London Review Bookshop Podcast Chiara Barzini & Olivia Laing: Aqua
May 6, 2026
Chiara Barzini, writer and filmmaker who investigates the Los Angeles Aqueduct, explores water, film and ecological limits. She weaves travel writing, memoir and cultural history. They discuss Los Angeles’s stolen water, ruined Californian landscapes, engineering hubris and how dreams and romanticism meet ecological endings.
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Agent Drama In A Desert Research Trip
- Chiara Barzini waited anxiously for an agent email while researching the aqueduct in the desert and compared the agent to a high-school boyfriend who ghosts and returns.
- She recalls a Beverly Hills dinner where the agent cried about family pressures, revealing Hollywood's emotional theatricality behind business deals.
Los Angeles Built On A Stolen Lake
- Chiara discovered an engineer's manual for the Los Angeles Aqueduct that revealed LA was built by relocating water from Owens Valley.
- The manual's maps showed a barren desert made into a booming city, reframing LA's glamour as contingent on a stolen resource.
Mulholland The Mad Visionary
- Chiara paints William Mulholland as a visionary and self-taught 'mad scientist' who declared 100 years of abundance after bringing Owens Valley water to LA.
- He crossed deserts on a donkey, read Roman hydraulics obsessively, and theatrically presented the water as a miracle that launched Hollywood's growth.
