Podcasts about huntington usc institute

More than 50 million viewers begin each new year looking to Pasadena, tuning into the Rose Parade to see flower and seed-coated floats cruise slowly down Colorado Boulevard.  But to nearly 140,000 of those viewers, the “City of Roses” is home, a complex suburb of downtown Los Angeles with a deep history. Internationally known for the Rose Bowl, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Playhouse, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Jackie Robinson, Julia Child, Octavia Butler, Mildred Pierce, its little old ladies, the Arroyo Seco, and so much more, Pasadena has played a greater role in American and Pacific histories than most of its residents even know.The fourth season of Western Edition — the podcast from the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW) — digs deep into the “Crown City” of the San Gabriel Valley. Western Edition: Hidden Pasadena shares six little-known Pasadena stories, from Simons brickyard to Vroman's bookstore, St. Barnabas church to the Shoya House at The Huntington. It also considers Pasadenans from the past, from John Brown's children to John Birch's followers.

From California's wine country to the Panama Canal to Owen's Lake and the LA River, this provocative panel will explore placemaking and the land that we share, looking at issues related to labor, race, gender, sustainability, and more. Joan Flores-Villalobos is an assistant professor of History at USC whose work focuses on histories of gender, race, and diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her first book, The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal, focuses on the West Indian women who travelled to Panama and made the canal construction possible by providing the indispensable everyday labor of social reproduction.  Julia Ornelas-Higdon is an associate professor of History at California State University, Channel Islands, whose research and teaching focus on the intersections of race, agriculture, and labor histories. Her book, The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769-1920, explores California's 19th century wine industry as a site of conquest and racialization.  Alex Robinson is a landscape architect, researcher, and associate professor in USC's Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program whose work seeks to reinvent our most consequential anthropogenic landscapes through collective authorship, multidisciplinary tools, and community engagement. His book, The Spoils of Dust: Reinventing the Lake that Made Los Angeles, examines the unlikely reinvention of Owens Lake by the city that dried it. Moderator: William Deverell is director of the Huntington-USC Institute of California and the West and Divisional Dean of Social Sciences at USC. He is the author of numerous studies of the 19th and 20th century American West, including To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds: The American West After the Civil War and Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past.

The Paris Olympics kicks off Friday, starting the countdown until the games come to Los Angeles in 2028. During the 2028 games, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum will again host the track and field and Para Athletics events, making it the only stadium in history to host these competitions for three different Olympic Games. To celebrate this milestone, we want to revisit the Coliseum's history and replay this episode from 2023…during the stadium's centennial year! #147: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is one of several L.A. landmarks hitting the century mark this year, and we thought it'd be fun to take a look back on them as we celebrate our one-year anniversary of How To LA this September. We explored The Biltmore Hotel downtown (if you haven't listened to that episode already) and we'll be featuring the story behind the Hollywood sign pretty soon. When it comes to the L.A. Coliseum (the "memorial" in the full name refers to the fact that the stadium is a memorial to the Americans who served in WWI) there's no denying that it has a rich history. For example, it played a role in the desegregation of the NFL, and it will soon be the first location to ever host three Olympic Games. But the stadium's history goes way beyond sports. Guests: Frank Guridy, Professor of History and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, and author of the forthcoming book, "The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play" William Deverell, Historian at USC and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West Marina Fote, Assistant to the General Manager, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The performances from Wattstax in this episode are Carla Thomas singing "Pick Up the Pieces" and The Bar-Kays performing "Son of Shaft/Feel It"

#147: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is one of several L.A. landmarks hitting the century mark this year, and we thought it'd be fun to take a look back on them as we celebrate our one-year anniversary of How To LA this September. We explored The Biltmore Hotel downtown (if you haven't listened to that episode already) and we'll be featuring the story behind the Hollywood sign pretty soon. When it comes to the L.A. Coliseum (the "memorial" in the full name refers to the fact that the stadium is a memorial to the Americans who served in WWI) there's no denying that it has a rich history — for example, it played a role in the desegregation of the NFL, and it will soon be the first location to ever host three Olympic Games. But the stadium's history goes way beyond sports. Guests: Frank Guridy, Professor of History and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, and author of the forthcoming book, "The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play" William Deverell, Historian at USC and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West Marina Fote, Assistant to the General Manager, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

A year ago, the second season of Western Edition focused on the past, present, and future of Los Angeles Chinatown. As part of that fascinating exploration, we investigated the horrific 1871 massacre of Chinese and Chinese Americans in downtown Los Angeles. In October of that year, a mixed-race mob of approximately ten percent of the resident population of Los Angeles killed 18 Chinese men and boys, or about ten percent of that ethnic and national group's population at the time.Though the event has burned in the memory of the Chinese and Chinese American community for 150 years, the rest of Los Angeles, people who live or who visit here, generally know nothing about it. But thanks to the collaborative efforts of grassroots organizations and institutions, working in concert with the city of Los Angeles, a fitting and powerful memorial to the victims of the massacre is now well underway. It made sense to us at Western Edition to add this final episode to our “Memorializing the West” season, as it offers a coda to what we've done and where we've gone this season and, we think, a bridge to last season's Chinatown investigation.Following a summer 2022 public call for ideas and a competition, artist and photographer Nicolás Leong and writer Judy Chung were selected from nearly 200 submissions and, eventually, five other finalists, all of whose thoughtful work sought to redress our city's amnesia about this event.Western Edition  host William Deverell spoke with Nicolás and Judy about their design and their process.To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Moving from removal to renewal, many communities are not just calling for dismantling problematic monuments but also creating new layers of historical memory. This episode explores grassroots and public-driven projects in San Antonio, where students use digital technologies to reshape understandings of the city's communities of color and ongoing struggles for civil rights and recognition.To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Denver, Colorado has seen highly public reckonings with historical markers referencing moments or people from the frontier past. Some actions seemed spontaneous and episodic: a statue of a Union soldier came down for its ties to a notorious massacre of Native peoples. Following the removal of another monument, the city's mayor publicly acknowledged and apologized for Denver's history of anti-Chinese violence.To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Not far from the USC campus sits the home of the ONE Archives, one of the world's greatest repositories of historical material pertaining to LGBTQ people and institutions. The mid-century building once housed a USC fraternity and is now part of the USC Libraries. Today, the ONE Archives stand as an evolving memorial itself, with a mission to promote public conversation and scholarship about queer histories and cultures.To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Additional histories are hidden behind the laconic language etched into markers across the West. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers Marker 123 in the center of Jackson, Wyoming celebrates the arrival of Mormon families in 1889 while eliding important context, including deeper histories of settler colonialism and violence against Native peoples. Why did Anglo Americans in the mid-20th century produce particular narratives about pioneers and settlement in the West?To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

There are many places and sites in California that, if we listen closely, still echo with the angst of the Civil War past. Or if they don't, they should. Take, for example, the Broderick-Terry monument in Daly City. This plaque and two obelisks mark the end of dueling in the state but omit the critical context of the battle over slavery in California.To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Starting on Catalina Island, just off the coast of Southern California, this episode of Western Edition zeroes in on a Civil War barracks that is now a private yacht club. The site played a curious role during the war and in the violent campaigns against Native peoples. Who is invested in the memories and histories of this site?To see images related to this episode, please visit dornsife.usc.edu/icw. Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Given the nation's widespread and often heated reckoning with sites of memorialization and commemoration in recent years, the new season of Western Edition – the podcast from the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW) – questions six such sites across the American West. Who put that plaque there? Who decided that a statue needed to be fixed on a plinth in that space or on that street corner? And when? Why was it worth marking or remembering? Is it still important or significant, perhaps now maybe for different reasons? Do community members, people who walk by, or those who make an effort to visit, find these places and the words written about them meaningful? Launching on May 2, 2023, Western Edition: Memorializing the West explores historical memory, commemoration, and memorialization from Catalina Island to Daly City, California; Jackson, Wyoming to Los Angeles; Denver to San Antonio. 

Episode 31: Historian Bill Deverell joins the show to discuss his interest in the American West, the importance of studying our past, and his excellent podcast series Western Edition.Bill originally considered following his father's footsteps of being a doctor before dedicating himself to exploring the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Following professorships at UC San Diego and CalTech, Bill became a teacher at USC and then the Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and one of the founding directors of the Los Angeles Service Academy. In 2021, Bill and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West launched Western Edition, a wonderful podcast series that explored our relationship with fire in season one and Los Angeles' Chinatown in season two.For more information and to support Bill's work, please visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/icw and https://laserviceacademy.org.For information and to listen to the Western Edition podcast, visit https://apple.co/3S26pdkSpecial Guests: Bill DeverellThe Crown City Podcast can be found on most platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and many others.To support the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review on your favorite podcasting app or sponsor us at www.thecrowncitypodcast.com or www.patreon.com/thecrowncitypodcastThe Crown City Podcast is proud to be sponsored by Zencastr, an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives podcasters studio-quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how.Go to zencastr.com/pricing and enter promo code thecrowncitypod to get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account along with a 14-day free trial. Zencastr is the modern web-based solution for both the everyday and professional podcaster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 31: Historian Bill Deverell joins the show to discuss his interest in the American West, the importance of studying our past, and his excellent podcast series Western Edition. Bill originally considered following his father's footsteps of being a doctor before dedicating himself to exploring the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Following professorships at UC San Diego and CalTech, Bill became a teacher at USC and then the Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and one of the founding directors of the Los Angeles Service Academy. In 2021, Bill and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West launched Western Edition, a wonderful podcast series that explored our relationship with fire in season one and Los Angeles' Chinatown in season two. For more information and to support Bill's work, please visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/icw and https://laserviceacademy.org. For information and to listen to the Western Edition podcast, visit https://apple.co/3S26pdkSpecial Guests: Bill DeverellThe Crown City Podcast can be found on most platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and many others.To support the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review on your favorite podcasting app or sponsor us at www.thecrowncitypodcast.com or www.patreon.com/thecrowncitypodcastThe Crown City Podcast is proud to be sponsored by Zencastr, an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives podcasters studio-quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how. Go to zencastr.com/pricing and enter promo code thecrowncitypod to get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account along with a 14-day free trial. Zencastr is the modern web-based solution for both the everyday and professional podcaster.

What's next for Chinatown? What challenges does the community face in the era of Covid, of the Stop Asian Hate movement, of gentrification, and the ever-rising cost of living in Los Angeles?Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Spanning multiple generations across Los Angeles history, the See family takes focus in episode five. Novelist and historian Lisa See narrates her family's rich history, as does Leslee See Leong, whose antique and furniture store has long been a fixture of the See family's life and work.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

In the early 1930s, the old Chinatown of Los Angeles disappeared to make way for the new Union Station Passenger Terminal. This episode examines the history of that eradication and displacement alongside the rise of “New Chinatown,” the adjacent community that arose through the vision of Chinese American entrepreneurs and community leaders.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

California played a fundamental role in legislating Chinese exclusion in the last decades of the 19th century. This episode explores the history of such exclusionary racism, as well as the ways in which Chinese attorney Y.C. Hong worked on behalf of his thousands of clients trying to return to, or stay in, the United States.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

A dark stain on Los Angeles, the horrific massacre of Chinese men and boys in Chinatown still reverberates across community and memory. A movement to memorialize the victims has taken root through civic activism, community organizing, and partnerships with the City of Los Angeles.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

As an idea, as a place, even as a single structure, Chinatown has meant and means different things to different people at different times. The first episode of L.A. Chinatown explores these multiple meanings across time and space.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

L.A.'s Chinatown is a bustling cultural and business hub, legendary in cinematic history and popular with tourists and locals alike. Yet below its surface lies a challenging history – of racial discrimination as well as community resilience – going back more than a century and a half. And it's a history still being uncovered, as explored in the second season of Western Edition: L.A. Chinatown. This season explores the past, present, and future of one of L.A.'s oldest neighborhoods and one of the first Chinese American cultural centers in the U.S. Expanding on the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West's multi-year Chinatown History Project, the new episodes build on the Institute's work digging into archives, collaborating with community partners, and talking to longtime residents to reflect on, remember, and celebrate a neighborhood and its people.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Greg Hise, Jessica Kim, Elizabeth Logan, Olivia Ramirez, Li Wei Yang, and Stephanie Yi. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

This week marks the 73rd anniversary of the Kathy Fiscus tragdedy. Kathy Fiscus was a three-year-old girl who fell into a well in San Marino, California in April 1949. The multi-day rescue effort was heartbreaking and became the focus of the first live breaking news event in the history of television news. KTLA's coverage brought thousands of people to the scene in a desperate attempt to save Kathy.In the new book “Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy that Transfixed the Nation,” William Deverell, professor of history and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, takes readers inside the incident and provides the definitive history of it. During this podcast, Professor Deverell reveals how the rescue effort unfolded, explains KTLA's role in the spectacle, and discusses the lasting impacts of the event.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wildfires are in the news more than ever. William Deverell, professor of history at the University of Southern California, says we need to change how we fight them. William Deverell is Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.  He writes broadly on […]

For over a century, the U.S. Forest Service has posted fire lookouts at the tops of mountains and trees: men and women who gaze out at the horizon, watching and waiting for signs of smoke, and serving as the eyes for the fire crews who go out to battle the blazes. In this episode, we talk to Philip Connors, who keeps watch over one of the most fire-prone forests in the country: the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Every summer, for nearly two decades, he sits in a tiny cabin at the top of a fire lookout tower, with his binoculars, maps and notebooks, standing guard. That experience formed the subject of his book, "Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout." We also talk to science historian Jameson Karns about the origins of fire towers and their place in American culture; and to Vincent Ambrosia, a research scientist who works with NASA to improve wildfire monitoring.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

There's a good chance that the firefighter saving you from a wildfire is actually an incarcerated person. As of summer 2021, about 1,600 work at conservation camps, also called fire camps, in California. These are minimum-security facilities staffed by incarcerated people who both volunteer and then qualify for the program based on their conviction offenses and behavior in prison. Other incarcerated persons serve at institutional firehouses. Once they finish serving their sentences, some might continue on to a training and certification program at the Ventura Training Center in Ventura County, or the The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program. In this episode, we consider how much we all owe these firefighters and hear about two programs to help them find work – and a renewed sense of purpose – in fighting fires after they finish their sentences. We also speak with Jaime Lowe, author of Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Frontlines of California's Wildfires.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Wildfire smoke can spread far beyond the fire itself, and the toxic pollutants carried in the smoke can be deadly. In this episode, we investigate the harm posed by wildfire smoke and exactly what happens to our bodies when we're inhaling wildfire smoke, including triggering or worsening other health problems. We'll also learn about how migrant farmworkers are especially at risk -- due to the nature of their outdoor work, pesticide exposure, and lack of Indigenous language translation -- and the efforts to reduce their vulnerability.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

The gospel of fire safety in the Western U.S. has long been one of suppression: fires are bad and they should be avoided at all costs. But Indigenous communities in the West see things differently. In this episode, we talk to Indigenous tribal leaders who engage in controlled burns: carefully controlled fires intentionally set as a way of managing ecosystems, by burning the undergrowth and dead trees that would otherwise fuel wildfires. It's become a sensitive debate, in which fire management officials have often gone up against Indigenous practices. We'll also explore how our current views of fire were formed in the West.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Fires can be terribly destructive forces of nature, wiping out entire communities, as we've seen so often these past few years. But the destruction doesn't stop when the fires go out. Fires can leave hillsides denuded. Foothill communities no longer have the trees and roots to protect them from the rocks and mud that flow down from the mountains after it rains. That's what happened in Montecito, a community on the eastern edge of Santa Barbara, in early January 2018. In this episode, we learn about the phenomena of post-fire debris flow and mudslides and hear a first-hand story of the incredible wreckage it can cause.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

“Remember, only you can prevent forest fires.” Generations of Americans have this fire safety adage emblazoned on their collective memory thanks to Smokey Bear (often mistakenly called Smokey the Bear).  Smokey Bear is the longest-running public service announcement in U.S. history. A large, friendly, bare-chested bear in denim jeans and a campaign hat, asking you to prevent forest fires, he is universally beloved… almost. In this episode, we get to know the bear himself. Where did he come from? How did he and his message spread like, well, wildfire? How did he become a beloved children's character, a working-class hero, a guardian of nature, a countercultural icon, and a symbol of government overreach, all in one? And what's it like to dress up in a Smokey Bear costume?Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Firefighters have a hard job. Whether they're putting out housefires or battling large-scale wildfires, the work can be grueling, dangerous, and thankless. Imagine having to deal with racism and bigotry on top of all that. Los Angeles firehouses were segregated until the 1950s, and the work to overcome racism on the force continues to this day. In this episode, we meet members of the Stentorians, a fraternal organization that focuses on recruiting, training, and connecting Black firefighters, in both the city and county of Los Angeles; the team behind L.A.'s African American Firefighter Museum on South Central Avenue; and we hear about the legendary Arnett “The Rookie” Hartsfield, Jr., who helped lead the battle to integrate the Los Angeles Fire Department.Western Edition is hosted by William Deverell and produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Amidst the most catastrophic fires the North American West has ever experienced comes a new podcast from the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW), and hosted by its director William Deverell, exploring the legacy and calamity of wildfire in the Western U.S. Launching on Sept. 7, 2021, Western Edition is the first podcast from ICW, a center for scholarly investigation of the history and culture of California and the American West based jointly out of the University of Southern California and The Huntington.The first season, The West on Fire, explores the West's relationship with fire, and how it has shaped both our past and present. Topics will include fire practices in Indigenous communities, the history of Black firefighters in Los Angeles, smoke and urban air quality, farmworker community health during wildfires, post-wildfire debris flow, the origins and endurance of Smokey Bear, incarcerated firefighters, and more. Western Edition is produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Western Edition -- a new podcast from the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and hosted by its director William Deverell, historian of the American West -- seeks to engage Angelenos, Californians, and Westerners as critical thinkers, conscious consumers, and informed community members. The podcast seeks to tell the fascinating stories of the people and communities of our region, connecting the past to the present, and demonstrating the tightly woven fabric of history. The first season, The West on Fire, explores the West's relationship with fire, and how it has shaped both our past and present. Topics will include fire practices in Indigenous communities, the history of Black firefighters in Los Angeles, smoke and urban air quality, farmworker community health during wildfires, post-wildfire debris flow, the origins and endurance of Smokey Bear, incarcerated firefighters, and more. Western Edition is produced by Avishay Artsy, Katie Dunham, Jessica Kim and Elizabeth Logan. Our music was written and recorded by I See Hawks in L.A. Western Edition is a production of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

20 Minute History is extremely excited to welcome historian William Deverell to the show! Professor Deverell is a member of the history faculty at the University of Southern California, as well as the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. Among other things, he is an expert on the tragic events surrounding Kathy Fiscus, the very same events that we covered in our eighth episode of Season 1. His work was absolutely instrumental to the writing of that episode, and his new book Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy That Transfixed the Nation is the culmination of that work, as vivid as it is thought-provoking. So today, David sits down with Professor Deverell to discuss the experience of writing the book, break down his own personal connection to Kathy, and dive deep into an analysis of the tragedy and its aftermath.Follow 20 Minute History on social media!Facebook: www.facebook.com/20minhistoryTwitter: www.twitter.com/20minhistoryInstagram: www.instagram.com/20minhistoryFind us on all your podcasting platforms: www.linktr.ee/20minhistoryRevisit our own episode on Kathy Fiscus: https://pod.fo/e/ac8afFollow the Huntington Institute on social media!Facebook: www.facebook.com/husc_icwTwitter: www.twitter.com/husc_icwInstagram: www.instagram.com/husc_icwBuy Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy That Transfixed the Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Kathy-Fiscus-Tragedy-Transfixed-Nation/dp/1626400873/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Kathy+fiscus&qid=1619057308&sr=8-1Links to support Paranoid Strain:Podfollow: https://podfollow.com/the-paranoid-strainFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theparanoidstrainTwitter: https://twitter.com/paranoidstrainContribute to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/20minhistory Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/20-minute-history. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/20-minute-history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kathy Fiscus was a three-year-old girl who fell into a well in San Marino, California in April 1949. The multi-day rescue effort was heartbreaking and became the focus of the first live breaking news event in the history of television news. KTLA's coverage brought thousands of people to the scene in a desperate attempt to save Kathy.In the new book "Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy that Transfixed the Nation," William Deverell, professor of history and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, takes readers inside the incident and provides the definitive history of it. During this podcast, Professor Deverell reveals how the rescue effort unfolded, explains KTLA's role in the spectacle, and discusses the lasting impacts of the event.

Catastrophic wildfires on the west coast feel like a very modern problem — one that’s a product of global warming, improper zoning policies, drought and more. Yet fires are also nothing new, and have been raging on these landscapes for hundreds of years. A new project from the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West attempts to tie together the history of Western fire with modern fire ecology. A large part of that history also surrounds Native American tribes who have lived on this land — and used fire as a tool to preserve it — for millennia. The project is called the West on Fire, and Match Volume’s Sean Flannelly sat down to talk with its lead investigator, Jared Aldern.

These days, for better or worse, TV news crews are often among the first to arrive on the scene of a breaking story. But it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, before one particular event in 1949 that took place right here in Southern California, there was no long form, on-site live coverage of breaking news events the way that we see it now.  In his new book, Southern California historian Bill Deverell goes back more than 70 years to a spring evening in April of 1949. 3-year-old Kathy Fiscus is playing with her 9-year-old sister and a cousin in a vacant lot in the city of San Marino. When Kathy missteps and falls down a dry well, the eyes of the world turned to SoCal for the next 48 hours, waiting with bated breath to hear the fate of little Kathy as rescuers worked feverishly to try and save her in an effort that would, ultimately and tragically, prove futile. But the incident marked a seachange in the way breaking news was covered on television and radio. Because the site of the accident was so close to Mt. Wilson, where several radio towers were set up, local news was able to set up and broadcast the rescue attempt as it was happening in real time, something that had never been done before. Angelenos who were lucky or wealthy enough to own a television set at the time sat in their living rooms glued to their sets while the rest of the city crowded around the windows of hardware stores where TV sets for sale were tuned to the coverage. But wherever they were watching, one thing was clear: the city, the nation and the world were transfixed on the rescue attempt happening live in real time, and both reality TV and long form breaking news coverage today are the results of what happened during those fateful few days. Today on AirTalk, USC historian Bill Deverell joins Larry Mantle to talk about his new book on the Kathy Fiscus tragedy and how it changed the way breaking news is covered on TV and radio here in Los Angeles and across the nation. Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10th at 6:00 p.m., Bill Deverell joins Patt Morrison for a virtual conversation to celebrate the book’s launch. To sign up, click here.  On Tuesday, March 16th at 6:00 p.m. Vroman’s Bookstore is putting on a virtual discussion on the book with Bill and Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian. To reserve your tickets, click here. Guest: Bill Deverell, author of “Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy That Transfixed the Nation” (Angel City Press, March 2021); he is professor of history at the University of Southern California and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

From Australia to the Amazon to the American West, megafires—wildfires that burn more than 100,000 acres of land—have grown so frequent, large, and deadly that they’ve forced a reevaluation of how human societies coexist with fire. In a warming world, governments are confronting whether we must retreat from certain places to survive in a fierier world. Have fires become too big for people and the planet? How are fire management techniques—both old (such as “cool” or prescribed burns used by some Indigenous people) and new (digital technology that maps fire hot spots)—being employed against megafires? And how can citizens and their communities learn to live, build, and plan for a future of firestorms? Historical ecologist Jared Dahl Aldern, CSU Long Beach American Indian Studies professor Theresa Gregor, and Fernanda Santos, The Fire Line author and Professor of Practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, visited Zócalo to examine how and whether human beings can coexist with megafires. Moderated by NPR national desk correspondent Nathan Rott, this Zócalo/Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West event was held on Zócalo’s YouTube and Twitter channels.

William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, explores the life of Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) against the backdrop of American history. This program is a Haynes Foundation Lecture.

William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, explores the life of Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) against the backdrop of American history. This program is a Haynes Foundation Lecture.

Historian William Deverell, the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, visits Zócalo to deliver a groundbreaking lecture on the role that the American West played in healing the wounds inflicted by the Civil War. After all, it was questions about the future of the West that provoked the war in the first place. Unable to reconcile antagonistic positions regarding the expansion of slavery into western territories, North and South capitulated to four years of catastrophic warfare. Then what? Did the post-war American West become a region in which to heal the wounds of disunion? Deverell explores themes of reunification through stories of the convalescence of individuals and the re-fashioning of what it meant to be an American after the Civil War.

Explore the hardscrabble times, places, and people of Texas and New Mexico in our panel discussion titled Busted: Brash Stories from Texas and New Mexico. Authors Joshua Wheeler and Bryan Mealer join Alta contributor and Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano to recount the booms, busts and bold characters of life in the Southwestern United States. Busted was recorded on March 7, 2019 at The Huntington Library in San Marino, California and is presented in partnership with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.    Show notes: Read a condensed transcript of this event Joshua Wheeler's Acid West Bryan Mealer's The Kings of Big Spring Gustavo Arellano at the Los Angeles Times and at Alta  Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West The Huntington Library  

Join authors Bryan Mealer and Joshua Wheeler in a discussion about hardscrabble times, places, and people in Texas and New Mexico. Bryan Mealer's The Kings of Big Spring, has been called "the Texas version of Hillbilly Elegy," a saga of God, family, and oil across many generations of the author's own family. Joshua Wheeler's Acid West, is a collection of essays about Southern New Mexico, and has been called a "freaky, stylish, heart-cracking-open book." The evening's discussion is moderated by Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times. This event is sponsored by The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, and The Journal of Alta California. Reception and booksigning follows the program.

The history of the aerospace industry in Southern California and its intersections with contemporary culture are the focus of this panel discussion, presented in conjunction with the exhibition of NASA’s Orbit Pavilion (on view at The Huntington from Oct. 29, 2016, to Feb. 27, 2017). Panelists are Peter Westwick, aerospace historian; William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; and Daniel Lewis, senior curator of the history of science and technology at The Huntington.

The history of the aerospace industry in Southern California and its intersections with contemporary culture are the focus of this panel discussion, presented in conjunction with the exhibition of NASA’s Orbit Pavilion (on view at The Huntington from Oct. 29, 2016, to Feb. 27, 2017). Panelists are Peter Westwick, aerospace historian; William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; and Daniel Lewis, senior curator of the history of science and technology at The Huntington. Recorded Dec. 13, 2016.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Elizabeth Fenn and Alan Taylor engage in a scholarly conversation on the contemporary relevance of historical writings on the American past. Why do we need historical perspective on our times? What do history, and the humanities more generally, have to teach us about point of view, context, and the rights and wrongs of our past and our present? These scholars and the audience will explore the answers to these questions. This program, which helps mark the centennial of the Pulitzer Prize, is co-sponsored by The Huntington, the Huntington–USC Institute on California and the West, and California Humanities.

Guthrie LA: 1937-1941 (Angel City Press)“What happens when we push beyond Woody’s iconic image to try to understand how an unemployed hillbilly singer in the late 1930s transformed himself into something else?” writes co-editor Darryl Holter in the book’s first essay. “We learn that transformation started in, and started because of, Los Angeles, a place key to Woody’s evolution."The book’s twelve essays, richly illustrated by photographs from the era, explore such themes as Guthrie’s early radio success in Los Angeles with the Woody and Lefty Lou Show; his first recordings made on old Presto disks; and the important friendship he forged with the actor and leftist radical Will Geer (later of “Grandpa Walton” fame). Other pieces cover Guthrie’s racial egalitarianism, as he threw off the worst of his Oklahoma and Texas roots and pushed past a notorious lynching in which his father may have participated; his ability to mold evangelical perspectives into politically savvy folk songs; and the impact he still exerts in his songs about migrants and workers looking for their main chance in California. “Because Woody Guthrie came to Los Angeles when he did, his music stridently addresses inequities and inequalities amplified by the Depression. In Los Angeles, the ever-observant Dust Bowl troubadour became the urban folksinger,” says co-editor William Deverell. “His time in L.A. created the Woody that—eighty years later—bears witness to America’s promise and its problems.”In addition to Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941, Darryl Holter has written books and scholarly articles on labor history and urban revitalization. He has a Ph.D in History from the University of Wisconsin and taught for several years in the History Department at UCLA. Holter manages several family businesses in Los Angeles and is an Adjunct Professor in History at the University of Southern California. He is also a singer-songwriter and a member of Professional Musicians Local 47. His album, Radio Songs: Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles, 1937-1941, was released to critical acclaim in 2015. Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941 is the latest of several books by William Deverell, a professor of history and the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West at the University of Southern California. With a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth century American West, Deverell has authored works on political, social, ethnic, and environmental history, including Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past. InWoody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941, he brings together his overlapping passions for the history of American folk music, the Great Depression, and Los Angeles.

Walter Mosley, one of America’s most admired crime novelists joins one of its newest stars – Attica Locke – for a conversation about noir, race and writing in and from Los Angeles. Presented in collaboration with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, the evening kicks off Tales from Two Cities: Writing from California, a free two-day conference at the downtown Central Library spotlighting the writers who help define Los Angeles as a place with a language, culture, and aesthetic all its own.

William Deverell explores the history of the Los Angeles River and investigates the ways in which large-scale environmental projects such as cementing a river can inevitably reveal much about regional culture and identity. Deverell is a professor of history at USC and the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

William Deverell explores the history of the Los Angeles River and investigates the ways in which large-scale environmental projects such as cementing a river can inevitably reveal much about regional culture and identity. Deverell is professor of history at USC and the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Philip Connors discusses his book Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout with William Deverell, professor of history at USC and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

Philip Connors discusses his book Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout with William Deverell, professor of history at USC and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. The event was part of AxS Festival 2011—Fire and Water, organized by the Pasadena Arts Council.

Philip Connors discusses his book Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout with William Deverell, professor of history at USC and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

When a massive wildfire blazed across California in June 2008, five monks risked their lives to save Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Pyne-- wildfire expert and the country's pre-eminent fire historian-- and Busch-- author and longtime Zen student-- discuss the ways of wildfires in the West and what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind. Program one of four, co-presented with the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

Zurich and Los Angeles share an intriguing political distinction: each is the largest city in the world’s two greatest centers of direct democracy. California and Switzerland use initiatives and referenda more often than any place in the world, and have for more than a century, when Los Angeles followed Zurich’s model and instituted the first municipal system of direct democracy in the U.S. But direct democracy has been challenged in both places, particularly when it seems that financing, populism, misinformation, or sheer complexity — rather than well-informed voters turning out in strong numbers — make or break initiatives. How democratic are Zurich and Los Angeles, what challenges does each city face, and how might they improve their political processes? Zócalo Public Square and the Swiss Confederation invited journalist Joe Mathews, Swiss National Parliament member Andreas Gross, Swiss journalist Bruno Kaufmann, attorney George Kieffer, who led the 1999 Los Angeles Charter revision, and California Common Cause Executive Director Kathay Feng to consider which is the most democratic city, and what each could learn from the other. The event was co-sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, presented in collaboration with the Consulate General of Switzerland in Los Angeles, and made possible by a generous grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.