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Today on the show, we welcome one of our favorite writers in the game, Jason Diamond. Jason writes the wonderful newsletter The Melt and has written two books, Searching for John Hughes and The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs. He’s also worked on the truly amazing New York Nico’s Guide to NYC, which we talk about in this great episode. We get into what Jason has been eating and reading, and the Jason Diamond way of life. I always enjoy catching up with Jason, and I hope you enjoy this episode. Also on the show, we catch up with Vivian Song. Vivian wrote a terrific piece in the New York Times, “It’s Zinc Bar vs. Barista in a Paris Battle of the Buzz,” and we hear all about the shifting coffee scene in Paris. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.  MORE FROM JASON DIAMOND:The Many Garlics of My Childhood [TASTE]Shattering the Jarred Pasta Sauce Stigma [TASTE]Luncheon with a Zabar [TASTE]

Just in time for the Grammy's, nine-time Grammy Award nominated mastering engineer Emily Lazar joins Carmel Holt to talk about her journey to becoming the ceiling breaking audio engineer she is today, what led to founding her nonprofit We Are Moving The Needle, who have recently launched their new microgrants supporting creators who have been affected by the L.A. wildfires, and what she believes is the solution to getting more cis and trans women and nonbinary folks hired as engineers and producers.

On songwriting, sobriety, and Nashville.

Producers Justin Martell, Matt Manjourides and Seager Dixon share the deeply unlikely story of filming the 2020 remake of Castle Freak.

The former tourmates talk political songwriting, David Lynch, and much more.

Today we have a very special episode. Visit California invited us out of our New York City studio and over to the West Coast for a food-focused road trip around Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley. We start our journey at Mercado González at Northgate Market in Costa Mesa, where Aliza and Matt share an incredible afternoon walking around the mercado looking for pozole, churros, and many more surprises along the way. We hit the road for our next stop, a visit with Sara Lezama, the owner of Rye Goods, an acclaimed sourdough bakery and deli with three locations throughout Orange County in Newport Beach, Tustin, and Laguna Beach.  Next on our road trip, we head to the San Gabriel Valley, where journalist Kristie Hang gives us a tour of some of her favorite new and under-the-radar restaurants, including Banh Mi Hoa Phat, Good Alley, and Bistro Na’s. We stay in the SGV for a conversation with chef Chris Yang of Yang’s Kitchen, which has firmly become one of our favorite restaurants in all of California. To close, Aliza and Matt share many more discoveries from their road trip around Southern California. More places we visited: Folks Pizzeria, A&J Seafood Shack, Burritos La Palma.  And a great hotel for your future home base in the SGV is the Hilton San Gabriel. To donate to California wildfire relief, visit Restaurants Care.       This very special episode of This Is TASTE is supported by Visit California. While this episode was recorded before the LA wildfires in January, all of the restaurants featured are open for business, and we can’t think of a better time to pay California a visit for your own food-obsessed road trip. Dining out in LA is one way to help support the city, and these truly were some amazing places. Questions about visiting LA now?