Radiotopia Live in Los Angeles

Podcasts are a significant part of my daily life. I listed to them at work, in the car and sometimes fall asleep to them. My tastes vary from comedy to old time radio to history to in depth interviews and one of my favorite podcast networks is Radiotopia. Filled with an array of human interest podcasts covering everything from design to crime it’s a treasure trove of insight. Recently, Radiotopia presented a live West Coast tour that stopped in LA for a night and I was lucky enough to score a press pass and attend.

Radiotopia Live stopped at The Theatre at Ace Hotel and featured presentations from a variety of podcasts including 99% Invisible, The Memory Palace and Criminal. Those three happen to rank among my favorites and I was eager to see how they would fare in front of a live audience.

I honestly had no idea what to expect but when the lights went down and the evening’s hosts Roman Mars (99% Invisible) and Helen Zaltzman (The Allusionist) came onstage and immediately started teasing us about LA’s terrible city flag I knew it was going to be good show.

The evening was filled with various multimedia presentations of podcasts I’d only previously heard through my headphones. 99% Invisible told the story of the El Gordo, the Spanish lottery, complete with animation and live music from the Frank Brink Three. Criminal presented two tales of quirky British criminal activity that may or may not have featured a live streaker. And The Mortified Podcast had the hosts turning the embarrassment towards themselves and reading their teenage poetry and a most hilarious letter to the Real World. It was a wonderful evening that had me at times laughing like crazy and other times choking up. I always found Radiotopia podcasts a joy to listen to and now know they’re even better live and in person.