What is SoCal Culture?

For each of these culture-of-place episodes, we look for someone who both adores a place, are very much a product of that place… and are also very much at home talking shit about that place. They see its difficulties, drawbacks, and hostilities clearly — and can hold all of that alongside their deep and abiding love for the place. And that’s Gustavo Arellano, who’s been writing about SoCal culture with verve and humor and great skill for decades. (Such great skill that just a week after we taped this episode, he was named as a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in commentary). I can’t wait for you to join us as we talk about making dioramas of missions out of sugar cubes, car culture, conspiracy-curious crunchy-fascists in Orange County, and so much more.

Thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode!

• Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to https://www.wildalaskan.com/CULTURE

• Head to moshlife.com/CULTURE to save 20% off and get FREE shipping on the Best Sellers Trial Pack

• Get $75 off a Mill food recycler at mill.com/CULTURE

• Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to Zocdoc.com/CULTURE to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.

Show Notes:

• Read Gustavo’s wonderful (free!) weekly newsletter, I promise it will become a highlight of your Saturday

• Re: elementary school student mission diorama project — you can see a bunch here. As of 2017, the California Department of Education now recommends against the diorama project as a way of teaching fourth graders about the missions

• You can read Gustavo’s (Pulitzer Prize nominated!!!) Los Angeles Times column here

• For more on the idea of “Spanish fantasy heritage” — check out Phobe S. Kropp’s California Vieja

• A fantastic Mother Jones profile of Jessica Reed Kraus, the woman behind House Inhabit, and her SoCal-borne (and deeply paranoid) approach to pop culture

• The column Gustavo mentions in the AAA segment re: the anniversary of KKK city council members getting recalled in Anaheim

• Alta Baja Market!

• Mitla Cafe!

• So many Original Tommy’s!

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• MONTANA Culture, MONTREAL/Québécois Culture, and Philly Culture for our ongoing culture-of-place series (different eps don’t worry)

• Evangelical Summer Camp, past and present

• Variations of American accents/dialects/linguistics

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!

• As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here

For this week’s discussion: What parts of SoCal Culture do you love — and what OTHER restaurants would you recommend?

• Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.
• Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.
• Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.
• Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.