Campus news with a wider Southern California view.
From Where We Are works like a student newsroom with a wide local beat. It moves from USC headlines and Southern California culture to international conflict, California politics, arts events, and community stories with clean, service-minded pacing.
PRESS PLAY
From Where We Are is a USC-centered news and culture program with the structure of a live student broadcast. It moves fast. Each episode gathers headlines, campus updates, Southern California stories, and broader political or international developments into a compact news-magazine format. The result is local without being small. A typical show can start with a report from Frat Row, pivot to a California governor poll, mention Coachella weather risks, and preview the Festival of Books before settling into a reported feature. The show’s home base is USC, but its field of view includes agencies, labor negotiations, museums, temples, festivals, sports, entertainment, and public policy. It is especially good at using a concrete scene to open a bigger question. A story about a Little Tokyo temple becomes a story about clergy shortages, visas, lay ministers, and cultural preservation. A segment on investigative reporting becomes a plainspoken account of ethical consent, medical evidence, lead exposure, and community responsibility. The headline blocks are broad and sometimes heavy, covering ceasefires, airstrikes, sexual assault allegations, conversion therapy legislation, and public health concerns. The features often bring the temperature down. They explain who is affected, what is changing, and why the story matters beyond the first detail. The rotating student voices give the show a newsroom ensemble quality rather than a personality-driven identity. Some episodes include quick closing credits and light banter, but the dominant mode is reportorial. The writing values clarity over flourish. It keeps sentences direct, uses interview clips for authority, and favors context that listeners can use. Campus arts and culture get real space, from a Dolores Huerta mural to AAPI Heritage Month events, USC Missed Connections, and LA28 ticket questions. So do bigger civic threads, including labor pressure, LGBTQ youth protections, and Los Angeles County health concerns. From Where We Are is best understood as a daily notebook from a young newsroom watching its campus, region, and world at the same time. It is not polished into distance. It feels alert, earnest, and practical, with enough local specificity to make national and international headlines land closer to home.
Made for: For listeners who want concise USC and Southern California news with enough national and international context to understand the day. It fits people who like student journalism, civic reporting, campus culture, and brisk headline-to-feature pacing.
What sets it apart: The show blends live newsroom rhythm with deeply local reporting, moving from quick headlines into reported campus and Southern California features. Its rotating student voices make the coverage feel communal, not personality-driven.
Student journalists at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California produce audio stories aired on live broadcasts Mondays through Thursdays at 5 p.m. PST.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It connects national political machinery to the campuses, neighborhoods and civic institutions where its consequences become concrete.
From Where We Are moves from a brisk headline roundup into reported pieces and interviews anchored in USC and Southern California. National politics stays connected to institutions and local consequences: redistricting is explained through California history, immigration through…
This is the newscast for anyone who thinks national politics needs a Los Angeles street address.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A USC-centered news episode is strongest when it digs into the ethics and community work behind lead-poisoning reporting.
From Where We Are starts as a busy Southern California and national news briefing, with President Trump's statement on pausing U.S. bombing and attacks on Iran if Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz, then turns to Artemis II's return journey and a Los Angeles Times newsletter on…
A brisk Southern California roundup connects local pressures, campus culture, and Little Tokyo tradition.
From Where We Are frames Southern California through practical pressures and local adjustment, moving from flea-borne typhus and Coachella budgeting to USC Missed Connections and a Little Tokyo temple short on monks.
A campus newscast connects a birthright citizenship hearing with a public media fight over funding and independence.
From Where We Are links a Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship with the future of public media, treating both as questions about government power and the independence of public institutions.
A live Election Day episode that makes California's redistricting fight feel connected to civic power.
The episode frames Election Day as an unfolding civic test, moving from the death of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a court order on SNAP payments into California's vote on Prop 50.
A brisk USC newsroom review of immigration, Mamdani, shutdown delays, Prop 50 voting, and LA's Dodger crowds.
From Where We Are gives USC and Southern California listeners a tight survey of politics, public life, and campus-adjacent civic concerns. The episode moves from a USC study of Orange County's undocumented immigrant population to Zoran Mamdani's national profile in New York City…
Asia’s headlines, explained with context.
Christian-conservative talk with moral urgency.
Congress, strategy, and the spectacle behind governing.
Left politics with history in the frame.
A USC news show covering political reactions to Trump, the anniversary of October 7th attacks, and legal issues with Doug Emhoff.
A USC student news show covers Christmas wish lists, a viral gift-giving trend, and Dutch Bros' campus debut.
This episode covers Election Day 2024, focusing on California's Proposition 50, a redistricting measure aimed at countering Republican efforts in Texas.
This episode of From Where We Are covers multiple news stories from October 3rd.
From Where We Are’s October 1, 2026 broadcast pairs the U.S.
A USC student news podcast covers breaking news of a woman detained on campus, followed by headlines on a US-Russia ceasefire, California governor race, and Coachella dust advisory.
A USC news show covers headlines about Iran-US ceasefire talks mediated by Pakistan and a deadly attack on paramedics in Lebanon.
A news roundup covering local LA stories like the averted LAUSD strike and National Donate a Book Day, along with national and international headlines.
A USC student news podcast covering local and national headlines including the California governor race, Coachella, and the Freedom Plane exhibition.
A news roundup covering Israel-Lebanon ceasefire talks, Melania Trump's denial of Epstein connection, and a California bill on conversion therapy.
A news roundup covering the fragile Iran ceasefire, soaring LA-28 Olympic ticket prices, and AAPI Heritage Month events at USC.
From Where We Are on April 7 moves from USC headlines to reporting on a student injured at a March 28 No Kings protest, where 18-year-old freshman Tucker Collins was later said to have had his eye surgically removed.
From Where We Are opens with Los Angeles County reporting more than 200 flea-borne typhus cases last year and 17 already this year, as Dr.
A news podcast covering political headlines including Pam Bondi's firing, Trump's tariff war with France, and a Santa Cruz earthquake.
From Where We Are covers President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order on birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment, and the 1898 U.S.
A USC news show covering student government elections, US-Iran conflict, and international relations ahead of the 2028 Olympics.