The Writers Strike Has Ended. Here's The WGA's Deal With The AMPTP
The historic Hollywood strike will come to an end at midnight after nearly five months of picketing. The Writers Guild of America sent out a statement Tuesday afternoon letting members know that guild leadership voted unanimously to recommend the agreement brokered with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Eligible WGA members will receive voting materials in the mail and voting will take place from Oct. 2-9. If ratified, the contract will run through May 1, 2026. The details of the contract, which were also made public today, represent substantial wins for Hollywood writers, including staffing requirements for shows, success-based residuals and protections related to artificial intelligence.
Joining us today on AirTalk is Robert Garrova, LAist reporter and Eric Haywood, WGA Negotiating Committee Member and WGA West Board Member.
Nury Martinez Speaks For The First Time About Racist Recordings On LAist’s ‘Imperfect Paradise
LAist Studios’ Imperfect Paradise launches as a weekly podcast today. First up? A series on Nury Martinez, the disgraced former L.A. city council president, who resigned after recordings of her making racist remarks were leaked. Martinez went quiet after the scandal but chose to exclusively break her silence with LAist. In addition to interviewing Martinez, the podcast dives deep into the controversy, speaking to those affected by Martinez’s words, including politicians like Mike Bonin, as well as activists and scholars. 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, host Antonia Cereijido asks Martinez to answer for her comments. Today on AirTalk, Antonia Cereijido, host of Imperfect Paradise, joins us to talk about what listeners can expect as the series unfolds. Listeners can find it every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, or tune into the broadcast version on Sunday nights at 7pm Pacific Time on LAist 89.3.
The True Story Of The ‘American Gun’ And How It Came To Symbolize Freedom For Some And Evil For Others
When Marine veteran and amateur engineer Eugene Stoner first devised the AR-15 rifle in his Los Angeles garage in the 1950s, his goal was to create a lightweight, easy-to-use replacement for the M1 that many soldiers used during World War II. But he couldn’t have known at the time that his invention would one day become among the most divisive symbols in America. In their new book “American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15,” Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson trace the history of America’s most popular gun from Stoner’s garage to its adoption and modification by the U.S. government during the Vietnam War -- it was renamed the M16 and given a select-fire switch to allow soldiers to alternate between automatic and semi-automatic fire, but it was prone to jamming and ultimately cost lives and led to a Congressional investigation -- to its place today at the center of an ongoing debate over what role, if any, it has in American gun market. It has become the weapon of choice for mass shooters -- Sandy Hook, the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Parkland, the Gilroy Garlic Festival, Buffalo, Uvalde…the list goes on. But it has also come to signify freedom and patriotism in some circles -- we’ve even seen some sitting members of Congress sporting lapel pins shaped like AR-15s.
Today on AirTalk, McWhirter and Elinson join us to share their reporting on the true story of the AR-15 from its inception as a military weapon to its rise to popularity in the civilian market to ongoing (and so far futile) attempts to outright ban it, and the cost of our country’s fixation on this particular gun.
Can An Academic Decathlon Help Orange County Become The ‘Sustainability Capital Of The World?’ These Professors Hope So
Architects of the inaugural bi-annual Orange County Sustainability Decathlon hope one day the county can be a place renowned not just for theme parks, but for sustainable developments. Between October 5-8 & 12-15 the OCSD will bring together fourteen–mostly in state–colleges (and one trade school) who have spent the last year and a half putting together nearly full scale examples of sustainable housing in California. The students will be graded across ten categories, including sustainability, design, engineering, market potential and energy efficiency. Participants will also have the opportunities to turn those practical projects into potential job prospects with the OCSDs Job and School Fair on October 13th. The free conference at the OC Fair & Event Center is aiming to be a community affair with activities for kids and adults alike. Here to tell us about what will be the first of a bi-annual competition are Mike Moodian, vice president of the OCSD and Fred Smoller, CEO of the OCSD. Have thoughts on what sustainable housing in Southern California should look like? Call 866-893-5722 or email atcomments@laist.com with comments.
A Blast Kills At Least 20 Killed In Nagorno-Karabakh Region, Escalating Tensions In And Around Armenia
At least 20 people were killed and nearly 300 others were injured in an explosion at a crowded gas station in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region as thousands of ethnic Armenians rushed to flee into neighboring Armenia, the separatist territory’s authorities said Tuesday. Some 28,000 people — about 23% of the region’s population — have fled across the border since Azerbaijan defeated separatists who have governed the breakaway region for about 30 years in a swift military operation last week, according to Armenia’s government. Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region within Azerbaijan under the Soviet Union. Separatist sentiment grew in the USSR’s dying years and then flared into war. Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, after a six-year separatist war that ended in 1994. Joining us today on AirTalk is Rayhan Demytrie, BBC Caucasus Correspondent and Salpi Ghazarian, director of special initiatives at USC’s Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies.
Comedian Hasan Minhaj Says Parts Of His Stand Up Stories Didn’t Actually Happen. How Far Is Too Far When It Comes To Embellishing Details In Comedy?
It’s not uncommon for stand-up comedians to embellish stories or use a bit of dramatic license when crafting their material, but how far is too far when it comes to making up stories for laughs? In a recent profile in The New Yorker, comedian Hasan Minhaj told staff writer Clare Malone that while some of his on-stage bits are based on things that have happened in real life, he often alters key details for the sake of the bit. One such example involves a story he told during his 2022 Netflix stand up special “The King’s Jester” about a supposed F.B.I. informant who came to the mosque where his family would pray in 2002. But in the New Yorker’s piece, the informant Minhaj identifies is quoted as saying he was in prison in 2002, and didn’t start informing the federal government until 2006. Another from the same special is a story about his family receiving an envelope full of white powder in the aftermath of The Patriot Act, which spilled on his daughter and forced Minhaj and his wife to take their child to the hospital. But the New Yorker spoke with the NYPD, which tracks incidents involving anthrax, and no such incident ever occurred. Minhaj admits that while his family did receive a letter containing powder, it never spilled on his daughter, but argues that the larger point he was trying to make about racial discrimination against Muslims in the wake of 9/11 justified the fabrication of certain details. Minhaj is far from the first stand up comedian to alter details for the sake of a bit, but his admissions have started a larger conversation in the stand up community about where the line really is when it comes to fabricating these kinds of details.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll talk with comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Tim Meadows, who is currently on a multi-state comedy tour, about his thoughts on Minhaj’s comments and more generally the idea of embellishing stories in stand-up comedy.
