City Cast Las Vegas

Ahead of the new school year starting this Monday, Clark County School District police and other officials held a press conference highlighting new safety measures they have planned, including cell phone pouches, social workers, and new scanners that can detect even non-metal weapons. Is it all just a bit … too much? Co-hosts Sarah Lohman and Dayvid Figler are joined by TheList.Vegas creator Andrew Kiraly to discuss. Next, they get into Resorts World’s baffling implication that mandatory “non-intrusive” visual inspections of guest hotel rooms will somehow keep us safe from all the hackers in town for two hacker conferences, and lastly (oh joy), even more construction on the I-15.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

Tiki bars are classic Americana — the mai tais, plastic leis, and faux-tropical decor are embedded into our culinary history. But why and how? Co-host Dayvid Figler and Sarah Lohman, a culinary historian, take a deep dive into Las Vegas history to talk about how tiki came to Vegas, the right (and wrong) ways to do it, and where to treat yourself to an excellent rum punch today. Is it possible that Vegas, with our penchant for transportive flair, is actually doing tiki better than anywhere else in America?Read the L.A. Times article about tiki and appropriation that Sarah cites here.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

Casino expert Scott Roeben, known as Vital Vegas, shares his insights on the shifting odds in Las Vegas gambling. Recent trends reveal casinos are subtly tilting the odds in their favor, with changes like triple zero roulette and cuts to player perks. Roeben discusses the difference between casual and strategic gamblers, highlighting the psychology behind player choices. The impact of analytics on casino strategies and how they cater to lower-stakes players in a competitive landscape are also key topics, shedding light on the evolving nature of gambling in Sin City.

The tiny riverside community of Laughlin is Nevada’s southernmost town (though it’s technically an unincorporated township), and it’s one of our youngest towns, too — so what exactly is there to do here? A lot, it turns out. Hey Las Vegas newsletter editor Rob Kachelriess recently wrote a guide to Laughlin for Thrillist and shares his favorite gems with co-host Dayvid Figler, from casino deals and water sports to a Guy Fieri (yes!) outpost. Is it possible that Laughlin knows how to Vegas … better than Vegas?Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

Las Vegas media outlets are abuzz with the news that our city’s marketing arm, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) paid influencers over $2 million in the last couple of years to market the city — and the Authority’s refusal to release all of their payment records. But influencer marketing is par for the course these days, so what makes this initiative so controversial? Today, co-host Dayvid Figler and executive producer talk with local influencer Phil Tzeng about the ins and outs of influencer marketing, how much they get paid, and what kinds of ethical standards influencers should be held to.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

The Nevada Independent recently broke the news that Las Vegas Sands quietly funded a new ballot initiative to require Nevadans to show ID when voting. So why does that matter? Co-host Dayvid Figler and Sarah Lohman are joined by Nevada Current editor April Corbin Girnus to discuss. Next, the team looks at a recent spate of Department of Labor investigations in Las Vegas restaurants, including Blaze Pizza’s child labor violations, and Juan’s Flaming Fajita and Cantina wage theft fines. And lastly, when JD Vance came to Henderson this week, he mispronounced “Nevada” several times — and no one batted an eye. Why? And what political gaffes would be the worst possible ones to make in Las Vegas, for any hypothetical politician?Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

In 2017, Elena Medo, the “mother of the breast milk industry,” moved to Boulder City and set up Medolac, her third breast milk company — a bank that paid women for breast milk donations, and processed sterilized, shelf-stable breast milk for premature babies in hospitals. But paying women for breast milk (rather than receiving it as a donation) is controversial. And after facing lawsuits from a competitor in this fiercely contested industry, Medolac is now shuttered. Medo’s bank is being auctioned off this week. Did Nevada just lose a life-saving resource for hospitalized babies? Or is the for-profit model fundamentally flawed? Co-host Sarah Lohman talks with Elena Medo to learn more about why she started Medolac and what’s next for the industry.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

Project 2025 is a whopping 920-page policy plan created by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, with the intention of giving a ready-to-go guidebook to a second Trump administration, if elected. While Trump has denounced the plan, Democrats have turned it into a rallying cry. But what could it mean for Nevadans? Nevada Current reporter Dana Gentry has been going through the plan page by page and recently launched a series of articles about how the proposed plan would affect us — from immigration to LGBTQ rights and more.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

If you're new here, welcome! We’ve put together a starter pack for you, with episodes and articles to welcome you to the City Cast Las Vegas community.The summer heat takes on a whole new dimension with the arrival of monsoon season this month (learn from our city’s weirdest mascot, Drainger Danger, and “turn around, don’t drown”). But we’ve got loads of other tips for how to make the most of August in this episode, curated by local experts: Our co-hosts Dayvid Figler and Sarah Lohman, plus Melinda Sheckells, editor of The Town: Summerlin magazine. And if you love our picks for bars in this episode, don’t miss our recent episode about the hottest new bars in Vegas.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

In April of this year, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Brightline West broke ground on what could be the nation’s first true high speed rail to general praise and glowy optimism. But was that premature? Not only is it unclear where half of the $12 billion in projected costs is coming from, but City Cast recently spoke with Nevada-based high speed rail experts who say they have a lot of outstanding safety questions — especially given Brightline’s safety record in Florida. Today, Sarah Lohman sits down with her City Cast co-host Dayvid Figler, who’s been reporting this story and talking to the experts.Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719.For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter, Hey Las Vegas.Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.