California City
4.6/5
Critic Rating
Deep in the Mojave Desert, there is a little town with a big name and a bizarre history: California City. For decades, real estate developers have sold a dream here: if you buy land now, you’ll be rich one day. Thousands of people bought this dream. Many were young couples and hard-working immigrants looking to build a better future. But much of the land they bought is nearly worthless. In this new podcast from LAist Studios, host Emily Guerin tells a story of money, power and deception.
Critic Reviews
Score: 4.8
Emma Dibdin • New York Times • Feb 16, 2021
"What starts as a story about a kooky urban development project becomes a haunting saga about fraud, exploitation and the toxic myth of the American dream."
Score: 4.5
Lauren Passell • Bello Collective • Dec 2, 2020
"This was one of those shows I could not press play on fast enough each time it dropped into my feed."
Score: 4.5
PR Staff • PodcastReview.org • Jul 22, 2020
"On California City, host Emily Guerin blends investigative journalism on these ongoing predatory practices with a fascinating history of how this scammer’s paradise came to be."
Score: 4.6
Bradley Chambers • 9to5mac • Jul 11, 2020
"...I binged the majority of the series on a single trip, and it’s one of the most interesting shows I’ve listened to all year. The team went in-depth to explain the backstory of what happened in the past, but then bring the listeners up to speed to how people today are being impacted. …"
