Producer, 'Press Play'
Amy Ta has worked in public media since 2010, having produced NPR's Tell Me More with Michel Martin, Weekend Edition and NPR Music. She also photographed several special events and guests at NPR. Before coming to KCRW, she worked on the independent podcast Tiny Spark: Investigating the Business of Doing Good.
What will it take to end the LAUSD teachers strike? After three days of striking, pressure has increased on both sides to settle the LAUSD teachers strike. The district and the teachers have lost millions of dollars. We speak with teachers union president Alex Caputo-Pearl and school board member Nick Melvoin.
Rethinking public school funding in California LAUSD teachers are striking for the second day. Many people are questioning the state’s model for funding schools. California spends around $10,800 per pupil, which is less than the national average. But maybe that money could be better spent if the district itself were smaller and more manageable.
LAUSD teachers strike starts -- how long will it last? Thirty-one thousand LAUSD teachers, nurses, librarians, and counselors went on strike this morning. They want a salary increase, smaller class sizes, and the hiring of more staff. The district says it can’t afford all that. We see what happened on the picket lines.
Documentary challenges how black life is portrayed on screen In his directorial debut, RaMell Ross ruminates on how black life has been portrayed. “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” focuses on the lives of people trying to eke out a living in Alabama’s catfish industry. It’s shortlisted for an Oscar.
Raining money in Sacramento: Gov. Newsom unveils his first budget Governor Gavin Newsom has unveiled his first budget, which includes billions of more dollars for schools, poor families, and the homeless. Newsom says he’s going to “lean in” where others are backing away. He’s also promising more funds for fire protection and for communities that have lost a big property tax base.
Superintendent Austin Beutner on what will happen to kids if teachers strike A strike by LAUSD teachers has been postponed until Monday. The teachers union and the district are still trying to negotiate a new contract for educators. We ask Superintendent Austin Beutner what he’s proposing to the union, what’s happening with the $2 billion reserve fund, what appropriate class sizes would be, and more.
Demands of LAUSD teachers, and the structural problems facing the district Half a million kids and their parents are in limbo as teachers in the nation’s second largest school district prepare to strike. We talk with the head of the teachers union about their demands, and how long he thinks the strike will last. We also look at the deep structural problems that LA’s public schools face.
How will Gov. Newsom pay for a major increase in paid parental leave? As of today, Gavin Newsom is running the country’s biggest state. How will he differ from Jerry Brown? One of his priorities is implementing a 6-months paid parental leave policy for Californians. We talk about whether than can happen.
Is the economy healthy or recession-bound? The Dow is up more than 700 points, a day after stocks took a beating. Apple says it’s cutting its revenue forecast for the first time in some 15 years. But the jobs report is great. What’s going on with the economy?
Nancy Pelosi takes back the House speakership Today is the official beginning of the 116th Congress. Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House again. It’s the most diverse House ever. More than 100 women were sworn in today. So what’s ahead for Democrats?
What’s it like to start your job as a congresswoman amid a government shutdown? Part of the federal government is shuttered, but the new class of lawmakers will be sworn in Thursday. Among them are California Democrats Katie Hill from Northern LA County, and Katie Porter from Orange County. Both flipped Republican House seats. KCRW’s Michell Eloy is in DC following their progress this week.
New Year’s Day: Favorite film interviews from 2018 In “Sorry to Bother You,” Lakeith Stanfield plays a telemarketer who gets promoted after he uses a “white voice” on calls. Rosamund Pike is famed war correspondent Marie Colvin in “A Private War.” And Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally have been happily married for 18 years, despite playing a divorced couple on “Parks and Recreation.”
New Year’s Eve: Favorite music interviews from 2018 Quincy Jones shares how growing up poor propelled him to achieve. Gavlyn and Reverie are rappers in LA’s underground hip-hop scene. And violinist Vijay Gupta won the Macarthur Genius grant for bringing classical music to the homeless.
What Mattis’ resignation means for Trump’s ‘America First’ vision Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is resigning -- apparently over Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan. Mattis was often described as “the grown up in the room.” Meanwhile, lawmakers have until tonight to pass a bill to keep the government running.
Why it’s so hard to leave Facebook The New York Times found Facebook gave companies like Netflix and Spotify way more access to user data than it ever disclosed. We run through the scandals Facebook has faced, and hear some of the challenges of deactivating your Facebook account.
Christmas is over-the-top in Vietnam, and it’s not about religion You might not expect Christmas to have much of a presence in Vietnam, where Vietnamese folk religion and Buddhism are the most dominant religions. And only about 8 percent of the population is Christian. But the holiday is exploding in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in south Vietnam, suggests Andrew Lam, author of “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora” and “Birds of Paradise Lost.” A Christmas penguin in Saigon. Photo by Andrew Lam. “Every shop has something up. And the condo where I live now, they put up a Christmas tree in every section of the building. The receptionists are putting on Santa hats. And my god, they play American Christmas songs nonstop, even more than in America,” he says. Christmas doesn’t have a religious connotation for Vietnamese people, he says. “It seems to be a feeling-good season. It’s intriguing for Vietnamese because so many of our traditions are based on sadness. I don't think Vietnamese even celebrate birthdays until recent times. I remember big celebrations used to have to do with death dates. Grandma's death date is remembered, and we cooked a big meal, and we sat around and commemorated… And so, in some way Christmas provides the alternative where everything is optimistic.” A Christmas tree in Saigon. Photo by Andrew Lam. And whereas gifts are central in America, that’s not the case in Vietnam. “The fascinating thing is it's not yet a tradition where you buy gifts, and give it to each other and to children. So it's not a highly commercial in that sense,” Lam says. But the celebrations do come with a sense of economic growth. “There's a large and viable middle class population. They see Christmas, in some way, as an optimism in their own lives too.” In a way, it’s about having money -- not spending it. Andrew Lam. Courtesy of Lam. But when his family came to the U.S., and they went from poor to middle-class, they started exchanging presents. “We got to America, and we got really into the consumerist impulse. Whereas as a child, I remember Christmas being lovely and quaint.” Press Play producer Amy Ta had a similar experience. She was born in Vietnam, and came to the U.S. at about age 4. Christmas was her favorite holiday growing up in Orange County. Celebrations were led by the oldest brother in the family, Jonathan. They had a fake Christmas tree, lights around the house, a party with relatives on Christmas Eve -- where everyone would open presents one by one. “I got an envelope with cash in it -- for Christmas. And that’s that we do for the Vietnamese New Year,” Ta says. As she got older and her brother moved to the east coast, the family celebrated Christmas less and less. Producer Amy Ta with her dad during the holidays in the 1990s. Courtesy of the Ta family. But Vietnamese New Year, or Tết, is still important. It usually occurs in February, and 2019 will be the year of the pig. There’s a big dinner, prayers for family members who’ve passed away, and decorations like a money tree. Sometimes, the family had a big tree in the living room, and if it didn’t bloom on Tết, that was a sign of a bad year to come … or so, the rumor was. As for food, one of the most popular treats is bánh chưng -- super sticky rice shaped in a giant square, with meat or beans in the middle, wrapped in banana leaf. There are more common kinds of sticky rice too: xôi gấc (made from the red-orange fruit “gấc” that’s native in Vietnam), xôi dau xanh (with mung beans), xôi vò (split mung beans), xôi đậu phộng (peanuts), and more. And if you want to say Merry Christmas in Vietnamese, you can say “chúc bạn giáng sinh vui vẻ,” or “chúc mung giáng sinh.” And Happy New Year: “chúc mung năm mới.”
Spike Lee and John David Washington on ‘BlacKkKlansman’ Could this be the year the Academy finally nominates Spike Lee for Best Director or Best Picture? ‘BlacKkKlansman’ is looking like a contender. The film is based on the true story of black police officer Ron Stallworth, who went undercover with the KKK in the 1970s.
How do physicians assistants and nurse practitioner come with physicians on meaningful outcomes? It is high time to throw out the current model of medical training and look to designing a health care system that really works and is affordable.
A radical act of rezoning; UK prepares for Brexit Planners are calling Minneapolis the most radical city in America, after a vote to allow duplexes and triplexes to be built on lots previously zoned for only single-family homes. What are the chances something like this could happen in LA?