Pacific Drift was a show I created, produced and hosted for KPCC in Los Angeles, Calif. The show ran through a season-and-a-half (January, 2005 to June, 2006), before the new program director killed it, citing “creative differences.”
The original idea was to explore the creative milieu of life in Southern California through a dynamic mix of music, documentary, interview and traditional radio journalism in a loose, interconnected way. The best episodes presented the listener with an intimate conversation between people from all walks of life: celebrities, yes, creative types too, but also voices from the vast majority of Angelenos, people struggling to create happiness in a land of hard edges, congested isolation and an unrelenting overhead glare.
The official archive for the show can found on the KPCC website. However, complete shows and individual segments are also here.
My own personal highlights are here.
If you’re a fan of higher quality audio or want to support this work and future work, the entire series (and individual shows) can be ordered on CD. Get in touch through the about page.
Season One, produced by Ben Adair and Queena Kim
Pacific Drift 01: Our City, Ourselves
Pacific Drift 02: Art, Science and the San Andreas Fault
Pacific Drift 03: The Markings of Culture
Pacific Drift 04: God : Faith .: Sex : Love
Pacific Drift 05: Authenticity Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Pacific Drift 06: The Woman Show
Pacific Drift 07: Home and the Squirrel Uprising of 2005
Pacific Drift 08: Hitting It Big, Keeping It Together
Pacific Drift 09: Living in the Present, As Fast As We Can
Pacific Drift 10: Dreams of Justice Illusive
Pacific Drift 11: Better Living Through Popularity
Pacific Drift 12: The Fabrication of Our Surroundings
Pacific Drift 13: The Present Is Much, Much, Much Longer Than You Think
Pacific Drift 14: The Art of the Crime
Season Two, produced by Ben Adair, Queena Kim and Ayala Ben-Yehuda
Pacific Drift 15: Dreams of a Brighter Day
Pacific Drift 16: The Uses of Fear
Pacific Drift 17: Religious _______, Sexual ________, Drug-induced _______.
Pacific Drift 18: Tasty
Pacific Drift 19: Comic Book Noir
Pacific Drift 20: The Christmas Show
Pacific Drift 21: StoryCorps in Los Angeles
Pacific Drift 22: Do We Ever Trust the Voices Inside?
Pacific Drift 23: The City of Secrets
Pacific Drift 24: A Brief History of Pain
Pacific Drift 25: The Art of Politics
Pacific Drift 26: The End of the Road
October 29th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Thank God for this archive! It’s hard for me to get the broadcasts off the KPCC website. I discovered Pacific Drift just as I moved away from Los Angeles, a few months ago. Listening to it is a poetic, dreamy, and sometimes sad experience, especially with the knowledge that the show has been unfortunately discontinued. It makes Los Angeles seem even further away, and the stories come to me like memories.