Making Los Angeles

Nancy Silverton: Style, Substance, and the Reinvention of L.A. Dining

Nancy Silverton isn’t just one of Los Angeles’s most celebrated chefs – she helped define how this city eats. Born and raised in L.A., Nancy’s career spans the city’s most iconic kitchens – from Michael’s to Spago, Campanile to La Brea Bakery, and now the “Mozza Plex”: Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza, and Chi Spacca.  And let’s not forget the already-iconic Max & Helen’s, the Larchmont diner she opened in partnership with Phil Rosenthal. In this episode, Nancy shares how a chance encounter in her college dorm set her on her unexpected culinary path, why she left school with just one semester to go, and what it was like to help open Spago as its original pastry chef. We also talk about the quieter forces behind her success, including the influence of her mother, and how she’s managed to wear her status as a true L.A. legend with her unmistakably effortless style. This conversation is about instinct, reinvention, and building something lasting in a city that’s constantly changing. And yes – we also get her heretical take on the iconic, L.A.-born fast-food chain she says is overrated.

Alex Cohen: Journalism, Japan, and the Derby Dolls

Alex Cohen is one of those if-you-know-you-know voices in Los Angeles. A longtime presence on NPR and now a morning anchor and political host on Spectrum News 1, she’s spent decades helping Angelenos make sense of the world around them. But her path to journalism – and her life outside of it – is anything but conventional. In this episode, Alex shares how growing up in the San Fernando Valley (yes, as a self-described “Valley Girl”) shaped her early ambitions, how time spent living in rural Japan helped set her on the path to journalism, and why she made the leap from radio to television after years behind the mic. We also get into the perhaps more unexpected sides of her story: her time managing a band, her ongoing deep interest in 13th Century Zen Buddhism, and her unlikely second identity as a Roller Derby competitor – complete with not one, but two nicknames. It’s a conversation about curiosity, reinvention, and what it means to build a life that’s both serious and surprising – on air and off. And, if I’m being honest, it’s also just one of the funniest conversations I’ve had yet.

Keith Corbin: Prison, Purpose, and Reinventing His Life Through Food

How does someone go from the Jordan Downs housing projects in Watts to becoming the co-owner of one of Los Angeles’ most celebrated restaurants? In this episode of Making Los Angeles, chef and author Keith Corbin reflects on the long, unlikely road that led him from gang culture, prison, and the crack epidemic of 1980s South LA to Alta Adams, the acclaimed West Adams restaurant rooted in Black foodways and community. Keith shares stories about losing his brother, surviving prison, discovering cooking later in life through Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson’s LocoL, and finding purpose through food after years of instability and survival. The conversation explores Watts, masculinity, grief, fatherhood, redemption, and the complicated relationship between identity and place in Los Angeles.

Cheech Marin: Comedy, Chicano Art, and Reinventing Los Angeles

What does it take to reinvent yourself over and over again — from Chicano kid in South Central LA, to potter living in the Canadian wilderness, to one half of one of the most iconic comedy duos in American history? In this episode, Cheech Marin reflects on the winding, unexpected path that shaped his life and career. Recorded inside the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside, the conversation spans decades of Los Angeles history — from growing up in South Central and the San Fernando Valley, to resisting the Vietnam draft, living off the grid in Alberta, discovering improv theater in Vancouver, and eventually building Cheech & Chong into a cultural phenomenon. Cheech shares stories about opening for Motown acts, playing topless bars, recording groundbreaking comedy albums, and making Up in Smoke at a time when Hollywood had no idea what to make of them. He also reflects on Born in East L.A., the evolving conversation around immigration in America, and why Chicano art became one of his life’s great passions. We hear about Muhammad Ali, Bruce Springsteen opening for Cheech & Chong, late nights at the Troubadour, life in Malibu, and the creative instincts that kept pulling him toward music, comedy, filmmaking, and art. This episode is about curiosity, reinvention, and showing up every day for the thing you love…even when you have no idea where it’s going to lead.

Introducing: Making LA Season 2

What's different about Season 2? Everything! And absolutely nothing. Because this show is about people, and everybody's story is different. Join us every Wednesday starting May 13th.