Danny Goldberg, author of the new book "Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles," was there in 1991 when an unlikely Los Angeles coalition fought to hold the city's police department accountable for the beating of Rodney King. Thirty-four years later, after George Floyd and the recent events in Minneapolis, Goldberg wonders whether the sort of cross-ideological cooperation that happened in the 1990s is still possible today.

David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University, discusses the findings of a recent Los Angeles Times exposé that showed how California's beloved county fairs, which generate $400 million annually, have become hotbeds of corruption where bookkeepers steal, officials rig bids, and governor-appointed boards feast on lobster and cabernet. With governance structures frozen since the 1880s and no state audits for years, one-third of these fairs are now plagued by fraud — even as they've become critical staging grounds for disaster response worth tens of millions in real estate.

The Los Angeles-based artist Laurie Lipton shares why she's drawn obsessively since age four, how she invented her "insane" cross-hatching technique studying Dutch Masters in Europe, and how waitressing paid the rent so she could draw. After 36 years abroad, she says she returned to Los Angeles to find America rolled back to 1955. She discusses why drawing is her drug, how stepping aside lets the work flow, and why political art struggles to find gallery walls.