Rest Assured: Recent Episodes

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Rest Assured is a podcast that explores the Bay Area housing crisis. How did we get here? What's being done to solve the crisis? And what's happening in the town of Mountain View?

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Episode Six - Welcome to Mountain View, California

My name is Gautam Iyer, and I’m the host of Rest Assured, a podcast generally about the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing crisis.

After promising that this podcast would focus on Mountain View for 5 episodes, we’re finally in Mountain View. Mountain View is my hometown, and on this episode, I explain why it’s such a unique place for housing in the Bay Area. I discuss the structure of government as it pertains to housing, starting with the federal government and working down to local government. With a lot of help from some knowledgeable folks, I also talk about rent control, demographics, and development in Mountain View. Enjoy and thanks for listening!

Thank you to Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project.

Thank you to Liam Dillon of the LA Times, Alex Nuñez, Emily Ramos, Lenny Siegel, and Pardis Beikzadeh for their help and contributions. Additional thanks to Alex Brown, Lucas Ramirez, Sandra Esparza, Malia Pires, Elizabeth Weiss, Joan Brodovsky, Kevin Forestieri, Bruce England, and many more for their help, time, and work.

Credit and additional thanks to:

  • KTVU Fox 2 for the news clips in the intro.
  • The California Apartment Association for their advertisement, via youtube.
  • Fatcat beats (yes, Fatcat beats) on Youtube for the intro and outro music.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLWKQpphd7k
  • Kevin MacLeod for several pieces of music that were used on this episode and that will be used on future episodes.
    • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
    • Source/artist: https://incompetech.com/
    • Acid Trumpet by Kevin MacLeod
      • Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3340-acid-trumpet
      • License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Freesound.org for the several sound effects that you heard.
  • And the many others who made this possible.

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My name is Gautam Iyer, and I’m the host of Rest Assured, a podcast generally about the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing crisis.

After finishing the history of the housing crisis on the last episode, this episode takes a stab at explaining the current state of the housing crisis, including a review of the history, a primer on the relevant parties, and a discussion of some policy solutions. This is a long one, but the beginning recaps the previous three episodes, and I get a lot of help from LA Times reporter Liam Dillon, who’s smarter than me and knows more about this stuff than I do. On the next episode, I finally get to the Mountain View part of this podcast, something that I’ve been promising to do for five episodes now. Anywho, enjoy and hopefully learn something.

Thank you to Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project.

Credit and additional thanks to:

  • Liam Dillon, Alex Nuñez, Emily Ramos, Lenny Siegel, and Pardis Beikzadeh for sharing their housing knowledge with me.
  • KTVU Fox 2 for the news clips in the intro.
  • The California Apartment Association for their advertisement, via youtube.
  • Fatcat beats (yes, Fatcat beats) on Youtube for the intro and outro music.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLWKQpphd7k
  • Kevin MacLeod for several pieces of music that were used on this episode and that will be used on future episodes.
    • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
    • Source/artist: https://incompetech.com/
    • Acid Trumpet by Kevin MacLeod
      • Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3340-acid-trumpet
      • License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Freesound.org for the several sound effects that you heard.
  • And the many others who made this possible.

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My name is Gautam Iyer, and I’m the host of Rest Assured, a podcast generally about the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing crisis.

This episode is (finally!) the last of series of three episodes that are dedicated to the history of the housing crisis in California and in the Bay Area. This time, I talk at length about California housing history from the 80s until the present day, focusing on a number of topics, including the rise of homelessness nationally and in the Bay Area. I also discuss rent control, the great inversion, the Ellis Act, the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, and the state of the construction industry. Thanks for sticking with me thus far. On the next episode, I start with a brief recap of all of the history episodes, when you inevitably get lost or bogged down.

Thank you to Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project.

Credit and additional thanks to:

  • KTVU Fox 2 for the news clips in the intro.
  • The California Apartment Association for their advertisement, via youtube.
  • Fatcat beats (yes, Fatcat beats) on Youtube for the intro and outro music.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLWKQpphd7k
  • Kevin MacLeod for several pieces of music that were used on this episode and that will be used on future episodes.
    • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
    • Source/artist: https://incompetech.com/
    • Acid Trumpet by Kevin MacLeod
      • Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3340-acid-trumpet
      • License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Freesound.org for the several sound effects that you heard.
  • Liam Dillon, Alex Nuñez, and Emily Ramos for sharing their knowledge of housing affordability issues with me.
  • And the many others who made this possible.

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Episode Three - A History of the Housing Crisis, Part 2 - the 1960s to the 1980s, including Prop 13

Apologies for the stuffy nose on this one but it’s allergy season.

My name is Gautam Iyer, and I'm the host of Rest Assured, a podcast generally about the San Francisco Bay Area's housing crisis.

This episode is part of a series of several episodes that will be dedicated to the history of the housing crisis in California and in the Bay Area. On this episode, I’ll talk about California housing history from the 60s to the 70s, with a focus on some events in San Francisco that changed the Bay Area forever. I’ll discuss Prop 13, the concept of homeownership as an investment, zoning, and other topics with the help of interviews and archival clips.

Thank you to Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project.

Credit and thanks to:

  • KTVU Fox 2 for the news clips in the intro
  • KTLA news for the howard jarvis clip - i’m claiming fair use on this one
  • Fatcat beats (yes, Fatcat beats) on Youtube for the intro and outro music.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLWKQpphd7k
  • Kevin MacLeod for several pieces of music that were used on this episode and that will be used on future episodes.
    • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
    • Source/artist: https://incompetech.com/
  • Freesound.org for the several sound effects that you heard.
  • Liam Dillon and Pardis Beikzadeh for sharing their knowledge of housing affordability issues with me.
  • And the many others who made this possible.

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Episode Two - A History of the Housing Crisis, Part 1 - The Dawn of Man to the 1960s

My name is Gautam Iyer, and I'm the host of Rest Assured, a podcast generally about the San Francisco Bay Area's housing crisis.

This episode is part of a series of several episodes that will be dedicated to the history of the housing crisis in California and in the Bay Area. On this episode, I'll focus loosely on a timeline that begins in the late 1700s and ends in the 1960s. The episode covers things from the California ballot initiative system to the governorship of Ronald Reagan, spanning hundreds of years of federal, local, and state history with the help of interviews and archival clips.

Apologies for any brief misstatements or glitches! I had some severe technical difficulties with this episode but they do not affect or alter the content of the episode.

Thank you to Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project.

Credit and thanks to:

  • KTVU Fox 2 for the news clips in the intro.
  • Fatcat beats (yes, Fatcat beats) on Youtube for the intro and outro music.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLWKQpphd7k
  • Kevin MacLeod for several pieces of music that were used on this episode and that will be used on future episodes.
    • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
    • Source/artist: https://incompetech.com/
  • Freesound.org for the several sound effects that you heard.
  • EMIAN Pagan Folk Music on Youtube for the only version of Little Boxes with a Creative Cloud License.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF5-pbaI9Is
  • The Library of Congress for one of the Reagan videos, please don’t sue me.
  • CapRadio on Youtube for the clip of Jerry Brown.
  • Ramaytush.com
  • W. Candeleria on YouTube for the song “Ohlone Song”
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpADTZDauLU
  • Liam Dillon of the LA Times for sharing his knowledge of housing affordability issues with me.

  • And the many others who made this possible.

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There's a housing crisis? An introduction to Rest Assured!

My name is Gautam Iyer, and I'm the host of Rest Assured, a podcast generally about the San Francisco Bay Area's housing crisis. On this episode, I'll introduce the Bay Area's housing situation. I'll establish that we're in a housing crisis and explain the importance of housing by drawing on statistics, some expert analysis, Bay Area geography and demographics, and a few interesting anecdotes.

I'll also talk briefly about what this podcast is going to look like; beginning with the next episode, I'll discuss the history of the larger California housing crisis. Then, I'll do a deeper dive into the current housing situation and explore the state of California housing politics. After that, I'll move to my hometown of Mountain View, California, where I'll focus on the several housing-related issues that dominate local politics and that continue to affect residents of all walks of life.

Episodes will be released on a weekly basis.

Thank you to Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project.

Credit and thanks to:

  • KTVU Fox 2 for the news clips in the intro.
  • Fatcat beats (yes, Fatcat beats) on Youtube for the intro and outro music.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLWKQpphd7k
  • Kevin MacLeod for several pieces of music that were used on this episode and that will be used on future episodes.
    • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
    • Source/artist: https://incompetech.com/
  • Liam Dillon of the LA Times for sharing his knowledge of housing affordability issues with me.