California’s Shapeshifting Coastline

Boiling Point

Los Angeles Times environmental reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rosanna Xia joins Sammy to discuss her book, “California Against the Sea. They talk about the need to adapt to climate change as rising temperatures and a shifting coastline create a different California than the one we know and love.

Link to Rosanna’s book, “California Against the Sea”: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/california-against-the-sea/

Link to an excerpt of Rosanna’s book: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-08-22/the-california-coast-is-under-siege-how-can-we-save-it-from-sea-level-rise

Link to the trailer for “Out of Plain Sight”: https://www.outofplainsight.com/about

Link to tickets for Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles:

https://www.outofplainsight.com/tickets

LA Times Studios launched “Smoglandia" on Boiling Point Podcast, a new limited narrative series hosted by award-winning Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison. The podcast traces the rise, impact and eventual retreat of Los Angeles’ most insidious form of pollution: smog.

Through the words and insights of scientists, policymakers, filmmakers and artists who lived through the city’s worst air-quality days, the series explores how Los Angeles became a testing ground for environmental regulation, and how science and innovation transformed public health. At a time when hard-earned progress against smog faces new setbacks, “Smoglandia” examines a landmark victory for the City of Angels, and, through clearer air, looks forward to the lessons still to be learned — and the battles yet to come.

The first episode explores the origins of smog in L.A., featuring Natural History Museum associate curator Dr. Regan Dunn explaining how research at the La Brea Tar Pits uncovered evidence that humans have been creating pollution in the region for thousands of years. Listeners will also hear from renowned artist Helen Pashgian, who recounts growing up in Altadena in the 1940s, during a time when local wartime industries took a toll on her health and obscured the once-glorious vistas.

Additional podcast guests will include actor and climate activist Jane Fonda, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and other influential voices behind the city’s ongoing battle with air quality.

“Smoglandia” is presented as a special season of The Times’ “Boiling Point” environmental podcast.