Lou Penrose on KFI

The California wine industry is in big trouble because nobody is drinking wine. Wine sales are at a 20-year low. It’s been blamed on a generational rift, with fewer young people drinking vino, and on so many people now on a GLP-1 journey. Lou doesn’t understand how wine enthusiasts know what’s what. How do they know what region is good and what year is good? All he knows is that Snoop Dogg’s wine, Cali Red b...

There’s an incoming artificial intelligence revolution coming to the jobs market. Women face a higher risk of job disruption due to AI because they’re more likely to work in clerical, administrative, retail, and customer service roles that will likely be impacted first. But is that really a bad thing? Lou doesn’t think so.  

It’s been an unseasonably hot summer in the US and Europe, and this has be...

Hour 1 - When do you tell the person you’re dating how much money you make? First date? A few months in? Once it’s exclusive? When you move in? Lou’s rule is simple: Nobody needs to know your salary unless they’re your husband or wife. Then the social-media debate hits the roommate-couple version. Some say if a couple lives together and one person makes more, rent shouldn’t be a straight 50/50 split. A...

Lou recounts having to evacuate his South Orange County studio last week while filling in live for Michael Monks as a wildfire closed in. Harrowing. Then the 100-year-old woman in Southern California named Frieda who eats the same meal every night: A hot dog and a Diet Coke.  

Researchers say the most stressful stretch of parenting is middle school, ages 12 to 14 — bodies changing, needs rising, no paycheck yet. Blo...

Heartbreaker for the Chargers in Game 1 — they started ahead of the Broncos and didn’t finish that way. Then the Dodgers, and the sticker shock at Dodger Stadium. Whatever happened to a hot dog and a beer? Now there’s a two-foot Dodger Dog for forty bucks and a $35 taco platter that comes with two tacos. You call that a platter? Lou’s a no on relish. Too messy for the stands. Listeners disagree and want the ...

Soup Plantation is coming back, and the all-you-can-eat soup-and-salad cult is losing its mind. Six years after the chain shut all 97 locations, including 44 in California, during COVID. Lou’s perfect salad, which he can make at home: iceberg, cucumber, white onion, garbanzo beans, beets that didn’t come from a can, sliced black olives, oil and vinegar. Listeners are already praying for a Sizzler comeback next. &nb...

Hour 2 - As the penny is on its way out, the nickel begins to take its place. There's just one problem - the nickel costs over 13 cents to make. Soon, you will be able to get through airport security without a boarding pass to send off your loved ones, but brace for record-breaking holiday travel prices this season. And Wendy's is banking on nostalgia-based yellow packaging to bring in new customers.

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Lou Penrose is on after the Chargers game with a grim San Diego story: A man walked into an adult bookstore threatening to burn it down, police sent in K-9 Ryder, the suspect set the dog on fire and then died at the scene. Ryder survived; PETA wants the dog retired and K-9 units phased out.  

Lighter fare: Friday was National One-Hit Wonder Day. Lou’s picks are CW McCall’s “Convoy” (1975) and The N...

ALDI is slashing prices on about a third of what it sells through November 3 to fight the affordability crunch — even chicken, which is music to thigh-loving Uncle Lou. Boar’s Head vanishing from Ralphs and Food 4 Less isn’t a mystery plague: Kroger pulled it over rising costs. Relax, people, it’s salami. Lou riffs on phony-baloney food fights (dark meat vs. white, egg whites vs. yolks, brown rice vs. white)...

Remember the USS Lincoln, stuck at sea more than 250 days on that extended Middle East run? Trump sent the sailors and Marines to Pattaya, Thailand, for a break before San Diego — and in a town famous for the sex trade, Lou lets you connect the dots; the whole district’s built on that cash.  

Closer to home: If you want Costco’s viral $55 Frankenstein cake for Halloween, get on the waitlist now. McDonald...

Hour 1 - We get some extra Lou Penrose this week as he fills in for Monks and Merrill. A new poll finds widespread frustration among Californians as voters head toward the November election. Are voters looking for a change? Plus, two ballot measures are drawing support from younger voters, and the Penrose Theory explores why some young people are increasingly attracted to Democratic socialism. And with Aldi and other retailers cutt...

Hour 2 -  We get extra Lou Penrose this week as he fills in for Monks and Merrill. California and Los Angeles report August job growth—but what’s driving the gains, and are government and healthcare jobs enough? Plus, Starbucks announces more than 600 store closures nationwide; Napa Valley wineries cut prices by 20% or more, and a Raiders quarterback teams up with In-N-Out for a promotional play.

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After one of the hottest weeks on record in Southern California, the heat finally feels like it’s breaking — but not before it made everyone a little nuts in that unseasonably humid high-90s-to-triple-digit stretch Californians just can’t handle. Uncle Luigi runs through who had it worst out there: Caltrans crews paving roads, Marines training at Camp Pendleton, AC installers, and roofers baking on the job. Listen...

The brutal heat still hanging over Southern California: The back of a UPS truck can hit 140 degrees, AC techs are slamming jobs, one caller admits he garden-naked’d his way through the heatwave, and Valley parents say classrooms are too hot for their sticky, gross kids. Down in OC, a high-school football team treasurer allegedly stole $400,000 — used it to pay off a delinquent mortgage — and is now looking at seri...