I sit down with writer and producer Jon Zuber, who I first met on my debut feature film Killer Holiday. Jon shares stories from his 40+ year career in film & TV, his time living and working in Santa Barbara, and the making of his Emmy-winning documentary Stories in Time: Santa Barbara. Now based in Palo Alto, Jon reflects on balancing family life with creative work, the evolving entertainment landscape, and how to keep finding inspiration over the long haul.

Highlights:

• How Killer Holiday brought us together 🎬
• Lessons from 40+ years in entertainment
• The story behind his Emmy-winning Santa Barbara doc 🏆
• Moving to Palo Alto & pursuing new creative projects
• Reflections on staying inspired + collaborative in LA & beyond

✨ Listen to 15 Years in LA on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📲 Follow us on IG: @15.years.in.LA.pod💌 Submit questions or pitch yourself as a guest: ⁠15yearsinLApod@gmail.com⁠

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15 Years in LA is a true passion project. A love letter to this city and the stories that shape it. If you’ve been enjoying the conversations, you can now support the show directly via our Buzzsprout page.

Support Monthly from $3, $5, $8, or $10⁠Become a supporter here⁠

Every contribution helps cover production costs, book new guests, and keep this community growing. Your support means the world, and it ensures we can keep sharing these stories of growing up, falling down, and holding on in LA. Thank you for being part of it.

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In this deep and raw mini episode, I open up about the heavy days—the ones where depression keeps me from showing up, where being absent feels easier than facing the world. I talk about what it’s like to try and pick myself back up when I’m very much down, and the small steps I take to find purpose and self-motivation in uncertain times.

From discovering that tarot is something I’m genuinely good at, to making changes in my diet and lifestyle, this episode is about the ongoing process of caring for my mental health and learning to show up for myself—even when I can’t show up for anyone else.

Because sometimes, just admitting “I’m not okay” is the first step to becoming okay.

What do you do when you’re halfway through Griffith Park, alone with your dogs, and two coyotes appear on the trail ahead of you? In this solo episode of 15 Years in LA, I share the story of one of the most nerve-racking hikes of my life and how it became a reminder of something bigger.

Because whether it’s wildlife on a hike or a challenge in your own head, LA will put you in situations where you have no choice but to face your fears. We’ll talk about what it feels like in the moment, the mental shift that happens when you choose to stand tall, and how those moments prepare you for everything else this city (and life) throws at you.

Lately, I’ve been inspired by voices that push me to live braver: including The Sabrina Zohar Show, which has guided me through my mental health journey, and my own therapist, who hosts Own Your Truth Podcast. In therapy, he’s helped me face my fears head-on in the real world; Sabrina’s words have helped me face the ones living inside. Together, they’ve been a huge part of me learning to stand my ground on a trail or in life.

This isn’t just a story about coyotes. It’s about courage, instinct, and the quiet power of realizing you can handle more than you think.

Listen on Spotify🎙️ Follow, share, subscribe, and rate to help more people find the pod!📸 Follow along on Instagram: @15.years.in.la.pod

In this episode, I sit down with the brilliant and hilarious Edgar Momplaisir to talk about 15 years in LA.

The chaos, the grind, the gigs, the wins, the weird parties, and the city that raised us, reinvented us, and almost broke us (more than once).

We get into:

– how we met and what we remember about each other back then

– the realities of moving to LA and making it home

– the moments that shaped us creatively

– what’s changed over the years: in the city, in ourselves, and in our friendship

– and, of course, Edgar’s go-to LA spots: food, drinks, and one secret gem

🎭 Edgar is a writer + producer on Everybody Still Hates Chris (now streaming on Paramount+)

🎙️ Catch him live at UCB Franklin:

→ Leroy – every 4th Friday at 8:30pm

→ Asssscat – every Saturday + Sunday at 8:30pm (rotating cast)

Follow, rate, and review if you love the show. New episodes every week.

💫 Hosted by Samantha Adler

In the premiere episode of 15 Years in LA, host Sam Adler shares her journey from a small town in South Jersey to the edge of Los Angeles — landing in Ventura in 2010 with big dreams, no roadmap, and a whole lot of Jersey girl energy.

Sam reflects on the pop culture that shaped her (think The Hills, Kristin Cavallari, Paris Hilton), her early days as a child actor, and the unexpected film school detour that changed everything.

Plus: her favorite LA spots for brunch, hoagies, sushi, and a secret bookstore that feels like a movie set.

Intro and outro music from Envato

Welcome to 15 Years in LA!

A storytelling podcast about the people, places, and moments that shaped the last fifteen years of my life in and around Los Angeles. I’m your host, Sam Adler.

Each episode, I’ll be sitting down with friends, family, collaborators, and fellow transplants (the people I met along the way), to look back on where we were when we met, how LA shaped us, and what’s happened since.

Sometimes it’ll be conversations, and sometimes it’ll just be me, sharing my own stories and memories from this wild, beautiful, chaotic ride.

This podcast is a love letter.
To the city.
To the people.
And to all the versions of ourselves we had to become to survive it.

This is more than just my story, it’s a time capsule of a city, and what it means to grow up in it, even when you’re already technically grown.
Welcome to 15 Years in LA!