To the Point
LA’s 1970s pop culture affects today’s politics. Plus controlling wildfires with fire
CNN’s Ron Brownstein says LA was so creative with music, movies, and TV in the 1970s that it’s still shaping American politics today. He writes about that in his new book “Rock Me on the Water.”
By Warren Olney • • 58m ListenThe influence of LA’s popular culture in the early 1970s compares to Paris’ literary world in the 1920s New York’s modern art world in the early 1950s, says Ron Brownstein, author of “Rock Me on the Water: 1974 - The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies Music, Television and Politics.”
Also on this podcast, fighting fire with fire worked for Native Americans for centuries until white settlers stopped the practice 100 years ago. Lanya Quinn Davidson of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council explains how it’s being revived.
She says fire is a natural feature of the California landscape, enhanced by Native Americans, then subjected to repression by developers and timber interests for the last 100 years. But despite careful contingency plans, prescribed fires can get out of control.
She adds that “burn bosses” for state and federal agencies are covered by taxpayer money, but face liability when private property is involved. Legislation has been proposed to protect them.
