first episode, reporter Liv Kelleher follows the journey of a young performer as he tries to “make it” in Hollywood — with a nearby Panera Bread as his office, a Planet Fitness as his shower and his car as his only home base.
Listen • 24:10

Listen • 24:10

'Clipped' Writer Rembert Browne Talks Race, Power, and The LA Clippers

Back in 2014, leaked audio of L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist comments caused a firestorm. There were calls for him to step down, for Clippers players to boycott their own games, and for the league to do something. Fairly quickly, the NBA did. But the story didn’t end there.

In 2019, a podcast series from ESPN’s 30 for 30 called The Sterling Affairs explored how the whole saga went down with interviews with Clippers players, former coach Doc Rivers, and Shelly Sterling, Donald's wife. Now there’s a new series called “Clipped” from FX and Hulu that’s based on the podcast. "Clipped" writer/producer Rembert Browne (who also covered the story back in 2014 for Grantland) joined How To LA to talk about the significance of what went down a decade ago, and what it was like to turn the story into a TV series.
Listen • 24:10

Listen • 24:10

'Clipped' Writer Rembert Browne Talks Race, Power, and The LA Clippers

#291: Back in 2014, leaked audio of L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist comments caused a firestorm. There were calls for him to step down, for Clippers players to boycott their own games, and for the league to do something. Fairly quickly, the NBA did. But the story didn’t end there.

In 2019, a podcast series from ESPN’s 30 for 30 called The Sterling Affairs explored how the whole saga went down with interviews with Clippers players, former coach Doc Rivers, and Shelly Sterling, Donald's wife. Now there’s a new series called “Clipped” from FX and Hulu that’s based on the podcast. "Clipped" writer/producer Rembert Browne (who also covered the story back in 2014 for Grantland) joined How To LA to talk about the significance of what went down a decade ago, and what it was like to turn the story into a TV series.