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Lost LA
Semi-Tropical L.A.: How the Sunny Southland Sold Itself
When the transcontinental railroad reached Southern California in 1876, it connected Los Angeles with the population centers and markets of the eastern U.S., fueling a boom that transformed a remote cowtown into a city. It also fueled a powerful promotional machine that promised more about Southern California – and its “semi-tropical” climate – than reality could support. Los Angeles has been struggling under the weight of its own mythology ever since.
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26:40
Tiki culture isn’t a Polynesian import — it’s a Hollywood creation.
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Archives reveal the “forgotten plague” that shaped Southern California: tuberculosis.
26:50
Visit Hollywood Forever, Evergreen and Forest Lawn, where L.A. reinvented the cemetery.
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The hiker-activists who led Angelenos into their hills and onto the trails.
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How Filipino Americans in Southern California are making their heritage more visible.
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Dig deep into Southern California’s past to reveal lessons for our climate-changed future.
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Why did Los Angeles dismantle one of the greatest rail transit systems in the nation?
26:40
Explore the lasting impact of the Shindana Toy Company, created out of the need for community empowerment following the 1965 Watts uprising, whose ethnically correct black dolls forever changed the American doll industry.