Madeleine Brand is one of those voices millions of people recognize — even if they don’t immediately know the name behind it.

For more than a decade, she’s hosted Press Play on KCRW. Before that came NPR, Day to Day, and a public-radio career that took her from Berkeley to Buffalo, Boston, New Jersey, Washington, New York, and finally — wisely — back home to Los Angeles.

What’s remarkable is how early she figured out what she loved. While many careers in media involve detours, reinventions, and a fair amount of chaos, Madeleine found public radio in college, got very good at it, and kept following the work wherever it led.

In this episode, we talk about the sleepy New Jersey station that somehow became a launching pad for an entire generation of legendary broadcasters, why one very large and very well-intentioned grant ultimately convinced her it was time to leave, and what it takes to stay thoughtful, curious, and unmistakably yourself across decades on the air.

Madeleine is also funny, candid, and wonderfully self-aware — including about why her favorite place to hear live music in Los Angeles is her own house.

And yes, at one point she tells me I’m a good interviewer. Which, for me, was a little like Kobe Bryant telling you you’ve got a nice jump shot.

John Szabo runs one of the largest and most quietly influential public systems in Los Angeles — all seventy-two branches of the L.A. Public Library — as the City Librarian.

In this episode, John shares how he started working in libraries at sixteen, what it was like arriving in L.A. thinking it would take a couple months to get settled – only to realize, eighteen months later, that this city doesn’t work like that – and how he ended up being named National Librarian of the Year.

But more than anything, this is a conversation about what a modern library actually is. Under John’s leadership, the L.A. Public Library has expanded far beyond books: citizenship programs, job training, legal clinics, maker spaces, and skill-building workshops – all free, all embedded in communities across the city.

We also get into the fun stuff – from the oldest book in the collection to the staggering number of audiobooks Angelenos check out each year – and why, at a time when many public institutions feel strained, the library continues to grow.

And yes – we also hear his excitement about getting to open a 100-year-old time capsule.

Jim Hahn and Janice Hahn come from one of the most consequential families in Los Angeles public life – and are still shaping it today.

Their father, Kenneth Hahn, served on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors for more than four decades – and left a legacy that both Jim and Janice have carried forward in their own ways.

Jim is the only person to have held all three citywide offices in Los Angeles, including serving as the city’s 40th Mayor. Janice has served on the City Council, in Congress, and now on the very same Board of Supervisors as her father.

In this episode, they share what it was like growing up with a beloved yet always-on-call father, and why being brother and sister led to very different timelines for finding their way into public life.

We recorded in the Board Room of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, the very room where their father served, and where Janice serves today – a setting that made this conversation feel very personal.

This is a serious — though warm and often funny — conversation about family legacy and public service. But, even after decades in public life, there’s still plenty of sibling button-pushing. Some things are universal.