KCRW's Which Way, LA?

The effort to turn Charlie Kirk into a martyr reflects the rising tide of Christian nationalism. President Trump is demanding the prosecutions of James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff — echoing Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre”. Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker talks about the Britpop band’s first album in 24 years, plus sex, marriage, and growing up. In a kayak made of mushrooms, LA artist Sam Shoemaker paddled 26 miles from Catalina to San Pedro, showing fungi could be an alternative to plastics.

As healthcare prioritizes profits over people, doctors are organizing to reclaim their profession and protect patients

LA Metro’s A Line extension is finally open. It travels through a corridor of the San Gabriel Valley that was once served by rail a century ago.

Long before vegan cheese and butter showed up in supermarkets, Miyoko Schinner was in her kitchen experimenting with nuts, seeds, and fermentation, determined to capture the richness and pleasure of dairy without the animals. She went on to found Miyoko's Creamery , bringing her work to a wide audience. Miyoko Schinner, founder of Miyoko's Creamery. Photo by Megan Thompson. Now, the pioneer of plant-based cooking has a new cookbook, The Vegan Creamery: Plant-Based Cheese, Milk, Ice Cream, and More . She invites us into her world of inventive, satisfying, plant-based dairy. This thick and creamy Coconut Mungbean Yogurt is high in protein. Photo by Eva Kolenko. Coconut-Mung Bean Yogurt Makes 4 cups (1L) Prep Time: 15 minutes • Cooking Time: 3 hours This has quickly grown to become my favorite yogurt — incredibly thick and creamy, it's almost like dessert, and yet it's high in protein. Coconut yogurts are generally rich because they are so high in fast without much other nutrition. Add mung beans, however, and you can feel good about getting some nutrition as well as flavor — in fact, you'll be getting about 12 grams of protein per 1-cup serving. This yogurt is best with a little sweetener to counteract any beany taste, although some may not be bothered by that at all. Ingredients 2 cups (470ml) water One 13.5-ounce can full-fat coconut milk 1 cup (200g) moong dal (yellow split mung beans) 2 tablespoons maple syrup or organic sugar 1/4 teaspoon vegan yogurt culture, such as Vegurt, or 2 to 3 tablespoons nondairy yogurt, homemade or store-bought Instructions In a blender, combine the water, coconut milk, and moong dal and process on high speed for a minute or so until smooth and creamy. Pour the mixture into a nut milk bag and squeeze to extract as much milk as possible into a medium saucepan. Set the pan over medium heat and bring the milk to a simmer, whisking almost constantly, occasionally scraping the bottom and sides of the pot to ensure uniform heating and prevent the mung bean starch from settling and separating. (Without almost constant whisking, little shards of hard white gel can form.) The mixture will become very thick as it cooks. It is ready when it looks like sour cream. Remove from the heat and pour into a sterilized 1-quart (1L) glass jar. Refrigerate to cool to 110°F. Stir in the yogurt culture and keep at a warm temperature between 90°F and 110°F for 8 to 16 hours, until it is as tangy as you like. It will further thicken when chilled. Store in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks. A non-dairy ice cream developed by Miyoko Schinner. Photo by Eva Kolenko. "The Vegan Creamery" cookbook by Miyoko Schinner. Photo courtesy of Ten Speed Press.

At Huckleberry in Santa Monica, pastry chef Laurel Almerinda uses Mike Cirone's apples in an apple honey tarte tatin — perfect for Rosh Hashanah. Whenever you're baking with apples, Laurel recommends choosing a tart variety. "If you grab an apple that is just sweet and delicious, once you cook it down, it's just going to be kind of bland and cloying, so look for an apple with acidity," she says. Conveniently, See Canyon, which is located in central California near San Luis Obispo, arranges their apples from sweet to sour. Farmer Mike Cirone can also help you get a sense of which apples will hold up and which ones will turn into applesauce when cooked. A few of the apple varieties grown by Mike Cirone in See Canyon. Photo by Gillian Ferguson/KCRW This week, Mike had 16 apple varieties on offer including Ashmead's Kernel , Cox's Orange Pippin , Golden Russet , and Belle de Boskoop . "These are the classics," Mike says. "We cycle through varieties. Nothing is coming out of a cooler. So once we run out of these early Fujis, we'll be into the late Fujis. Once we're out of Goldens, we'll have another Golden apple called Criterion. Next week, we'll have some really good Braeburns and more. We're always entertaining people with apples here."

In 1905, journalist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle , a shocking exposé about Chicago's meatpacking plants. The story featured dangerous work, disgusting conditions, factories that deliberately used diseased meat, and workers who routinely lost limbs or died on the job. It was all in there. More than a hundred years later, in 2022, another journalist, Chloe Sorvino , published a scathing look at our modern meat industry: Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat . How much has changed? Plenty. But many of these problems persist. Journalist Chloe Sorvino. Photo by Nick Rice. "Raw Deal" by Chloe Sorvino. Photo courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

What's the deal with wages for tipped workers? In several states, employers are allowed to pay tipped workers less than the minimum wage, which is sometimes shockingly low . This is known as the "tip credit." The theory is that these employees will supposedly make up the difference in tips. In practice, that benefits business owners far more than it benefits most workers. Eyal Press of the New Yorker recently reported a story about attempts to raise the minimum wage for servers in several places around the United States. But powerful organizations — namely the National Restaurant Association and similar state-level groups — have fiercely opposed this. He dug into how the restaurant industry is fighting tooth and nail to prevent raising the minimum wage for tipped employees.

Public support has saved legendary LA eateries like The Original Pantry Cafe and Cole’s French Dip, which previously announced they were closing. But is this feasible long-term?

The latest film releases include Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Where to Land, and Happyend. Weighing in are Alonso Duralde and Dave White, film critics and co-hosts of the movie podcast Linoleum Knife.

Heated rhetoric and fights over free speech have escalated since Charlie Kirk was murdered. Will more productive conversations on violence land on leaders or citizens?

Some Altadena homeowners are living in RVs on their land as their houses are being rebuilt post-fire. It’s an adventure for some, an economic necessity for others.

The latest film releases include Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Where to Land, and Happyend. Weighing in are Alonso Duralde and Dave White, film critics and co-hosts of the movie podcast Linoleum Knife. Him Tyriq Withers portrays a young college football star who trains at a remote compound owned by a legendary, football player near retirement (Marlon Wayans). White: “Young Mr. Withers encounters enormous physical and mental challenges, and the stakes grow higher, and then the line between reality and extremely violent hallucination is more or less obliterated. So this is from Justin Tipping … and he is taking on a lot of subjects in this film. There is the trajectory of young Black athletes and how they are exploited by the corporate nature of professional teams that are usually white-owned; the physically damaging legacy of American football itself; the expectations of performed masculine behavior and the psychological damage that that can create. And all of this is tangled up in a genre film package that has equal elements of body horror and psychological horror, and they are competing for their own dominance in the film. It is a big mess. … But it is a watchable mess, if you can handle the gore. And honestly, as overdone as the presentation is, the allegorical nature of these themes is something we do not see addressed in mainstream movies, especially in sports movies. And for those reasons alone, I think this is valuable and worth seeing.” Duralde: “They're also trying to wrap their arms around the idea of sports as religion in this country, but they do that by calling the team The Saviors, and by showing a family that has a literal shrine with candles on a table for the Marlon Wayans character. … I agree with everything this movie has to say about the destructive nature of professional sports, I just wish that it said it with a little more grace.” A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Two strangers (Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell) meet at a wedding, then travel in a rental car that takes them to mysterious doorways where they can relive important moments from their pasts. Duralde: “The movie is super stylized and operates in this little twee fantasy bubble. And that's a style of filmmaking that if you pull it off, if you're making a movie like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or The Worst Person in the World, you can wind up with a film that's really insightful about human behavior, and about the nature of love and life in a way that is maybe a little quirky. But if you don't do it right, you wind up with a big, sticky bowl of ‘live, laugh, love,’ and that's what we're stuck with here, which is a real shame, because I think both Robbie and Farrell have made smarter movies about this very subject. And it's a waste of them to put them through this hackneyed series of bromides about life and how to live it. … This is really sappy. If it works for you, it'll work for you like gangbusters, but it did not work for me.” White: “This film has a relationship with earnestness, where it just dives into the deep end of that and stylizes it with these very cute visual flourishes, and it becomes increasingly grating. They bring in movie musical posters that are images on a young Margot Robbie's wall, and those images are brought to life. There’s a nod to Umbrellas of Cherbourg. And it felt … that [director] Kogonada is just wringing my arm for a reaction. It is an insufferable midlife crisis Phantom Tollbooth.” Where to Land When a famous filmmaker wants to work at a cemetery, his loved ones think he is dying. Hal Hartley is the writer/director. Duralde: “Hal Hartley, when he first burst onto the scene in the late 80s, early 90s, he was immediately raised to the heights of indie directors, as somebody who had this … deadpan style, but was also not afraid to get into the deeper issues about … life and about love and about regrets and choices. … And he has not made a feature film in more than 10 years. So he is back. … The lead character is a filmmaker, and when his films are described by people, it is as though they are talking about the early works of Hal Hartley. … This is the riding-the-bike-again movie that he had to get out of his system. And maybe the upcoming ones will be even more sharply in the school of the films that made him famous.” White: “I felt like I was back in an art house in 1992, learning about the existence of this filmmaker. We don't get a lot of this style anymore. … It's very direct, it's very small scale, and his dialogue is delivered with a very dry affect. … They deliver lengthy, philosophical, and funny announcements about the nature of the self, and life, and the meaninglessness of existence. … It's not his best movie, but as an exercise in indie film nostalgia for this aging Gen Xer, I was very okay with it, and I want more from Hal Hartley, please. I have missed him.” Happyend In a dystopian near-future Japan, a senior prank triggers a surveillance crackdown at a high school. Neo Sora is the writer/director. White: “It's about a bunch of teenagers at a Japanese high school. They're all about to graduate, and they are coming to understand that the world around them, both outside and inside the school, is bending toward authoritarianism and fascism. Cameras have been installed in the hallways, tracking their every movement, and giving them these points-based demerits. They're all very savvy about the way their school is connected to the outside world. And they band together quite defiantly to fight injustice in small but clever ways. So I think everyone listening understands that we currently live in a world that is bending toward fascism itself, not just globally, but in the United States as well. And doomerism is taking hold among a lot of people. And what I love about this film is its insistence that we all refuse to give up. … The film is not going to let anybody get away with feeling defeated. And it is in very limited release. So take note of that. If you can't find it, find it later when it's streaming. It's very special.” Duralde: “This feels super relevant to right now. But I think what's most important about it … is this insistence that not only can we push back against authoritarianism, but we must push back against authoritarianism. And it provides that message in a sprightly, smart, sharp way. … This is a vital piece of cinema, and I can't recommend it highly enough.”

Eggplant is one of those divisive vegetables. Some people love it, while others avoid it at all costs. While I might find properly cooking eggplant to have a rich silkiness and a texture that sops up flavor, others may recoil from what they perceive to be a slippery and spongy texture. Its uniqueness comes largely from its structure, which is made up of cells with lots of air pockets. Those pockets allow the eggplant to soak up oil, fat, and flavor. Depending on how you treat it, eggplant can be meltingly tender, smoky, chewy, or crisp. But whatever you do, never undercook it. No one likes leathery eggplant. Szechwan-style eggplant is fragrant and full of flavor. Courtesy of Shutterstock. You can take a tour around the globe through eggplant recipes. But first up: two of my favorites. Instead of making eggplant parm, which I do on occasion, why not push out the boat and make my eggplant timbale ? It’s a lighter parm because it’s not breaded and formed into a cake with eggplant slices holding it together. It’s a gorgeous party dish, and it’s not hard to do. The other eggplant dish I made a gazillion times at Angeli, and which was a staple on our antipasti misti, is balsamic-basil marinated eggplant. You cut the eggplant into thinish rounds, brush or drizzle with olive oil, and grill them until they are cooked through and soft. Then the rounds are layered with minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, and a fine julienne of basil. You can serve after a quick 30-minute marinade at room temp, or you can let them marinate overnight in the fridge. They are delicious as an antipasto just like this. But we would roll up batons of fresh mozzarella into the eggplant for countless charity events. Caponata can be extremely varied. Credit: Shutterstock. From the Middle East, you have baba ghanoush , where eggplants are charred whole over open flames or in the oven, scooped out, and the flesh seasoned with tahini, lemon, and garlic. In Romania , the soft, smoky flesh is mixed with tomatoes, pepper, onion, lemon, and parsley for a completely different result. Then there is imam bayildi, an Ottoman dish where the eggplant is stuffed with itself, onion, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, and spices. Moving to Italy, a place where I once saw eggplant prepared 10 different ways on a Sicilian antipasti table, we have melanzane alla parmigiana aka eggplant parmesan; caponata , the Italian answer to ratatouille; and all many of fried preparations from simple breaded slices to fritters. From China, we have fish-fragrant fggplants (aka sichuan braised eggplant with garlic, ginger, and chiles) — no actual fish involved. Northern India’s baingan bharta is made of charred eggplant pulp scooped out and mashed with onions, tomatoes, chilies, and spices. Japan has the lightly sweet and uber luxurious nasu dengaku — baked then broiled halved eggplant is brushed with a miso glaze for a sweet, salty, and umami-rich result. I could continue around the world, but this is a good start for you, I think. If you need more, here is a KCRW roundup of eggplant dishes. As for which eggplant type to choose, it’s best to follow whatever recipe you're making. A fat globe eggplant has a different texture from long Chinese or Japanese varieties. Do you need to salt your eggplants? Traditionally, eggplants (especially older varieties) had higher levels of phenolic compounds, which can make them taste bitter. Salting (and sometimes pressing) helped draw out both water and some of these bitter compounds, leaving behind milder, sweeter flesh. You cut the eggplant in the form you’ll use for cooking, then sprinkle salt over it as you would to season it, and let it drain for about 30 minutes in a colander or on paper towels. Then you rinse, dry the eggplant before proceeding with your recipe. It takes a lot of time and sometimes space. And while salting eggplant used to be essential to remove the eggplant’s bitter juices, today’s varieties don’t need it to reduce bitterness. It's mostly a technique to reduce oil absorption when frying. When making eggplant parmesan or fritters, salting can keep slices from soaking up too much oil. And if you are deep-frying cubes or slices, salting will help them stay golden and not soggy. But really, it’s not essential like it used to be. For charred, grilled, or roasted dishes like baba ghanoush or baingan bharta, the high dry heat cooks out any bitterness, and oil absorption isn’t a concern. And for curries and braises where eggplant is stewed with onions or tomatoes, bitterness gets diluted and balanced.

Falling is among older Americans’ most pernicious killers. The fall-related death rate for Americans over 65 has more than tripled over the past three decades, according to epidemiologist Thomas Farley. In a recent opinion piece published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), he wrote that prescription drugs, including antihistamines and antidepressants, are a culprit, as they can cause dizziness and drowsiness. These substances are also known as “fall-risk-increasing drugs” (FRIDs). Michael Steinman, a geriatrician and professor of medicine at UCSF, says it’s tough to know whether the rate of deaths related to falls has increased threefold within the last decade. “But in a way, it doesn't really matter because what we do know is that the rate is too high, serious, and that there's something we can do about it.” He notes that while falls can lead to deaths, sometimes that pathway is indirect. For example, someone falls, breaks their hip, is admitted to the hospital, catches pneumonia, and all those events together eventually lead to death. He says whether the death certificate identifies the fall as the precipitating event could be subjective, and that type of record-keeping might’ve changed over the years. Plus, over the past decade, people have increasingly used medications that affect the brain and induce drowsiness, which are problematic in increasing the risk of falls, Steinman says. “A lot of the drugs in these categories, they're things which might slow down our reaction times, make us a little more sleepy, maybe make us feel a little light-headed or a little drowsy or just a tiny bit out of it, even if it's so minor that we wouldn't really notice it in day-to-day life. The cumulative effect … can make the difference between stumbling and catching yourself, and stumbling and hitting the ground.” Steinman advises that when discussing medications with your doctor, it’s important to ask whether that drug — potential side effects included — is truly the right choice for you, and whether a safer alternative exists. “The doctor might say, ‘You're right. This drug has some risks, but in your case, the benefits really outweigh those risks.’ But in some cases it might be, ‘Well, that drug … started five years ago. Maybe it's really not needed anymore. Maybe the thing we had started it for [has] already passed … so maybe we could take that drug off, or lower the dose, or find an alternative.’ … Raising that issue with your doctor or other members of health care team is so important, because if you don't raise it proactively, a lot of times, it will never get brought up.” Other ways to reduce fall risks: Do exercises that strengthen your balance and train your muscles to catch yourself if you start stumbling; remove trip hazards in the home, such as extension cords and slip rugs; wear sensible shoes; ensure good lighting in your environment.

One Palisades High teen reflects on a small moment that helped him slow down, tune in, and feel the weight of displacement from the Palisades Fire.

NASA's Perseverance rover has found what scientists are calling the strongest evidence yet of ancient life on Mars, after analyzing a rock sample containing clay and silt.

As Anaheim faces a $60 million budget deficit, officials are proposing a new tax on tickets and parking at local entertainment venues.

Long before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were an essential part of Fleetwood Mac, and when their relationship was rosier, they released an album as a duo in 1973 called Buckingham Nicks. It was a commercial flop upon release and has been out of print since the 80s — never released on CD. But over time, it developed legendary status among music lovers. Used copies can fetch top dollar in record stores. On September 19, it’s being reissued for the first time in decades. Angie Martoccio , senior music writer for Rolling Stone, takes KCRW back to the beginning when Buckingham and Nicks met — 1965 at Menlo-Atherton High School in California. She explains that at an event where teens could play music, Buckingham, who was a junior at the time, played “California Dreamin’” on the piano, and Nicks, a senior, walked over and harmonized with him on the chorus. Nicks later joined Buckingham’s band called The Fritz, and eventually they became a couple. After being in the band for two and a half years, they formed a duo, thinking they’d be more successful. Being romantically involved changed their music dynamic, she says. “Stevie has been open throughout the years of how that was a little hard, even when they were doing well as a couple, that they would be in a studio all day, and then they would go home and still talk about being in the studio. And mixing work with pleasure, as they say, is already difficult.” Keith Olsen produced Buckingham Nicks, basically as his audition tape for Fleetwood Mac, Martoccio says. He played the album for drummer Mick Fleetwood. “Mick said, ‘Oh, well, this is great, you can produce. And I really want these two people, who are they?’ And I think what Mick heard was this dynamic between the two of them. They have this special, this real chemistry. Lindsey is also a complete guitar ace. He's really, really, really talented. Stevie has this unusual voice. It's gruff and it's really deep, and it's really strong, and it's very different from a lot of the singer-songwriter artists at the time that you would hear.” The song “Crystal” was recorded three separate times, and “has so many different lives in it,” Martoccio says. In “Frozen Love,” the duo’s voices are intertwined, they’re harmonizing and “locked in.” She continues, “We could sit here all day and talk about the metaphors … like has the frozen love thawed? … I really do think it represents their relationship over time, and why we're still so obsessed with these two.” Buckingham and Nicks have discussed wanting to reissue the album for years, Martoccio says. “They've both spoken so fondly about this era, just because it was this one-off that didn't do well, but we all latched onto it. There's something about lost or out-of-print albums in rock that people really hold on to. And this is one of those albums.” Why exactly did the record fail? Many artists were getting signed in 1973, not a lot of promotion was happening, and “artists would just fall through the cracks,” Martoccio says. She suggests there’s a chance that Buckingham and Nicks would tour with their album. “If there's anything that I've learned covering this band and loving this band for as long as I have, it's that you can never say never. You really never know what's going to happen. They change their minds a lot. This time last year, I was with Stevie for a few hours one evening, and she said, ‘We're never doing that.’ But that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if a tour was announced, because that's just how they work. That's why we're so attached to this saga. It's our very own soap opera in rock that we get to see these two intertwine and play together and talk about each other. It really keeps it going forever.”

Afghan medical refugees watch helplessly as their earthquake-devastated homeland suffers without adequate healthcare, while America wastes their desperately needed expertise due to credential barriers during our own provider shortage.

The iconic monarch butterfly is on the brink of extinction. In response, scientists are asking Californians to snap photos of monarchs, then upload them to the free iNaturalist app.