Slow Burn: The L.A. Riots

Season 6: Bonus Episode 1
Content Locked for Slate Plus members

The Man Behind the Camera

More from Slow Burn’s interview with George Holliday, who captured Rodney King’s 1991 beating on tape.

Episode Notes

In this member-exclusive episode, Slow Burn’s host Joel Anderson and producer Jayson De Leon discuss Episode 1 of the new season, how they’re going to be covering the Los Angeles riots, and some of their favorite books and documentaries they used for research. Then we’ll hear more from their interview with George Holliday, the man who filmed Rodney King’s beating in 1991.

Mentioned in this episode:
Slow Burn 6’s Spotify playlist
Official Negligence by Lou Cannon
The Riot Within by Rodney King
LA 92 (2017)
Let It Fall (2017)
L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later (2017)
“Witnesses Depict Relentless Beating,” L.A. Times, March 7, 1991

Production by Chau Tu.

About the Show

In 1992, a jury failed to convict the four Los Angeles police officers who’d been captured on videotape beating Rodney King. The city erupted into fire and chaos—the culmination of decades of unchecked police abuse and racial injustice.

For the sixth season of Slate’s Slow Burn, Joel Anderson returns to explore the people and events behind the biggest civil disturbance in American history—a story that’s still playing out today.

All episodes

Host

  • Chau Tu is a former editor of Slate Plus.