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Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

“What the Hell Happened to L.A.?” with Meghan Daum

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Josh Szeps

Education, Comedy, Comedy Interviews, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.5905 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 81 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Los Angeles was once the city where people went to reinvent themselves. Space, sunshine, stardom. How did it become the city where people go to disappear into homeless tent encampments? Meghan Daum is one of America’s sharpest cultural essayists, a former LA Times columnist and a longtime Angelino. While Josh is in L.A., he and Meghan livestreamed from the Hollywood Hills in this Memorial Day conversation about what, exactly, Los Angeles is (city? county? megalopolis?), the decline of showbiz, the 2025 wildfires, California Democrats, dog abuse, addiction, incarceration, and why Spencer Pratt, a reality TV star from The Hills, might be the most honest candidate running for mayor.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Gahy, humans. Here we are with the one-only Megan Down in Los Angeles, California,

0:08.1

talking about the decline of this great city, the city of angels. I can hear the horns beeping.

0:13.7

I can hear the people cavorting in the pool party outside. I can hear the birds twittering on Memorial Day.

0:19.5

Yeah.

0:19.9

Of all times.

0:26.3

And you were saying you wish you'd brought a little neck pillow because the couch is maybe not the most comfortable. I like to have a neck pillow or a neck brace when I do other people's podcasts.

0:30.9

Right.

0:31.4

Because I want to distinguish, it's like instead of wearing a flower in my hair,

0:35.4

and they want to let people know optically that it's not my show. So looking like you're living with a disability. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like a big neck brace, like a, like you've broken your neck pillow. A neck pillow like on an airplane. Okay. You know what I have? You know what?

0:54.7

Oh, really?

0:55.3

You haven't used them?

0:57.0

I'm going to get you on to some one of the good ones. Okay.

0:57.5

So I've got this thing.

0:58.6

It's called a turtle. A turtle. A turtle. A turtle. Because it's T-R-T-L. Okay. To be cool. they have to leave the Eof.

1:07.5

Okay.

1:07.9

And it has a big,

1:09.7

it has a brace on one side,

1:11.5

like a hard plastic shell on one side,

1:14.5

and a soft piece of cloth that wraps around your neck and you wrap yourself up like a mummy around your neck. And then it velcroes on. So it actually holds your neck. Oh, I have seen this. Like up and to the side. Okay. Because with a conventional neck pillow, you put it on the

1:27.8

back and then your head still flopped forward. There's no point of it. It just pushes your head forward

1:32.1

and then your chin is lollygagging against your chest. Whereas here, it holds your neck.

1:38.1

Okay.

...

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