In this 39-minute podcast, Jim Harris of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation provides listeners an insight into the history and ongoings at one of the US’s most iconic structures.
After touching on its original purpose (treating sewage), Jim and I discuss the true and not to true stories such as the Route 66 and the origins of Popeye (min. 7), and city politics and gambling ships (min. 18). We then change tack and touch on its considerable star power in troubled financial times (min.23), the tug-of-war with mulitnationals on the pier (min. 26) and weathering financial storms, 2008 and in the future.
Next up: Luis Rodriguez - the Poet Laureate's nine lives
Feed your soul. Keep listening.
In this episode, TC Boyle discusses the impact that humans have on their environment, citing the Channel Islands, the Galapagos of North America. We then take a tour d’horizon covering writing (min. 12), his historical fiction (min. 20), the disappointment of Hollywood for writers and his tenure as a professor (min. 22).
We continue, referring to humans as species with The Tortilla Curtain as an example (min. 34), grandiose huis clos experiments (min. 36) and close it up with books and technology (min. 39), escaping to a desert island, his advice to himself as a 20 year old (which he didn't follow) and his favourite place in California.
Coming up - the Santa Monica Pier, LA’s Poet Laureate Luis Rodriguez, and UC Berkeley's Michael Dear on why walls don’t work.
Feed your soul. Keep listening.