author
Author and staff writer for the New Yorker
PROFILE
Susan Orlean
Guest
FROM Susan Orlean
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Author Susan Orlean on the fire that nearly destroyed the LA Central Library On April 29, 1986, a fire raged through the Los Angeles Central Library. Nearly every firefighter in the city was there. It was the greatest loss to any public library in U.S. history -- more than a million books were burned or damaged.
Lost Notes
Shaggs’ Own Thing: The Story of the Wiggin Sisters One of the most unlistenable bands of the ‘60s became a cult favorite decades later, gaining praise from the likes of Frank Zappa, Kurt Cobain and Sonic Youth.
Recommended
LA Observed
As teachers strike, political heavyweights bide their time The L.A. teachers' strike is now well underway and both sides are waiting to see who will budge. Others are looking to their elected leaders, from L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti to newly minted Governor Gavin Newsom, for help.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Left, Right & Center presents: Two Years, Diaries of a Divided Nation Listen to America change… one person at a time. For these six people, the politics of the Trump era have changed everyday life. Follow them in real time through the tumultuous two years since he became president.
Scheer Intelligence
The West Has Islam Dangerously Wrong University of Michigan professor and author Juan Cole explores our biggest misconceptions about the world's second-largest religion.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
El Chapo trial: $100 million bribes and nighttime sewer escapes There’s been plenty of drama this week at the El Chapo trial, where it was revealed that he allegedly bribed a Mexican president. He also performed a movie-like escape in the dead of night as agents came to arrest him.