This book began as a series of memorable conversations between an English teacher/Lyft driver & his passeners. It has grown over a period of several years, roughly between 2016 and 2024. It became a love letter to the people of Los Angeles, a bridge between past and present, an amalgam of literature, history, philosophy, psychology, and theology. I wrote it for my passengers, my family and friends: for those who read books, and perhaps for those who don’t read books but might find it worthwhile to read this one. It’s the distilled concoction that gets created when a nerdy bookworm and English teacher hits the streets of the big city and listens to all sorts of different people who inhabit it.