Frontier America in a Collection of Tin Cans
For Jim Rock, tin cans were as important as shards of ancient pottery. Each can told a story of nineteenth and twentieth century life in America.
Welcome to the Age of Megafires
It's been a terrible year for fires in California and elsewhere around the world. Because then it always is now in the age of megafires.
How Marketing Made L.A.
In the early 20th century, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce started marketing L.A as an earthquake-free alternative to San Francisco.
The Lost (and Found) Classic Cocktail of San Francisco
The legend of Pisco punch did not die with its creator, Duncan Nicol.
Remembering the LA Uprisings Through Theater
Just one year after the Rodney King verdict and subsequent LA riots, Anna Deveare Smith opened her one-woman show “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992."
When the Desert Blooms
Following a winter of exceptional rain, Southern California's desert wildflowers have bloomed en masse. The event is dubbed a “super bloom.”
The Recipe for Secession: What Makes Nations Leave
Secession doesn't come from one event, but is borne of economic disparities, identity crises, legislative failure, and bad blood.
Why Were Americans Obsessed With Ghosts in the 1940s?
In 1940s America, two folklorists undertook the task of collecting and studying the "modern" ghost stories of their time.
The Important Civil Rights Activist You’ve Never Heard Of
Like other African-Americans, Jeremiah B. Sanderson was intrigued by the new state of California—a free state that promised economic and social opportunity.
The Fight for People’s Park
Fifty years ago, tens of thousands of people converged on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the “Human ...