Rosecrans Baldwin on Los Angeles as a City-State

07/14/22 • 36 min

This episode focuses on what novelist and writer Rosecrans Baldwin calls "the city state Los Angeles.” In his recent best-selling book Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles, the award-winning author shares his thoughts on one of the United States’ most confounding metropolises – "not just a great city, but a full-blown modern city-state.” Together with our hosts, Baldwin addresses issues such as the housing crisis, city planning and what can be learned from comparing L.A.’s infrastructure to another highly fascinating metropolis: Berlin. Baldwin is the winner of the 2022 California Book Award.

Previous Episode

Christine Landfried on the Democratic Potential of Citizens' Assemblies

When it comes to politics, “distrust is a very healthy thing,” says Dr. Christine Landfried. But Dr. Landfried warns that a complete loss of trust in democratic processes lead people to disconnect from politics entirely. In this episode, the professor of political science talks about how citizens’ assemblies, a new form of participation, strengthen democracy and rebuild trust in its institutions. Landfried has observed citizens’ assemblies and prominently reported about them in a variety of German-speaking media outlets. Christine Landfried is currently a Thomas Mann House fellow in Los Angeles.

Next Episode

Ulrich J. Schneider on Libraries as Democratic Spaces

“Today, when politicians think you can close down libraries because everything is available online, you have to remind them that libraries are not only for books; they are for people,” says Thomas Mann Fellow and former director of the Leipzig University Library, Ulrich J. Schneider. In his research, he examines the importance of public libraries in different social contexts. In this episode, Schneider explains how public libraries came to be places where people, regardless of their social status, can access knowledge and leave as changed persons.