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Sounds of the city: Los Angeles

Sounds of the city: Los Angeles

Released Wednesday, 4th January 2023
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Sounds of the city: Los Angeles

Sounds of the city: Los Angeles

Sounds of the city: Los Angeles

Sounds of the city: Los Angeles

Wednesday, 4th January 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

Hello, and welcome to this podcast

0:02

from the BBC World Service. Please

0:04

let us know what you think and tell

0:06

other people about us on social

0:08

media. Podcasts from the BBC

0:10

World Service are supported by advertising.

0:13

The Dark is rising from

0:15

the BBC World Service, the

0:17

powers of the Dark, are reaching out

0:20

now steadily and stealthily all

0:22

over this world. Find out more

0:25

at the end of this podcast.

0:34

When you tell people you coming to Los Angeles.

0:37

They tend to gals been empty. They're

0:39

clearly assuming that you're gonna be hobnobbing

0:42

with stars at every turn. And

0:45

it is true. I did spend a

0:47

pleasant afternoon with Stevie Wonder

0:49

here once. But he, of course,

0:51

would have a limousine waiting to

0:53

get him from the airport. To state

0:55

of the art studio. As

0:57

an ordinary, lone, blind

1:00

traveler, I'm trying to figure out

1:02

what my public transport choices

1:04

are to get me to my Airbnb.

1:07

It's a little way out of town, so

1:09

perhaps it'll have to be a train.

1:12

But regular listeners to these programs will

1:14

know, I rather like my trainings. An

1:16

option. If you already know

1:18

your selection, you may enter it at

1:20

any time. Let's have a look. Credit.

1:24

says credit there. Oh,

1:27

audio. Now,

1:30

the the trouble with this is it's

1:32

very

1:32

good. It's great. It's explaining the system.

1:35

And by the time you've read it, your train's

1:37

gone. Right.

1:43

Oh, this is inefficient.

1:47

It's a very audio station and

1:49

a very audio train. I

1:55

still think if you're if you're a blind person

1:57

and you come to a city that you don't know

1:59

very well. If they've got a

2:01

half decent train system,

2:03

it's the best way to to navigate.

2:06

Certainly my preferred way. This

2:09

is Peter White with sounds of the

2:11

city for BBC World

2:13

Service. One

2:17

of the things I always do on these

2:19

programs is I find

2:22

another a blind person who's

2:25

lived in the area, either

2:28

most or all of their lives. So

2:30

we just approaching one

2:32

of the stations to

2:36

meet Sicily. Hi,

2:41

Sisley. Yeah. Hi, Sisley. Give me one

2:44

second. Hi, Sisley. Hi, Sisley. Hi, Sisley. Hi, Sisley.

2:51

Very good. Doug, aren't you? So

2:53

Sisley, first of all, LA, tell

2:56

me about relationship with

2:58

LA.

2:59

And what I love about it is

3:01

I don't know. Everybody is just busy

3:04

going somewhere. I don't know. That's what I love about

3:06

it. You know, the house all the

3:07

vessel. You got here by train. Mhmm.

3:10

Would you is it always train

3:12

if you're trying to travel? Because LA is

3:14

just odd, isn't it? You know, I mean, it's kinda

3:17

it's almost not gossess center. Everything

3:19

sort of radiates outwards.

3:21

Alright. So there's the train.

3:23

Yeah. There is the bus, but

3:25

also there's old fashioned

3:27

walking. I like to walk. I have a guide

3:29

dog, so we like to put in a good

3:32

amount of walking every

3:33

day. We thread our way through the

3:35

Los Angeles streets, crocodile

3:37

style, me with my right stick

3:40

Sicily with her guide dog

3:42

squeezing past

3:43

shoppers, street diners, and

3:45

those serrulating them. I

3:48

feel like there's always someone staring at you.

3:51

There's so You know, there's I'll

3:53

everybody talking around

3:54

you. You're meet strangers and

3:58

yet and

3:59

yet, no. I mean, obviously, we have a

4:01

lot of people who are on their phone and they're distracted.

4:03

But me I don't

4:04

know. I like to just listen to

4:07

my surroundings.

4:08

The ground is a little uneven And

4:11

Okay. Well, as it turned out,

4:13

it had to be a train and a taxi.

4:16

And having finally addressed I'm

4:18

beginning to wonder what I've gotten into.

4:21

There's a rather strange but familiar

4:23

smell around here. Oh,

4:26

you can smell the smell. Can't you?

4:28

You'd know where we were. Yeah.

4:32

Yeah. There's one right there. So this is the

4:34

green. I've never touched a growing

4:36

plant, I don't think. The smell isn't

4:38

the only giveaway. The holiday

4:40

rental is called Ganja

4:42

Getaway.

4:43

A lot of glondrid tea and coffee. And

4:45

a very welcome bottle of wine. There

4:47

are plentiful supplies of cannabis.

4:50

Not compulsory. Yet, oh,

4:52

they're such as hair

4:54

That is the flower. Yeah. And

4:56

that's one of them. Those those

4:58

little hairs that you were talking about for

5:00

you. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're a whitish

5:02

color they will turn

5:05

brown. That's when I take

5:06

them. So

5:07

that's when they're ready for That's when they're,

5:09

like yeah. They receive their maximum

5:12

potency. Is

5:15

my record player in the bedroom

5:17

there and my record collection. Just

5:21

please be gentle with them. Oh,

5:23

Vinyl, is it? Yeah. Yeah.

5:25

I'm kind of an analog guy.

5:28

I guess that's about it. I should let

5:30

you guys relax

5:32

and compress after your long

5:34

journey. So Are you doing that?

5:36

What? Alright. Right. Okay.

5:45

The old standard under under the

5:47

medical law, the old standard

5:50

was that you could be a

5:52

grower like me and you could

5:54

gather patients. Right? You could

5:56

collect patients In each

5:58

patient, their doctor would recommend the

6:00

argument recommended he grows thirteen

6:02

plants. So what

6:04

what we would this was the

6:07

old standard of the medical

6:09

co op. So I

6:11

would gather patients and once

6:13

I had enough and I would grow

6:15

about three hundred plants here back

6:18

in those days. The

6:20

legalization that they've done in the last, you

6:22

know, few years ago, it

6:25

it shut all of us down. And

6:27

so a lot of us, you know, we're reeling from

6:29

it. We're turning our platforms

6:31

into Airbnb's, you know, we're

6:33

trying to adapt and

6:35

survive however we

6:37

can, you know. And so

6:39

I remodeled

6:43

the place and turned

6:47

it into an Airbnb. You

6:50

know, people can come

6:51

in You know?

6:54

It's that it's not compulsory to

6:56

it's like, no. Can't a circularly,

6:58

but but you're free to do

6:59

so. And it's okay to

7:02

smoke goner in the house, but tobacco outside,

7:04

please. One

7:09

of the things people tell you when

7:11

you come to California is that there's

7:13

a whole list of things you've gotta do.

7:16

And, of course, right at the top of that

7:18

list is surfing, which

7:20

is tricky because I've

7:22

never surfed. Indeed, I don't even know what

7:24

a surfboard feels like, let

7:26

alone looks like. So I'm

7:28

gonna have a go and I'm gonna have a lesson this

7:30

morning and before I do even that.

7:32

I gotta get a wet suit, and

7:34

I've never worn one of those either. Say

7:36

you guys.

7:38

Nobody learns that well on the first

7:40

day. You might every time the first time you

7:42

stand up, you're gonna fall right over for

7:44

sure. Yeah. So just

7:45

be prepared. Then as long as you know how

7:47

to fall, try to fall on your butt,

7:49

Okay. And

7:49

then you can

7:49

use your hands, but you don't wanna hurt your wrist or

7:52

anything. So try to soft fall soft.

7:54

Right now. I think this is gonna be the good

7:56

size for him. Yeah. And

7:59

it may just be a little bit short

8:01

on your arms or legs. But

8:03

if it is, you can just roll up the

8:05

sleeves. There are definitely sharks out

8:07

there, but they're not too

8:08

active. Haven't been there's never at this beach,

8:10

there's actually never been no big.

8:12

Right. I mean, how close would they come

8:15

in? You

8:17

know, every shark is different. In.

8:18

So Well,

8:20

no. I didn't

8:20

make that much. I I might

8:22

tell you they don't come in close, but,

8:24

you know, sometimes they do.

8:26

They're not really trying to really shield me,

8:28

man. You just

8:31

they are out there, but they're really not interested

8:34

in humans. At all. The only time they would

8:36

bite is if the water is really murky

8:38

or if it's, like, in

8:40

the very beginning of the day when it's dark

8:42

out, and they can't quite see.

8:44

And if if they think you're a seal, that's the

8:46

only time they would Well,

8:47

I can't quite see, so I might bite

8:49

them. Could go

8:52

both ways. Yeah. But sharks

8:54

seem a small problem compared

8:56

to the perils of being at

8:58

sea, unable to

8:59

sea. Sicily agrees, and she's

9:01

an extra reason to be cautious.

9:03

Ever since I was little, I love the

9:05

water. When I was sixteen

9:07

though, joined

9:11

a surfing organization. And I

9:13

had done a previously couple of

9:15

times here and there for in, but

9:17

I got lost. I

9:20

lost my surfboard. I

9:22

was just swimming. I got taken

9:24

over by several ways. I

9:26

got dragged on the water not once,

9:28

not twice, but three times

9:30

when I broke the surface.

9:32

I didn't know what to do. I

9:34

couldn't see didn't know which direction to

9:36

go. I was disorientated. I didn't

9:38

know. I for a split second,

9:40

it was either a. I was gonna go the

9:42

wrong direction and go deeper because I feel

9:44

the sand beneath my feet at that

9:47

point. Air or b, I was gonna go to

9:49

shore, but then was there anybody

9:51

gonna be around? I don't know.

9:53

I'm not gonna lie that it kind of was

9:55

like, I, you know, I felt like nobody's

9:57

gonna ever find me. I'm forever gonna be

9:59

lost in this vast water.

10:02

I guess I picked the direction. I don't know.

10:04

Mhmm. But I found the III

10:06

found sand, and I got to the

10:08

shore. And, you

10:10

know, I did say hello, is

10:12

anybody here, but nobody answered me.

10:14

And I was scaring itself because I'm

10:16

like, did I end up far away?

10:18

And I don't

10:20

know how long I waited, but I

10:22

got the courage to stand up.

10:24

And as I walked, I kept walking and

10:26

I finally came across a

10:28

family. I told her my name, and I was like, can you please

10:30

help me find a lifeguard? And they're like, are you

10:32

miss Morales? And I was like,

10:34

yes. Yes. Yes. I am. I am

10:36

Morales like this. This is me.

10:38

And they're like, we

10:40

have a search party out for you?

10:43

It's been more than four hours since you've

10:45

gone. Bottom

10:48

to top. So you get, like, you know, your

10:50

ankle, then you get your knee, cool it all

10:52

the way up before you keep

10:54

going. You know what I mean? But it

10:56

is supposed to be skin tight, so

10:58

it's gonna be It's just taking It's

11:00

not easy to put

11:01

on. You're gonna take your time.

11:03

Well, there's there's a

11:04

pool of turn it over to me shoulders or

11:06

something. There's this get this pulled up a little more.

11:08

Okay. I'm exhausted

11:10

already. At least I

11:12

didn't wind up for you. Yeah. Okay.

11:16

Raise your arms and see see it is

11:18

restricting you. Not really.

11:21

Okay. Okay. Whether I can

11:23

leap up onto us, on a

11:25

onto a surfboard is another

11:26

question, I think.

11:27

Okay. One thing I want you to to

11:30

explain, which is what the

11:32

problems of figuring

11:34

out which way the the current's

11:36

going, which way the waves are going,

11:38

when you are suddenly stuck

11:40

out there,

11:41

isolated. I think in that moment, I didn't

11:43

really pay attention

11:45

to what I was feeling the

11:47

current, you know. Mhmm. All I kept thinking, I a

11:49

step. I kept thinking I'm lost

11:52

and I will never be

11:52

found. Those were my

11:55

actual thoughts.

11:55

Yeah. And, yeah, you're going back now. And,

11:58

yeah, I'm kinda face I've

12:00

been facing my fears. So

12:03

I want to face those fears because I

12:05

wanna be back on the

12:05

water. I love the water. Loved it. I

12:08

just hate it

12:08

a little bit. Oh, I'm banned. Bad?

12:11

Yes, sir. How are you? I'm very good.

12:13

I'm

12:13

just a judge. Oh, you're just a judge. Yeah. I'm like

12:15

you're I'm like you're two teachers.

12:17

Yes. Oh,

12:18

yeah. Working off night. Okay. No. I

12:20

should warn you. I'm I'm not gonna be

12:22

very good at this. I don't think I can

12:24

jump in position as I need I gather

12:26

I need to or pop into them.

12:27

Well, we're gonna find that information

12:30

out. Okay. Alright. So I've

12:32

been surfing for fifty years,

12:34

and Justin's been surfing for thirty

12:36

five. Right. So I got eighty

12:38

five years of

12:39

experience. Eighty five years of

12:41

experience. And I've putting on a wet suit for about a

12:43

quarter of

12:43

an hour. I've

12:47

never really I've never tried to surf. No. You've

12:49

never tried. I am a surfer virgin.

12:52

Okay. So I

12:54

believe --

12:54

Mhmm. -- you're in good hands. Whoa.

12:57

Well, that's good to hear. I'm nervous.

12:59

Not about the water. That making

13:01

it full of yourself.

13:03

I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous about

13:06

that you're doing this -- Yeah.

13:09

-- is courage, it is

13:11

inspiring.

13:12

Just be a peace. Okay?

13:14

I'll be a peace. You be a

13:16

peace. Okay. So there's a

13:17

little walkway. Okay. Now follow

13:19

me. One one Justin. We

13:21

lead Van and Justin to sort out

13:23

the surfboards and make

13:25

our way down to the

13:26

surface. Probably so when you're on the

13:29

beach, it's kind of all

13:31

melds into than when you've got

13:33

just people trying to --

13:34

Oh, yeah. -- sitting around on the beach. Oh,

13:36

that too. But then that's when I,

13:38

you know, hi. Yeah.

13:40

I've just fallen over you. Who are you?

13:42

Who are you? Okay. We're

13:45

almost down. Yep. I feel so

13:47

the floor even changes if you can feel

13:49

the texture --

13:49

Yep. -- beneath your feet. That's also

13:52

a landmark that we can utilize

13:54

as well. Yeah. And

13:56

we're now

13:56

working

13:56

on about it's sort of slatted, isn't it? So it

13:59

it's kind of Yes. Yeah. Here's the

14:02

boardwalk. Yeah. Sorry. Jules is

14:04

pulling me Like, because she knows where

14:06

we're going. So Yeah.

14:07

Okay, Joel. Spine the stairs. Did she

14:09

like this trip then? Yes.

14:11

Here's where people

14:14

rinse off on the left. And here on

14:20

the right. I don't know if there's people here right now,

14:22

but they do usually sell stuff. Fruit

14:24

cart, I think, up ahead. And

14:27

what plant to love about the beach? You can

14:29

build sandcastles, which is my ultimate favorite

14:31

thing to do. Okay.

14:34

Still. Yeah. Still. Yeah. I

14:36

still love it. Good girl. Good

14:38

girl. Okay. Hey.

14:40

Not always we can lead. Okay? We're gonna have

14:42

to take turns. No doubt.

14:45

I try to make friends with everyone, you know.

14:47

Hi.

14:48

Landmark. So you

14:51

are now on that part.

14:54

From here, the wind

14:57

you feel the wind, I start I'm

14:59

starting to hear the

15:00

waves. They're getting closer. Yeah. I

15:03

have a surfboard you can sit on.

15:05

You

15:05

can come feel it. Let me get me hanging

15:08

over. This one's extremely

15:10

wide. They quite big aren't

15:11

they? Yeah.

15:12

A

15:12

big as an eye. I'm actually the

15:13

biggest of sidewalk.

15:15

Voice is sort of bumpy

15:18

bit.

15:18

Yeah. This bumpy bit just helps retract

15:20

Peter. This is also about the mid section

15:22

of the surfboard. Yeah. So where you

15:24

feel this kind of traction pad --

15:27

Yeah. --

15:27

is is predominantly where your

15:29

chest will be laying when you're paddling.

15:31

Yeah. And when you get to your feet,

15:34

your feet will be on Okay.

15:36

Alright? It it should say you turn

15:38

stuff towards the nose is not where

15:41

we want our feet. No.

15:42

You wanna be on there? Yeah. Right.

15:44

Can I

15:46

get you to stretch a little bit?

15:48

Yep. Then if you can, just reach up

15:50

high. I want you

15:52

to keep your own

15:53

balance. K? Yeah. I'm

15:55

in a body bag. Not

15:58

yet.

15:58

Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Oh, I

16:00

hope it felt perfect. You got a third

16:02

first. Okay. So

16:04

can you stand up now? Do your

16:07

pop up ready? Yeah. Front

16:09

foot?

16:10

Back foot. Nice. You stay there.

16:12

Nice. Nice. Nice. Now stand up

16:13

to your

16:14

feet. Yep.

16:15

Oh, now that's real.

16:18

That's alright. Alright.

16:21

So if I can get you to get wet,

16:24

let's, like, submerge yourself in the water.

16:26

Okay. Hang on a

16:26

second. Here comes another wave. Okay.

16:28

K. Now, lay down.

16:30

Lay down.

16:31

Lay down all the way. There you go. Perfect.

16:33

K. So what I want you to do is put your

16:35

hands right here. You can have one.

16:38

Too. The

16:40

trouble is there are so many things you have

16:43

to remember trying to do it all

16:45

at once. I mean, already done more than I

16:47

thought I

16:47

would, but I wasn't expecting to be able

16:49

to stand up. But now I can

16:51

see why it's exciting. We're

16:55

gonna do another one. Yeah.

17:09

Yeah. How much in the world you stood

17:12

up. I should've stayed on. You

17:14

should've stayed on. Look at that. It was

17:16

never satisfied. You

17:18

did it, though, buddy.

17:21

Amazing. But Thank you very much. Yeah.

17:24

Yeah. It's one of those things

17:26

that you when somebody says what

17:28

they did, I don't know. Now you know what they

17:29

mean. Yeah. Well,

17:32

good job. Yeah. Well, thank you. Just

17:34

be prouder yourself. Congratulations.

17:37

Yeah. It

17:38

was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Because I

17:40

don't know. Very true. Very

17:43

on it. Okay. Good

17:44

for you. Oh, well, we're honored

17:47

to be a part of it. I

17:49

actually

17:49

got up right. Yes.

17:52

We couldn't believe. Yes. And

17:54

just listen to those waves.

17:56

I feel like anything can

17:59

be possible just listening to the

18:00

waves. Yeah. And letting go

18:02

of, I

18:03

don't know, hurts, sadness,

18:07

just cast it away, and it's

18:09

just fun. On the surface,

18:11

this looks like a very

18:13

wealthy area and indeed it is,

18:15

but it's also got

18:18

fastest growing homelessness problem

18:20

in the United States.

18:23

I've just come to a

18:25

community center where every Monday

18:28

with people who are living

18:30

in pretty almost

18:32

what you call primitive conditions

18:34

that have a low. They come here

18:36

they get food, they meet each

18:39

other, and then they go back to some pretty

18:41

grim circumstances. And I'm just

18:43

going in to talk to someone.

18:53

You got a good strong handshake. My

18:56

hand will never be this

18:58

one. Hi, Peter. Hi, mate. How are you?

19:00

I'm very well. It is a community, you know, it

19:02

doesn't really have you don't have to do homeless to

19:03

come. What

19:04

what's the main cause of the the

19:07

homelessness around here? The

19:09

homelessness around here? Housing. Yeah.

19:11

Because Because it's

19:13

very expensive. And most of us become

19:15

have become homeless because of either an eviction, and

19:18

we can't get back you know, we can't

19:20

come up with a deposit, the security, and

19:22

the first and last month's rent. I

19:24

I live on the ditch

19:26

across from the Dollar Tree and Family

19:28

Dollar and though. It's a levy

19:30

that goes down. And

19:32

so I, myself and about twelve other people,

19:34

lived there. They haven't bothered

19:37

us. Yet, but they're going to anytime now

19:39

because they don't want us to

19:41

settle

19:41

anywhere. They

19:42

haven't been bothering us right now because there's no room

19:44

in the shelters. The shelters are full.

19:46

And shelters have extreme guidelines

19:49

to get in. You know, and you have to

19:51

read there are a lot of rules, and it's not that

19:53

I don't wanna follow rules. It's that I haven't III

19:56

work. Mhmm. Three other people out there

19:58

work. We can't we can't just off our

20:00

jobs to be in a shelter at five o'clock at

20:02

night. Oh, yeah.

20:03

How are you, darling? Hi there. How

20:04

are you, sir? I'm good.

20:07

Yeah. You got a nice smile.

20:10

Okay. Very cute. So

20:13

you're you're in a tent. Yes. Yeah.

20:16

A big one. I bought a real big one when I

20:18

knew I was gonna have to about? There was

20:19

no help around to, you know,

20:22

when you got into that situation.

20:24

Pretty much My husband had died

20:27

five years ago, cancer.

20:30

And

20:31

COVID, I

20:32

used all my savings,

20:35

was to get true.

20:36

Yeah. Yeah.

20:37

You know, it got behind on the

20:40

road. Yeah. But are

20:41

are you angry that you're in this

20:44

situation?

20:44

No.

20:45

No? No.

20:45

I'm

20:45

not angry at all. And his screen here

20:47

and his dog helped me. If you

20:49

ask me, all that's orchestrated by

20:52

government. I mean, you know, they wanted to help somebody. I

20:54

mean, you could build little houses and build a hundred

20:56

of

20:56

them. These people would be in a house, but they don't want

20:58

to help anybody. No. I I got a in

21:01

the

21:01

run some people living in the

21:03

Vans and you're living in there? Yeah. A lot of

21:05

them live in the creek, live in the dirt.

21:08

People don't even understand. They have no

21:10

idea. I dare I dare

21:12

anybody stay on the street for one

21:14

night. Just one night.

21:16

Mhmm. You'll

21:16

get cold and wet, never the

21:19

heels. I'm I'm I'm

21:21

tough. I lived in my truck for

21:23

four four to six

21:25

months when I first got here sleeping

21:27

sitting up, but I'm tough. You

21:29

know what? Not everybody

21:31

is as tough as me.

21:33

One of my great fascinations is

21:36

American politics. And two

21:38

of the United States faced

21:41

interesting presidents. No worries for the

21:43

right reasons. Richard

21:46

Nixon and Ronald Reagan,

21:48

and they both have their museums and

21:50

libraries in the LA area. Now

21:52

I've come to the Ronald Reagan Museum, not

21:55

just for the politics, but for the fact

21:58

that the presidential Aero

22:00

plane is here Air Force one, but

22:02

I'm gonna go in first to see

22:04

what be what we can find

22:06

at the beginning of the tour.

22:12

This, I think must be Ronald

22:14

Reagan's foot or

22:16

a representation of it. It's right in

22:18

the entrance here because he was a

22:20

great sports swimmer who was rather radiant and

22:22

a sports

22:22

commentator. So Hello, Ram.

22:25

Yep. Enjoy your

22:25

visit. Thank you. So we're

22:28

heading for the early life.

22:30

So they've just about to

22:32

show who's

22:33

Ronald doing the commentary on his own life. Really nice.

22:37

After seeing himself on camera for the

22:39

first time, Ronald Reagan quickly

22:41

learned that every ex Russian

22:43

gesture

22:43

matter. He also developed his

22:46

comic timing. I

22:48

would've instead got his quick when

22:50

they shot him, which is when

22:52

when his wife came to get me said,

22:55

sorry, honey, I forgot to

22:57

duck. It's classic. It's

22:59

white and gold design became

23:01

the signature look for the world's most

23:03

famous plane and is still the

23:05

official president delivery of

23:07

Air Force

23:07

One. And just about a beautiful airplane in the

23:09

world. That's all. So I'm

23:12

just going aboard this

23:14

plane, which obviously meant so

23:16

much to roll Rager. This is Air

23:18

Force one. It's

23:21

dark, isn't

23:22

it? Oh, it's bang

23:25

head on roof.

23:25

Perhaps it's not so

23:28

vast of a girl. We're

23:31

in Witty here, which is the

23:33

east of Los Angeles.

23:36

And this is where

23:38

Richard Nixon spent most

23:40

of his childhood. And I'm

23:42

about to meet one of

23:44

the many, but the latest

23:46

biographer of Richard Nixon.

23:48

And now Interestingly, his

23:50

subtitle is California's

23:52

favorite

23:52

son. And I'm really interested to know if

23:55

that's really still the

23:57

case. This

23:59

is what, Franklin. This is the studio residence, and Franklin

24:01

Han and Nixon bought this in nineteen thirty

24:03

nine for nine thousand dollars. How

24:05

can we go? This

24:08

round room is about

24:10

twelve feet

24:10

across. And it's a

24:13

circular observatory. The

24:16

wood

24:16

ceiling spins three hundred and

24:19

sixty degrees. It's interesting

24:20

to get this perspective on

24:23

nixie. What

24:23

I'm gonna do is I'm gonna open this

24:26

up I don't what's thought of his origins as being

24:28

more impoverished. An impression,

24:30

it's hard to sustain as I wander

24:32

around his opulent family

24:34

home. This

24:36

is

24:36

the roof. It's a

24:39

it's a galvanized metal roof.

24:41

And one of the little slivers

24:43

is galvanized metal so that we can

24:45

prop it open so that you can have

24:47

your telescope look.

24:49

What is great about

24:50

this house though is Richard

24:53

is dating Pat Nicks or Pat Ryan

24:55

at the time. And they get

24:57

married in June of nineteen forty, and

24:59

they had their wedding reception this house.

25:02

Right. So their wedding reception was here,

25:04

and then they went out to a matinee

25:06

on December seventh in nineteen

25:08

forty

25:08

one. In Los in downtown. Oh, yeah. And

25:10

this is Kelly. Yeah. They they came out and

25:12

the paper boys said we're a warmester, and

25:15

so they didn't need drove here to this home, and they

25:17

all sat around the radio and listened to

25:19

the the news of the the pro

25:21

harbor attacks. And within

25:23

a month, Richard Dixon was off

25:26

Washington DC to work for the office of price administration,

25:29

but he really wanted to end up joining the

25:31

war effort and he joined the

25:33

United States Navy and

25:36

he served in the South

25:36

Pacific. And by the time he came

25:39

back in nineteen forty

25:42

five, his parents had already moved from this house. So if

25:44

I asked you, what are the sounds

25:46

of LA? You know, what what sounds

25:48

mean LA to

25:49

you? Well, if we're standing right

25:52

here, and we can hear all of the sounds right

25:54

now and it's gonna get even louder

25:56

once we

25:56

walk. So it's gonna be fun.

25:59

And you're gonna

26:02

see live bands right

26:04

now. People Sally stuff.

26:06

Alright. Here it gets

26:08

crowded. Alright. This is second

26:11

street. Just paint

26:12

a little pin cut portrait

26:15

of you.

26:16

Well, I'm a massage therapist. I love my job.

26:18

I love making people

26:19

feel better overall with with their

26:22

body, with their mind,

26:24

their spirit, and I

26:26

also do acting. And I'm

26:28

actually excited. I don't know if I told you this

26:30

before, but I just got cast

26:32

as

26:32

Juliet. So it's gonna be

26:34

Romeo Juliet meets the eighties. So that's exciting. Yeah.

26:36

And I like to travel.

26:39

The sounds represent life.

26:42

It means that life doesn't stop

26:45

spinning. And that's

26:47

what I get. And I

26:49

feel like that is just what life is about.

26:51

Life keeps moving forward. I don't

26:54

know. It's the sun.

26:56

It's California.

26:59

When did that come rising?

27:02

Six. I'll turn it

27:04

back. Three from

27:06

the

27:06

circle. The dark

27:10

is rising, is the audio

27:12

adaptation of Susan Cooper's classic

27:14

fantasy novels. Into

27:16

a spellbinding twelve part

27:18

family drama. I iron.

27:24

Water. Fire. Stool.

27:26

Listen on headphones for an immersive

27:29

three d audio experience.

27:32

Five will return, and

27:34

one go alone. The dark is rising from

27:36

the b b world service.

27:40

Find it wherever you get your

27:42

BBC podcasts. We have

27:44

been reaching for you for a

27:46

long time.

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