Justin’s Newsletter: May 2026
Vol. 6, Issue 5
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What’s Up With Me
I was nominated as a finalist again for the LA Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards! This time in the Anchor/Host in TV/Film Broadcast category for hosting my Pasadena Media TV show “Pasadena Monthly.” The awards ceremony is in late June. Wish me luck!
Watch the latest episode of “Pasadena Monthly,” featuring an interview with Mount Wilson Observatory board chair Samuel Hale, the grandson of George Ellery Hale, the legendary astrophysicist who founded the observatory in 1904, which revolutionized humankind’s understanding of the cosmos. He also helped transform Caltech into a world-class science and engineering university, worked with Henry Huntington to create the Huntington Library, and contributed to the creation of Pasadena’s Civic Center. The telescopes at Mount Wilson were used to make profound discoveries: In 1920, Harlow Shapley found that Earth is not in the center of the Milky Way, and in 1924, Edwin Hubble discovered that we are not the only galaxy out there, and that the universe is expanding and at an ever increasing rate. Read more here.
Around Town
Great Reads
Here are some recommendations for interesting books I’ve read recently:
John le Carré—Adam Sisman
This biography of the British-turned-Irish author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley’s People, and a number of other books that were turned into movies and TV shows, is a real door-stopper. It takes some dedication to get through it, but for anyone who enjoys le Carré’s books, it’s essential, as is Sisman’s follow up book, The Secret Life of John le Carré, published after the author’s death so Sisman was able to include all the salacious information about le Carré’s extramarital affairs etc. that he wasn’t able to include in the first book, for various reasons, including the subject’s disapproval.
Trust Me I’m Lying—Ryan Holiday
These days, Ryan Holiday runs a couple of great sites called Daily Stoic and Daily Dad, which are worth checking out, but back in the 2000s he worked PR for American Apparel and in 2012 wrote this book about how he manipulated blogs to promote what he wanted, and about how corrupt the blogging system is compared to standard journalism, and how it got completely out of control. It’s a bit dated, and he goes to bat for some people who turned out to be on the wrong side of history, but it’s interesting to see how many of the deficiencies he identified are still in operation today.
Spotlight on My Past Stories
I recently ran into Senator Adam Schiff, and I was able to show him this old photo of the two of us from 2006. The photo accompanied my article in Pasadena Weekly about my trip to Washington, D.C., during President Bush’s State of the Union Address. We got to reminisce about those “old” times and took this updated photo (the identical positioning was a coincidence!). Here’s my interview with him from 2006.
And read all of my journalism here.