For more than 80 years, the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz has been a home for those seeking answers to the big questions of life.

California prosecutors recently investigated the tourism bureau, Visit Anaheim, for misusing COVID pandemic funds. Despite the state audit, Anaheim officials are still working with the organization.

Evidence-based recommendations from groups like the US Preventive Services Task Force are only as effective as the screening tools currently available.

The Workers Club co-founder Adam Cameron could talk about denim all day long. It is, afterall, the cornerstone of his sustainable fashion line. Cameron founded the brand with his wife Charlotte 10 years ago, and has committed to growing it gradually — adding carefully crafted core wardrobe pieces as an antidote to fast fashion. The line now has ready-to-wear and made-to-order options at its London shop. Cameron tells The Treatment about the origin of the line’s name, his excitement about a forthcoming made-to-order denim suit, and an LA trunk show in the near future.

Since the age of five, Lucia Micarelli has been immersed in the world of classical music. Her early training at Juilliard laid a strong foundation for a remarkable career that seamlessly bridges multiple artistic disciplines. Over her years as a violinist, she has collaborated with an impressive array of artists — including Josh Groban, Lang Lang, Ian Anderson, Chris Botti, and Barbra Streisand — showcasing her versatility in genres ranging from classical, to jazz, to rock, and points beyond. Micarelli ventured into acting in 2010, making her debut in HBO’s Emmy-winning series Treme. While working in New Orleans on Treme, she discovered that music is less about perfection and more about fostering connection and community. Her latest album, Anthropology is due on June 6 and offers (among other stylistic detours) a fresh take on Nina Simone’s "Be My Husband.” More: Musician Lucia Micarelli talks New Orleans and Nina Simone (The Treatment, 2025) For her Treat, Micarelli reflects on her first experience with Beethoven's Opus 130, at the age of 15. Along with the cavatina, it's a piece that remains close to her heart. She marvels at Beethoven's groundbreaking approach to string quartets, how he was able to elevate the sound and complexity that four players could produce. She highlights how Beethoven’s piece was far ahead of its time. How — despite his age and deafness — Beethoven defied limitations, composing music that was initially misunderstood, but has since been celebrated as a masterwork. More: Lucia Micarelli: An Evening with Lucia Micarelli (The Treatment, 2017) This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity. When I was maybe 15 years old, I heard for the first time one of Beethoven's late string quartets – Opus 130. The slow movement from that, specifically the cavatina, is still one of my top five pieces of music ever, to this day. String quartets had never been written in that style before, so Beethoven just completely changed the whole landscape of the way that string quartets were written and the amount of sound, richness, and harmonic complexity that could happen within a string quartet with only four players. [Beethoven] blew that whole form so far open. There's a record of Schubert hearing Opus 130 on his deathbed and saying, 'Well, what is left for any of us to ever compose?' Beethoven wrote those late quartets at the end of his life. He was really struggling. He was very, very deaf and really struggling with his health, but still trying. It wasn't entirely well-received at the time. People just thought it was so, so odd and so weird. It was only way later that people realized this was absolutely just leagues ahead, just light years ahead of its time — musically and compositionally. He wrote in his journal, something along the lines of, 'I feel that I am on the threshold of some possibly great things.' And he was Beethoven! He was already Beethoven. He was already the goat. So that combination of what he, as an artist, was going through and still pushing himself to do and then, of course, what he did do… All of those pieces and then specifically, the cavatina is just really, really beautiful. Oddly so simple, but haunting. You should go check it out. I recommend the Guarneri [Eastern] quartet recording of it, just because that was the first one that I heard. I'll never forget listening to that recording in a car when I was 15, with my string quartet in the car with me at the time, and all of us just needing to pull over and have some quiet time. We were just blown away by the immensity of the work and how beautiful he made four lines sound.

Actor Forrest Whitaker’s work speaks volumes without him ever having to say a word. This is true of his Oscar-winning turn as dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland (2006) and his portrayal of a serene hitman in the Jim Jarmusch helmed Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). It’s also the case in his latest role as real life crime boss “Bumpy” Johnson in the fourth season of the MGM+ series Godfather of Harlem. Alongside his acting chops, Whitaker is an accomplished director of films including Hope Floats and Waiting to Exhale. He also produced Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, among others. Whitaker tells The Treatment about how exciting it is to have civil rights icons like Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell play big roles in Godfather of Harlem, the code “Bumpy” Johnson lived by, and why portraying Johnson took so much out of him.

Fire clean up is hazardous work, and a new survey of workers in the Altadena shows a large gap in worker safety.

President Trump invites a few high rolling guests to dinner. Will there be political costs for Trump’s handling of Ukraine? Plus, should we regulate temptation?

Critics review the latest film releases: “Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning,” “Sister Midnight,” “Fountain of Youth,” and “Jane Austin Wrecked My Life.”

After the January fires displaced and scattered Palisades High’s seniors across LA, one student focuses on making prom a night to .

Medical schools must address unprofessional behavior early, as student misconduct often predicts future disciplinary issues and patient harm.

Despite many arguments to the contrary, TV-powerhouses Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino don’t think they have a “brand.” The Emmy-winning creators of the beloved series Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have instead latched onto one producer’s broader description: “spiky and eccentric.” They’ve certainly applied these sensibilities to their latest show, the Prime Video series Étoile, starring Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The series centers two ballet companies — one American, one French — that exchange their star dancers in an attempt to boost ticket sales and publicity. As part of a lengthy chat with The Treatment, the pair tells us about wanting a theme song for the series, how there’s something in ballet for everyone, and why filming in Los Angeles needs to be easier and cheaper.

With a career spanning decades, actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor consistently demonstrates a commitment to storytelling that infuses depth, nuance, and authenticity into each of her performances. Her talent has garnered multiple award nominations — including an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Oracene Price in the critically acclaimed 2021 film King Richard and a near-concurrent Emmy nod for her role in the HBO series Lovecraft Country. Ellis-Taylor’s more recent endeavors include her emotionally captivating performance in Ava DuVernay’s 2024 feature Origin, and an equally commanding ing role in RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys — released later the same year. More: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor on holding back emotion, justice in Nickel Boys, and her family’s connection to the Jim Crow South (The Treatment, 2025) For her Treat, Ellis-Taylor shares a deeply personal reflection on the profound influence of the D. Danyelle Thomas book of essays The Day God Saw Me as Black. The book powerfully echoes Ellis-Taylor’s own experiences growing up as a queer woman in the Baptist Church in southwest Mississippi, where she faced the twin challenges of entrenched misogyny and the expectations of women’s subservience. Thomas’s work offered Ellis-Taylor a profound sense of validation and comfort, articulating the unspoken struggles, emotions, and resilience of Black women with authenticity and truth. Ellis-Taylor contributed the book’s foreword, highlighting how its message resonates deeply with her spiritual and personal growth. This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity. I want to talk about a book called The Day God Saw Me as Black — a new book by [D.] Danyelle Thomas. It is a book of essays about her experience of being a woman, a young woman growing up in the church, and her path to finding herself in a space that maligned her, that rejected her, that refused her whole self. That book means so much to me because it is a reflection of how I felt growing up in the Baptist Church in southwest Mississippi and feeling, particularly as someone who was a queer woman, knowing that I was attracted to other girls, and also feeling like I don't understand this misogyny that's happened. Why? Why do women have to be subservient to men? Why do women have to submit themselves to a man? And being eight years old and thinking that. The Day God Saw Me as Black by author D. Danyelle Thomas. Photo credit: Row House Publishing She has an incredible mind, Danyelle Thomas. I learned about her during lockdown. I did a film called The Clark Sisters, and she was able to talk about the minds of those women. I think that's kind of what I wanted – trying to do a little bit, you know? And what I'm doing is not to be a product of what you think is my talent, but I want to be an expression of my mind. People portray Black women like they don't think. It tarries in, as a church term, it tarries in a Black woman's mind, the unspoken, the unsaid, that place that she doesn't want you to reach, but it is hers and hers alone. So this book is the language for how I felt as a child, and it's my Treat.

Warner Bros. Discovery is putting the “HBO” back in “HBO Max,” reversing course just two years after dropping “HBO” from its name in 2023. It’s a move which indicates a return to emphasizing HBO’s particular brand of prestige TV programming. Partners in Banter Kim Masters and Matt Belloni are here to unpack it for us. What’s in a name? WBD shortened the name of its streaming hub to “Max” two years ago; this was widely received as an attempt by the company to more seamlessly incorporate Discovery’s content into its programming. It was also widely viewed as an attempt by WBD to more forcefully compete with Netflix’s vast array of programming. Now it appears that WBD execs are acknowledging that the renaming and reshuffling — which was widely ridiculed at the time — was a mistake. “They could not compete with Netflix for scale and volume,” Belloni says. “So they are now retreating to what they do best, which is quality, franchise-driven programming.” I’ll have what she’s selling? The rebrand arrives at a note-worthy time for WBD, as the media company’s Q1 earnings report shows $38 billion of debt . Masters anticipates that a merger with another streaming service, such as Peacock or Paramount+, could be in its near future. Meanwhile, WBD has aggressively dangled its intellectual property to rs. See: Batman partnering with State Farm Insurance and a Super Bowl mayonnaise commercial in homage to When Harry Met Sally… complete with a cameo from star of HBO’s Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney. Belloni pinpoints this as an indicator of the financial headwinds faced by WBD: “They are just going to open up the cupboard and say, ‘pick and choose.’ And that’s just a sign of the times. They need money.”

Ramy Youssef won a Golden Globe and a Peabody for creating and starring in the Hulu series Ramy, a show about the American Muslim experience in the wake of 9/11. Now, the comedian and actor lends his creativity (and his voice) to the new Amazon Prime Video animated series #1 Happy Family USA. The new show centers many of the same poignant topics as Youssef’s acclaimed live action work. Youssef voices the characters of Hussein Hussein, an Egyptian-American husband, and Rumi, his son. The edgy comedy introduces us to a New Jersey family as they navigate being Muslim in the midst of their many white neighbors. Youssef chats with NPR’s Eric Deggans about his interest in exploring the Muslim experience after 9/11, which has also been central to his standup and his storytelling via Ramy. “I realized I had so many stories from that era and how that entire time … has been mainly captured through one lens, maybe two,” Youssef says. “And for me, there's a real draw to touching on some of this, because it does end up where a lot of people feel really seen from a totally different angle.” Youssef also opens up about his experience of working in animation for the first time, and learning from the show’s co-creator Pam Brady (one of the minds behind South Park). Youssef its to knowing very little about how animated shows are made, and tells us how much he relied on Brady’s expertise to craft #1 Happy Family USA. “I didn't think that I would make an animated show. I kind of found myself with a series of ideas that felt like they could only be an animated show in order to cut the way that I hoped they would,” Youssef explains. “It really was very iterative for me to be with [Brady], because it reminded me of a lot of early sketch comedy stuff that I used to do with my buddies growing up in Jersey.” “#1 Happy Family USA,” series still image. Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Content Services LLC.

Cracks within the GOP turn the “Big, Beautiful Bill” into a mess. President Trump visits the Middle East. Plus, Democrats’ past and future collide.

Port business slowed to a trickle after Pres. Trump’s imposition of a 145% tariff on Chinese goods. Even with a lower tariff, the uncertainty is hard on trade.

LA County supervisors approved a plan to create a county-only homeless agency after years of t partnership with the City of Los Angeles.

Anaheim officials tore down and replaced its “Willkommen” signs that paid homage to the city’s German immigrant founders. Longtime residents say the wooden planks were a piece of important history.

Digital communications are playing a larger role in health care, but transparency and equity are being forgotten.