UnFictional: Recent Episodes
KCRW
In this season of Unfictional, Stories of Transformation, and the ways in which the world — and all of us — have fundamentally changed since the pandemic began. One man watched his children suddenly turn into grown-ups, while another upended every part of his life. Someone else had to learn to live with hardship and found their true identity along the way, all while living in two worlds. Meanwhile, a subculture ascends, one reporter explores Olvera Street, and another finds an old notebook filled with memories from his time in a cabin. It’s UnFictional, hosted by Bob Carlson.
Fútbol Confidential looks at Niky’s Sports, the biggest family-run chain of soccer stores in LA.
Two Mexican-American fans talk about rooting for more than one hometown team in Los Angeles and in Mexico.
Fútbol Confidential looks at the legendary LA city league soccer team formed over beers in a Santa Monica pub by British expatriates.
In ‘El Pueblo,’ producer Mike Schilitt explores the surprising history of Olvera Street – an idealized fantasy of Mexico created in downtown Los Angeles that has supported generations of Agelenos.
When Aric Allen was 21, he lived in a desolate mountain cabin for 10 weeks. There he planned to write a novel, but instead he learned how to be alone.
Producer Jaime Roque takes a ride with Ernie Moran in his 1965 Chevy Impala to explore the history and culture of the lowrider community of East Los Angeles.
In the U.S., nisha venkat feels safe and relieved to identify as queer and non-binary. But in their home country Dubai, nisha’s gender identity is illegal, and they can be deported or convicted of homexuality, or “cross-dressing.”
Imagine entering a giant machine that sucks you in one end, and spits you out the other side as something completely different. That describes the transmogrifier — a fantastical device from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. Over the last couple of years, it feels like everyone has been through the transmogrifier in one way or another. In this episode, stories of the transmogrified. Unfictional producer Bob Carlson watches his two children go through the transmogrifier and come out unexpectedly as grown-ups. Meanwhile, almost every element of producer Jaime Roque’s life was upended by the transmorgrifier: new job, marriage, and prospective fatherhood.
Street vendors are an essential part of Los Angeles’ history and its economy. You can find vendors with mobile carts and food trucks on street corners, outside concert venues, and sporting events selling hot dogs, tacos, burritos, churros, fruit, t-shirts, souvenirs, and just about anything else you can imagine. For decades, this activity was illegal. And even though vending was somewhat decriminalized in 2018, the line between legal and illegal is not always clear. Producer James Roque follows the stories of a few of these entrepreneurs, finding out why they started vending, the challenges they encounter on a daily basis, and how they fared during the last few years.
KCRW’s Bob Carlson talks to some of Deirdre O’Donoghue’s friends and gets further inside her world away from the microphone.
Bent By Nature Episode 1 introduces KCRW DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue, host of "SNAP!," a freeform alternative and independent music and culture program in Los Angeles in the '80s — and goes inside the community she cultivated, her passion for music, and the problems she had with KCRW’s management and staff. Featuring archival live performances by Camper Van Beethoven, the Meat Puppets, Glass Eye, Jazz Butcher, the Dream Syndicate, and more.
Mary Lorson explores scenes from her childhood in a personal memoir musical documentary. Featuring an elusive father, A Dancerina doll, a Polaroid Swinger, and a camel hair coat from Saks, all in constant motion.
A promising job drew Fedelina Lugasan to the U.S. from the Philippines, she’d start her new life with a family she trusted. But the picture they painted for her was not what her life turned out to be.
A man finds an old reel to reel tape that reveals much more than just flying saucers and alien conspiracy theories.
Ove the rowing man. A stranger who came by way of the ocean, and was soon no longer a stranger.
Maurcio, star of a hit Mexican television show, is abandoned in the desert while trying to cross the border.
Mauricio leaves Mexico City for Los Angeles, and his dreams of television come true in a very unlikely way.
It never occurred to Janey that he would put something in her drink. Never in a million years.
Take a three-day bus trip across the country with a juggalo, and you’ll learn some things.
Aric Allen spent much of the early 2000s on the phone – selling get-rich-quick schemes and rapidly turning into a person he didn’t recognize.
Enriqueta Marti was a real-life monster who roamed the streets of 20th Century Barcelona collecting bones and kidnapping children. Except, of course, she wasn’t.
One woman discovers that her childhood crush has grown up into someone she doesn’t recognize.
A romantic daytime drive becomes a nightmare when Mihai’s mind betrays him – and he turns on the person he loves.
When John Elder Robison gets an experimental treatment for Asperger’s, he feels like he’s suddenly seeing the world in technicolor. But that doesn’t mean he likes what he sees.
This season on UnFictional, we’re looking at how we come to know the unknown parts of ourselves. Get the first episode January 31st.
It’s a bonus episode! We’ll be back in January, but we’ve got two spooky stories to tide you over – a Halloween classic, and a brand-new, never-before-heard story of a haunted house gone terribly wrong.
A girl gang goes on a rampage of sex, larceny and murder. But what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling? Go behind the scenes of a riotous ‘70s punk film.
Tara has always believed in ghosts, so she wasn’t surprised when a ghost starting haunting her Los Feliz apartment. That is, until she found out that the ghost was actually something far more frightening.
Ember has pretty much always known who she truly was. But it was a long, obstacle-ridden path to live that true life – as a woman.
A secret road leads to a marooned community and an ocean paradise – along the coast of California.
When you think of Los Angeles, you think of smog. But have you ever heard about the day when smog just showed up in Los Angeles? An impressionistic trip the hazy history of the skies over Los Angeles.
After years of living in the space between who she really is, and who her mother wants her to be, Sharon decides she’s finally going to confront her mother – on a cruise with a famous Iranian talk show psychiatrist.