Season 7

Carolina A. Miranda, a longtime L.A. Times staff culture writer who has recently returned to the wilds of freelance, speaks to Sky Goodden about looking at things from both sides now. In working on a book proposal about the year she spent in Chile following the fall of Pinochet’s dictatorship, and in exploring new genres of writing for different publications, Miranda is changing the focus of her attention. After so many years of writing-as-response, she reflects on the value of sustained research into one subject. “I’d been wanting to explore new directions I could take my writing, and at the L.A. Times, there are certain limitations to the form.” Taking a more personal approach with her book, she’s thinking about “how do artists survive an autocracy? Culture can teach us about the moment, but also point a way forward.”

This episode is supported by The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation and The Gund.

Momus: The Podcast is edited by Jacob Irish, with production assistance from Chris Andrews.

About the Guest

About the Guest, and more

  • Carolina A. Miranda is an independent culture writer based in Los Angeles writing about art, design, performance, books and digital life. Until early 2024, she was a columnist at the Los Angeles Times, where she produced in-depth reports on subjects such as the intersection of art and race, how communities are rethinking the nature of monuments, and how architecture is shifting to accommodate a denser L.A. Prior to joining the Times, she was an independent magazine writer and radio reporter producing stories for Time, ARTnews, Architect, and NPR’s All Things Considered. She has been a regular commentator for KCRW and has written for the Atlantic and the New York Review of Books. Miranda is a winner of the 2017 Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism. She also served as founding co-chair of the Los Angeles Times Guild, the first newsroom union in the Times’ nearly 140 years in existence.

More by the Guest

Momus Arts Journalism Residency

June 10July 25, 2024
Led by Catherine G. Wagley, and faculty members Elisa Wouk Almino, Julia Halperin, Catherine Hickley, Danielle Amir Jackson, Ossie Michelin, Carolina A. Miranda, and Niela Orr.