How one mom learned to stop worrying and love video games during the pandemic

Meet our Masters of Disasters: The California dream comes with more than its fair share of disasters — earthquakes, wildfires, fire tornadoes, eroding coasts, and so much more. The L.A. Times has a disasters unit to cover them, and our reporters are some of the best in the business. So we invited three of them — Rong-Gong Lin II, Rosanna Xia, and Alex Wigglesworth — to talk about how to prepare for the unpreparable. Think of this as a regular monthly series about calamities, with our Masters of Disasters as your guides. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

25 min listen

A look at El Salvador's meme-loving, press-hating autocratic president Nayib Bukele: A populist becomes his country’s president with a historic win. He’s a brash outsider, a relative newcomer, and he promises to drain the swamp. No more politics as usual, he says, because his country is under attack — and he’s here to save it. But this new president begins to upend democracy. Ousts his opponents to consolidate power. Declares he wants to change the country’s constitution to suit him. And trolls his haters on social media all along the way. These are the hallmarks of Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador. If Bukele succeeds in his power grabs, it has big implications for the United States. Today, L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum and El Faro reporter Jimmy Alvarado take us into the current crisis in El Salvador and explain how we got here. Author Roberto Lovato also talks about how Bukele’s actions affect the Salvadoran diaspora in the United States. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

26 min listen

The Uyghur genocide hits California: California businesses are starting to reopen, and for Bughra Arkin, owner of Dolan Uyghur Restaurant in Alhambra, keeping his restaurant open is also about saving his culture. We speak with Arkin about his family's experience with the Chinese government, which includes the detention and disappearance of his father. We also talk to L.A. Times reporter Johana Bhuiyan about a company that the Chinese government has used to track Uyghurs and its efforts to expand in the United States. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

25 min listen

Why Fernandomania still matters: Here's why Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela's magical 1981 season still inspires us today. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

20 min listen

How to honor George Floyd on the one-year anniversary of his murder: Exactly one year has passed since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. We talk to three Californians whose lives have changed because of it. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

21 min listen

How one mom learned to stop worrying and love video games during the pandemic: Video games have always been a point of division between L.A. Times science reporter Deborah Netburn and her 12-year-old son. In today's episode, Netburn takes over the mic to share her journey from ignorance to understanding. And she does it all by playing video games. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

24 min listen

Federal judge to Los Angeles: House your homeless, or else: Among everything that COVID-19 made worse, there is nothing more dire — or more visible — than its impact on homelessness. We speak with L.A. Times housing reporter Ben Oreskes and the Rev. Andy Bales, who runs Union Rescue Mission on skid row, about a move that could test whether there’s enough political will to solve homelessness once and for all. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

28 min listen

Phone trees, Laotian immigrants and COVID-19: In California, the Laotian American community has figured out a way to help its most vulnerable members by using the telephone. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

22 min listen

The forgotten, radical roots of Cinco de Mayo: Few take Cinco de Mayo seriously. But for Axios reporter Russell Contreras, May 5 takes him back to growing up in Houston, where a forgotten riot over the police death of a Mexican American in 1978 turned Cinco de Mayo from farce to reflection. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

22 min listen

Israeli-Palestinian conflict hits California's ethnic studies curriculum: Another fragile truce in a decades-long conflict, with no end in sight. In that time, there have been multiple proxy wars waged worldwide — not with arms, but with culture. And one of the latest battlefronts has been in California’s classrooms. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

24 min listen

Naomi Osaka drops out of French Open, stands up for mental health: The tennis superstar's move highlighted an issue long bubbling in the sports world: In a place where stress is a big part of the game, what's the best way to handle an athlete’s mental health? by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

16 min listen

Meet the Germhunters: A vocal group of politicians, media pundits and scientists doesn’t believe the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans. They think Chinese scientists let the virus loose somehow. It’s a theory that just won’t go away. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

22 min listen

One final reckoning for the Golden Globes: Stacy Perman and Josh Rottenberg cover the film industry for the L.A. Times. In February, just a week before the annual Golden Globes ceremony, they published a bombshell investigation about the operations of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Now, a group of powerful publicists in Hollywood have declared that they’ll keep their clients away from the Globes -- unless the institution announces real reforms. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

26 min listen

Introducing The Times: A daily news podcast from the Los Angeles Times: Hosted by Gustavo Arellano, “The Times: Daily news from the L.A. Times” will bring you the world through the eyes of the West Coast. Expect award-winning reporting, hard-hitting investigations and random randomness from the biggest newspaper west of the Mississippi right to your ears. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

1 min listen

How the Los Angeles Public Library made libraries cool: How did the L.A. Public Library help launch poet Amanda Gorman and teen punk group the Linda Lindas into the world? by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

19 min listen

Lowriders. Cruising. A Southern California ritual returns: You know the slow parade of classic, souped-up lowrider cars with hydraulics that roll down the street bouncing to music? In Southern California, it’s a full-on family tradition that provided a much-needed distraction during the pandemic. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

21 min listen

Las Vegas doubles down on reopening at full capacity: Vegas is betting on the gamblers and tourists returning. But will jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic come back? by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

19 min listen

The origins of California's recall fever: Over the next couple of months, media from across the world will descend on California to cover the possible recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Today, we examine the roots of the upcoming recall election with L.A. Times politics columnist Mark Z. Barabak and Randy Economy, one of the architects of the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

23 min listen

California's unsinkable Katie Porter: California Rep. Katie Porter talks about her political future and where she gets those famous whiteboards. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

24 min listen

Who really created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos?: A junk snack may not seem like a big deal, especially in this current world. But the story of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos — a gnarled, messy, crunchy, bright-red corn puff that debuted in the early 1990s — and its creation has long been told as an inspirational fable from classrooms to boardrooms because of one man: Richard Montañez. His tale was irresistible: he was a former janitor at a Frito-Lay plant who became a high-ranking executive. That is all true. But he credited his rise to his creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Now, an L.A. Times investigation has cast doubts on those claims, and the internet is, well, aflame. We get some insight into the matter from Times business reporter Sam Dean and our very own senior podcast producer Denise Guerra. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

24 min listen

Kink at Pride is a mainstay — but for how long?: People expressing their sexuality in public by dressing up in kink fashions have been mainstays of Pride parades and festivals since the earliest celebrations in the 1970s. But some groups say the kink factor should go down, if not disappear altogether. And the attacks aren’t coming from the right. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

19 min listen

COVID-19 cautionary tales from India and Brazil: Together, Brazil and India now have half the COVID-19 cases in the world. We speak to L.A. Times foreign correspondents David Pierson and Kate Linthicum about what the plight of these global powerhouses suggests about the spread of coronavirus around the world. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

26 min listen

Kate Winslet on 'Mare of Easttown,' 'Avatar 2' and Wawa: Today Yvonne Villarreal, who covers television for the L.A. Times and is one of the hosts of our Envelope podcast, speaks with Academy Award winning actor Kate Winslet. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

23 min listen

The fight to preserve Japanese-American concentration camps: At a time when hate crimes against Asian Americans continue to rise, a bill in Congress seeks to designate Camp Amache in Colorado as a historic site. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

28 min listen

Next U.S. ambassador to India might be L.A.'s mayor ... Huh?: Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has been rumored to be President Biden's pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to India. Does the mayor have the foreign-policy chops to serve as ambassador to the world’s largest democracy? Or does governing a city as unwieldy as L.A. actually make Garcetti the perfect candidate? by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

19 min listen

Recall, George Gascón, and the troubles of progressive D.A.s: The Gascón recall is being watched nationwide — because if LA can take down a progressive DA? Maybe it can happen anywhere. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

23 min listen

Baseball, the Iranian hostage crisis and Barry Rosen: Four decades ago, Barry Rosen was one of 52 Americans held hostage for 444 brutal days in Iran. After their release in 1981, Rosen and the other hostages received a rare gift from Major League Baseball: a "golden ticket." Signed by then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn under the words “In Gratitude And Appreciation,” the lifetime pass entitled each hostage and a guest admittance to any regular-season game. But when Rosen tried to attend a game this year, the New York Mets said they were no longer honoring his pass. What happened next showed just how much baseball continues to mean to Rosen. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

18 min listen

A revolt in Northern California with national influence: Angry residents in Shasta County have threatened supervisors, progressives — and now want to take their demands nationwide. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

21 min listen

What California's high school athletes can teach us about coping with COVID-19: California's high-school athletes were bona fide ballers during the pandemic. They trained alone or over Zoom during lockdowns and are now facing off against each other on the field. How these student athletes coped with COVID-19 this past year offers lessons in resilience and ingenuity that all of us can learn. Today, we learn how the football team at Loyola High School in Los Angeles came together to help teammate Josh Morales and his family survive COVID-19. Then, we’ll chat with L.A. Times’ longtime high school sports columnist Eric Sondheimer about the bigger challenges ahead for young athletes. by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

25 min listen

LAPD's crowd-control tactics under increasing controversy: What's it like to cover protests in Los Angeles? Will a new federal injunction change the way police use their weapons at demonstrations? by The Times: Essential news from the L.A. Times

23 min listen

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How one mom learned to stop worrying and love video games during the pandemic

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