T minus 7 hours until Game 1 of the World Series and the pressure is on to find that perfect viewing situation. Get inspired as we open the phones to hear how listeners will be watching the Dodgers (or, okay, the Astros) tonight. We also speak with renown restaurant critic Jonathan Gold regarding his latest "101 Best Restaurants" list; debate the methods of gun violence studies; and more.
AirTalk asks: What are your extravagant plans to watch the World Series?
The 2017 World Series kicks off today and the Dodgers are playing for the first time in almost three decades – so we want to know how you’re planning to watch the momentous occasion.
The Series will be on local Fox channels, so viewers don’t have to pay premium cable fees to watch the games. But if you’re doing something extraordinary for your viewing experience, we want to hear from you.
Are you throwing a massive party or planning a trek to watch tonight’s game with someone special? Are you new to Los Angeles and embracing the Dodger mania? Where, how and who are you watching the World Series with?
Call us at 866-893-5722.
Jonathan Gold’s top LA restaurant picks, from $ to $$$$
It’s like Christmas for foodies; that special day that comes once a year – “Jonathan Gold’s 101” for 2017 has arrived.
The coveted top spot goes to Vespertine, the creation of chef Jordan Kahn, which the website describes as “a gastronomical experiment seeking to disrupt the course of the modern restaurant” – a multisensory experience with its own outer space mythology (no, really) that’s received mixed critical reviews, ranging the gamut from pretentious to chef-d’oeuvre.
If you’re a Los Angeles Times subscriber, you can find the full list here.
Old favorites such as Providence, Spago and Trois Mec are in the top ten. You’ll also find cheaper picks such as Guerilla Tacos, Downtown fried chicken spot Howlin’ Ray’s and Iranian Westwood favorite, Attari Sandwich Shop, though the list does skew on the pricier side.
"There's a certain customer base of people who want to see cooking done at the very highest technical level. It's the same as the people who will pay $300 for opera tickets," said Gold.
But not everyone can shell out $300, so from least to most expensive, hear are some of the spots Gold told us about.
Guerrilla Tacos ($)
"If I'm asked to name a restaurant that's the most emblematic of Los Angeles, that's often the one that I'll mention. The chef, Wes Avila, studied and worked with Alain Ducasse who's one of the best French chefs in the world in France...he left not to open another place doing French food, which is what you'd expect, but cooking the kind of tacos he'd grown up eating in Los Angeles, and using the very top quality farmer market's ingredients and shellfish and almost unobtainable pork that all the rest of the chefs in town wish they had access to. It's kind of beautiful."
Night + Market Song ($$)
"Night + Market Song is the second restaurant of Kris Yenbamroong who grew up in a Thai restaurant family and sort of fell backwards into doing a Northern Thai style restaurant using the kind of food he'd grown up on when he want to school in Thailand... the grilled boar collar is really good and there's really good Northern Thai soup with chicken and with coconut flavored broth. It's spectacular."
Kismet ($$$)
"Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson ran a restaurant in New York that was very well received. They moved here, opened a falafel place in the Grand Central Market downtown and Kismet is their first full fledged restaurant in Los Angeles. Its specialty is a whole sauteed rabbit plate which is beyond wonderful. They have a special during the day that's called "all the things" which is literally every bit of flatbread and salad and hummus that's on the menu. It's a smart way of looking at Middle Eastern food."
Orsa & Winston ($$$$)
"I think that he [Chef Josef Centeno] may be one of the people that's very much behind the high-end small plates thing that we've been doing for a while...Orsa & Winston is very Japanese based, so you're seeing a lot of fermented flavors, you're seeing a lot of great sauces, you're seeing...super good sushi-quality fish prepared in what you would expect a French-trained chef to be able to do. It's delicious."
Guest:
Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize winning restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times; his “101 Best Restaurants” guide released this week
Do gun shows in Nevada increase injuries and deaths in CA?
Do gun-related injuries and deaths increase in California in the two weeks after an in-state gun show? What about if the gun show was in a nearby area of Nevada?
UC Berkeley public health researcher Ellicott Matthay set out to find whether there was a potential link and their findings were published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Using gun show listings for a period from 2005 to the end of 2013 from a magazine called ‘Big Show Journal’ and health data from two weeks before and after the gun shows for the regions in California they examined in their study, they found that gun-related injuries and deaths in California stayed relatively the same in the two weeks after an in-state gun show but rose in the two weeks following a Nevada gun show. The researchers say that California’s stricter gun laws, which require background checks on firearms purchased at shows, could be a reason for the increase in gun-related trauma after shows in Nevada, which doesn’t require a background check on guns purchased at a gun show.
The authors say their hope is to prevent future injuries and death by drawing a line between where guns are purchased and where crimes committed with those guns occur. But others studying public health and the impact of gun control laws seem to have questions about whether the study’s methodology is sound enough to support its conclusion.
Guests:
Ellicott Matthay, Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology at UC Berkeley; lead author on the study, “In-State and Interstate Associations Between Gun Shows and Firearm Deaths and Injuries: A Quasi-experimental Study” which was just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine
John Lott, president of The Crime Prevention Research Center, which focuses on the study of gun laws and public safety; his latest book is "The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies" (Regnery Publishing, 2016)
Can a Snap, NBCUniversal partnership change the future of mobile TV?
It’s no secret that Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, has run into financial trouble since going public earlier this year.
But a new partnership with NBCUniversal may turn things around. As reported by Engadget, the two companies are teaming up to make entertainment content specifically for mobile apps. Independent filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass are on board as a creative partner and the project’s new studio is unnamed. Shows already launched on Snapchat’s Discover platform include a fictitious reality series called "James Corden’s Next James Corden" and a rebooted MTV "Cribs." Like Snapchat Stories, each episode lasts for 24 hours.
While it’s unclear what the new content from Snap and NBCUniversal will look like, episodes will likely be under 10 minutes and other considerations on the best way for users to watch on their phone will be taken, including screen formatting, and story pacing. So what does the future of mobile TV look like?
Guests:
Josh Constine, editor-at-large for TechCrunch who’s been following the story; he tweets
Alan L. Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst of TV[R]EV, a consultant firm for the TV industry; author of the book, “Over The Top. How The Internet Is (Slowly But Surely) Changing The Television Industry” (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015)