Imperfect Paradise: Route 66 has a 100-year legacy of American road trips and expansion, but the Main Street of America had its problems too

California City

LAist Studios

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4.5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Route 66 celebrates its centennial anniversary, we look back at its enduring impact as an iconic road that stretched from Illinois to California — and some of its darker past. It wasn’t just a mode of transportation for family road trips. The historic route was also a primary path for Black Americans to escape the South during the Jim Crow era, all while navigating around sundown towns. L.A. Explained Reporter Cato Hernandez joins Imperfect Paradise to discuss the significance of Route 66, its influence on California and its effect on Black migration to the West.

Read more of Cato’s reporting at LAist.com.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	LAIS and the Moth are joining forces for a new live show and you have two chances to see it.
0:05.5	The Moth main stage shows are on Wednesday, April 15th in L.A.
0:08.9	and Thursday, April 16th in Orange County.
0:11.7	Get tickets now at LAS.com slash events.
0:14.7	I'm Julia Paskin.
0:16.2	Ever been enthralled in an LAS story and your car radio loses the signal at just the wrong time.
0:21.8	Ah, me too.
0:22.7	And it drives me bananas.
0:24.2	That FM signal cannot interrupt your listen when you're streaming through the LAS app, though.
0:28.4	That's for iPhone and Android.
0:30.2	This is in Perfect Paradise.
0:31.8	I'm your host, Nereida Moreno.
0:34.0	This year marks the centennial anniversary of one of America's most iconic roads, Route 66.
0:41.1	Dubbed the Mother Road by author John Steinbeck, nicknamed the Main Street of America.
0:53.9	It's synonymous with Americana, the road trip, driving west with the sun in your face.
1:00.3	It's memorialized and what's become this famous road anthem first sung by Nat King Cole.
1:07.4	Get your kicks on Route 66.
1:11.6	The historic route was a primary path that extended from the American Midwest to the Pacific Ocean.
1:19.6	Its original build stretched from Illinois to California.
1:25.6	The route's fame is also documented in ads from the past.
1:29.4	This is the route. 66 heading west.
1:33.6	Tonight, Chevrolet takes you to the western frontier.
	...

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