This year, Beyonce blessed fans with her album, “Renaissance,” the Daniels — Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — released the surreal trip of a movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and Bad Bunny released banger after banger after banger.

And those were just some of the brightest cultural moments that we couldn’t stop talking about. 2022 had its dark side, too — who could forget Will Smith’s slap or the racist rants of Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West?

Today, we review both the highs and lows of Hollywood, music, culture and more. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times pop music critic Mikael Wood, film and television critic Glenn Whipp, music reporter Suzy Exposito
and film business reporter Ryan Faughnder

More reading:

For global phenomenon Bad Bunny, Puerto Rico remains his playground, battleground and muse

The top 10 Hollywood fiascoes that defined 2022 for the entertainment business

Review: Beyoncé's ‘Renaissance’ is a landmark expression of Black joy (and you can dance to it)

What happens to ‘Emancipation’ after the slap?

Ukraine, abortion, midterms, racist tape leaks — 2022 was a lot, politically. We gather our newsroom experts to break down the year. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times U.S. Supreme Court David G. Savage, California politics columnist Mark Barabak, and L.A. city politics reporter Julia Wick

More reading:

News Analysis: Supreme Court likes separation of powers, but not of church and state

Hate grows, L.A. politics go berserk and Gen Z saves democracy: Columnists dissect 2022

L.A. on the Record: KDL, absurdist theater and a trick play

This year, we saw a pandemic that just won’t quit, a face-melting heatwave and an underwater volcano eruption that wreaked all kinds of havoc. 2022 brought with it plenty of doom and gloom when it comes to natural disasters. But we also saw an effective new earthquake early warning system, a toilet sink that’s great at reducing water and energy use and more good news for our changing climate.

Today, our Masters of Disasters kick off a week of looking back the biggest wins and fails of 2022 by talking about the year’s most memorable disasters. But it’s not all bad: the scribes of scary also offer up some hope as we enter 2023. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times earthquake reporter Ron Lin, L.A. Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia and L.A. Times energy reporter Sammy Roth

More reading:

Massive volcano eruption in Tonga could wind up warming the Earth

How washing my hands with ‘toilet water’ cut my water bills in half

L.A. County coronavirus threat eases for now, but a second wave after Christmas possible

Why NASA’s new mission will study Earth’s water from space

Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the most prominent public health officials in history due to his work during the HIV/AIDS crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He’s about to step down from his long-held roles as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor, but before he goes, we wanted to get some last bits of advice about how to stay safe this holiday season and beyond.

Today, he joins us to reflect on the lessons learned in his career, the future of public health, and high school memories of basketball and Catholic saints.

Plus, stick around after the interview for a moving tribute to P-22. Read the full transcript here. 

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci

More reading:

Fauci’s warning to America: ‘We’re living in a progressively anti-science era and that’s a very dangerous thing’

Review: ‘Fauci’ illuminates even as it flatters ‘America’s doctor’

Fauci: ‘There’s no way’ the coronavirus was made with U.S. research funds. Here’s why

Cryptocurrency started the year strong. But as 2022 ends, what was supposed to be a revolutionary way to buy, save and invest has collapsed. The price of nearly every cryptocurrency has plunged. Multiple businesses built specifically around them have cratered.

Now, members of Congress are calling for more stringent regulations around crypto. But would regulations change cryptocurrency so much that it would essentially stop being crypto? Today, the over-talked-about, often under-understood world of crypto. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times reporter Michael Hiltzik

More reading:

Column: Crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t lose a $16-billion fortune. His ‘fortune’ was never real

Column: Shame, suicide attempts, ‘financial death’ — the devastating toll of a crypto firm’s failure

Column: Thinking of putting crypto in your 401(k)? Think twice

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration authorized over a billion dollars in housing vouchers to help people stay off the streets. The program had problems, but one city — San Diego — succeeded in a big way.

Today, we find out how they did it. Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: Former L.A. Times fellow Anumita Kaur

More reading:

How San Diego achieved surprising success housing homeless people

How San Francisco fell behind on housing its homeless population

Homeless people wait as Los Angeles lets thousands of federal housing vouchers go unused

The Biden administration is pushing electric vehicles as the future. So are major auto makers. But how will that play out in red states? We travel to small-town Indiana to find out.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times White House reporter Noah Bierman

More reading: Can California’s electric-vehicle push overcome the red-state backlash?

Majority of voters favor gasoline-car phaseout. But all-electric goal faces tough opposition

California bans sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Now the real work begins

After Ticketmaster botched sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert tour, her die-hard fans, known as Swifties, did more than just whine on social media. They took political action, calling their representatives in Congress and flagging their concerns to other lawmakers across the country. Some Swifties even filed a lawsuit.

This is far from the first time Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, have been accused of unfairly monopolizing the ticket market. And after another debacle last week that left Bad Bunny fans stranded outside his sold-out concert in Mexico City, it’s clear it won’t be the last time either.

Today, we look at whether the latest backlash is big enough to finally break Ticketmaster’s stranglehold on the live music market.

Read the full transcript here. 

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times reporter August Brown and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

More reading:

More bad news for Swifties: Ticketmaster cancels Friday on-sale for Taylor’s Eras tour

You better lawyer up, Ticketmaster: Taylor Swift fans file Eras Tour lawsuit

Essential Politics: Will Taylor Swift end Ticketmaster’s dominance?

Jessica Roy was hanging with friends at a piano bar when her wallet was stolen — and became a victim of identity theft. Roy filed the necessary reports and thought she’d be able to handle everything pretty quickly. That didn’t happen.

Today, she shares her ordeal and explains why fixing identity theft is a never-ending nightmare and why recovering from it is so much harder than you think.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: Assistant Utility Journalism team editor Jessica Roy

More reading:

My wallet was stolen at a bar. Then my identity theft nightmare began

Are you the victim of identity theft? Here’s what to do

Is identity theft protection worth it? Here’s what you should know

Keke Palmer has already racked up two decades in show business. She acts, sings, hosts a TV show and is the face of numerous memes — and she has big plans for more. 

Fresh off hosting "SNL" and starring in “Nope,” Palmer recently sat down with our sister podcast "The Envelope." She shares what it was like to work with Jordan Peele on his blockbuster sci-fi thriller, how she felt about being her family’s breadwinner during her childhood and the advice Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett gave her on the set of “Akeelah and the Bee.” Read the full transcript here. 

Hosts: Mark Olsen and Yvonne Villarreal

Guests: Keke Palmer

More reading:

Surprise! Keke Palmer announces pregnancy and SZA reveals album release date on ‘SNL’

Is there anything better than Keke Palmer on a press tour? Nope

Review: A superb Keke Palmer keeps underdeveloped ‘Alice’ mostly on track