June 29, 2023: Jon Regardie, who writes about politics and other happenings in the city for Los Angeles magazine and the website Crosstown LA., rejoins the podcast to talk about the latest city council indictments, Mayor Bass and the homelessness issue, and all things Los Angeles (and even statewide).

Carol Schatz joins the podcast to talk about all things downtown Los Angeles.  When Carol took the helm of Central City Association (CCA), downtown Los Angeles was full of half-empty office buildings; a place where people came to work Monday through Friday 9am-5pm and then left. Occasionally, Angelenos may have traveled downtown to go to the theater or a Dodger game, but it was not a place people went, or stayed for very long. Under Carol’s steady and steadfast leadership, downtown Los Angeles transformed into a vibrant city that GQ Magazine once called “America’s Next Great City.” Carol was one of the principal leaders driving this transformation who articulated a vision of a 24/7 neighborhood in America’s second largest city, and then pushed policies and projects that made it a reality. This work earned her the title, “queen of downtown Los Angeles” and to honor her work the City of Los Angeles christened the intersection of Hope Street and Wilshire Blvd. “Carol Schatz Square."

Oy Vey L.A. is back for our first episode in 2023!  Today we veer from discussing politics and current events to talk with two important thought leaders, both of whom lead long-running reading/literary series in Los Angeles, Susan Hayden and David Rocklin. Susan founded and curates the monthly Library Girl series in Santa Monica; David started and runs the monthly Roar Shack series in Echo Park. More about Susan and David:

Susan Hayden is a poet, playwright. novelist and essayist. Her plays have been performed live on KPFK’s Pacifica Performance Showcase and produced at the Met Theatre, Padua Playwrights, The Lost Studio and elsewhere. Her poems and stories have been published in numerous anthologies, including Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press), The Black Body(Seven Stories Press) and in the bestselling Los Angeles In the 1970s/Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine (Rare Bird Books). She was a Finalist in the Inaugural Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award with Penguin Press for her unpublished novel, Cat Stevens Saved My Life. Hayden is the creator and producer of Library Girl, a monthly words and music series now in its 14th year at Ruskin Group Theatre. She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband, music journalist Steve Hochman. Now You Are A Missing Person, a hybrid memoir, is her first published book.

David Rocklin is a novelist living in L.A. His previous two novels were The Luminist (published in the U.S and Italy) and Foreword LGBTQIA award-winning The Night Language. He also hosts and created Roar Shack, a long-running L.A. reading series that has given him high visibility in the lit community and a wonderful platform from which to promote his work. He’s recently written The Write Formula, a writing craft book that will be available in 2023 as part of a virtual and physical retreat that he’s establishing, the latter to take place in Idyllwild, CA.