S1: Coming up on KPBS roundtable. California's insurance industry has faced significant instability in recent years.
S2:
S1: Then around 500 San Diegans experiencing homelessness died in 2024 on the streets , marking the region's first decrease in years. Plus , a look at other stories we've been following in the roundup. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. The full impact from the deadly fires in Los Angeles may not be known for weeks or even months , but we do know the losses are devastating. The damages threaten to upend an already unstable housing insurance market in California. In recent years , many homeowners have been dropped by their insurance provider , and a growing number are turning to the California Fair Plan. The insurer of last resort , the state recently implemented new rules to help stabilize the insurance industry. But the destructive fires in Los Angeles could complicate those plans. So what now ? Here to help us answer that question is Levy Suma guy. She's an economy reporter with Calmatters and has been covering California's insurance market. Levi , welcome to roundtable.
S2: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.
S1: To start , the fires in LA are still burning and firefighters are trying to contain the biggest ones.
S2: There have been some estimates floating around from outfits such as JP Morgan or or AccuWeather , but when I ask the insurance industry and also the fair plan , they just say it's too early to tell. So the numbers that are floating around out there are 20 , $25 billion in damages. Um , but again , the the the folks in the insurance industry are saying we just don't know yet.
S1: These fires ignited at a shaky , uncertain time for the housing insurance market here in California. In a nutshell , tell me about what's been going on in the industry in the.
S2: Past couple of years , in the past few years now. Um , insurance companies have been , um , non renewing their customers or not writing new policies in California. Um , for various reasons , one of which , you know , the main one being wildfire risk. Um , in 2017 and 2018 , we had deadly catastrophic fires in California. And then right after that , we had the pandemic. And so those things combined , you know , make up what the insurance industry has been saying , which is that wildfire risk is increasing in California. Um , the pandemic caused inflation. And so insurance companies are saying if they were to be on the hook for catastrophic losses , everything will cost so much more to replace. Right. And so because insurance companies have been non renewing or not writing new policies in California , the people who need to have fire insurance. Because they have mortgages. Have had to either face , you know , just drastically increased costs or they've had to turn to the fare plan , which is the fire insurer of last resort in California.
S1: Let's dive in to the fare plan. The state's insurer of last resort , the plan has been around for decades , but it's been getting a lot of attention recently. Can you tell me about what the fare plan is and what it's designed to do ? Sure.
S2: So the fare plan is state mandated , and there are fare plans in many other states around the country. They may not be called the fare plan , but it's basically an insurer of last resort. Right ? Even though it's state mandated , though , it's not run by the state. It's a pool of insurance companies that do business in the state. And when California residents or property owners can't find fire insurance elsewhere. They then turn to the fair plan and by state law , the fair plan , the pool of insurers , the fair plan has to offer them fire insurance. Now , what's been happening is that the you know , lots of people are having to turn to the fair plan , but when they do turn to the fair plan , they're getting less coverage than they used to have. And that coverage is more expensive. And then one other thing to note about the fair plan is , you know , I want to say , like when I first looked into the fair plan last year , it was at 350,000 policies in force when I did my update on the fair plan. In the story that I just published last week. There are now 450,000 policies in force. So , you know , that's just an indication of how quickly it's been growing.
S1: Yeah , absolutely. The fair plan was designed to be something of a temporary backstop for people who couldn't find insurance , who may have been dropped by there , but who may have been dropped by their insurance provider.
S2: Um , and what's been driving that change is that more insurers have , um , basically driven , uh , you know , driven people to the fair plan because they have no other choice. And so , um , yeah , that's that's what's been happening. It's the fare plan , um , has become sort of a long term solution for some folks because otherwise they wouldn't be able to find fire insurance. And , you know , if you have a mortgage in California , you have to have fire insurance.
S1: And the fair plan offers , as you said , fire insurance. But what are the limitations in terms of what else it offers ? And my understanding is at least that homeowners do have to go. It sounds like two different multiple companies to get other types of coverage if they need it.
S2: Right ? Absolutely. Yeah. So when when a homeowner , um , or a property owner , you know , let's not forget like , you know , this also means like business owners , right ? Like who , who might own their own properties. Um , so , yeah , you know , when a property owner , um , can't get insurance the regular way , they have to turn to the fair plan for fire insurance , right ? And so then they get that fire insurance through the fair plan , but they have to get like a supplementary plan called a difference in condition plan. And that covers everything else , like outside of wildfire coverage , basically. So , um , you know , the fair plan is not a comprehensive insurance plan , yet many people have been forced to turn to it and sometimes , you know , doubling , tripling , quadrupling what they used to pay for their insurance.
S1: You had mentioned the sharp increase in the number of policies under the fair plan. That can also be measured in in risk exposure. I actually dove into some of the data behind that. And the fare plan's risk exposure , at least for residential properties , more than tripled since 2020 to over $450 billion. And you can see that actually play out here in San Diego County to San Diego. It actually has one of the highest exposures in the state , with over $41 billion of risk exposure under the fair plan. That's been a six fold increase from 2020. So some of those numbers are pretty staggering. A big concern about the fair plan is whether it'll have enough money to cover the claims that people file who lost their homes in the Los Angeles fires , right ? Because you had mentioned Pacific Palisades , which is just been ravaged by the Palisades Fire. There was a lot of risk exposure there. So tell me about some of that concern about people filing claims with the fair plan and whether or not the fair plan will have enough money to cover those claims. Sure.
S2: Sure. That's been sort of an ongoing concern for the fair plan. It's President Victoria Roach has talked about it for the past couple of years in front of , you know , in testimony in front of lawmakers and other officials in California. And she has said that she was concerned about the fair , the fair plan's exposure. Um , and so , as part of Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Laura's sustainable insurance strategy , one of the things that's in the strategy is that it is an effort to try to make sure that the fair plan can sustain itself. And that involves transferring some of the risk to insurance consumers. Um , and so it means that if the fair plan runs out of money and has to go to its member companies and say , hey , we don't have enough money to pay out these claims , the insurance companies can then turn around and basically ask for permission to raise its premiums. That means also , of course , that consumers are on the hook for those premium increases , right. Um , and so the way that usually that used to happen is it would happen after a disaster. But in the commissioners plan about the fair plan , insurance companies that make up that fair plan pool , would be able to try to bake those costs in beforehand. You know , like in anticipation of , um , a big payout. Basically what that means is just higher , you know , ever increasing premiums , basically.
S1: You mentioned the sustainable insurance strategy. That's Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lauda's plan to try to address the instability in the housing insurance market. I do want to dive into that in a moment. But first , sticking with the fair plan in your reporting. You note that the fair plan , it gets a lot of criticism , certainly from state leaders , state lawmakers , but also from a lot of homeowners. But you also report that it's often just misunderstood.
S2: Um , it's not run by the state. Again , you know , it's state mandated. And , and other states mandate that there be a fair plan. And there states , I believe there. It's I believe the number is something like 35 states have some sort of version of a fair plan , you know , a last resort insurer , basically. Right. Um , and so that's one I think huge misunderstanding about the fair plan is that it's run by the state. It's not , um , does it have to , um , you know , does it have to ask the state for , um , rate premium , uh , rate increases ? Yes. Just like just like other insurers. Um , it does have , you know , the , the state , uh , insurance commissioner does have , um , some say over what the fair plan does if , if , if there are complaints about the fair plan , you know , um , the state has sued the fair plan , um , in the past. Um , but again , it's not state run. So that's one. That's one. Um , I think big misconception about the fair plan. Um , people don't understand that it's not run by the state , but , um , you know , uh , and then the other is that , you know , you can turn to the fair plan and everything will be okay , and you'll be covered. And , you know , like , like I said earlier , it's it's just it doesn't provide comprehensive home insurance.
S1: State leaders are well aware of the issues around insurance companies pulling out of risky markets. And also the fair plan taking on more properties. Um , you mentioned the sustainable insurance strategy earlier. Insurance Commissioner Lara's plan to keep more insurance companies in California add some more stability and prevent them from dropping dropping homeowners in risky areas. I know this stuff can get real wonky and in the weeds pretty quickly , but at a high level.
S2: Um , California has been different in that it hasn't allowed insurance companies to use catastrophe modeling here , whereas in other states , that's been allowed for a while. Um , so cat modeling just allows , um , insurance companies to use models that not only take into account historical data , but also like forward facing risk assessments , basically. Right. And so insurance companies have been wanting to use Cat modeling. They're going to get to use Cat modeling. They've wanted to factor in their reinsurance costs into their premiums. They're going to get to do that. Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies basically. And so in order for insurance companies to be able to use Cat modeling and factor in their reinsurance costs , what Commissioner Lara is asking for , um , in exchange is that these companies then write or maintain a certain number of policies in high risk areas.
S1: And with those devastating fires in Los Angeles and the tremendous losses and payouts that insurance companies may be on the hook for.
S2: And what Commissioner Lara told me was that , you know , and this was , uh , keep in mind , this was about two days in to the fires when I spoke with Commissioner Lara. What he told me at the time was that he had been in talks with insurance companies and that they were still on board with the sustainable insurance strategy. That as long as their risks were priced into their premiums , into their rates , that they would stay in California. That was his , you know , I mean , somewhat optimistic view of what's going to happen next and how it's going to affect this plan that he had worked all year to roll out.
S1: As we wrap up this conversation. I want to take a step back. Look. Kind of big picture. You know , insurance can be an incredibly complicated topic to grasp. And possibly , you know , arguably maybe not the most exciting topic on the face of it. Right. But how do you approach covering it in a way that , you know , connects with people and in a way that helps people understand that this is important stuff , and it touches on so many different people and a number of different parts of our lives.
S2: That's a thanks for asking that question. I mean , when I first started covering insurance , you know. Yeah , I didn't know much about it. I thought it was sort of boring , a little wonky , you know. Um , but , um , as I've learned more and as I've just talked to more people , from experts to homeowners to landlords to even renters , um , and small business owners , um , it's just so important it touches it could touch everyone's lives. I , um , you know , from homeowners who need mortgages and therefore need insurance to renters who may not know it yet , but their landlords are thinking about passing on their increased insurance costs to them. Um , and you know , to , you know , I've , I have talked with renters who have said that their , um , their rents have gone up and their landlords have been pretty transparent about why , um , and part of it is rising insurance costs. Right. And so insurance touches everyone's lives. It's a big pool , right ? That's supposed to help during catastrophes like what we're seeing now in LA. It's availability. It's affordability. It really affects all of us. And also a lot of those companies that insure homes and properties also insure cars. Right. And so , um , I mean , I've even done a little bit of reporting about how , um , the insurance crisis in California has also affected some , you know , car insurance rates. And so it just touches everything. Um , and the availability of insurance is also going to affect our housing market , which , as we know , is a giant , giant issue here in California.
S1: And finally , I think the main question on so many homeowners minds , uh , you know , the really essential question , with all of this going on , everything that we've been talking about , all the moving pieces , is looking ahead in the coming months , in the coming years.
S2: They're going to go up. Um , I there's just no avoiding it. Even before the LA fires , they were already going to go up because of the commissioners plan to try to stabilize the market. I know that seems counter like counterintuitive , but I guess the I mean , you know , his messaging is and the insurance industry's messaging is that California is in for probably drastically higher insurance premiums in the short term , with the hopes that it's going to stabilize the insurance industry in California in the long term. So I guess that would be my my main takeaway away from all the reporting I've done on this issue is that , um , we're probably in for some drastically higher rates in the short term , and the hope is that it's going to then stabilize insurance in California in the long term.
S1: Levi Sumac is an economy reporter with Calmatters Levi. Thanks for being here.
S2: Thanks a lot. I enjoy this.
S1: When roundtable returns , around 500 homeless people in San Diego County died on the streets in 2024. We dig into the numbers and what's being done to reduce these tragic deaths. So just the.
S3: Like the needless of of of all of these deaths is just , uh , it keeps you up at night.
S1: That's coming up on roundtable. Welcome back to roundtable. I'm Scott rod. The number of homeless deaths in San Diego County fell for the first time in more than a decade , according to preliminary data from the county medical examiner. At least 495 San Diegans died living outside in 2024. Here to talk about what those numbers mean is Blake Nelson. He covers homelessness for the San Diego Union Tribune. Blake , welcome back to roundtable.
S3: Hey , thanks for having me.
S1: At least 495 homeless people died in San Diego County last year. What was your reaction when you saw that number ? And why is the county saying at least 495 deaths ? Yeah.
S3: So the reaction sort of two things were felt simultaneously. One. I was actually happy to see those initial numbers because the deaths have been rising , rising , rising , rising , rising. Last year we were well past or two years ago we were well past 600. And to finally actually see a drop. It was I was overjoyed to a certain degree. The flip side is 495 is a staggeringly high number. I mean , that is just an overwhelming we don't want any. But I mean , that is it's just devastating. Um , and the reason we say at least , is the county medical examiner can only really track the deaths that they're investigating , uh , which generally means folks who are dying outside or who die without a doctor. There's some exceptions to that , but that's the general rule. And so if someone is admitted to a hospital who is homeless , dies under a doctor's care , um , and in some other circumstances like that , they're not going to appear in this database. So it's like many things with homelessness , this is an undercount.
S1: Got it. Got it. What were the causes behind these deaths ? And was there one cause that stood out among the rest ? Yeah.
S3: I mean , you've got the gauntlet. I've got the data in front of me right now. We have people getting hit by trains , getting run over by cars. Uh , people died in fires. People died , um , being beaten to death by other people. I mean , but the the primary cause of death , and this has been the case for a while is drug related , some sort of overdose. Uh , this can include medication , but it often includes things like fentanyl and heroin and meth. And so drugs were a a primary driver of the deaths here.
S1: That number again 500 deaths last year of people living outside in San Diego County. For me , when I saw that , it was shocking. I do know what you mean. It is nice. It's good to see that there was a decrease compared to the last several years.
S3: So last year , for example , about two thirds of all homeless deaths that we know of involve some sort of drugs this year. The preliminary data shows that more the share more being like 44%. The numbers are also way lower. Now there is a chunk of cases , several dozen cases that are still under investigation. We don't know what happened there , but even if you lumped all those in with the drug deaths that we know of , we're still seeing a year over year decrease in drug related deaths. So I think at least several experts have attributed this to a lot of the harm reduction strategies that the county of San Diego , the Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego , a lot of different related groups are employing. So this this includes a lot of different stuff. But probably the most famous is the distribution of naloxone , often , often , often offered under the brand name Narcan , which can reverse opioid overdoses. And this has I mean , tens of thousands , hundreds of thousands of doses have been distributed in all sorts of forms around the county. And this is unquestionably saving lives.
S1: Regarding the drop in overdose deaths. We're experts surprised by this drop.
S3: They were not surprised , uh , because because of things like the distribution of naloxone , you've also got these fentanyl test strips that can test when fentanyl is being secretly laced into other pills. Uh , all sorts of education efforts to try to reduce the stigma of asking for help and so on and so on. What was I think what is a little surprising is , as the head of the Harm Reduction Coalition said , the drugs out on the street are getting weirder. Uh , there's this animal tranquilizer that veterinarians generally use called psilocybin , which is sometimes getting mixed in , and Narcan does not work on that. Uh , and so there's there's scarier and scarier stuff that increasingly seems to be secretly laced into a lot of these pills. Um , and , and a lot of that is resistant to some of the some of the treatment options and the opioid reversal options that we have out there. So this is also a good sign that even in a changing landscape , it looks like the region is gaining ground.
S1:
S3: I mean , the the one that probably sticks out to me is the one I spent the most time sort of looking into , which was there was a couple , uh , Faith angle , Curtis Harper. She was in her 40s. He was in his 60s. They'd been together. I don't think they ever officially got married , but they'd been together for years and years and years. Uh , they had been out on the streets for only about a year. When ? I mean , they decided , like , we gotta we gotta get out of this situation. They found a relative , uh , up in the northern part of the country who had agreed to take them in , and they were just trying to save up money for bus passes. They sold at least one bicycle to try to raise money. Like they had a plan out of here and it wasn't even going to involve like government assistance. It wasn't going to involve social welfare like they had. This was family reunification , and they were worried about losing money to police tickets , as best we can tell. And so they started sleeping in stormwater tunnels. And they made this decision , uh , around January of 2024. And then the January 22nd flood hit , uh , and drowned both of them. So it's just and even even in cases that that weren't like this , that and a lot of cases even that involve drugs. You've the story that I wrote for the Union Tribune recently involved a guys whose heart attack death was likely related to methamphetamine use. But meth is often taken by folks just to stay awake because it's so dangerous to live outside. So just the like the needless of of of all of these deaths is just , uh , it keeps you up at night.
S1: Absolutely tragic for sure.
S3: I think because even though we're seeing a dip , it's still just a it's a number that , that no one exactly wants to celebrate because it's , uh , it's a horrifying , horrifying number. Um , I do think that these numbers in general get thrown around to support a lot of different proposals , not making a value judgment on their on whether they're good ideas or bad ideas. But the mayor's office often cites death numbers to make the case for new shelters , in particular the Kettner and Vine Warehouse shelter , which , who knows if that's ever going to be resurrected. We haven't heard anything since the last closed session discussion with the City council. Um , local advocates who want this thing that they call Son break Ranch , which is choose and to be determined plot of land , maybe federal land , and build a huge , huge campus for thousands and thousands of people , which would likely be the largest homeless shelter in the nation. Uh , they often bring up the homeless deaths. So this is part of the conversation. But I don't know if anyone's exactly celebrating this tip.
S1: Is there any agreement among county city leaders , folks in the region advocates as to what can be done to try to ensure that the decline continues and hope that it gets , you know , below this 500 number and ideally far below that number.
S3: I mean , you've I think you've got to get people inside. I mean , and then this is where the debates start of like , what is what is the best , fastest way to do this ? I mean , ultimately , I think I don't think it's it's weird to say or it's controversial to say , like , we need more housing. Like everyone. I think everyone agrees we need some more housing options. Because if you're sleeping outside , I mean , it is just it's it destroys your mental health. It destroys your physical health. I mean , even if you are not addicted to drugs , if if I had to start living on the streets , I am not a drug user right now. I would be using drugs within days. I mean , there is just that is the only way you would survive that trauma , so I don't. We have to have more places for people to stay. One stat that also just bowls me over is that for for a while now , only about 1 in 10 requests for a shelter bed are successful. Like if you go if you go to one of the the main shelter system in San Diego and say like , okay , like I'm done being outside , please get me a bed only about 80 to 90 , 80 to 90% of those do not do not work. There's a couple reasons there , but the main reason is there's just not enough beds. There's nowhere near enough space for all the people asking for help. We're not even talking about the folks who are like , no , I don't want shelter right now for whatever reason. But this is there is not space for people who are actively asking for help.
S1: Well , we appreciate your coverage of this hugely important topic in keeping us up to date on all the developments. Blake Nelson covers homelessness for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Blake , thanks again for joining us on roundtable.
S3: Yeah , thanks for talking about this.
S1: When we come back , we take a look at some other stories from the week in the roundup. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. This is KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott rod. It's time to take a look at some other stories that caught our eye this week. Joining me in studio is KPBS producer Andrew Bracken. Hey , Andrew.
S4: Hey , Scott. How's it going ? Good.
S1: Good. I want to start things off with a local story. A special election has been announced for former county Supervisor Nora Vargas seat. That seat was vacated after she decided to resign. This announcement was made back in December. Her resignation became official just in recent days , I believe on January 6th. And this situation is really interesting. It's gotten a lot of buzz , especially in political circles. There's a special election that's been set for April , but that could actually extend out to July if there needs to be a runoff. And so the situation on the Board of Supervisors currently is that it's split between equal equal number of supervisors , two and two , Democrat and Republican. They could have potentially chosen a replacement or appointed a replacement. But when a split like that is in place , it's unlikely they're going to find a candidate who would meet both sides preferences , especially because this person conceivably is going to be the tie , the tie breaking vote on some really important issues.
S4: So it was , you know , the timing concerning. I think she had mentioned some of the reasons being safety , security related. I don't think we know a whole lot there , but that just brings up concerns about , you know , what does that say about health of our democracy or just civic discourse if it is related to things like that ? I know that's something that a lot of people have been thinking about over the last year , you know , through the election season and going into Monday with the change in administration in Washington. I don't know what you know about , like the decision between a special election versus the appointment. I understand the kind of power dynamic there and how crucial it is there. I think obviously it's just more democratic to have the election , but I think it adds more costs , potentially more time to.
S1: It's going to mean more time where there's this empty seat , this empty could be tiebreaking seat again on the county Board of Supervisors. So you do look at it and say , okay , if we're going out to April and potentially out to July , we're looking at months of maybe standoffs here at the county level at a pretty important moment. But you're absolutely right. We don't know a whole lot about why I , uh , Nora Vargas decided to resign her position. She had just won election for a second term and won it handily , too. And then it was a big surprise when she announced that she was going to be resigning. As you said , she mentioned security , safety issues , but that's it. So it's fueled a lot of speculation. And I think a lot of observers , political observers have said , you know , I think we need more here.
S4: So we might see some kind of new voices kind of come up to the at least the county wide. Imperial Beach Mayor Palmieri , she's , you know , announced her candidacy along with the Chula Vista mayor John McCann. San Diego City Council member Vivian Moreno has also thrown her hat in the ring. So , you know , some change coming for South Bay. It'll be interesting to follow going , you know , another election going into the spring and like you said , could go to the summer. Absolutely.
S1: Absolutely. And I want to turn now to a different story. This was in the New York Times. It caught my eye. It's about well , we've we've talked on this show about the intersection of AI and dating and romance. This story took that whole conversation to another level. Uh , this this individual who is going by a pseudonym named Aaron. She was , you know , getting curious about using ChatGPT , the AI chatbot , to create a kind of partner , so to speak , someone that she could chat with maybe kind of build a connection with. And she went into the ChatGPT settings and kind of personalized it to essentially be a romantic partner , a boyfriend. And so she said to it , respond to me as my boyfriend , be dominant , possessive , protective. Be a balance of sweet and naughty. Use emojis after every sentence. So this artificial intelligence chatbot turned into this persona that she called Leo. And this. This woman was formed a relationship , but viewed it as her boyfriend. And , you know , something that really jumped out to me was the story. And the times quoted a relationships expert that said , look , this is happening more and more. This isn't just a one off weird example. And she said , in the next few years , this is something that's going to become normalized. In fact , this all just kind of blew my mind. I couldn't stop reading the story. I want to get your take on that.
S4: I mean , I intentionally didn't want to read the story because it just kind of freaked me out on the face of it. I think in that article , they also use this term artificial companionship. You know , we're all interacting with a lot more bots now , and I think we're just kind of getting used to it. To me , it's been more like silly and like ridiculous. You know , some of the stuff I've seen , but this is sort of like another level and I think , you know , really comes to sort of like putting the Philip K Dick hat on , you know , like , um , those fundamental sort of like sci fi questions of what this means and just like what the nature of humanity is , and it's just pushing it a little too far. And you read that kind of like her giving the commands of what she wanted out of a boyfriend. I mean , use emojis at the end of every sentence. This is like , uh , I don't know. I think there's just just like a line here of what kind of just gets a little too far for me. And when we're talking about relationships and intimacy and things like that.
S1: Oh , yeah. Absolutely. And in the story , really unearthed a lot of the complexities that emerge. It talked about how this person , Aaron , was revealing this to some of her friends , that she had this AI boyfriend , and it seemed like some had some questions , some were supportive. But then partway through the story , it revealed that this woman also had a husband. And posed the question , well , what did he think about this ? And ultimately he seemed to understand it or be accepting of it , but obviously it raised some difficult questions to navigate. And man , it's it's interesting. Artificial in a lot of ways is creating is solving problems in a lot of ways it's providing answers for a lot of people in a lot of ways , but it's also creating a lot of complexity. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. And again , it's like how far to take it in the music space this week ? There's been a lot of talk of there was this CEO that they make this kind of AI music tool. And he kind of did this podcast interview where he basically just said , oh yeah , it just takes too much time to make music. And people spend way too much time learning instruments and learning how to play music. I think there is a line where it's like , well , that's what making music is. You learn an instrument and you , you know , you connect with it. So I think we're going to be kind of playing with where these lines are. Ah , it's probably for a long time to come , right ? Yeah.
S1: The through line that I see is there's a attitude and appetite among some people for , like , a hyper optimization of their life. Right. But at a certain point , optimization takes out a lot of what it means to be a human being from some of these endeavors. You know , a discipline like playing music , learning music that takes a lot of time , energy. False starts. Um , until you get , you know , good. And yeah , making music takes time. But that's why people do it. That's why musicians do it. Same with relationships. Yeah , they can be messy. They can be painful. But ultimately you're building something. And I think at a certain point , again , um , convenience and optimization. I think you can optimize again the humanity out of a lot of these things. That's the thing. That's what's scary to me about all this. So turning from weird stories to sad news , there was a there was a sad development this week , right ? Yeah.
S4: Um , film director David Lynch. He passed away Thursday at the age of 78. He's kind of known for these real surrealist , very American , but very dark films. And I don't know , he's just like a very singular presence in cinema. I think last , you know , last time on the roundup , we kind of talked about theater in Hillcrest , the Landmark Theater in Hillcrest closed. And that just got me in the space of just thinking about cinema , reminiscing. And yeah , David Lynch , I mean , I loved a lot of his films. I still remember seeing the very first Twin Peaks episode when it aired and just being like , what is going on ? Like it was just so different from television at the time. And our colleague Beth Accomando actually spoke with Lynch. This was many years ago , I think this was in 2005 , and a lot of the conversation was about his work with Transcendental Meditation , but she did get him to talk about his movies a little bit as well. And here's a short clip from that conversation.
S5: This thing of cinema can show abstractions. And I love abstractions. I love stories , but stories that hold abstractions. And there's a language to film. There's a thing about a sequence , about using time and pace and and it's a magical language cinema. And I like ideas that somehow that kind of cinema can do.
S1: Hearing him talk about his approach to movies , film , TV shows , it's , you know , it all rings true for me in terms of how I saw and experience his films , the way he played with time , the way he played with these very deep , uh , uncomfortable , um , you know , sometimes messy themes. You know , I came into liking David Lynch's films sort of later in life. It wasn't until college for me that I had started to dip my toes into it , and right away it blew me away and had an impact on Done. Me is sort of a creative person. You know , I watched Blue Velvet. That blew me away. I then watched Twin Peaks , um , which was first released before I was born. Um , and then , you know , Mulholland Drive and a few things that I just appreciated about his work was that it was so fearless. Um , you know , he did exactly what he wanted to do in those films , but also the fact that it brought some discomfort to you. You know , he wanted to push your comfort levels because there can be something on the other side of that discomfort in a film , in art that is meaningful , that is valuable. I will say I do have a lynch threshold. Um , when I watched Mulholland Drive , I came away with it , came away from it thinking , this is an incredible piece of art , but it's probably at the threshold of how much discomfort I'm able to withstand and still have it be rewarding. Some of its other stuff I tried to watch , like Inland Empire , and I was like , oof , I don't know if I'm ready for it.
S4: Yeah , no , there's definitely that kind of limit. I get that. Mulholland drive is probably my favorite , actually. But I mean , the main thing from Lynch , just to put really simply , to me , one thing that I've taken away is it just taught me like art doesn't always need to fully make sense for it to be powerful and to , like , serve its purpose. And , you know , he's just a singular voice in American cinema. And it was kind of , you know , sad to see that. You can listen to Beth's interview with David Lynch on her Cinema Junkie podcast feed.
S1: And in honor of David Lynch tonight , maybe crack open a Pabst Blue Ribbon , leave the Heineken in the fridge. Let's end on a on a lighter note , there's some news with the inauguration coming up on Monday.
S4: Yeah , so Monday's the inauguration , and one San Diegan that's going to be performing at the inauguration is Victor Willis. And Victor Willis is the lead singer from the Village People , the sort of , you know , the disco. Lots of hits. YMCA Go West is my favorite in the Navy. Lots of big hits.
S3: Go west.
S4: But they go there. Yeah , that's my favorite. But the Trump campaign had been using YMCA at campaign events , and the Village People actually sent a cease and desist letter to the campaign to stop using it. But now that has seemed to be resolved , and they've decided to play the inauguration on Monday. And. And it's a decision that's upset a lot of their fans. And Willis , in a statement on social media , said it was time to kind of come together. They said our song YMCA is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together. After a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost. So they'll be performing on Monday.
S1:
S4: I think he also sometimes , like , uh , was a Navy officer , too.
S1: But yeah. Interesting police officer. A strange twist in that story. I think a good way to wrap up the roundup. I've been speaking with KPBS , Andrew Bracken. Andrew , thanks.
S4: Thanks , Scott.
S1: That'll do it for our show this week. Thanks for listening. You can listen to KPBS roundtable anytime as a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays and again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can email us at roundtable at KPBS. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtable's technical producer this week was Brandon Troopa. This show was produced by Andrew Bracken. Brooke Ruth is Roundtable's senior producer. And I'm your host , Scott Rodd. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. Everyone.
UU: Everyone. Today. It's fun to stay in the white.
