Boiling Point – "L.A. SMOG – VERY OLD-SCHOOL"

Podcast: Boiling Point (LA Times Studios)
Episode Air Date: October 30, 2025
Host: Pat Morrison (guest host, LA Times columnist Sammy Roth is not featured as a speaker in this excerpt)
Guests: Chip Jacobs, Helen Pashkian, Reagan Dunn

Overview

This episode plunges listeners into the murky history of Los Angeles smog: how it was born, misunderstood, and fought—and why we may need those battle plans again. Leveraging vivid personal recollections, historical anecdotes, and expert interviews, host Pat Morrison traces the origins of smog in Southern California from prehistory through the city’s explosive 20th-century growth, weaving in stories of adaptation, confusion, and scientific sleuthing. The episode’s goal is to illuminate how LA’s clean air crusade began, why the struggle was unique, and why the fight against pollution is far from over.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Day LA Changed: July 1943 Smog Event

• Setting the Scene: The episode begins with an account of LA’s first major smog incident in July 1943 during wartime, using archival and eyewitness storytelling.
  • “A cloud bank enveloped downtown Los Angeles. It came at such a pace that it caught everybody off guard.” – Chip Jacobs (00:42)
• Panic and Confusion: The smog’s effects led to panic—drivers couldn’t see, people rushed indoors, and rumors of enemy attacks swirled due to WWII fears.
  • “Cops directing traffic all of a sudden didn’t know what direction the streetlight was in.” – Chip Jacobs (01:07)
• The Birth of a Crisis: Quickly, LA realized this was not fog or enemy action—a new, man-made blight had descended.

2. Smog’s Physical and Cultural Impact on LA

• Immediate Harm: Residents experienced “eyes watering, noses running...a respiratory assault.” (Chip Jacobs, 01:44)
• Changing the City: Smog affected daily life, business, travel, and culture. It shredded nylon stockings, damaged crops, and even changed movie aesthetics.
  • “Smog has been the blight on all that's beautiful in LA.” – Pat Morrison (06:08)
• Adapting to Pollution: Generations learned to live with smog—rescheduling outdoor activities, changing routines, and resigning themselves to the gray haze.
  • “We guided your life and you changed your life to fit the patterns of the smog.” – Helen Pashkian (20:05)

3. Historical Roots: Pre-Industrial Air Pollution in California

• Natural vs. Human-Caused Smoke: Paleobotanist Reagan Dunn describes how indigenous people conducted intentional burns, creating smoky conditions in the LA Basin thousands of years ago.
  • “The hypothesis that we have put out there is that these fires were ignited by early humans that came to this area.” – Reagan Dunn (09:06)
• Evidence from the Past: Charcoal records in Lake Elsinore reveal large fires began with human arrival ~13,000 years ago.
  • “You can see there is very, very, very, very little fire up until 13,200 years ago...and I just said, yep, it’s humans.” – Reagan Dunn (11:54)

4. Global Context: Smog Throughout Human History

• Ancient Smog Stories: Ancient Romans and medieval English suffered and legislated over air pollution—LA is only the latest chapter.
  • “If you burned or even sold that filthy sea coal...you will be tortured or hanged.” – Pat Morrison on King Edward I’s 1307 proclamation (14:18)

5. LA’s Transformation: From Paradise to Pollution

• Pristine Beginnings: Artist Helen Pashkian reminisces about Altadena’s clear air, citrus blossoms, and “cool light”—before WWII and smog’s sudden arrival.
  • “California was very rural and all the little towns were connected by citrus...” – Helen Pashkian (16:20)
• Sudden Change: The war triggered explosive urban growth, with new industry and sprawling suburbs replacing orchards and bringing widespread pollution.
  • “During the war, Southern California changed from a rural place with lots of agriculture to urban.” – Helen Pashkian (17:52)

6. The Struggle to Diagnose Smog’s Source

• Misplaced Blame: Early efforts targeted visible offenders—oil refineries, factories, or the notorious butadiene plant—without understanding the real chemical causes.
  • “They viewed it not as an environmental problem...they viewed it as an industrial engineering problem.” – Chip Jacobs (21:26)
• Oil and the City: LA’s economy and landscape were shaped by oil drilling, which produced not just wealth but widespread pollution.
  • “Thousands of homeowners tore out the orange trees and put oil derricks right in their backyards.” – Pat Morrison (21:42)
• A Turning Point: When closing a suspected plant didn’t clear the air, Angelenos realized the problem was broader and more complex.
  • “So they shut this plant down. And guess what? The smog, it eventually returned...it wasn’t that butadiene plant.” – Chip Jacobs (23:55)

7. Science Intervenes: Enter Caltech

• Scientific Inquiry Begins: With the smog not abating after WWII, researchers at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) began seeking answers, setting the stage for LA’s storied air quality movement.
  • “People at Caltech...started looking at the changing atmosphere.” – Helen Pashkian (25:08)
• A City Becomes a Lab: The episode ends with Morrison teasing the entry of the “Sherlock Holmes” of smog research—a brilliant Dutch scientist at Caltech—whose investigations will unlock the real story behind LA’s air pollution.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “This was something else. Something brownish, blackish, grayish and sickening.”
  — Pat Morrison, describing the 1943 smog event (01:27)

• “The air tasted like a chemistry set, and it looked like something that hadn’t quite flushed down your toilet yet.”
  — Pat Morrison, vivid description of early LA smog (02:39)

• “What really was striking to me...was seeing this amazing record of charcoal from Lake Elsinore...very, very little fire up until 13,200 years ago. And when I saw that, my chin dropped...yep, it’s humans.”
  — Reagan Dunn (11:54)

• “Smog has been the blight on all that’s beautiful in LA. But what many people don’t [know] is that it hasn’t just been here for a long time. It’s been here for a really, really long time.”
  — Pat Morrison (06:08)

• “We guided your life and you changed your life to fit the patterns of the smog.”
  — Helen Pashkian (20:05)

• “They viewed it not as an environmental problem...they viewed it as an industrial engineering problem.”
  — Chip Jacobs (21:26)

• “Thousands of homeowners tore out the orange trees and put oil derricks right in their backyards.”
  — Pat Morrison (21:42)

• “So they shut this plant down. And guess what? The smog, it eventually returned...it wasn’t that butadiene plant.”
  — Chip Jacobs (23:55)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:04–02:39: Vivid account of the first major LA smog event, eyewitness and historical perspectives
• 06:08–11:19: Prehistoric fires and indigenous contributions to smoke in the LA basin
• 14:18–15:38: Smog in global, historic context
• 16:20–18:07: Recollections of LA’s pre-smog environment and transformation during WWII
• 19:07–20:24: Helen Pashkian’s personal experiences with deteriorating air
• 21:26–24:18: LA’s oil boom, quest to assign blame for smog, realization of deeper scientific causes
• 25:08–End: The arrival of scientists at Caltech to solve the mystery, setting up the next chapter

Episode Tone and Style

Pat Morrison guides the narrative with wit, sensory storytelling, and an eye for the quirky and the tragic in LA’s relationship with pollution. The tone is both nostalgic and urgent, blending personal anecdotes, history, and the voices of those who saw the city before and after smog. Guests like Chip Jacobs and Helen Pashkian deliver firsthand color, while Reagan Dunn’s scientific findings root the story in deep time.

Conclusion

The saga of Los Angeles smog, the city’s “curse,” is one as old as civilization itself—tied to fire, growth, and the unintended consequences of survival. The episode sets up the origin story of a city’s clean air crusade, underscoring that the fight is not over and that understanding the past will be essential for California’s climate future.

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