The ACL Podcast 009: Rosecrans Baldwin

A few weeks back I recommended the book <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/everything-now-lessons-from-the-city-state-of-los-angeles/9780374150426">Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles</a> by Rosecrans Baldwin for a summer reading list. Having been an admirer of Rosecrans&#8217; writing (especially in <a href="https://rosecrans.substack.com/welcome">his newsletter</a>) I was eager to chat with him about the book on the podcast. He graciously drove across town and we had a great chat in my backyard. We spoke about the many great stories in the book, life in Southern California and he even opened up about his relationship with the brand Patagonia. <br/><br/>&#8220;What if I hate Los Angeles? Why should I read this book.&#8221; That&#8217;s the big question for Rosecrans. It&#8217;s something we speak about in the podcast but it is worth pointing out again here. If you love L.A. this is a good book for you. If you hate it &#8212; there&#8217;s likely something for you too. If you are interested in the human stories that bring a place to life then you will enjoy it. <br/><br/>All of this thinking about Los Angeles makes me revisit the ongoing N.Y. vs L.A. debate. So much is said about these two cities but it doesn&#8217;t seem like many people truly understand either place all that well &#8212; myself included. I&#8217;ve got a connection to each city, but I&#8217;m not really from either and don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll ever consider myself a New Yorker or an Angeleno. I only think I know them well enough to know that I&#8217;ve only scratched the surface. The book reinforces this theory.<br/><br/>One fact I heard during the pandemic about the size of L.A. surprised me. If Los Angeles County was a state it would rank 8th in terms of population. That statistic helped illustrate in my mind just how big L.A. is and how it is often too easily distilled down to one industry or one frequently visited part of town. Everything Now helps to open up these places, and to help us all better understand th