Punk, arson and the public library

Welcome, new listeners! Here's one of our favorite episodes from earlier this year, with a brand-new segment at the end. 

It's been quite the year for the Los Angeles Public Library — and the COVID-19 pandemic is only part of the story. Inauguration Day saw a reading by Amanda Gorman, who got her start with poetry readings via the L.A. Public Library's youth program. And teen punk group the Linda Lindas got worldwide fame after a concert at the library system's Cypress Park branch. Today, we talk to L.A. librarian Kevin Awakuni about how the city's public library has turned into an incubator for making libraries hip worldwide. We also get L.A. Times columnist Patt Morrison to explain how a city long dismissed as an intellectual wasteland learned to treasure its libraries in the wake of a devastating fire.

Also: We hear from an athlete currently competing in the Paralympic Games: Team USA wheelchair rugby player Chuck Aoki. 

More reading:

‘Whoa, this is crazy’: L.A. teen punks the Linda Lindas on going viral (just before finals)

How a 22-year-old L.A. native became Biden’s inauguration poet 

Who started the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Library? Susan Orlean investigates in her new book