In the first of a two-part conversation, "Then & Now" sits down with Zev Yaroslavsky, one of LA's best-known public officials, to talk about his fascinating life and forty-year career in politics. Yaroslavsky has just released a memoir entitled Zev's Los Angeles that traces his rise from a Jewish immigrant family in Boyle Heights and Fairfax to his stunning election to City Council at age 26 in 1975. In this conversation, Zev recounts his quick path to political power in LA, his move after twenty years from City Council to the County Board of Supervisors, and some of the key policy issues he advanced in his time in office. With characteristic candor and humor, Yaroslavsky also discusses the challenges of governance in Los Angeles.