Alta Magazine Podcast

Dangerous fumes. Explosions. Terrorism. Lisa Korbatov has cited all sorts of dire threats in her efforts to prevent LA Metro from digging a subway tunnel under Beverly Hills High School — without success. Now, with the project about to break ground, Korbatov has one last hope: an appeal to her friend in the White House. Journalists Matt Smith and Lance Williams from the Center for Investigative reporting join Alta's podcast to detail this extraordinary fight — and one extraordinary fighter. 

Show notes:

Read Matt and Smith's feature in Alta Magazine

Center for Investigative Reporting/Reveal podcast

Follow Lance Williams on Twitter

Follow Matt Smith on Twitter

Follow Alta on Twitter

Writer Zack Ruskin takes us into the underground world of urban explorers, a collection of bold adventurers who make their way, legal or not, into abandoned buildings and structures.

Show notes:

Zack's original article that appeared in Alta's Spring 2019 issue

Tunnelbug's Instagram

Tunnelbug's Flickr

Reddit/Urban Exploration

Historian Bill Deverell joins the Alta podcast to discuss the 1949 San Marino “girl in the well” story. Bill details of this historic piece of California history and explains how little Kathy Fiscus’ fall into a well changed the course of modern media.

Alta contributing editor Gustavo Arellano defends his distaste for In-N-Out Burger, comparing the West Coast chain to the most cliche aspects of California living and reveals his top picks for solid (and local) fast food — without the 30-minute drive-thru line.

Quinn Cummings, a regular contributor to Alta, an author and an Oscar-nominated actress reveals all from her ride aboard a TMZ Hollywood Celebrity Tour bus — an experience we’re really curious about but not sure we could actually stomach ourselves.

Journalist and author John Markoff discusses the Whole Earth Catalog, a long defunct counter-culture magazine and product catalog published by writer and entrepreneur Stewart Brand. Markoff details how the catalog came to be, why the Whole Earth Catalog was so vital, the ways it influenced Silicon Valley, and if there will ever be anything like it again.

In this Alta Podcast, Byard Duncan, a journalist for Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, discusses the millions of bees shipped into California’s almond orchards every winter and the criminals who make careers out of stealing them.

In this week's Alta Podcast, Gustavo Arellano discusses the shifting cultural landscape of Orange County, how and why the OC changing, how politicians are responding to the shifts, and what that might mean for the rest of the state — and the country. 

Journalist Carrie Beauchamp takes us behind the scenes of particularly rare Hollywood photo shoot in 1953 starring Marilyn Monroe and a lavish 16-acre Beverly Hills estate.