Headlines From The Times - Big Tobacco, Black trauma

In celebration of Juneteenth, this week we're running some of our favorite episodes about the Black experience. 

Today, we revisit the showdown centering on proposals to ban menthol cigarettes and how the tobacco companies enlists Black community leaders to ensure that any ban never happens. This episode first aired on Apr 26, 2022.

Read the show transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times medical investigations reporter Emily Baumgaertner, and Ben Stockton of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Headlines From The Times - Home was where the freeway is

In celebration of Juneteenth, this week we're running some of our favorite episodes about the Black experience. 

Today, housing and affordability reporter Liam Dillon dives into the historical and continuing impact of the 10 freeway on Black communities in Santa Monica. This episode first aired on Jan. 31, 2022.

Read the full transcript here. 

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times housing reporter Liam Dillon, and Santa Monica native Nichelle Monroe

More reading:

Santa Monica’s message to people evicted long ago for the 10 Freeway: Come home

Freeways force out residents in communities of color — again

Tour Santa Monica’s once-vibrant Black neighborhoods, nearly erased by racism and ‘progress’


 

Headlines From The Times - The Future of Abortion, Part 5: Law

The Supreme Court’s decision on Roe vs. Wade in 1973 was supposed to end the debate on abortion once and for all. But instead, it has led to decades of division. In our “Future of Abortion” series, The Times looks at abortion from a number of perspectives. Today, we dig into where Roe went wrong.

Read the full transcript here. 

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times reporter David G. Savage

More reading:

Where Roe went wrong: A sweeping new abortion right built on a shaky legal foundation

Supreme Court’s pending abortion ruling: What it may mean

When will the Supreme Court make a decision on the fate of Roe vs. Wade?

Headlines From The Times - An ‘Emmett Till moment’ for guns?

In the wake of the Uvalde massacre, Emmett Till’s name is again at the forefront of a national conversation, this time about gun control. Till was the 14-year-old boy lynched by a group of white men in 1955 in Mississippi. Images of his mutilated body shocked the country and galvanized civil rights activists.

As people inside and outside newsrooms struggle with whether showing brutal images of slain children might move people and politicians toward collective action, Emmett’s family talks about power and pain, and the impact and limitations of an image.

Today, in honor of Juneteenth, we kick off a week of episodes about the Black experience with the question: Is this country in the middle of another “Emmett Till” moment?

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times reporter Marissa Evans

More reading:

After Uvalde shooting, people consider an ‘Emmett Till moment’ to change gun debate

Hearts ‘shattered’: Here are the victims of the Texas school shooting

House passes gun control bill after Buffalo, Uvalde attacks


 

Headlines From The Times - To be queer in Singapore

Just this year, Singapore’s top court upheld section 377A. That’s a British colonial-era law prohibiting consenting sex between men. And while the government says it doesn’t strictly enforce that law, anyone who breaks it could face up to two years behind bars.

Meanwhile, thousands of Queer Singaporean activists and LGBTQ allies will gather in Hong Lim Park this weekend for an annual gay pride event — and send a clear message to lawmakers that they’re done being denied their basic human rights. 

Read the full transcript here.

Host: The Times producer David Toledo

Guest: L.A. Times Asia correspondent David Pierson

More reading:

Pink Dot: Singapore’s yearly pride celebration gets bigger and brighter

A Singaporean erotic OnlyFans star faces months in prison — and sparks a debate

Same-sex penguin parents spark literary controversy in Singapore


 

Headlines From The Times - The biggest Jan. 6 bombshells

After more than a year of investigations and thousands of hours of depositions, the Jan. 6 committee is looking to prove that former president Donald Trump had a plan to overturn the 2020 election.

Today, a look at the most explosive moments so far — and to come — as the committee lays out its case to show Trump’s connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and the role he may have played in spreading debunked conspiracy theories that the election he lost two years ago was rigged.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times reporter Sarah D. Wire

More reading:

Jan. 6 attack on Capitol was the ‘culmination of an attempted coup,’ panel chairman says

Trump ignored repeated warnings from Barr, advisors that election fraud claims were ‘bogus’

What’s the TV schedule for the next Jan. 6 committee hearings?


 

Headlines From The Times - The Future of Abortion, Part 4: Keeping It

Pregnancy centers offer services like free pregnancy tests, and sometimes resources like diapers or baby clothes — even classes and counseling. Their main focus, though, is to persuade women not to have abortions — and support those who continue their pregnancies.

Today, how religious organizations and state funding have led to the rise of these pregnancy centers, as abortion rights fall nationwide. 

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times Houston bureau chief Molly Hennessy-Fiske

More reading:

The antiabortion movement fuels a growth industry: Pregnancy centers

Read and listen to the rest of the L.A. Times “The Future of Abortion” series here

Even with Roe vs. Wade in place, low-income women struggle to get abortions in Texas

Headlines From The Times - Why L.A. has fridge-less apartments

For most renters across the United States, having a refrigerator come with your unit is a given. Not in Southern California. For reasons no one can fully explain or understand, renters must furnish their living spaces with their own fridges, which has created an underground economy for the essential unit. Today, we try to crack this mystery.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times housing reporter Liam Dillon

More reading:

Why do so many L.A. apartments come without fridges? Inside the chilling mystery

Real Estate newsletter: Where are all the fridges?

Landlords in California aren’t required to provide refrigerators

Headlines From The Times - Hidden clues of a Black family’s Bible

In the late 1980s, the Diggs family of Southern California came across a family Bible with an incredible backstory. Notes written in the margin documented their family history to an enslaved ancestor who learned to read and write — rare at the time. The Diggs eventually donated their heirloom to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., where it’s now on display. Historians say artifacts like the Bible are rare and offer a valuable portrait into legacy and resistance.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: L.A. Times Washington D.C. reporter Erin B. Logan

More reading:

How a Black family’s Bible ended up at the Smithsonian Institution

Black genealogists get help tracing their roots

Behind these names, you’ll find stories of L.A.’s Black history

Headlines From The Times - The drag mothers of Los Angeles

Drag culture is one of the most iconic forms of expression within the LGBTQ community. For outsiders looking in, drag culture looks fun and flamboyant. But for lots of queens, it’s about so much more than the flashy fun. It’s about family.

Today, we dig deep into drag, specifically drag mothers who keep the culture afloat and show us what family can be for some in the LGBTQ community.

Read the full transcript here.

Host: Times producer Ashlea Brown

More reading:

All hail the drag queens raising L.A.’s tight-knit families

Essential California: A drag laureate for West Hollywood?

How drag has changed the face of art, fashion, and beauty