A lot of people are wondering if things in LA would look different if Rick Caruso had won the mayoral race against Karen Bass in 2022. If he had been mayor when devastating fires began in the city last month, would he have prevented them from consuming about 40,000 acres, which is more than twice the area of Manhattan?
At the time he ran, many quietly supported the billionaire real estate mogul—scared to come out publicly against the candidate backed by Barack Obama and celebrities like Shonda Rhimes and Arianna Grande. But now many in LA are texting me, saying they wish he had won. Indeed, some of these lifelong Democrats are now saying that they are Republicans, or the very least they’re whatever Karen Bass isn't.
Caruso may have lost then, but he’s acting now like a de facto public official, launching and funding a nonprofit he calls Steadfast LA. He’s leveraged his connections to get companies from Netflix to Amazon to J.P. Morgan to help restore critical infrastructure in the city, he’s worked on how to quickly rebuild homes with the help of AI, and he’s figuring out ways to use America’s most advanced technology to prevent future fires.
Now, everyone in California is watching to see what Caruso does next. Will he run for mayor again? Or perhaps even governor of California? And most pressingly, can Caruso figure out a way to save Los Angeles?
We also talk about ethical issues around inmates and private-sector firefighters, and about hot-button topics in California—like Trump's plans for immigration, or how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies and trans issues are affecting public schools.
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We take it for granted that good neighborhoods—with good schools and good housing—are inaccessible to all but the very wealthy. But, in America, this wasn’t always the case. Though for most of world history your prospects were tied to where you were born, Americans came up with a revolutionary idea: If you didn’t like your lot in life, you could find a better location and reinvent yourself there. Americans moved to new places with unprecedented frequency, and for 200 years, that remarkable mobility was the linchpin of American economic and social opportunity. Then, as the twentieth century wound down, economic and geographic stasis set in, producing deep social polarization.
What happened? In Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of Prosperity (Random House, 2025), Yoni Appelbaum introduces us to the reformers who destroyed American mobility with discriminatory zoning laws, federal policies, and community gatekeeping. From the first zoning laws enacted to ghettoize Chinese Americans in nineteenth-century Modesto, California, to the toxic blend of private-sector discrimination and racist public policy that trapped Black families in mid-century Flint, Michigan, Appelbaum shows us how Americans lost the freedom to move. Even Jane Jacobs’s well-intentioned fight against development in Greenwich Village choked off opportunity for strivers—and started a trend that would put desirable neighborhoods out of reach for most of us. And yet he also offers glimmers of hope. Perhaps our problems as a nation aren’t as intractable as they seem. If we tear down the barriers to mobility and return to the social and economic dynamism Americans invented, we might be able to rediscover the tolerance and possibility that made us distinctive.
President Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he wants to end the Department of Education and return teaching “to the states.” And now that he’s in office, he’s making good on that promise. The administration recently sent billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency bros to Education Department headquarters to cut contracts, staff and grants. Trump has also said he hopes his pick to head the department, Linda McMahon, ultimately puts herself out of a job. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Teachers Federation, talks about what destroying the Department of Education could mean for kids.
And in headlines: DOGE eyes the Internal Revenue Service as its next target, Mexico’s President says she could sue Google for using ‘Gulf of America’ on its maps, and European leaders meet to discuss their options around the war in Ukraine.
Show Notes:
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We’ll tell you about a Delta jet that flipped, becoming the latest in a series of plane crashes.
Also, we’ll update you on the exodus of federal employees—from the resignations to the firings to the un-firings.
Plus, how some hospitals are busier now than at points of the pandemic, what goals Meta has for humanoid robots, and what the latest A-list ceremony tells us about this awards season.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
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OA1126 - Law'd Awful Boves
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled LAM for readings and commentary on the documents at the heart of what has quickly become one of the most shocking events in the 155-year history of the U.S. Department of Justice: the openly corrupt dismissal of all charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his cooperation with Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Gavel Gavel contributor Liz Skeen joins to share her perspective as both a New York City lawyer and resident as we work through the dueling letters which have been publicly released so far from former US Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoon, Acting Deputy AG Emil Bove, and former Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten together with DOJ’s motion to dismiss.
Former U.S. Attorney for SDNY Danielle Sassoon’s letter offering her resignation if DOJ continues to move forward with filing a motion to dismiss the federal criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (2/12/25)
Donald Trump fires thousands of government workers, including people who make sure America's skies are safe and nukes are secure. Negotiators from the US and Russia prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia about ending the war in Ukraine, even though Ukraine and the European community won't be at the table. Elon Musk and DOGE continue to force their way into access to incredibly sensitive government systems—this time at the IRS. And Trump's Justice Department drops the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams in an obvious quid pro quo. Jon and Tommy discuss how the administration is justifying Trump's actions at home and abroad and why Democrats need to focus on the potentially horrendous consequences. Then, Tommy is joined by legendary sports commentator-turned-pundit (and potential 2028 presidential candidate) Stephen A. Smith to talk about reaching young men and what he thinks Democrats are doing wrong.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Venmo & Cash App are getting crushed by Zelle… The boringest app disrupted the disruptors.
The NBA has a problem: Too many 3-pointers… but there’s an economic reason for them.
Jamie Dimon just went on an expletive-laced rant about Work From Home… and we got the tapes.
Plus, the untold origin story of… The Patagonia Fleece.
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Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show about the Patagonia Fleece 🐑. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.
“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.
In Life Hacks for a Little Alien, both the narrator and protagonist are unnamed. The debut novel from Alice Franklin is written from a second-person perspective and follows a little girl who experiences the world differently. Little Alien is neurodivergent, but undiagnosed, and often finds that people don't understand her. When she encounters an ancient text written in an unknown language, she sees parallels between its indecipherability and her own experiences. In today's episode, Franklin speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the way she plays with language in her story, her own diagnosis journey, and our collective definition of normalcy.
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