Holy Land: D.J. Waldie's Los Angeles

In a Minute with Evan Lovett

Audacy

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A personal episode as Waldie is one of the biggest influences on L.A. in a Minute, I sit down with D.J. Waldie - the preeminent author of Los Angeles, who finds the "poetry and meaning in the confines of regular life in Los Angeles. A native & resident of Lakewood (the most impactful neighborhood in the world) since 1946, Waldie's unique perspective and acute insights inspired Joan Didion to describe him as infinitely moving and absolutely original. Waldie is the author of the powerful and seminal work, Holy Land, and continuing with California Romantica (w/ Diane Keaton), Becoming Los Angeles, and the his newly released Elements of Los Angeles.

Transcript

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0:00.0	To remind you that 60% of sales on Amazon come from independent sellers, here's John from Devil Dog Pet Company.
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0:31.8	Yo, welcome to another episode of In A Minute with Evan Lovett, coming to you live from the IAM studios right here in the heart of Los Angeles.
0:38.1	And today I have a guest that I will go as far as saying is one of my Los Angeles idols.
0:41.8	He is on my Los Angeles Mount Rushmore.
0:44.9	I've been called the Bard of Los Angeles.
0:50.1	You know Vince Scully, you know Jonathan Gold, Hulhouser.
1:05.1	Well, DJ Waldy is the man that puts into words and puts into these books, all the sentiments and ideas and insights that have inspired L.A. in a minute and in a minute with Evan Lovett.
1:08.0	So DJ Waldy, sometimes known as Don Waldy.
1:32.8	I am absolutely honored for you being here, and I thank you so much for coming to the IAM studios. Oh, very kind of you to invite me. We've crossed paths many a time over the years. Absolutely. You know my work. I know your work. It's great to be in your studio and have a chance to chat with you. Thank you so, so much. And again, look, before we even jump into anything of anything, I just want to make clear to everybody who's watching, it may not be familiar with you.
1:35.0	If you like LA in a minute, a vast amount of my episodes have been inspired by the writings
1:43.0	of DJ Waldy in any of these books here,
1:45.7	which I've read cover to cover numerous times. And I want to make this clear.
1:49.7	Holy Land was kind of the book, and we'll get into all this, but Holy Land was the book that
1:53.8	sort of put you on the map as an author.
1:56.2	It was.
1:57.0	And I see in there, it's 1996 it was written, but I read an article that was actually written in
2:01.1	1992. Is that? No, no. It was finished in 1995 and published at the very end of 1995,
2:07.7	and the copyright date's 1996. There you go. Okay. So 96. And then becoming Los Angeles came out
2:14.1	right when I was starting LA in a minute. And then elements of Los Angeles is his
	...

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