California City
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California City
Deep in the Mojave Desert, there is a little town with a big name and a bizarre history: California City. For decades, real estate developers have sold a dream here: if you buy land now, you’ll be rich one day. Thousands of people bought this dream. Many were young couples and hard-working imm...
Episodi recenti
14 episodi
Imperfect Paradise: An LA Commission created to tackle city government scandals is being stymied
A charter reform commission was created in 2024 in response to multiple Los Angeles city government scandals, including the leak of a racist tape feat...
Imperfect Paradise: Reports about failures in response to the January LA fires and a 2018 fire have striking similarities
A new report details the Eaton and Palisades fires, including failures in the emergency response. But this report bears striking similarities with ano...
Imperfect Paradise: How union organizing is being upended by private universities in Southern California
Big companies like Amazon and SpaceX are claiming that the National Labor Relations Board – an independent federal entity in charge of overseeing unio...
Imperfect Paradise: Why California's protest law is flawed and the consequences to protesters
After the George Floyd protests of 2020, California took steps to rein in violent policing of protests by passing laws restricting how law enforcement...
Where Dreams Go To Die
Silver Saddle Ranch gets sold, and the people who still believe it’s worth something stage a protest. Plus, a former employee comes forward with a dis...
Bonus Episode: Cashing In On The Desert
For decades, Californians have been obsessed with trying to profit off desert land. In this bonus episode of California City, host Emily Guerin, the D...
The Reckoning
Silver Saddle gets shut down and accused of fraud. Will the company - and the dream Ben Perez believed - survive?
California City is a limited s...
Open Secret
Fear, rumors, and looking the other way. How salesmen have sold the fantasy of California City for so long.
California City is a limited series...
The Hunted Becomes The Hunter
Emily confronts the owner of Silver Saddle and walks away doubting herself. Plus, Ben becomes part of Silver Saddle's sales machine.
California...
The Tragedy That Occurred
Ken Donney is a hero to some, but most people would call him a villain.
California City is a limited series with 8 episodes. Show support by su...
Soldiers of the Sale
Nat builds an army of salespeople to sell his dream. And then, then Ralph Nader intervenes.
California City is a limited series with 8 episodes....
A Man with a Dream
The vision that Ben Perez was sold in 2017 began in 1958, with one man's dream to build a utopian desert city from scratch.
This LAist Studios p...
Turning Desert Dust Into Gold
In 2017 Ben Perez goes to a Mojave Desert resort for a free vacation and ends up signing away his life savings. Turns out Ben is one of tens of thousa...
How I Found Out About California City
It was supposed to be a simple story about the California drought. Instead, reporter Emily Guerin became obsessed with the bizarre history of a sprawl...