Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Gonzalez and Daniel Zafran.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The two of us met in college at CSUN and bonded over an unrealized desire to write and perform comedy that remained unrealized for another six years until we finally decided to simultaneously dive into stand up comedy and its obvious counterpart: Los Angeles history podcasting. We wanted an outlet for our personalities, so we decided to combine that with our shared interest in LA history (of which both of us knew little), and our podcast was born, and we’ve been turning out a minimum of one episode a month for the past five years.
Has it been a smooth road?
Little did we suspect that selling the history of Los Angeles to people as told by two unknown comedians would turn out to be as hard as it is.
The biggest misconception we’ve had to battle is the idea that LA has no history which we disprove literally on a monthly basis. For a city with no history, it’s surprising that we end up getting into a 30-minute discussion about how and why exactly Taco Bell started in Downey.
Our secondary struggle is connecting with the right audience for the show who is curious about these sorts of things but is also willing to hear it not from college professors or authors but rather our way which is lighter and, you could say, more engaging. And you should.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
LA Meekly is a monthly Los Angeles history podcast hosted by ourselves (Greg Gonzalez and Daniel Zafran).
Each episode is on average around an hour and a half, and we pick a topic ranging for hefty things like the city’s old railcar system or the water wars or lighter things like haunted hotels or the city’s hot dog history, and we then go into a deep dive on the history there. There are a couple of other podcasts out there that tackle the history of Los Angeles but none are as in-depth as ours, and none have the two-person dynamic that we bring to each episode.
We are also proud of our “field trip” episodes where we get to go out in the real world and interview people affiliated with different organizations and historic locations throughout the city like the City Archives and the Mystic Museum. This gives us a chance to get to talk to the people who are out there making the history that we only get to discuss privately in a recording booth.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
There’s only going to be more and more podcasts out there, and more and more people are developing an interest in the history of Los Angeles and taking pride in that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lameekly.tumblr.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la_meekly/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lameekly/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lameekly?lang=en
Image Credit:
Vanessa Gonzalez
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
