Santa Monica Podcasts

Podcast coverage of Santa Monica has a small civic core surrounded by food, business, and morning-radio detours. The strongest episodes put the city directly in the headline. Elsewhere, it is usually part of a wider Los Angeles conversation rather than the main event.

City Hall in the foreground

A Developing Story. offers the clearest run of local political listening. Incoming Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete places a named incoming mayor at the centre of the episode, while John Putnam for Santa Monica City Council takes the candidate route. Together, these two interviews offer the most direct route to hearing about people seeking or assuming city office.

The surrounding episodes suggest a broader municipal conversation without promising that every instalment is primarily about Santa Monica. Titles such as A DEVELOPING STORY - EPISODE 3: A BRUSH WITH DENSITY, A DEVELOPING STORY - EPISODE 4: THE $25 BURGER, and A DEVELOPING STORY - EPISODE 6: THE CRYSTAL BALL point toward development, affordability, and the city’s future. Start with the two Santa Monica-titled interviews, then explore outward.

The KABC News Blitz comes at local life through a single, sharply framed story: Santa Monica Was Dying. Then The Block Parties Started. The title advances a full turnaround argument before the episode begins, with block parties positioned as the answer to decline. For a reported story about community activity rather than a candidate conversation, the obvious pick is The KABC News Blitz.

Restaurants, openings, and the wider LA circuit

Food coverage supplies the page’s most specific non-political stop. Grubthusiast Grubcast devotes Grubcast #178 Amal Flores - HERMANITO - WLA and new location in SANTA MONICA to a restaurant operator and a new location. That makes it unusually concrete: a named guest, a named business, and a clear reason the city matters to the conversation.

Santa Monica appears more casually on The LA Food Podcast, whose loose, opinionated discussions move rapidly across the region. 66 years of wild, wonderful stories at Chez Jay. Plus, Hermosa Beach's culinary rise, Taylor Swift's Hollywood haunt, and our 3 favorite classic LA restaurants. is a sprawling field report rather than a focused city guide. The same is true of Eater/Resy Founder Ben Leventhal on Blackbird and the Future of Dining. Plus: Good News for Food Media, The Infatuation’s Best New Restaurants, Michelin Demotions, and Recent Eats at Betsy & More. Expect Santa Monica to surface within a broader restaurant conversation, with plenty of other stops along the way.

A business angle—and plenty of passing mentions

Technijian takes the practical workplace route in Building Hybrid Development Teams for Santa Monica Tech Startups. Its brisk two-voice explainer style is built around skeptical questions followed by mechanisms and consequences, making this a more service-minded listen than the civic or restaurant episodes. The focus is narrow: hybrid development teams, tech startups, and Santa Monica as the local business setting.

By contrast, On Air with Ryan Seacrest folds Santa Monica references into fast-moving morning-radio packages. In episodes including FULL SHOW: It's Free Gas Friday! and FULL SHOW: A Family Trip To The Wheel Of Fortune!, the subjects range through promotions, local utility, personal stories, and entertainment chatter. Those are useful if you enjoy the city appearing as part of everyday Southern California radio. They are poor starting points if Santa Monica itself is the reason you pressed play.

That distinction holds across much of the available listening. There are a few episodes genuinely about Santa Monica, but many shows only pass through it while discussing something else. The direct coverage is strongest around local office, community activity, a restaurant opening, and startup staffing.

Where to start

For city politics, begin with A Developing Story. and Incoming Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete. Choose The KABC News Blitz and Santa Monica Was Dying. Then The Block Parties Started for a community-focused local report. Food listeners should try Grubthusiast Grubcast and Grubcast #178 Amal Flores - HERMANITO - WLA and new location in SANTA MONICA. For the business perspective, use Technijian and Building Hybrid Development Teams for Santa Monica Tech Startups.

Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.