Radio Programs - Arts Radio Online

Podcasts and streaming Arts & Culture radio programs, Good Food, Bookworm, Design & Architecture, The Treatment and more original and NPR programming from Los Angeles, CA on KCRW 89.9 FM.

Bookworm: Bookworm, a premier literary talk show providing intellectual, accessible, and provocative literary conversations. Hosted by Michael Silverblatt at KCRW.com.
The Treatment: In-depth interviews with the most innovative & influential people in entertainment, art, and pop culture. Hosted by film critic Elvis Mitchell, at KCRW.com.
UnFictional: Unbelievably true stories of chance encounters that changed the world. A pair of mail-order shoes that led to the film The Outsiders. A secret road to a California paradise. The day LA and smog first met. Stories that will stick in your head like a memory. It’s UnFictional, hosted by Bob Carlson.
Good Food: Evan Kleiman explores current events, social phenomena, history and culture through the lens of food.
Life Examined: KCRW's Life Examined is a one-hour weekly show exploring science, philosophy, faith — and finding meaning in the modern world. The show is hosted by Jonathan Bastian.
The Business: KCRW's in-depth look inside the business of entertainment. Hosted by editor-at-large of the Hollywood Reporter Kim Masters.
Bodies: Each episode of this documentary series begins with a medical mystery. Sometimes the sickness is in the body, and sometimes the sickness is in the system. Once you peel back the layers, more questions emerge. Created by Allison Behringer and supported by KCRW. New episodes every Wednesday.
Lost Notes: KCRW’s acclaimed music documentary podcast, Lost Notes, is back for its fourth season! Co-hosts Novena Carmel (KCRW) and Michael Barnes (KCRW / KPFK / Artform Radio) guide you through eight wildly different and deeply human stories, each set against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of LA’s soul and R&B scene of the 1950s-1970s.
There Goes the Neighborhood: Los Angeles is having an identity crisis. City officials tout new development and shiny commuter trains, while longtime residents are doing all they can to hang on to home. This eight-part series is supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
Design and Architecture: Host Frances Anderton looks at design and architecture from a Los Angeles perspective.
Nocturne: A sound-rich storytelling show that explores the night, the landscape of the unseen, and how thoughts, feelings and behaviors transform in the dark. Episodes are released monthly. Independently produced by Vanessa Lowe. While KCRW no longer distributes Nocturne, the show continues on with old and new episodes available wherever you listen to podcasts. More information at www.NocturnePodcast.org
It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders: Each week, Sam Sanders interviews people in the culture who deserve your attention. Plus weekly wraps of the news with other journalists. Join Sam as he makes sense of the world through conversation. Tune in to KCRW, Saturdays at 10 a.m.
The Organist: Take a weird, thoughtful and pleasurable journey into literature, music, art, philosophy, the internet, language, and history with McSweeney's and KCRW. This unconventional arts-and-culture magazine features contributors and guests like Miranda July, George Saunders, Lena Dunham, Tig Notaro, and Sarah Silverman.
Art Talk: Art reviews from art critics Edward Goldman and Hunter Drohojowska-Philp.
Curious Coast: Whether you're a lifelong local or new to Southern California, there's always something new to discover. So what do you want to know? Curious Coast answers your questions about the region, its culture and the people who live here. Submit yours: KCRW.com/CuriousCoast .
Don't @ Me with Justin Simien: Join me, Justin Simien, each week for unfiltered conversations with the stars, artists and creators shaping our culture. If you’ve seen my show and film, Dear White People, you know we’re going to get into how race, gender, and sexuality impacts our lives and shapes our work. Beyond the knee-jerk reactions and Twitter hot takes, my guests and I get real and raw. Don't like what you hear? Don't @ Me.
Weekend Film Reviews: The best film reviewers in the business give you recommendations on what to see and what to skip each week.
Freakonomics Radio: Stories that use the tools of economics to explore hidden side of everything, telling you things you always thought you knew but didn't, and things you never thought you wanted to know, but do.
Good Food on the Road: KCRW’s Good Food host Evan Kleiman talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold of The Los Angeles Times about places you may not have tried yet, but ought to. Get Jonathan Gold's weekly restaurant suggestion sent to your phone. Text the "Good Food" to 69866 and get a text with the name, address and phone number of this week's restaurant.
Here Be Monsters: An immersive series of audio documentaries that focus on the forgotten corners of our minds. Beautiful sounds and stories that explore fear, curiosity and the unknown.
Hollywood Breakdown: KCRW’s 'The Business' host Kim Masters breaks down Hollywood's top stories.
Joe Frank: Return Engagement: “Radio noir,” selected from 230-plus hours of Frank's original programs. Each hour can contain a philosophical exploration, an intimate confession, an absurd comedy, a dark tragedy; all of which he takes to the farthest edge while bringing the listener along for the alternately emotional and/or enlightening ride...
KCRW Presents Zocalo Public Square: Zócalo Public Square connects people to ideas and to each other in an open, accessible, non-partisan and broad-minded spirit.
LA Observed: The week's top stories in LA media, politics and culture.
Martini Shot: A wry take on real life in Hollywood.
Opening the Curtain: Musings on what Los Angeles theater is - and can be.
Orange County Line: A weekly tour of the real Orange County, warts and all, with reporter Gustavo Arellano
WNYC's Radiolab: Experiments with sound and style that allow science to fuse with culture and information to sound like music...
Second Opinion: An examination of medical ethics and the practitioners who define them.
Special Programming: KCRW news, culture and arts programming that's not regularly scheduled.
State of the Re:Union: Al Letson travels the country to find compelling stories of community, and tell them with honesty, perspective, and deep curiosity.
StoryCorps: Since 2005, StoryCorps has collected the memories of people from all fifty states and every imaginable walk of life, identity group, age, and state of mind.
TED Radio Hour: The TED Radio Hour takes you on a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions and new ways to think and create. Based on riveting TEDTalks from the world's most remarkable minds.
The Moth Radio Hour: The Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers, and take the audience on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating.
The Spin-off: Hosted by TV journalists Michael Schneider and Joe Adalian, KCRW's The Spin-off is the podcast that takes you inside the television industry. Twice a month we feature in-depth conversations with people who are changing what and how we watch.
This American Life: There's what happened, and there's the story that gets told about what happened. Sometimes the two things don't match up very well. Learn more at This American Life .
Cargoland: Go behind the gates of America’s largest port complex for an intimate and unflinching look at the lives riding the waves of supply and demand.
Invisibilia: Invisibilia is about the unseen forces that control human behavior -- things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions, and thoughts.
Below the Ten: Life in South LA: Below the Ten: Stories of South LA is an ongoing series telling intimate stories about the people who live in the neighborhoods south of the 10 Freeway, including Watts, Jefferson Park, and Compton.
Scheer Intelligence: Scheer Intelligence features thoughtful and provocative conversations with "American Originals" -- people who, through a lifetime of engagement with political issues, offer unique and often surprising perspectives on the day's most important…
The New Yorker Radio Hour: The New Yorker Radio Hour is the program you will look forward to curling up with every weekend. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, is joined by the magazine's award-winning writers in a weekly hour of radio that will both delight and inform.
Off the Block: A trip to jail, even a short stint, can upend many lives - the inmate, their loved ones, and their children among others. This series traces the path from city block to jail block and back.
The Document: The Document is KCRW's new kind of mashup of documentaries and radio - telling addictive, real life, right now stories. The show goes beyond documentary clips and interviews, working with filmmakers to mine great stories from the raw footage of films present, past and in-progress. These aren’t based on a true story, they are the true story.
Celestial Blood: Celestial Blood is a bilingual radionovela about love and secrets in the family of twins Sol and Mundo Lucero. It’s narrated by Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.
Sangre Celestial: Amor. Mentiras. Una receta secreta. Acompaña a Kate del Castillo y sigue las aventuras de los gemelos Sol y Mundo Lucero mientras tratan de descubrir la verdad acerca de su padre muerto Arturo. Pista: está en el infierno.
Screengrab: Screengrab is a new KCRW commentary segment hosted by veteran TV journalists Michael Schneider and Joe Adalian.
SoundsLA: It's your city. What do you hear? KCRW looks at the sounds and people that make Los Angeles unique. Submit yours at SoundsLA@kcrw.org.
Welcome to LA: Los Angeles is a city carved out of the desert — a conjured image of paradise. Award-winning journalist David Weinberg returns with stories of people who learn what lies beyond the dream.
NPR: NPR Culture
David Lynch Theater Presents: Weather Report: Weather reporter David Lynch provides a daily update on Southern California's climate.
The Coronavirus Chronicles: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is ending in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, where governments are trying to figure out how best to restart public life and work. So how are people managing this “new normal”?
Code Switch & Life Kit: Code Switch explores race and society creatively and head-on. Meanwhile, Life Kit shares tips, guidance, and resources for life’s challenges.
FADE IN: Quentin Tarantino & Pulp Fiction: FADE IN is an audio movie about legendary films and TV series and the crazy and talented dreamers who made them. The risks and stakes, the battles, the behind-the-scenes stories nobody knows. Against all odds and usually teetering on failure, these filmmakers and show-runners made something great, something lasting. From the makers of INSIDE PSYCHO, INSIDE THE EXORCIST, and INSIDE JAWS comes FADE IN: QUENTIN TARANTINO AND PULP FICTION. Inspired by the true story.
The Anti-Dread Climate Podcast: The climate crisis is undeniable and overwhelming. People have a lot of questions about how they can help the planet in their daily lives. We have the answers, each week, in less time than it will take you to sort your recyclables.