UnFictional

Fútbol Confidential looks at AYSO, American homegrown soccer culture.

Fútbol Confidential looks at Niky’s Sports, the biggest family-run chain of soccer stores in LA.

Two Mexican-American fans talk about rooting for more than one hometown team in Los Angeles and in Mexico.

Fútbol Confidential looks at the legendary LA city league soccer team formed over beers in a Santa Monica pub by British expatriates.

In ‘El Pueblo,’ producer Mike Schilitt explores the surprising history of Olvera Street – an idealized fantasy of Mexico created in downtown Los Angeles that has supported generations of Agelenos. 

When Aric Allen was 21, he lived in a desolate mountain cabin for 10 weeks. There he planned to write a novel, but instead he learned how to be alone.

Producer Jaime Roque takes a ride with Ernie Moran in his 1965 Chevy Impala to explore the history and culture of the lowrider community of East Los Angeles. 

In the U.S., nisha venkat feels safe and relieved to identify as queer and non-binary. But in their home country Dubai, nisha’s gender identity is illegal, and they can be deported or convicted of homexuality, or “cross-dressing.” 

Imagine entering a giant machine that sucks you in one end, and spits you out the other side as something completely different. That describes the transmogrifier — a fantastical device from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. Over the last couple of years, it feels like everyone has been through the transmogrifier in one way or another. In this episode, stories of the transmogrified. Unfictional producer Bob Carlson watches his two children go through the transmogrifier and come out unexpectedly as grown-ups. Meanwhile, almost every element of producer Jaime Roque’s life was upended by the transmorgrifier: new job, marriage, and prospective fatherhood.

Street vendors are an essential part of Los Angeles’ history and its economy. You can find vendors with mobile carts and food trucks on street corners, outside concert venues, and sporting events selling hot dogs, tacos, burritos, churros, fruit, t-shirts, souvenirs, and just about anything else you can imagine. For decades, this activity was illegal. And even though vending was somewhat decriminalized in 2018, the line between legal and illegal is not always clear. Producer James Roque follows the stories of a few of these entrepreneurs, finding out why they started vending, the challenges they encounter on a daily basis, and how they fared during the last few years.

KCRW’s Bob Carlson talks to some of Deirdre O’Donoghue’s friends and gets further inside her world away from the microphone.

Bent By Nature Episode 1 introduces KCRW DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue, host of "SNAP!," a freeform alternative and independent music and culture program in Los Angeles in the '80s — and goes inside the community she cultivated, her passion for music, and the problems she had with KCRW’s management and staff.  Featuring archival live performances by Camper Van Beethoven, the Meat Puppets, Glass Eye, Jazz Butcher, the Dream Syndicate, and more.

UnFictional host Bob Carlson’s journey on the inside of rock and roll radio.

Mary Lorson explores scenes from her childhood in a personal memoir musical documentary. Featuring an elusive father, A Dancerina doll, a Polaroid Swinger, and a camel hair coat from Saks, all in constant motion.

A promising job drew Fedelina Lugasan to the U.S. from the Philippines, she’d start her new life with a family she trusted. But the picture they painted for her was not what her life turned out to be.  

A man finds an old reel to reel tape that reveals much more than just flying saucers and alien conspiracy theories.

Ove the rowing man. A stranger who came by way of the ocean, and was soon no longer a stranger.  

Maurcio, star of a hit Mexican television show, is abandoned in the desert while trying to cross the border.  

Mauricio leaves Mexico City for Los Angeles, and his dreams of television come true in a very unlikely way.

One man’s treasure is another man’s Olympic gold medal.

It never occurred to Janey that he would put something in her drink. Never in a million years.

Take a three-day bus trip across the country with a juggalo, and you’ll learn some things.

Aric Allen spent much of the early 2000s on the phone – selling get-rich-quick schemes and rapidly turning into a person he didn’t recognize.

Enriqueta Marti was a real-life monster who roamed the streets of 20th Century Barcelona  collecting bones and kidnapping children. Except, of course, she wasn’t.

One woman discovers that her childhood crush has grown up into someone she doesn’t recognize.

A romantic daytime drive becomes a nightmare when Mihai’s mind betrays him – and he turns on the person he loves.

When John Elder Robison gets an experimental treatment for Asperger’s, he feels like he’s suddenly seeing the world in technicolor. But that doesn’t mean he likes what he sees.

This season on UnFictional, we’re looking at how we come to know the unknown parts of ourselves. Get the first episode January 31st.

It’s a bonus episode! We’ll be back in January, but we’ve got two spooky stories to tide you over – a Halloween classic, and a brand-new, never-before-heard story of a haunted house gone terribly wrong.

A girl gang goes on a rampage of sex, larceny and murder. But what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling? Go behind the scenes of a riotous ‘70s punk film.

Tara has always believed in ghosts, so she wasn’t surprised when a ghost starting haunting her Los Feliz apartment. That is, until she found out that the ghost was actually something far more frightening.

Ember has pretty much always known who she truly was. But it was a long, obstacle-ridden path to live that true life – as a woman.

A secret road leads to a marooned community and an ocean paradise – along the coast of California.

When you think of Los Angeles, you think of smog. But have you ever heard about the day when smog just showed up in Los Angeles? An impressionistic trip the hazy history of the skies over Los Angeles.

After years of living in the space between who she really is, and who her mother wants her to be, Sharon decides she’s finally going to confront her mother – on a cruise with a famous Iranian talk show psychiatrist.

A young movie nerd from Los Angeles finds himself in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s redemption film, “The Outsiders,” thanks to a strange cosmic twist of fate (and a pair of mail-order shoes).

The new season of UnFictional is right around the corner. Unbelievably true stories of chance encounters that changed everything. A pair of mail-order shoes that led to “The Outsiders.” A secret road to a California paradise. The day Los Angeles and smog first met. Stories that will stick in your head like a memory. Coming on February 22nd, hosted by Bob Carlson.

The past can warp a person in mysterious ways. Sometimes we can figure out what's eating at us, but sometimes, we just have to push forward – into the darkness.

A former mountaineer returns to the Himalayas for one last climb – to bury his long lost friend. A story from KCRW's newest podcast: The Document.

There comes a time in every child's life when they realize they can strike their own path. But often, that path leads straight back to their parents. This week, three stories of fathers and their children.

A bird and a cat are saved, and so – somehow – are their saviors.

Sister Aimee combined faith and fame in 1920s Los Angeles. She was the most popular woman in the country. Then she disappeared. 

Stories of two men who meet by chance and emerge indelibly changed – or at least, one of them does.

Coming home from war can be messy, especially when the battle doesn't stay on the battlefield. This is the story of what it means to love and care for soldiers who have brought the war home with them.

A tour through the life… of the tour guide.

A work by legendary radio storyteller Joe Frank.

A story of baseball, fatherhood and what it's like to be the black team. 

Perseverance is a funny thing. Some people are addicted to finishing the job, no matter the cost. Running away with an idea, no matter where it takes them. And sometimes, it turns out to be worth it.

Death is a state of mind.

When you're in trouble, do you fight or do you run? The story of a man who fled from the US government for 31 years.