Boiling Point: "Smoglandia Pt. 2 – SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE"
Podcast by LA Times Studios, hosted by Pat Morrison
Date: November 6, 2025
Episode Overview
In this episode, Pat Morrison brings listeners to the pivotal moment Los Angeles began to unravel the vehicular roots of its deadly smog. Through restored archival footage, interviews with historians and scientists, and dramatic retellings, Morrison chronicles how the little-known Dutch chemist Dr. Ari Hagensmit became the unlikely hero to deliver LA from its toxic haze—a story of stubborn science, industrial opposition, and a city forced to confront that its obsession with cars was poisoning its skies.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Setting the Stage: Smog as a Post-War Mystery (00:14–04:50)
- Archival Broadcast Resurrected: Morrison introduces historic 1959 television audio featuring Dr. Ari Hagensmit, who explains the invisible peril of smog to a once-clueless public.
- Smog Outbreak: The episode flashes back to July 1943 when thick, choking smog settled over LA—first blamed on a downtown butadiene plant, then shrouded in mystery as “gas attacks” kept happening.
- False Leads: Locals and experts pointed fingers at sulfur dioxide, as was the norm in other cities. Their assumption: LA’s smog was just like St. Louis’s smoky coal haze—but they were wrong.
- Chip Jacobs (05:01): “The science was so inferior, so marginalized and kind of like today... False equivalencies. I hate false equivalencies... Com-pletely wrong.”
- The War’s Aftermath: The end of the war did not bring relief; smog lingered, baffling civic leaders and ordinary Angelenos alike.
2. Enter Dr. Ari Hagensmit—the Accidental Smog Sleuth (09:01–16:55)
- Rediscovered History: Caltech professor Rick Flagan shares his discovery of a forgotten film can containing Hagensmit’s educational broadcast.
- Dr. Richard Flagan (10:21): “That box there is an instrument from Hagensmit... that was his early ozone monitor. It’s very, very simple.”
- Personal Impressions of Past Smog: Flagan recalls his childhood visit to LA:
- Dr. Richard Flagan (11:41): “When we came into the LA basin... down into this terrible haze, foul smell. That was my introduction. We spent a couple of weeks here, and I recall not seeing my shadow and getting an incredible sunburn... you didn’t see the sun, you just saw the dense haze. I swore at that time that I would never live in Southern California.”
- The Unexpected Expert: Morrison and David Zerler (Caltech Heritage Project) paint Hagensmit as a biochemist preoccupied with pineapple flavors, not pollution, until the death of campus plants (and encouragement from fellow scientist Arnold Beckman) diverted him to the smog puzzle.
3. The Science and the Breakthrough (16:55–26:55)
- Building the Smog Lab: Hagensmit and Beckman developed new instruments—cold traps and ozone monitors—to study LA’s air.
- Dr. Richard Flagan (21:52): “Used a cold trap, collected some samples. Essence of smog.”
- Unmasking the Chemistry: Hagensmit discovered that LA’s smog wasn’t sulfur-based but was instead the product of sunlight facilitating reactions between hydrocarbons (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides emitted by vehicles and industrial activity.
- Dr. Ari Hagensmit (22:08): “Those two components, the hydrocarbons and the oxides of nitrogen, react in sunlight to give the eye irritating material that we know so well.”
- Ozone’s Double Identity: Morrison breaks down ozone’s role, differentiating "good" stratospheric ozone from the "bad" ground-level ozone poisoning LA.
4. Proving the Point: From Labs to the Public (25:04–32:51)
- The ‘Rubber Strip Test’: Hagensmit’s simple but dramatic experiment—exposing rubber to smoggy air and watching it crack in minutes—helped non-scientists grasp smog’s reality.
- Dr. Richard Flagan (25:04): “One of the indications of the effect of the ozone was the rubber would crack.”
- Blaming Cars—a Scandalous Idea: With evidence mounting that automobiles were the principal culprits (not just factories), Hagensmit faced angry pushback.
- Dr. Richard Flagan (26:55): “He had lots of people who did not like his story. Yes.”
- Pat Morrison (27:02): “America in the 1950s was car mad, loony, insane. And Los Angeles was the throbbing engine of the auto erotic... And here comes this Dutchman... telling us that our cars, our cars and trucks were the problem.”
- Industry Fights Back: Oil and auto industries, faced with Hagensmit’s findings, fund their own research to dispute his conclusions.
- Arnold Beckman (as voiced by Steve Clow, 28:32): “This conclusion produced impassioned outbursts of protests, especially from the oil companies and the auto manufacturers.”
5. Courage in the Face of Hostility (28:59–34:28)
- Scientific Showdown: The Western Oil and Gas Association’s attempt to discredit Hagensmit backfires when he defiantly doubles down on his research.
- Arnold Beckman (voiced by Steve Clow, 30:23): “He [Hagensmit] was furious. The validity of his work was being questioned. ‘I’ll show them who’s right and who’s wrong,’ he muttered as we left the room.”
- Public Advocacy: Hagensmit becomes an unlikely public figure, touring to persuade a skeptical public and even children of his findings.
- Pat Morrison (32:51): “He said, quote, ‘I had a lot of trouble getting people to accept this. They said it was absolute nonsense and impossible, and the auto industry had the opinion that it was all none of my damn business.’”
- Pat Morrison (32:51): “He introduced a wholly new concept of air pollution that brought about a revolution... courageously named the major sources: the automobile, oil refineries, power plants and steel factories.”
6. Legacy of Clearer Skies (34:28–End)
- Triumphs and Frustrations: Hagensmit is denied marquee honors for his life-saving work but leaves a lasting scientific and civic legacy that underpins California’s ongoing clean-air leadership.
- Epilogue—The Scientist’s Fate: He never received a Nobel Prize, nor even a freeway named in his honor, but transformed LA’s fate and became a model of the embattled, ignored scientist whose integrity eventually reshapes policy.
- Pat Morrison (32:51): “Did they make him grand marshal of the Rose Parade? Did he win a Nobel Prize? No... They didn’t even name a freeway off ramp in his honor.”
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |---------------|-----------|-------------| | 05:01 | “From 1943 to 1950. The science was so inferior, so marginalized... Completely wrong.” | Chip Jacobs | | 10:21 | “That box there is an instrument from Hagensmit... that was his early ozone monitor.” | Dr. Richard Flagan | | 11:41 | “...came into the LA basin and came over the mountains and started coming down into this terrible haze, foul smell. That was my introduction... The smog was so bad you didn’t see the sun.” | Dr. Richard Flagan | | 22:08 | “Now, those two components, the hydrocarbons and the oxides of nitrogen, react in sunlight to give the eye irritating material that we know so well.” | Dr. Ari Hagensmit | | 25:04 | “One of the indications of the effect of the ozone was the rubber would crack.” | Dr. Richard Flagan | | 26:55 | “He had lots of people who did not like his story. Yes.” | Dr. Richard Flagan | | 27:02 | “America in the 1950s was car mad, loony, insane. And Los Angeles was the throbbing engine of the auto erotic... And here comes this Dutchman... telling us that our cars... were the problem.” | Pat Morrison | | 28:32 | “This conclusion produced impassioned outbursts of protests, especially from the oil companies and the auto manufacturers.” | Arnold Beckman (as Steve Clow) | | 30:23 | "[Hagensmit] was furious. The validity of his work was being questioned. 'I'll show them who's right and who's wrong,' he muttered as we left the room." | Arnold Beckman (as Steve Clow) | | 32:51 | “He said, quote, ‘I had a lot of trouble getting people to accept this... the auto industry had the opinion that it was all none of my damn business.’” | Pat Morrison |
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 00:14–01:10: Vintage broadcast sets the scene—early confusion about LA’s smog
- 04:50–06:37: Chip Jacobs explains the lack of proper science and mistaken assumptions
- 09:01–13:18: Dr. Flagan recounts his smoggy childhood encounters with LA
- 14:31–16:55: Hagensmit’s shift from pineapple chemistry to smog
- 21:52–22:23: Discovery of the core chemistry behind smog: hydrocarbons + NOx + sunlight = ozone
- 25:04–25:32: The dramatic "rubber strip test"
- 26:55–28:32: The fraught politics of blaming cars
- 30:23–31:43: The showdown between Hagensmit and his critics
- 32:51–34:28: Hagensmit’s advocacy and reflections on public acceptance
Episode Tone
The episode expertly balances Morrison’s wry, journalistic narration with compelling archival voices and contemporary expert interviews. The tone is both reverent and personable, blending respect for Hagensmit’s scientific rigor with a relatable, sometimes lightly sarcastic look at California’s car culture and institutional resistance to change.
For the Uninitiated
If you haven’t listened:
This episode powerfully reveals how Los Angeles’ most infamous environmental crisis was cracked not by bureaucracy or industry, but by an imported scientist with a bent for biochemistry. You'll learn why smog stumped the experts, how determined science faced backlash from huge industries, and how “the smog detective” changed the world—though he never became a household name.
Smoglandia continues to illuminate the science and drama behind LA’s clean-air battles, reminding listeners that every disaster movie starts with a scientist being ignored—and Hagensmit’s story is the real-life proof.
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