This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. I love podcasts. I really do not just mine and the ones I'm associated with

But I listen to dozens of podcasts a week and I'm one some

I'm associated with, but I listen to dozens of podcasts a week and I'm always looking for some

spark that excites me, it comforts me, challenges me,

entertains me. I love seeing the proliferation of podcasts. It would never occur to me to market.

Like I know the joke. Everyone has a podcast now, but I always want more.

You know, not all of them are for me. But when one hits, I just get excited about its existence. I get excited about existence in general. And this happened to me when I was listening to a new show called California Love. It's a podcast about

seeking to understand what it means to belong and not belong to the places that we are

from. In the episode I thought would most resonate with you, my beautiful merits, is about graffiti,

which is a huge part of the visual expression of cities.

There is a culture war being played out before our eyes in the back and forth between tigers and anti-tackers.

And this kind and humane story is about those sides and what it feels like to be in the middle of it,

where the stakes to an outsider can seem so low,

but actually couldn't be higher. This is California Love. Here's Walter Thompson Hernandez.

It's spring 2017 and I'm on the 733 bus line heading west on Venice Boulevard. I'm sitting in the back of the bus.

It's the early afternoon and there's nobody else sitting next to me. I'm listening

to music on my headphones when I noticed an old friend hop on.

It's Ivan and we used to be in the same circles when I used to tag in the early 2000s.

Ivan hasn't changed one bit. He still weren't oversized t-shirts and

still speaks from the side of his mouth like he used to when we were teenagers.

His hair is still cut really low to have it's been more than 15 years since we last saw one another

we dap each other up and hug. He sits next to me.

...