The Cabin Notebook

Fútbol Confidential looks at AYSO, American homegrown soccer culture.

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.