This is a piece I helped produce for the The New Yorker Radio Hour and Transom.

A few months ago, the great American historian and writer Jill Lepore shared a documentary with us that was presented by the National Park Service for the nation's bicentennial in 1976. In it, Americans shared what they thought about the 200th year of the republic: how the country was doing, what it meant to be an American, how they planned to celebrate (or not).

Jill said the piece reminded her of The Listeners, Transom's hyperlocal storytelling project. The Listeners is all about ordinary people and the stories of everyday life that add context to the news.

We watned to try to represent, as best we could, people of every age, gender, race, socioeconomic class, and political belief. So we reached out to reporters across the country -- rural, urban, suburban, north, south, east, west, middle:

• The Peabody Award winning producer Erica Heilman, in rural Vermont, who helped create The Listeners at Transom and whose podcast Rumble Strip is a major inspiration for the project.
• Yohance Lacour, in Chicago, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his incredible show, You Didn't See Nothin.
• Eve Abrams, an incredible independent producer in Metro New Orleans (urban and suburban areas). Eve's most recent work is Wetlands Radio, all about coastal erosion in Louisiana.
• Scott Carrier, in Utah, a stalwart independent who has created some of the greatest radio stories of the past few decades. Scott was assisted by the terrific independent producer Jenny Ament.
• And finally, David Weinberg, Transom's lead teacher and a brilliant independent journalist who recorded both in Los Angeles and in the Salton Sea.

To hear how Jill incorporated it into The New Yorker Radio Hour, including excerpts from the original Park Service film, listen here.

If you would like to help the Kanji family rebuild their home after the fire you can donate to their gofundme:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-sasha-and-azmina-rebuild-after-palisades-fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PSUzUJhQqk

This piece was produced by Nick White with help from Emile Klein.

When David first got the email, it just seemed like one of those offers that's too good to be true. The idea that he would be holding the reins of a horse drawn carriage tearing across the high plains of Colorado and that his passenger would be the famous movie star Ethan Hawke, the whole idea of being in a movie just seemed unlikely. This was the dream of millions of people who have made their way to L.A. It's become a cliche, all those starry eyed dreamers flocking to California with a singular vision of becoming a movie star.

And here was this offer sitting in his lap. All he had to do was say yes.

This is the story of David Weinberg's acting gig on the movie "Tesla" — and the story of Nikola Tesla himself, an inventor who changed the world but who spent his life watching rivals steal his ideas to reap great fortunes.

A crossover spectacular! Richard Parks III, the host of Richard's Famous Food Podcast, helps David find where food meets fame in Los Angeles. And is that Wolfgang Puck in the backseat?

Remember what Friday nights used to feel like? It was freedom, that moment when you get off work, and your time no longer belongs to someone else — the night is yours. Here is an ode, a time capsule, to everyone's favorite night of the week.

In this episode of Welcome to LA: A look at redlining in Southern California. A story about how Black families are being priced-out of LA and moving to Palmdale and other cities of the High Desert. Also some rock and roll.

‘Welcome to LA’ is not putting out a new episode this week. In the meantime, host David Weinberg recommends some podcasts that are worth a listen during this current moment.

Inside an old restaurant you can hear the sound of kids hunkered down at the counter, plotting a revolution. It's a long shot for sure, but maybe they will pull it off. Maybe they will save us all.

How did a group of stuntmen in the 1960s diversify Hollywood? On this episode of Welcome to LA, we delve into the origin story of the Black Stuntmen's Association.