The Last We Fake

Send us a textSo maybe Wallichs' "Battle of the Surf Bands" wasn't the best time and place for Wanda to demand a display model record player for her hospitalized pal and makeup man, Sparks, her beloved mutual crybaby over “Where the Boys Are.” But she could take in the teen-bikini scene from the ledge she's climbed up on, kick her heels to the pulsating Watusi beat, and try to make sense of her own exploited girlhood. Why couldn't Wanda—or seemingly any woman—find real love, like her dying Grandma Neva did? Fat chance, with these sales boys who either have no idea they're in the presence of a TV star, or recall this one as having been. . . thinner, somehow?Shouldn't the blonde hairs compulsively plucked from a celebrity's patchy scalp count for anything in this establishment? CREDITS:Catherine Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms. Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.We have double publishing news!!  Season Two's novel, Sunland by Charlie Haas, has been released in print by Beck & Branch with a new title, The Current Fantasy ("Heart, soul, art, and the promise of Giant Vegetables... perhaps the last great untold chapter of the California Story." —Don Wallace).  Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Current-Fantasy-Charlie-Haas/dp/B0DJ1TJV82/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tuTmk2PLbYrhl35vNF26hNKifzMVNLxUX5sbuZKxIrSaOzMPlYjB5Uys5Y1YQ2ED1dDgQKbH8KqXAWxZaLQCQTt-KHNyPXOjQoh_573_J3WAGlt6ZVeniX-tqsXmWnQ3.CsBj4yVK4jbIFxGRKRiHullCZ9rJF1jsg1L23qgiuZE&dib_tag=se&qid=1728574532&refinements=p_27%3ACharlie+Haas&s=books&sr=1-1Season One's novel, The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual by Alan Rifkin, has been released in print by Open Books (“A delectable tour de force through our fractured culture—witty, wise, memorable, and touching.”—Richard Bausch). Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Drift-That-Follows-Will-Gradual/dp/1948598795?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Send us a textIn author Noelle Calabretta's dream-infused and bittersweet new short story, "Sleepless Sheep," an insomniac rice farmer and failed poet who left his long-ago love beneath Mt. Fiji makes a return journey to the woods where she's remained. The story was developed in an upper-division fiction workshop at California State University, Long Beach. A second-year Fine Arts Ceramicist at California State University Long Beach, with an Associates degree in Studio Art, Calabretta is now minoring in Creative Writing, and her work has appeared in Sierra Journal. Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Find The Last We Fake's serialized novels in print.  Season Two's novel, Sunland by Charlie Haas, has been released in print by Beck & Branch with a new title, The Current Fantasy ("Heart, soul, art, and the promise of Giant Vegetables... perhaps the last great untold chapter of the California Story." —Don Wallace).  Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Current-Fantasy-Charlie-Haas/dp/B0DJ1TJV82/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tuTmk2PLbYrhl35vNF26hNKifzMVNLxUX5sbuZKxIrSaOzMPlYjB5Uys5Y1YQ2ED1dDgQKbH8KqXAWxZaLQCQTt-KHNyPXOjQoh_573_J3WAGlt6ZVeniX-tqsXmWnQ3.CsBj4yVK4jbIFxGRKRiHullCZ9rJF1jsg1L23qgiuZE&dib_tag=se&qid=1728574532&refinements=p_27%3ACharlie+Haas&s=books&sr=1-1Season One's novel, The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual by Alan Rifkin, has been released in print by Open Books (“A delectable tour de force through our fractured culture—witty, wise, memorable, and touching.”—Richard Bausch). Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Drift-That-Follows-Will-Gradual/dp/1948598795?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Send us a textFrom begging Jock Penny's autograph at Coffee Dan's, to blundering into a surf music contest at Wallich's, to brushing past a wisp of her former self outside a flower shop, Wanda is waylaid by memories of better times—the onion rings at Frankie's (“the world's only delicious vegetable”); the awards ceremony where, slid between two beaus at an effortless 103 lbs, she'd been honored for her heartfelt report on the loss of a local movie house (could she ever do works again that honor the daydreams of women in Bell Gardens and Reseda?). All this, as she searches and yearns for the perfect, maybe last, gesture of love to bring her dying Grandma Neva. And whose all-knowing voice is this anyway, interviewing her to reflect on her finest achievements? Catherine Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms. Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.We have double publishing news!!  Season Two's novel, Sunland by Charlie Haas, has been released in print by Beck & Branch with a new title, The Current Fantasy ("Heart, soul, art, and the promise of Giant Vegetables... perhaps the last great untold chapter of the California Story." —Don Wallace).  Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Current-Fantasy-Charlie-Haas/dp/B0DJ1TJV82/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tuTmk2PLbYrhl35vNF26hNKifzMVNLxUX5sbuZKxIrSaOzMPlYjB5Uys5Y1YQ2ED1dDgQKbH8KqXAWxZaLQCQTt-KHNyPXOjQoh_573_J3WAGlt6ZVeniX-tqsXmWnQ3.CsBj4yVK4jbIFxGRKRiHullCZ9rJF1jsg1L23qgiuZE&dib_tag=se&qid=1728574532&refinements=p_27%3ACharlie+Haas&s=books&sr=1-1Season One's novel, The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual by Alan Rifkin, has been released in print by Open Books (“A delectable tour de force through our fractured culture—witty, wise, memorable, and touching.”—Richard Bausch). Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Drift-That-Follows-Will-Gradual/dp/1948598795?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Send us a textUsing old acting-school chops to conquer the dance-away instincts ingrained by her family, Wanda phones at last for the directions to St. Jude's. But the flickering world at Sunset and Vine floods her with ancestral memory--from golden visits to the Hollywood Ranch Market, to the high-rise vistas behind casting couches where she'd fought her way free, to The Brown Derby, The Smoke House, the warm safety of Coffee Dan's. And is that Tab Hunter as Jesus in the revolving glass? Catherine Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms. Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Double publishing news!!  Season Two's novel, Sunland by Charlie Haas, is being released in print by Beck & Branch with a new title, The Current Fantasy ("Heart, soul, art, and the promise of Giant Vegetables... perhaps the last great untold chapter of the California Story." —Don Wallace).  Visit: https://www.beckandbranch.com/the-current-fantasy. Season One's novel, The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual by Alan Rifkin, has just been released by Open Books (“A delectable tour de force through our fractured culture—witty, wise, memorable, and touching.”—Richard Bausch). Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Drift-That-Follows-Will-Gradual/dp/1948598795?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Send us a Text Message.Achieving a moment's peace between mind and body in the bathroom of June's trailer after the aborted three-way, Wanda staggers off toward a darker reality ...fully reassembled, although, yes, forgetting her horse ...  But in the shelter of her own dressing room, teen memory is rounding the corner from sewing with the ladies to riding with boys.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk who, in the spring of 1962, must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms. Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Publishing news!!  Season Two's novel, Sunland by Charlie Haas, is being released in print on October 15 by Beck & Branch with a new title, The Current Fantasy. Visit: https://www.beckandbranch.com/the-current-fantasy. Season One's novel, The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual by Alan Rifkin, will be released August 1 by Open Books, where it is already available for pre-order. Visit https://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/the-drift-that-follows-will-be-gradual/order.html

This week's episode:  "The Playwright,” a remarkable new short story by first-year talent Natalie Goss, about the subdued heart of a young Los Angeles theater reviewer-turned-dramatist who's losing the script.  Goss is a Child Development and Family Studies major now contemplating a minor or possible double major in English. She dreams of publishing a collection of both fiction and nonfiction, enjoys painting when not reading or writing, and hopes to become a counselor for the public school district of Oakland, where she was born and raised.  The story was developed in a lower-division fiction workshop at California State University, Long Beach.Intro and outro music is from the song Slow, performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker. Publishing news: Season Two's original novel, Sunland by Charlie Haas, is being released in print this October by Beck & Branch with a new title, The Current Fantasy. Visit https://www.beckandbranch.com/the-current-fantasy. Season One's novel, The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual, will be released in August by Open Books, where it is now available for pre-order. Visit https://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/the-drift-that-follows-will-be-gradual/order.html Catherine Hein's novel THE CELEBRITY resumes next week.    

It's production as usual in Hotchkiss's office, despite the fact Sparks has landed in Good Samaritan, Wally Cleaver is sneaking cigarettes in fear of his dad, and Wanda's fixations lurch from Death by Graham Crackers to the sharp memory of a dark-haired actor at Sardi's (so she HAD slept with Chase McSteve) to the sweaty threesome inside June's wardrobe trailer that Wanda badly doesn't want until she does.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk who, in the spring of 1962, must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

Somehow surviving an equestrian gauntlet of obstacles capped by an AWOL 14-year-old Wally Cleaver (“Will you go out with me when I get my license?”), Wanda has finally managed to dial out and hear the terrifying news about her grandmother. But her stage presence is nearly shot when the rotund, legendary fright maestro who directed The Crows and 57 Stairs finds her sitting in his office chair.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk who, in the spring of 1962, must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

This was nothing like being a lamp ray glued to the back of Chase McSteve. Still, the weird-looking horse seems safe, until an explosion on the set of Abilene sends both Wanda and panicked beast off course--close enough to the home of television's Cleaver family that she could practically raid the fridge, while no closer to a word from grandmother than when she threw a jealous tantrum at Howard that same morning. In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk who, in the spring of 1962, must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

"In a couple days, either this would all prove to be a huge comedy of errors, or nothing would ever be the same...."It's existential overload for Wanda, as sex life, pet care, family catastrophe and unanswered phones collide with an all-powerful tub of vanilla ice cream.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel  traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962.Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

This week: Some people are the type to jump on a message marked "Urgent." For Wanda, it's complicated.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel  traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962.Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

Half-buzzed from a night of more sex than rest with Howard the Ex, and done dirty by Dexatrim, Wanda is about to get higher when the après le bain interview with Chase McSteve leads to deep kissing and a motorcycle date in the works.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel  traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962.Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early ‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

Wanda's moonlit drive on Mulholland turns into a hillside sleep-it-off, causing her to miss a big production meeting;  then Howard somehow gets a foot in her door on the eve of her location swim with Chase McSteve.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel of early '60s Hollywood traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962. Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early-‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

Wanda survives her first appearance on the new show, but careful what song you perform afterward with a broken heart.In what one listener describes as "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" if it were written by a woman, Catherine Hein's historical novel of early '60s Hollywood traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early-‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

There goes Wanda's diet after encountering ex-boyfriend Howard on the eve of her Daytalk debut. Catherine Hein's historical novel of early '60s Hollywood traces the journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig. . . if the world doesn't change too much first.Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume novel of early-‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

Season 3's novel, THE CELEBRITY, by Catherine Hein, traces the Hollywood journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's Daytalk in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral in Orange County, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig—if the world doesn't change too much first. Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume, 1,150-page historical novel of early-‘60s Hollywood, was born.Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She now holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach. Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credit music for Season 3 is performed by Ben Rifkin.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.

Season 3's original novel, THE CELEBRITY, by Catherine Hein, traces the Hollywood journey of Wanda Fleming, the tenacious, calamity-prone co-host fatale of TV's "Daytalk" in the spring of 1962. Called to her grandmother's funeral, the heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig—if the world doesn't change too much first.  Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda, the reigning spirit of this epic two-volume, 1,150-page historical novel of early-‘60s Hollywood, sprang to life. Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach. Trailer music is by Ben Rifkin. Podcast art is by Ryan Longnecker. Premieres May 2023

For this Season 2 finale, Lisa Cupolo reads her story "Whisper Screaming," about a Long Beach mother and actor whose inner question won't let her go, then talks with Alan Rifkin about the ghostly buffalo of Catalina Island. Cupolo's debut volume, HAVE MERCY ON US, recently won the W.S. Porter Prize for short-story collections. Her work has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Narrative, The Idaho Review, and elsewhere. She has been a paparazzi photographer in London, an aid worker in Kenya, a script doctor in LA, and a literary publicist at HarperCollins in Toronto. A native Canadian, Cupolo teaches at Chapman University and lives in Orange, California with her husband, the author Richard Bausch, and their daughter, Lila. 

Richard Bausch (“A master of the novel as well as the story ” —Sven Birkerts, The New York Times)  previews a chapter of his 13th novel, PLAYHOUSE, scheduled for release by Alfred A. Knopf on February 14, then talks with Alan Rifkin about the book and his craft. Bausch's works have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, Narrative, Gentleman's Quarterly. Playboy, The Southern Review, New Stories From the South, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Stories; and they have been widely anthologized, including in The Granta Book of the American Short Story and The Vintage Book of the Contemporary American Short Story. The Modern Library published The Selected Stories of Richard Bausch in March, 1996. He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. In 1995 he was elected to the Fellowship of Southern Writers. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Since Cassill's passing, in 2002, he has been the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard is the 2013 Winner of the REA award for Short Fiction. He is currently a professor at Chapman University in Orange, California. Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Learn more at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Special thanks to Ben Rifkin.

Retired Episcopal priest Gary Commins shares a new short story, "Priest and Victim," in which a pastoral meeting with a childhood rape victim turns over secrets both buried and not. Commins is the author of Spiritual People, Radical Lives as well as Becoming Bridges: The Spirit and Practice of Diversity and If Only We Could See: Mystical Vision and Social Transformation.  His newest book, Evil and the Problem of Jesus, is forthcoming in 2023. 

Four-time TEXTE.WIEN https://texte.wien/ Junge Literatur competition finalist Fanny Koelbl reads and discusses her new story, “Le Weekend,” then talks with Alan Rifkin about the fathomless collusion between love, biology, and the willingness to drown.  Koelbl has previously studied in Vienna and Paris. 

Cameron Gomez reads his visionary but deeply human short story "Volcanoes, from Above: Oil on Canvas," then talks with Alan Rifkin about amusement parks out of season, risky career choices, and stories that decide not to be ironic. Gomez is a third-year English major at California State University, Long Beach, who dreams of glory, riches, and a better haircut. "Volcanoes..." is his second published work of fiction.

Writer Brooke Prado reads her macabre, symbolically rich but never quite implausible modern parable, "The Hollow Book," developed this fall in an upper-division fiction workshop at California State University, Long Beach, then talks with Alan Rifkin about the perils of reading in the dark.  Prado's work has been published in multiple journals, including Chaffey Review and Queer Sci Fi Anthology, as well as various contests online.  A fourth-year undergraduate majoring in English, she is at work on a short-story collection tentatively titled "Mother Oh Mother" and the first of what she hopes will be a long list of published novels. Follow her @brooke.prado on Instagram. 

Long Beach's Rafael Zepeda (Horse Medicine & Other Stories, The Yellow Ford of Texas, Can This Wolf Survive, Tao Driver), whose deadpan prose style across many books has earned praise from authors like Jim Harrison and Edward Field, reads from his 2012 novel Desperados and his narrative poem "A Descent into Baja," then chats with host Alan Rifkin about poetry, Picasso, cave paintings and Pekinpah. Zepeda is a National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, a Poets, Essayists and Novelists Syndicated Fiction Award winner, and Professor of English at California State University, Long Beach. 

The finale of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 11 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 10 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 9 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 8 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 7 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 6 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 5 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life--middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flower child Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benjy--branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 4 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, which unfolds the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life, branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Episode 3 of SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, about the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who voyage to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life, branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Season 2's original novel, titled SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, unfolds the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who come to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life, branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Season 2's original novel, titled SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, unfolds the brief desert flowering of a group of German artists, musicians, and free spirits who come to Southern California, “the America of America,” in 1914 to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, city life, sexual norms, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time--the  telegraph, telephone, and movies--in favor of naked farming, altruism, and wild new music. The main characters, a family of four who abandon Berlin in hope of a saner life, branch out from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning L.A., at once torn by and setting in motion the questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.CREDITS:Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas.Host Alan Rifkin's novels, essays and short stories of Los Angeles have been published widely. Find out more about him at www.alanrifkin.com.Intro music is from the song "Slow," performed by Sally Dworsky. Written by Sally Dworsky and Chris Hickey. Available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming platforms.Closing credits songs for Season 2 are “Lullaby of Sunland,” composed and performed by Ben Rifkin, and “Trapeze Dress,” composed and performed by Dean Chamberlain. News and touring information about Dean are at therealcodeblue.com.Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker.Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

Season 2, titled SUNLAND, by screenwriter, journalist and novelist Charlie Haas, unfolds the brief desert flowering of a group of German Expressionist artists, musicians, and free spirits, c.1914, who come to Southern California, “the America of America,” to start the world over. They're fleeing cops, sexual norms, city life, the oncoming world war, and the Internet of their time — the telegraph, telephone, and movies. They're making wild new music and practicing naked farming. They worship the sun. Based loosely on history, and told through the rotating voices of a family from Berlin who leave everything behind in hope of a saner life—middling violinist-dreamer Anna, factory worker Gerhard, prototypical flowerchild Lilli, and budding tech futurist Benji—the four main characters branch from the fields of San Bernardino to the real estate tracts of burgeoning LA, at once wrestling with and setting in motion the longings and questions that have beguiled and bedeviled every American generation since.  Begins July 2022. CREDITS:Music for the trailer is "Lullaby of Sunland," composed and performed by Ben Rifkin.Charlie Haas's screenwriting credits include Over the Edge, Tex, Gremlins 2, and Matinee. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, New West, The Threepenny Review, and Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, along with many other journals. Haas's previous novel, The Enthusiast, was published by HarperPerennial in 2009. Follow his Twitter feed at: @Charlie_Haas. Podcast art by Ryan Longnecker. Sound production by Ben Rifkin.

In this Season 1 finale, Dina Villegas reads and discusses her graceful, arresting, uplifting and disturbing ballad of ambition and imperfection, “The 100 Melodies of Dan Van,” which she developed in a lower-division fiction workshop at California State University, Long Beach. A first-year student majoring in Political Science, Villegas is currently at work on a magical-realist fantasy series she has envisioned since childhood. She calls herself an undercover anthropologist, watches people from afar, and enjoys writing stories that she insists no one will ever read.

Catherine Hein's former life took her from 20 years in the entertainment industry to two years in a homeless women's shelter. That's where Wanda Fleming--the tenacious, calamity-prone TV co-host fatale of Hein's historical novel, THE CELEBRITY--was born.  Called to her grandmother's funeral in the spring of 1962, the novel's heroine must face life without her closest ally, settle on one lover, conquer her eating disorder, and ace a round of Password in order to secure a coveted game-show gig—if the world doesn't change too much first.  Hein's other writing credits include The Bob Newhart Show and a children's story series in The Los Angeles Times about a traveling circus in occupied France.  She holds a master's degree in English and an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Long Beach. 

As baseball season takes hold, award-winning journalist, writer and editor Joe Donnelly reads his short story “Bonus Baby,” which was selected for the O. Henry Prize Stories collection of 2016.  Donnelly's features, fiction and essays have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, The Surfer's Journal, The Washington Post, and The Times of London, as well as in numerous nonfiction and fiction print anthologies. His story “50 Minutes,” written with Harry Shannon, was selected for The Best American Mystery Stories 2012 and is the basis of a short film being directed by Paul Schneider. A 2014 finalist for the Pen Center USA Literary Award in Journalism, Donnelly serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Journalism at Whittier College and edits Red Canary Magazine. His latest collection, So Cal: Dispatches from the End of the World, was recently released by Punk Hostage Press.  Learn more about him at www.joedonnellywrites.com

State of California Beat Poet Laureate and novelist Rich Ferguson shares a playlist of his unique and prophetic LA works, each set to music and largely recorded during the Covid lockdown months of 2020-21. A winner in Opium Magazine's Literary Death Match L.A., Ferguson has shared the stage with such poets and musicians as Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, and Moby; was a featured performer in the film, What About Me?  featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, and k.d. lang; and is the author of 8th& Agony , the novel New Jersey Me , and his latest poetry collection, Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates, released by Moon Tide Press.  

Flash fiction author and editor Meg Pokrass presents a Los Angeles trilogy titled "Her Own Music" and a standalone story, "Cash Register Tape," set in the San Fernando Valley, then chats with host Alan Rifkin about low points that promise everything.  Pokrass's work is featured in three Norton Anthologies of the flash fiction form, and her work was recently selected for The Best Small Fictions 2022. 

Novelist (THE ENTHUSIAST), screenwriter (OVER THE EDGE, TEX, GREMLINS 2, MATINEE), and feature writer (ESQUIRE, NEW YORKER, NEW WEST) Charlie Haas presents  a sneak preview of his new novel, SUNLAND--about a German family who join a community of bohemians, poets, and artists to live on the land outside 1914  Los Angeles--then chats with host Alan Rifkin about dreams that succeed by failing.

Episode 12 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 11 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 10 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 9 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 8 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 7 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 6 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.

Episode 5 of  “The Drift That Follows Will Be Gradual,” a novel-in-stories that threads together a reporter's cherished past—1980s, Los Angeles—and his mentally ill millennial son's determination to claim his own season in the sun.  Part father-son drama, part roman a clef of a changing LA, the twelve linked episodes—bittersweet, sometimes funny, deliciously messy—stumble toward redemption through themes both So Cal and global: the ache of cultural drift, the alienation of the awkward and the uncelebrated in the 21st Century, and the timelessness of young dreams.