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In Episode 3 of Drought Week, we take a journey through the American Southwest to Las Vegas, down to Arizona’s Sonoran Desert and through California’s Mojave Desert. We speak to a social scientist, a folklorist and a politician about their efforts to understand the plants and animals affected by this historic drought. 

We’ll focus on three iconic plants: Joshua trees. Saguaro cactuses. And, well, lawn grass.

After that, pistol shooter Alexis Lagan describes the discipline of her sport and how she came to represent the United States at the Tokyo Olympics.

More reading:

Imagine no Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park

Is California ready for brown lawns and shorter showers?

From the archives: With giant cactuses and sleek jaguars, Arizona’s Sonoran Desert has an edgy beauty

Today, in Episode 2 of our Drought Week series, we go to Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon. As water shortages become a permanent part of life in the American West, battles are brewing everywhere for what little remains. Even in long-verdant areas like the Beaver State.

We’ll talk to L.A. Times reporter Anita Chabria and Don Gentry, the chairman of the Klamath Tribes. The tribes get first rights to the water of Upper Klamath Lake, which they use to help sustain a fish important to their culture. But farmers are angry because they’re not getting any water this year. Now, members of the far right are coming in to try to exploit the tension.

After that story, stick around to hear Nick Itkin talk about how he got into fencing and came to represent the United States in the Tokyo Olympics. 

More reading:

Racism, drought and history: Young Native Americans fight back as water disappears

Water crisis reaches boiling point on Oregon-California line

As drought slams California and Oregon, Klamath farmers grow fish to quell a water war

Today we launch Drought Week, a five-part series looking at how water shortages across the West are profoundly changing life. We’ll swoop around, from Oregon to the Sonoran Desert, from cities to national parks, from Joshua trees to lawns. 

To start Drought Week, it’s only natural — pardon the pun — that we take the bigger view first with our Masters of Disasters, the L.A. Times reporters who focus on natural calamities. So get your five-gallon buckets and put them next to you when you shower, ’cause things are serious right now.

Then stick around to hear from super-heavyweight boxer Richard Torrez Jr., a Californian representing the United States in the Tokyo Olympics, and his father and coach, Richard Torrez Sr. 

More reading:

Drone photos reveal the shocking truth of California’s parched landscape

He had 10 minutes to flee the Salt fire. Now his home is gone

Ready to scratch the grass? Here are 28 inspiring lawn-free yards

Because of California Proposition 187, conservatives turned into liberals, apathetic people got motivated and Latinos in the state truly found their political voice. Now members of that generation are all over Capitol Hill. 

Today, we speak with Los Angeles Times political reporter Sarah D. Wire about how Congress has changed, what has stayed the same, and whether Donald Trump's presidency created a new moment that galvanizes Latinos and makes them jump into politics. 

This is a brand-new coda of sorts for the L.A. Times-Futuro Studios 2019 podcast series “This Is California: The Battle of 187,” about the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead radicalized a generation of Latinos in the state.

More reading:

California’s immigrant crackdown propelled Latinos to Washington. After Trump, could it happen again?

Prop. 187 flopped, but it taught the nation’s top immigration-control group how to win

Latino voters tired of being taken for granted by baffled Democratic campaigns

When we originally recorded "This Is California: The Battle of 187," we tried and tried to get an interview with former California Gov. Pete Wilson. He’s the man most responsible for making Proposition 187 a success. But Wilson’s people kept saying he was too busy — likely story, am I right? 

Then, one sunny morning, Wilson decided he was ready to talk.

This is Part Four of our rerun of the L.A. Times-Futuro Studios 2019 podcast series “This Is California: The Battle of 187,” about the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead radicalized a generation of Latinos in the state.

More reading:

Pete Wilson still defending Prop. 187 and fighting for a better place in history 

On Politics: Pete Wilson looks back on Proposition 187 and says, heck yeah, he’d support it all over again 

Column: Happy birthday, Pete Wilson. And thanks: You made California what it is

California's Proposition 187 won alongside Gov. Pete Wilson in the 1994 election. But the victories proved to be a double-edged sword. Wilson, who had aspirations to run for higher office, never won another election. And although Proposition 187 eventually was declared unconstitutional, torpedoed the California GOP and inspired many Latinos to get involved in their communities, it also laid lay the political groundwork for successful xenophobic campaigns nationwide. That paved the way for Donald Trump to win the U.S. presidency in 2016.

This is Part Three of our rerun of the L.A. Times-Futuro Studios 2019 podcast series “This is California: The Battle of 187,” about the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead radicalized a generation of Latinos in the state. 

More reading:

State GOP haunted by ghost of Prop. 187 

Prop. 187 flopped, but it taught the nation’s top immigration-control group how to win 

The legacy of Proposition 187 cuts two ways

We hear from the Latinos who were about to lose the battle over Proposition 187 — but ended up winning California.

This is Part Two of our rerun of the L.A. Times-Futuro Studios 2019 podcast series "This is California: The Battle of 187," about the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead radicalized a generation of Latinos in the state. 

Further reading:

Giant steps: Walkouts against 187 trace the growth of an issue into a cause 

L.A. march against Prop. 187 draws 70,000

Prop. 187 forced a generation to put fear aside and fight. It transformed California, and me

This week, we’re re-airing "This is California: The Battle of 187," a four-part podcast the L.A. Times did back in 2019 in collaboration with Futuro Studios (and we'll wrap up the week with a brand-new update). The series is about Proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot initiative that sought to make life miserable for undocumented immigrants but instead ended up radicalizing a generation of Latinos — and set the stage for Donald Trump to win the presidency in 2016 on a xenophobic platform. 

Today, in Part One of "This is California: The Battle of 187," we take you back to a time when the Golden State wasn’t a progressive paradise — and how Republicans decided that undocumented immigrants were California’s true problem and thus needed to be demonized. 

More reading: 

Initiative to deny aid and education to illegal immigrants qualifies for ballot

Prop. 187 creators come under closer scrutiny 

The Times Poll: Anti-illegal immigration Prop. 187 keeps 2-to-1 edge

This year, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made his country the first in the world to embrace bitcoin as legal tender. That means that come September, Salvadorans will be able to pay bills and taxes in bitcoin and that all businesses will be required to accept the digital currency — from McDonald's to the fruit vendor on the corner.

Today, L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum explains how El Salvador got into the cryptocurrency game.

More reading:

How a California surfer helped bring bitcoin to El Salvador

El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender

A look at El Salvador’s meme-loving, press-hating autocratic president

For a century, California sterilized women in its prisons and hospitals, often without their consent. Government officials did it in the name of eugenics — of trying to curtail the number of working-class people and people of color. The Golden State apologized for its actions in 2003 but didn’t ban the practice until 2014. Now the state will try to address the wrong of its forced sterilization program with a historic move: It wants to pay survivors reparations.

On today's episode, we speak with Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the legislative bill that will create California’s reparations effort. And we also talk to one of the activists who have brought this dark chapter in American history to the public.

More reading:

California poised to pay compensation to victims of forced sterilization

Editorial: Paying $25,000 to every living forced-sterilization victim is the least California can do

Forced sterilization: A stain on California