What is California?: Recent Episodes
Stu VanAirsdale
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Anita Chabria is a California columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
"I don't think you have to align with someone politically to tell a fair story. I just think you have align with the truth."
Notes and references from this episode:
Episode 7: Erika D. Smith - What is California?
@anitachabria - Anita Chabria on Twitter
Anita Chabria story archive - LA Times
“Are pooches in San Francisco getting high off meth-laced poop? Conservatives hope so,” by Anita Chabria, LA Times
“Armed and mentally ill: Is deadly force the only treatment left?”,- by Anita Chabria, The Sacramento Bee
“‘No treatment until tragedy’ is our mental health system. CARE Court could change that,” by Anita Chabria, LA Times
“Threats, videos and a recall: A California militia fuels civic revolt in a red county,” - by Anita Chabria, LA Times
“SF’s prototype trash cans have landed. One costs $20,900,” by Will Jarrett, Mission Local
Clara Shortridge Foltz biography - Wikipedia
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Dan Walters is a California political columnist for CalMatters.
I’ve argued on many occasions that politics is not a leading-edge occupation. It doesn’t lead. It follows. It reacts rather than acts. I think we in the media depict politicians as the people at the head of the parade—the drum majors strutting along and leading the parade. Really, they’re the people at the end of the parade with the scoop shovels, when you think about it.
Notes and references from this episode:
@DanCALmatters - Dan Walters on Twitter
Dan Walters column archive - CalMatters
Episode 1: Gov. Jerry Brown - What is California?
The New California: Facing the 21st Century, by Dan Walters
"Gavin Newsom’s keeping it all in the family," by Dan Walters, CalMatters
Episode 32: Allison Arieff - What is California?
“Is California strangling its golden goose?”, by Dan Walters, CalMatters
“New tests underscore California’s educational crisis,” by Dan Walters, CalMatters
Hugh J. Glenn - Wikipedia
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Ellen Pao is the co-founder and CEO of Project Include as well as the former CEO of Reddit.
Part of [ending online harassment] is just having a backbone. As a leader, just saying: “The people who are using my product and who are creating all the content, they actually matter to me. And I don’t want them to be abused. I don’t want them to be harassed.” It’s not that hard to make that change.
Notes and references from this episode:
@ekp - Ellen Pao on Twitter
Project Include - home page
“The Reddit Revolt That Led to Ellen Pao’s Resignation,” - by Alex Abad-Santos, Vox
“Adam Neumann’s $350 million comeback is a ‘slap in the face’ to female founders and founders of color,” by Emma Hinchcliff and Paige McGlauflin
“Jada Pinkett Smith and Ellen Pao - Red Table Talk” - YouTube
Notes and references from this episode:
@ekp - Ellen Pao on Twitter
Project Include - home page
“The Reddit Revolt That Led to Ellen Pao’s Resignation,” - by Alex Abad-Santos, Vox
“Adam Neumann’s $350 million comeback is a ‘slap in the face’ to female founders and founders of color,” by Emma Hinchcliff and Paige McGlauflin
“Jada Pinkett Smith and Ellen Pao - Red Table Talk” - YouTube
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Alicia Garza is the principal at Black Futures Lab and the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network.
California is not seen as one of those places that has a high density of Black people, and therefore it's not seen as a place where Black culture is innovated. But it should be.
Notes and references from this episode:
@aliciagarza - Franklin Leonard on Twitter
Black Futures Lab - home page
Black Census Project - home page
“Lady Don’t Take No” with Alicia Garza - Apple Podcasts
The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, by Alicia Garza
Dr. Espanola Jackson Day proclamation - City of San Francisco
June Jordan - Academy of American Poets
“Shock G, Leader Of Hip-Hop's Digital Underground, Dies At 57,” - by Rodney Carmichael, NPR
“Thinkin’ About Merl Saunders” - The Grateful Dead
Black Census Project - home page
Congresswoman Barbara Lee - home page
“Why Barbara Lee Voted Against the War in Afghanistan,” - by Andrea González-Ramírez, The Cut
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Greg Lucas is the California State Librarian.
The more I see of California, the more I realize how special we are. I’ve been to European countries. I’ve been to South American countries. I’ve been to Malaysia. I’m fairly well-traveled. I’ve yet to find a country that has everything California has. [...] We forget sometimes how extraordinary a place this is.
Notes and references from this episode:
@GregLucas20 - Greg Lucas on Twitter
California State Library - Visitor’s center
“Malcolm Lucas, former California chief justice, dies at 89,” by Bob Egelko, SFGate
Gov. George Deukmejian - California Governors’ Gallery / State Library
Stanislaus National Forest / Highway 108 Corridor - USDA
Episode 1: Gov. Jerry Brown - What is California?
“Kevin Starr, author of California histories and former state librarian, dies at 76,” by David Zahniser and Matt Hamilton
Mary Coin, by Marisa Silver
Migrant Mother, by Dorothea Lange
California: The Great Exception, by Carey McWilliams
Gov. George Pardee - California Governors’ Gallery / State Library
“California Democratic Heavyweight John Burton Exiting the Political Stage,” by Scott Shafer, KQED
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Jackie Speier is the representative for California’s 14th Congressional District.
I really played by a set of rules that you served on the Board of Supervisors and then you ran for the Legislature and then you ran for Congress. I really came to Congress too late in my political career. I was 57 years old when I got elected to Congress. It’s based on seniority, so it takes forever to get to a position of authority, and everything is run through the chairs of committees. I had the luxury in the State Legislature where I served for 18 years and had 300 bills become law. It’s a record that will probably never be broken. [But] I think that waiting my turn was something I wouldn’t recommend other people do.
Notes and references from this episode:
Congresswoman Jackie Speier - CA-14 - home page
“Rep. Jackie Speier will retire after her term ends,” by A Martinez, NPR,
Congressman Leo Ryan biography - American Experience, PBS
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple - documentary by Stanley Nelson
“Bob Swanson: The Toughest CEO in Silicon Valley,” by Robert Ristelheuber, EDN
“Gordon Moore Is the Nerdy Moses of Silicon Valley,” by J.P. O’Malley, The Daily Beast
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Dr. Garen Wintemute is an emergency room doctor at UC Davis Medical Center and the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program.
We are in the midst of a huge national experiment that’s going to answer the question: What happens when you take a society that is exhausted, fearful, concerned for its future, angry at itself, polarized... and throw a bunch of guns into it? We have no alternative but to live through answering that question.
Notes and references from this episode:
UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program - home page
“Trigger Effect: The 1989 Cleveland School Shooting, 25 Years Later,” by Stu VanAirsdale, Sactown Magazine
Warner Mountains: Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering - SummitPost
“Gun Deaths Hit an All-Time High (Again) in 2021,” by Jennifer Mascia, The Trace
“Attorney General Bonta Launches Office of Gun Violence Prevention” - Office of the Attorney General
“Survey finds alarming trend toward political violence” - Violence Prevention Research Program, UC Davis
Gary Snyder biography - Academy of American Poets
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Allison Arieff is the editorial director of print for MIT Technology Review.
I feel like all of America looks at infrastructure kind of the way a negligent homeowner looks at their house. “Yeah, the roof’s kinda leaky, but we’ll give it another year.” Invariably what happens is you’ve waited too long, your whole house floods, your insurance premiums go up, and it costs you three times as much to fix your roof–because you waited. Writ large, that, to me, is how we deal with infrastructure. We just wait and wait, people fight over it, it gets more and more expensive, something happens, and then it’s an emergency, and the labor costs are more expensive. And people rush, and they make mistakes. There’s no regard for it. There’s no respect for how important it is.
Notes and references from this episode:
@allisonarieff - Allison Arieff on Twitter
MIT Technology Review - home page
SPUR - home page
“Allison Arieff: Riverfront Q&A” - by Stu VanAirsdale, Sactown Magazine
Adam Neumann’s latest big idea? To become America’s biggest landlord - by Lauren Aratani, The Guardian
“The future of urban housing is energy-efficient refrigerators,” by Patrick Sisson, MIT Technology Review
“Los Angeles Enjoys Its New Bridge a Little Too Much,” by Shawn Hubler and Soumya Karlamangla, NY Times
“What Happened to the Great Urban Design Projects?”, by Allison Arieff, NY Times
This Bridge Will Not be Gray, by Dave Eggers and Tucker Nichols
“The Magic of Empty Streets,” by Allison Arieff, NY Times
“Cars Are Death Machines. Self-Driving Tech Won’t Change That,” by Allison Arieff, NY Times
Joan Brown retrospective - SFMOMA
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Miyoko Schinner is the founder of Miyoko’s Creamery.
"People look at a single point in history and think that’s the way it’s been forever. But it hasn’t been. […] There was a time when everyone thought TV dinners were all the rage, and they were delicious. That was the standard at one point. And they didn’t want to have a big beautiful salad. Nobody wants to eat TV dinners now. People would prefer to have a big beautiful fresh salad. So tastes do evolve. Humans do evolve. We can introduce new foods that are similar yet different—and perhaps superior in many ways."
Notes and references from this episode:
@MiyokoSchinner - Miyoko Schinner on Twitter
@MiyokosCreamery - Miyoko’s Creamery on Twitter
miyokos.com - Miyoko’s Creamery home page
Rancho Compasión- home page
Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappé
Dairy Farm Transition program - home page
“Point Reyes supplies emergency water for tule elk,” by Will Houston, Marin Independent Journal
“Point Reyes water quality tests find high bacteria levels,” by Will Houston, Marin Independent Journal
"New estimates of the environmental cost of food" - Oxford University
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Zeke Lunder is the creator of the wildfire tracking resource The Lookout.
The lookout is kind of a safety blanket for the [fire] crew boss. It’s nice knowing there’s someone up on the hill who’s got your back. So we kind of want to have people’s backs in California, and be a calm voice on the radio when things are getting a little squirrely—to let them know, “Hey, you should get out of there. You don’t need to run, but something’s coming.”
Notes and references from this episode:
@wildland_zko - Zeke Lunder on Twitter
The Lookout - home page
The Lookout channel - YouTube
Episode 28: Lenya Quinn-Davidson - What is California? podcast
Episode 11: Jaime Lowe - What is California? podcast
Jim Klump: Wildfires, History, and the Simple Pleasure of Bullshit Stories - The Lookout, YouTube
Bring Your Own Brigade - documentary by Lucy Walker
goodfire - Prescribed fire hashtag, Twitter
Climate, Weather, and Wildfire: Full Interview with Daniel Swain - The Lookout, YouTube
Episode 16: Daniel Swain - What is California? podcast
2017 Tubbs Fire - Wikipedia
Frank Zappa - Wikipedia
Jello Biafra - Wikipedia
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Franklin Leonard is the creator of The Black List.
You can sort of make the case that Hollywood IS the American film industry. For me personally, I think of Hollywood as the people who are working in that system. I think Hollywood for me also invokes the history of that industry. And the history of that industry isn’t great in a lot of facets. … But when I think about the people that I’ve had the pleasure of working with within this ecosystem at this moment, I’m also very optimistic.
Notes and references from this episode:
@franklinleonard - Franklin Leonard on Twitter
@thblcklst - The Black List on Twitter
The Black List - home page
The Black List - case study - by Henry McGee and Sarah McAra, Harvard Business School
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Greetings from What is California? HQ, where I’m excited to share with you the trailer for Season 3 of your favorite podcast about the Golden State.
This season promises to be an enlightening, amusing, challenging, and all-around compelling set of conversations with notable Californians in our ongoing quest to understand this crazy, fascinating place. I’m thrilled about this season’s guest lineup to date, which includes some of our state’s most intriguing voices weighing in with their unique, thought-provoking perspectives about California.
You can look forward to hearing from (in alphabetical order)…
- Allison Arieff, the editorial director for print of MIT Technology Review and one of our foremost thinkers about urban design
- Anita Chabria, the California columnist at the Los Angeles Times
- Alicia Garza, the principal at Black Futures Lab and co-creator of #blacklivesmatter
- Franklin Leonard, the creator of the influential Hollywood industry website The Black List
- Greg Lucas, the California State Librarian
- Zeke Lunder, the creator of the California fire-tracking resource The Lookout
- Ellen Pao, the former CEO of Reddit and current co-founder of the tech-industry nonprofit Project Include
- Miyoko Schinner, the vegan food impresario behind Miyoko’s Creamery and the Marin County farm sanctuary Rancho Compasión
- Dr. Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis Medical Center epidemiologist who is one of the nation’s preeminent researchers of firearm violence
…among other excellent guests currently in the works.
Look forward to our annual Year in Review episode in December as well, when our blue-ribbon panel of experts will look back on the ups and downs of 2022 and the challenges and opportunities awaiting California in 2023.
Spread the word and save the date for Sept. 6! I’m so pleased to be back with you.
Keep your eye on the bear! 🐻 ❤️
Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Lenya Quinn-Davidson is a fire adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension and director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council.
I think it’s really important for Californians in general to build comfort with fire–to build a relationship with it, to get out and see what it actually looks like on the ground. That’s a big part of the work that I do.
Notes and references from this episode:
Fire in California - University of California Cooperative Extension
Northern California Prescribed Fire Council - home page
Meet the People Burning California to Save It - NY Times / YouTube
Backpacking To Morris Meadow - Inga’s Adventures
Episode 11: Jaime Lowe - What is California?
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Felicia Marcus is a visiting fellow with the Water in the West program at Stanford University, as well as a founding member of the Water Policy Group.
I think there was a bit of denial where folks felt like they had planned for a three-year drought, and they were fine. It’s like, “Dude–we could have a 10- or a 40-year drought.” So that’s not good enough. We kind of [need] to amp it up.
Notes and references from this episode:
Water in the West program - Stanford University
Water Policy Group - home page
Jonathan Gold - LA Times archive
Judge Harry Pregerson - Wikipedia biography
California Water Action Plan - State of California
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) - State of California
“California leads effort to let rivers roam, lower flood risk,” by Kathleen Ronayne, Associated Press
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Josh McNair is the creator of the travel website and video series “California Through My Lens.”
Without leaving the state, you could have a lifetime’s worth of experiences and adventures that are amazing–that are second to none. I never would have thought that was true before I started [California Through My Lens]. And to think that I’m 10 years in, and I still love traveling California? I never would have thought that was gonna be true either. That’s been the most surprising thing for me.
Notes and references from this episode:
California Through My Lens - home page
“California Through My Lens” channel - YouTube
@californiathroughmylens - Instagram
California’s Gold with Huell Howser - KCET
Chris Burkard - home page
Casey Neistat - YouTube
Lost Coast Trail - Bureau of Land Management
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Episode 25: “Farmer Fred” Hoffman
Fred Hoffman hosts the podcast and newsletter “Garden Basics with Farmer Fred” and is a Lifetime Master Gardener with the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners program in Sacramento County.
Notes and references from this episode:
FarmerFred.com - Farmer Fred home page
@farmerfred - Farmer Fred on Twitter
Get Growing with Farmer Fred - Farmer Fred on Facebook
“Garden Basics with Farmer Fred” podcast - Apple Podcasts
“Garden Basics with Farmer Fred” newsletter - Substack
UC Master Gardener Program
UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County
Harvest Day 2022 - UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Sarah Miller writes the newsletter The Real Sarah Miller, hosts the podcast “Very Specific Interviews” and co-hosts (with Joshua Clover) the podcast “Didn’t See It, Don’t Need To.”
California is both where I live and also feels like a foreign country. I think sometimes, if you feel like you live in a foreign country, it kind of makes you feel more alive–in the sense that you’re constantly noticing the experience of being.
Notes and references from this episode:
@sarahlovescali - Sarah Miller on Twitter
The Real Sarah Miller - Substack
“Didn’t See It, Don’t Need To: Oscars,” by Sarah Miller and Joshua Clover, The Real Sarah Miller
“People I Punched,” by Sarah Miller, The Real Sarah Miller
“My So-Karen Life,” by Sarah Miller, NY Times
“The Bridge Dog,” by Sarah Miller, The New Yorker
“Fire Season,” by Sarah Miller, The Real Sarah Miller
“The World Is Burning. I'm Renovating My Kitchen Anyway,” by Sarah Miller, Harper’s Bazaar
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Rigel Robinson is a member of the Berkeley City Council, representing District 7 (encompassing UC Berkeley).
As the region is growing, as the state is growing, we should be educating more Californians. I believe that educating more young people is a good thing—full stop. [...] I think this whole situation boils down to a prioritization of two things: The comfort of our longtime residents versus the basic needs of our new residents.
Notes and references from this episode:
@RigelRobinson - Rigel Robinson on Twitter
California Environmental Quality Act - Wikipedia
Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods v. Regents of the University of California - Lawsuit
“UC Berkeley must cut new enrollment by 3K students after high court ruling,” by Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside
“NIMBYism Reaches Its Apotheosis,” by Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic
“UC Berkeley declines group’s offer to admit 1K more students,” by Associated Press
“Governor Newsom: Veto SB118,” by Phil Bokovoy, The Berkeley Daily Planet
“Newsom signs bill saving UC Berkeley from enrollment cuts this fall,” by Michael Burke, EdSource
“UC Berkeley will more than double what it pays the city under new settlement agreement,” by Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Justin Ray is the writer of the “Essential California” newsletter at the Los Angeles Times.
I want to stretch the limits. I want to write about things that you may not have heard of, be that some trial in Los Angeles for male birth control or some crazy thing that’s happening in a small town in California. I wanna tell you about new things. I had the idea that there are a lot of people who felt the same way–that we’re getting a lot of the same stories about Newsom, about coronavirus–and I don’t think people want another newsletter to talk about that. I mean, that’s not servicing our readers.
Notes and references from this episode:
@by_justin - Justin Ray on Twitter
Essential California newsletter - Los Angeles Times
“Male birth control: A promising new trial in California, and why reproductive autonomy matters,” by Justin Ray, LA Times
“‘When I came out, I saw blood’: Teacher stops stabbing at high school,” by Justin Ray, LA Times
@sherlyholmes - Julia Wick on Twitter
“Fresno schools make a controversial decision about police on campuses,” by Justin Ray, LA Times
“An infamous heist revisited: The story of a gigantic robbery in downtown L.A.,” by Justin Ray, LA Times
“San Francisco Mayor London Breed expresses regret for her own French Laundry outing,” - Maura Dolan, LA Times
“Counting Cash At Dinner: The L.A. TACO Guide To The Restaurants Jose Huizar Dined At While Allegedly Collecting Bribes,” - Lexis-Olivier Ray, LA TACO
@TrevellAnderson - Tre’vell Anderson on Twitter
“A conversation with Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong,” - by Justin Ray, LA Times
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Kristina Cho is the creator of the food blog and Instagram feed Eat Cho Food and the author of the cookbook Mooncakes & Milk Bread.
Having the opportunity to live in this incredible neighborhood in California gave me some type of resolve, and I was able to feel confident embracing both sides of me. I think if I grew up in California, in some of these different neighborhoods, I would probably feel and be able to fully embrace the Asianness and Americanness more than I am now. But it’s a thing I’m continuing to work on through my food, in a way. With each recipe, I’m trying to kind of explore different facets of my upbringing and my life and try to combine these things.
Notes and references from this episode:
@eatchofood - Kristina Cho on Instagram
EatChoFood.com - home page
Mooncakes & Milk Bread, by Kristina Cho (HarperCollins, 2021)
“Cecilia Chiang, Who Brought Authentic Chinese Food to America, Dies at 100,” by William Grimes, NY Times
Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Richmond, CA
Cantonese-style Tomato Egg - Eat Cho Food
Eastern Bakery - San Francisco
Phoenix Bakery - Los Angeles
Ali Wong - home page
Ruth Asawa - home page
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
Louis Virtel is a writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and a co-host of the Crooked Media podcast Keep It.
I remain shocked that I could meet a ton of people who are like me here. I really thought that was a New York thing. [...] I really thought in the abstract it was the land of models and actors, and I’m so psyched to learn: No–this is totally where I belong, [around] people who have made me so much funnier. I guess I’m just shocked to belong here so much, even though everything I’ve ever wanted to do involves being in California.
Notes and references from this episode:
@LouisVirtel - Louis Virtel on Twitter
Keep It - Crooked Media home page
Keep It - Apple Podcasts
“101 of the Best Songs About California,” by Soumya Karlamangla, NY Times
@kylebuchanan - Kyle Buchanan on Twitter
Black’s Beach - SanDiego.org
“Virtel it Like it Is” - Marvel segment - Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Louis Virtel on Jeopardy! - YouTube
2020 Red Carpet Coverage - The Oscars
The Richard & Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center - CSU Long Beach
Karen Carpenter Plays the Drums - YouTube
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Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
Theme music: Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked What is California?, please rate and review
What is California?
on Apple Podcasts
! It helps new listeners find the show.
Ken Layne is the creator of Desert Oracle magazine and Desert Oracle Radio.
I like a mythological landscape, you know? If you can figure out how to live in a landscape like that–at least for my temperament–that’s everything.
Notes and references from this episode:
@KenLayne - Ken Layne on Twitter
Desert Oracle magazine - home page
Desert Oracle Radio - home page
Desert Oracle Radio - Apple Podcasts
Desert Oracle Vol. 1 - MCD/Picador
Robinson Jeffers - Poetry Foundation
The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Austin
Art Bell - Radio Hall of Fame
“Out in the wild: how Ken Layne created an alternative to clickbait in the desert,” by Dominic Rushe, The Guardian
Ambrose Bierce - Wikipedia
=====
Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale
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Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
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Stacy Corless is the District 5 supervisor for Mono County and past board chair of the Rural County Representatives of California.
What we’ve seen over the last couple of years in a county like Shasta really has been, at its heart, an anti-government movement rooted in cynicism and mistrust of government [and] institutions. I have to say that the majority of county supervisors I’ve met and worked with in this state can’t support that. We got elected to provide services–to stand up for the people in our communities. We didn’t get elected to overthrow the government.
Notes and references from this episode:
@StacyCorless - Stacy Corless on Twitter
Mono County - home page
Rural County Representatives of California - home page
“Billions in funding for wildfire should be just a down payment,” by Stacy Corless, CalMatters
“Landmark California smog rules target lawn equipment, big rig trucks,” by Rachel Becker, CalMatters
“Oroville moves to become a constitutional republic,” by Jennie Blevins, Oroville Mercury-Register
“California county on track to be run by militia-aligned group,” by Dani Anguiano, The Guardian
“Methuselah, a Bristlecone Pine, is Thought to be the Oldest Living Organism on Earth,” by Robert Hudson Westover, USDA
=====
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Baratunde Thurston is the creator and host of the podcast How to Citizen, the author of the book How to Be Black, and a founding partner of the news and commentary website Puck.
The choices that California businesses make impact people all over the world who don’t even know where California is. It’s not just technology that gets made in California. It’s how it gets made. It’s how it gets funded. What types of tools get built are the ones that can accrue a ton of returns to the investors. That’s a really narrow set of incentives that end up affecting literally everything in the world.
Notes and references from this episode:
@baratunde - Baratunde Thurston on Twitter
How to Citizen - podcast home page
We’re Having a Moment - Apple Podcasts
Puck - home page
“How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time,” by Baratunde Thurston, TED
How to Be Black, by Baratunde Thurston
Episode 425 - Baratunde Thurston - WTF with Marc Maron
Ella Baker Center - home page
@kendrick38 - Kendrick Sampson on Instagram
@jacobsoboroff - Jacob Soboroff on Twitter
Assemblymember Wendy Carillo - home page
Color The Water - home page
America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston - PBS
“Berkeley became first US city to ban natural gas. Here's what that may mean for the future,” by Susie Cagle, The Guardian
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Daniel Swain, Ph.D., is a climate scientist in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, the Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and The Nature Conservancy of California. He is the founder of the blog Weather West.
If you have a flash flood in an uninhabited desert, then it’s not causing anyone any problems. But if you have an ark-storm scenario in the Central Valley and you exceed the capacity of the levees in Sacramento, that’s a whole different question. So I think a lot about what recent experience tells us about the urgency of addressing the problems that we’re going to clearly face in the decades to come.
Notes and references from this episode:
@Weather_West - Daniel Swain on Twitter
Weather West blog, by Daniel Swain
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA
Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes, National Center for Atmospheric Research
The Nature Conservancy of California
"Controversial restriction on 49ers-Rams NFC Championship Game tickets abruptly disappears on Ticketmaster,” by Eric Ting, SFGATE
“The Climate Scientist Who Is Demystifying Extreme Weather,” by Madeleine Gregory, Vice
“What a Dry January Means for California’s Drought,” by Soumya Karlamangla, NY Times
“Study: Sierra Snowpack Could All But Disappear In 25 Years,” by Jay Barmann, SFist
“‘Fire season never really ends in California’: Cal Fire is preparing for winter, but fire dangers persist,” by Andres Picon, SF Chronicle
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Dr. Monica Gandhi is the director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the Medical Director of the HIV Clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital ("Ward 86.")
We’re all angry because we’re sad. We look at movies and everyone’s crowded together, and we really miss that. And I promise it'll come back. But even if it doesn’t come back completely normally, please evaluate what gives your life meaning, and spend time with people. Because it’s not actually about school closures or business closures or other things. It’s about our humanity–why we want to be together.
Notes and references from this episode:
Joan Didion's 'lost' commencement address, revealed - Joan Didion (via J.D. Warren, UC Riverside)
Tracking coronavirus hospitalizations in California by county - John Osborn D'agostino and Lo Bénichou, CalMatters
Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 this year could pay thousands of dollars, study suggests - Kara Gavin, University of Michigan Health Lab
California surpasses 7 million coronavirus cases, adding 1 million in one week - Luke Money and Rong-Gong Lin II, LA Times
Sacramento County breaks record for hospitalized COVID cases amid omicron surge - Michael McGough, The Sacramento Bee
Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH - UCSF profile page
@MonicaGandhi9 - Dr. Monica Gandhi, Twitter
Monica Gandhi is S.F.’s outlier COVID expert. Her view on it: ‘I’m not saying anything crazy’ - Ryan Kost, SF Chronicle
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count - NY Times
Overcaution carries its own danger to children, by Monica Gandhi, The Atlantic
Eric Goosby, MD - UCSF profile page
=====
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What is California? winds up its first season with its inaugural Year in Review episode! Host Stu VanAirsdale is joined by special guests Gustavo Arellano (columnist and podcaster, Los Angeles Times), Serena Dai (senior editor for food & wine, San Francisco Chronicle), and Emily Hoeven (newsletter author, CalMatters) to discuss the ups, downs, and delights of California in 2021.
Thank you for listening to Season 1 of What is California? We’ll be back in January featuring all-new conversations with notable Californians in a quest to understand the Golden State.
In the giving spirit? Support this podcast on Patreon, or share the show with your friends via Substack or wherever you get podcasts.
Happy holidays, and see you in 2022! 🐻 ❤️
Notes and references from this episode:
@Gustavo Arellano - Gustavo Arellano, Twitter
The Times - LA Times news podcast, hosted by Gustavo Arellano
@ssdai - Serena Dai, Twitter
@emily_hoeven - Emily Hoeven, Twitter
WhatMatters - CalMatters daily newsletter, by Emily Hoeven
A dying girl, a fateful blessing and the lessons of California’s tragic origin myth, by Gustavo Arellano, LA Times
Alliance Française de Sacramento
I drank smoke-tainted California wines. Here's what they actually taste like, by Esther Mobley, SF Chronicle
The master sommelier expulsions won’t fix wine industry sexism, women say, by Esther Mobley, SF Chronicle
L.A.’s top Catholic goes off on ‘woke’ culture, social justice movements, by Gustavo Arellano, LA Times
At my wife’s Santa Ana market, the masks have never come off, by Gustavo Arellano, LA Times
Why I won’t be joining Newsom in Scotland, by Emily Hoeven, CalMatters
After two weeks, Newsom makes an appearance, by Emily Hoeven, CalMatters
Episode 7: Erika D. Smith, What is California?
Ban homeless encampments everywhere? It might have more support than liberals think, by Erika D. Smith, LA Times
Is L.A. Sheriff Alex Villanueva rounding up a ‘posse’ of cowboys?, by Gustavo Arellano, LA Times
Sacramento Mural, Graffiti and Street Art Map, by Nathaniel Miller
Apocalypse, cow — our growing drought and the great L.A. cattle escape, by Gustavo Arellano, LA Times
Taco U.S.A., by Gustavo Arellano (Simon & Schuster)
Elizabeth Valoma, co-founder of Cheese Board Collective, dies at 91, by Tanay Warerkar and Serena Dai, SF Chronicle
Summer of Fun: Where to eat and drink to fall in love with the Bay Area again, by Serena Dai, SF Chronicle
Mexicans have fought for a better California for 171 years. These books show how, by Gustavo Arellano, LA Times
Dr. Mario T. Garcia, UC Santa Barbara
Episode 10: Elaine Howle, What is California?
California’s state auditor: ‘Speak the truth to power,’ by Emily Hoeven, CalMatters
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David Mas Masumoto is an author and farmer at Masumoto Family Farm in Del Rey, CA.
Industrial agriculture didn’t care about story. The work that I did—the work that Sun Crest [peaches] sort of launched—was, “No, there’s story behind every food that we eat, every bite. And that story is part of the meaning of food. Let’s find out more about that story.”
Notes and references from this episode:
You Won't Believe it's Vegan Pumpkin Pie, by Gena Hamshaw, Food52
Masumoto.com - Masumoto Family Farm
Country Voices: The Oral History of a Japanese American Family Farm Community, by David Mas Masumoto
Epitaph For a Peach: Four Seasons on my Family Farm, by David Mas Masumoto
Op-Ed: Feeling the drought on my family farm, by David Mas Masumoto, LA Times
William Saroyan biography, The William Saroyan Foundation
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Marcos Breton is the California Opinion Editor for McClatchy, based in Sacramento.
As long as I’m sitting in the chair that I’m in, I want to talk about those things and write about those things honestly because they’re a part of who we are. They’re a part of our history in California. It doesn’t mean you don’t love our country. It doesn’t mean you don’t love our state. I think real freedom begins with truth.
Notes and references from this episode:
@MarcosBreton, Marcos Breton on Twitter
“They are building 11,000 new homes in Folsom. But will there be enough water?”, by Ryan Sabalow, The Sacramento Bee
“The privileged candidate: Why do we let Gavin Newsom get away with this?”, by Marcos Breton, The Sacramento Bee
“20 years after Prop. 187, how much progress have California’s Latinos really made?” by Marcos Breton, The Sacramento Bee
“California rejects Prop. 16 and affirmative action, proving intolerance lives here, too,” by Marcos Breton, The Sacramento Bee
“Words just aren’t Trump’s ‘thing,’ Tom McClintock says as he prepares to fight impeachment,” by David Lightman, McClatchy
2020 presidential election - California voting results, Ballotpedia
American River Parkway, Sacramento County Regional Parks
“We’re averting our eyes from an environmental disaster in plain sight. Let’s give a damn,” by Marcos Breton, The Sacramento Bee
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Jaime Lowe is the author of Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.
For a long time, a stereotypical idea of what California might be would have this Hollywood glamor. Now it’s this Silicon Valley glamor, and it’s this sheen of wealth and success and privilege and manifest destiny and gold. And I think that we need to acknowledge that that is actually absolute destruction. For the majority of people, that is a detrimental vision and not even something that really exists. [...] I think finding the people who are actually making the state work is much more useful in terms of finding ideals.
Notes and references from this episode:
@kicklikeagirl1, Jaime Lowe on Twitter
Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires, by Jaime Lowe
“Ten Sessions,” by Jaime Lowe, This American Life
“The Incarcerated Women Who Fight California’s Wildfires,” by Jaime Lowe, NY Times Magazine
“Essential California newsletter - Nov. 17, 2021,” by Justin Ray, LA Times
“The Super Bowl of Beekeeping,” by Jaime Lowe, NY Times Magazine
City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965, by Kelly Lytle Hernández
“Los Angeles Goes to War With Itself Over Homelessness,” by Jaime Lowe, NY Times Magazine
Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing my Mind, by Jaime Lowe
“Deputy cliques in L.A. County Sheriff’s Department likely growing, study finds,” by Alene Tchekmedyian, LA Times
“‘Our Origin Story’: Queen Calafia Returns to California in New Theatre Production,” by Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED
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Elaine Howle is the California State Auditor.
I don’t particularly like that characterization [“scathing audit”] What our audits are intended to do is—as I’ve said to staff and at legislative hearings—is speak truth to power. To let people know we’ve audited this program, we’ve looked at how the state agency is implementing this program, and we found some significant weaknesses, and it needs to be improved. Now, our language—the tone—is sometimes very strong, and some agencies don’t like it: “Oh, you’re just writing for headlines.” No. What we’re trying to do is write reports that are compelling—that will get somebody’s interest, and somebody will pay attention.
Notes and references from this episode:
auditor.ca.gov - California State Auditor home page
List of U.S. state auditors, Ballotpedia
Elaine Howle - 2012 Public Official of the Year, Governing Magazine
“State Auditor Elaine Howle is retiring,” David Lightman, The Sacramento Bee
EDD Follow-Up: Since the COVID-19 Pandemic It Continues to [...] Put Californians at Risk of Identity Theft, Auditor’s report on EDD (Nov. 19, 2020)
EDD's Poor Planning and Ineffective Management Left It Unprepared to Assist Californians Unemployed by COVID‑19 Shutdowns, Auditor’s report on EDD (Jan. 26, 2021)
Significant Weaknesses in EDD’s Approach to Fraud Prevention Have Led to Billions of Dollars in Improper Benefit Payments, Auditor’s report on EDD (Jan. 28, 2021)
“State Auditor Talks About Citizens Re-Drawing The Election Maps,” Capital Public Radio
2020 California Citizens Redistricting Committee
“UC President Napolitano Apologizes for Interfering With State Audit,” by Ana Tintocalis, KQED
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams
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Sonja Trauss is the founder and executive director of YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard).
“NIMBYism is something that arises instinctively in response to a proposed change. People just do it. They want it. They have the feeling. They trust their feelings: ‘This feels bad; it IS bad.’ [...] That’s what we’re going against: How do we help people feel OK with change? How do we help people process it?”
Notes and references from this episode:
@sonjatrauss, Twitter
YIMBYLaw.org - Yimby Law home page
Golden Gates, by Conor Dougherty
“SB 9 ruin your neighborhood” - Google search
Sept. 28 statement on California housing legislation, Office of the Governor
“Why did S.F. supervisors vote against a project to turn a parking lot into 500 housing units?”, by J.K. Dineen, San Francisco Chronicle
“Why state lawmakers are fired up over a derailed S.F. housing project,” by Alexei Koseff, San Francisco Chronicle
“The Last Days Inside Trailer 83,” by Hannah Dreier, The Washington Post
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Miriam Pawel is the author of The Browns of California, The Union of Their Dreams, and The Crusades of Cesar Chavez.
Part of what I think is important about my work is that I try to translate California for people who do not live here—particularly people on the East Coast. I always say that I understand what they think of California because I was one of them. [I] really began to write about California because I found it such a fascinating place and, in many ways, a misunderstood one.
Notes and references from this episode:
@miriampawel, Twitter
The Union of Their Dreams: Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez’s Farm Worker Movement, by Miriam Pawel
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, by Miriam Pawel
The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty That Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, by Miriam Pawel
Miriam Pawel - NY Times Opinion archive
The First Lady, by Stu VanAirsdale, Sactown magazine
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Erika D. Smith is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
I do think there’s a lot of geography tied to people’s values and interests. I’ve enjoyed exploring different parts of the state and getting to know people who very much identify with where they’re from and care a lot about it for various different reasons. [They] oftentimes feel like other people in other parts of the state don’t understand where they live and what they do and what their life is like—which is probably true. But I think it’s interesting to hear that same statement repeated again and again from so many people from different parts of the state.
Notes and references from this episode:
Erika D. Smith - Los Angeles Times column archive
Erika D. Smith - Sacramento Bee column archive
Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine's racial equity problem, by Erika D. Smith
California forgot transgender people in vaccine equity push, by Erika D. Smith
How one California county managed to stay coronavirus-free, by Erika D. Smith
Holly Mitchell: 'Queen' of Black politics in LA, California, by Erika D. Smith
Sister Libby Fernandez Q&A, by Stu VanAirsdale, Sactown Magazine
L.A. should take a lesson from Sacramento on how to clear a homeless encampment, by Erika D. Smith
A week later, here’s what happened to some of the homeless people booted from Echo Park, by Erika D. Smith
Episode 1: Gov. Jerry Brown, What is California? podcast
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David L. Ulin is the editor of the Library of America's Joan Didion: The 1960s and 70s, the editor of Air/Light literary journal, and the former books editor for the Los Angeles Times.
I think [Joan Didion] is a corrective. Part of what drew me to her initially was that her inner weather and my inner weather are not that dissimilar. So there was that sense of recognition, but also the idea of her as a corrective of all that sunshine-y, California lotus-land myth. She is actively trying to destroy that mythology. And I think that as someone who resists that mythology because it reduces the state to the level of a cliche--it reduces the culture and the place to the level of a cliche--I liked that idea.
Notes and references from this episode:
Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, by David L. Ulin
Easy Rawlins series, by Walter Mosley
David Trinidad, Poetry Foundation
Eat the Mouth That Feeds You - by Carribean Fregoza
In the Watchful City, by S. Qiouyi Lu
If He Hollers Let Him Go, by Chester Himes
The Socialist Who Won a Democratic Primary and the Dirty Hollywood Politics That Sunk His Campaign, by Zelda Roland, KCET
Dreaming: Hard Luck And Good Times In America, by Carolyn See
Golden Days, by Carolyn See
The Nowhere City, by Alison Lurie
I Should Have Stayed Home, by Horace McCoy
The Flutter of an Eyelid, by Myron Brinig
Joan Didion: The 1960s and 70s (Library of America), edited by David L. Ulin
Labyrinth, by David L. Ulin
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Michael Tubbs is the former mayor of Stockton and the author of the upcoming book, The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home.
Stockton is representative of where California intersects—or where California collides. You have this tension between rural and agricultural and urban. I remember telling people I was from Stockton, and everyone thought it was a community with a lot of farms. I was like, “I ain’t never seen no farm!” It’s a city with city issues but a very agricultural background. That place has given me an appreciation for salt-of-the-earth-type folks—folks who may not have gone to college, folks who may not work in tech or the creative economy, but are still smart, are still important, still matter.
Notes and references from this episode:
What is California? newsletter on Substack
Stockton on My Mind, directed by Marc Levin
Invisibilia: The Chaos Machine, by Yowei Shaw and Kia Miakka Natisse
The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home, by Michael Tubbs (published Nov. 16, 2021)
Anna Malaika Tubbs - Author site
Competing Voices: A Critical History of Stockton, California, by Ronald Isetti
“Oldest gurdwara in US,” by Asha Seth & Ramesh Seth, Spectrum - Tribune India
Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED)
SEED Data Analysis and Dashboard
Editorial: Now, for your local fake news…, Los Angeles Times
The Rev. James M. Lawson - biography, MLK Research & Education Institute, Stanford University
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Karina Longworth is the creator and host of the podcast You Must Remember This and the author of the book Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood.
I definitely have memories of being on the city bus for long periods of time. There is something, I think, sort of romantic and cinematic about watching the neighborhoods change outside the window. I definitely spent a lot of time looking out those windows, listening to music on a Walkman, and just sort of thinking about things in a way that you actually can’t if you’re driving. I think I had a romanticism about living in such a vast place where there could be interconnected lives.
Notes and references from this episode:
You Must Remember This podcast, by Karina Longworth
Love is a Crime podcast, by Karina Longworth and Vanessa Hope
Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, by Karina Longworth
Los Angeles Plays Itself, directed by Thom Andersen
“Polly Platt: The Invisible Woman,” You Must Remember This
The Last Picture Show, directed by Peter Bogdanovich
“Gossip Girls: Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper,” You Must Remember This
“She's Done Everything (except direct),” by Rachel Abramowitz, Premiere
“Fake News: Fact-Checking Hollywood Babylon,” You Must Remember This
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Graham Farrar is the Chief Cannabis Officer at Glass House Brands, based in Santa Barbara
I think the thing that makes California special for cannabis is that this is where the culture originated, and there’s such a center of gravity here. There’s a center of gravity for a lot of things [culturally]—not to be arrogant about California. You’re talking Hollywood and music and a lot of that kind of stuff. But it really is the cultural capital for cannabis. You have so many of the good breeders here. You have so many of the good growers here. You have such a great climate here. It's the fifth largest economy in the world. It’s the largest cannabis market—it’s almost 25% of the country. It’s more than twice as big as the second biggest. It’s almost as big as the next three markets combined. It’s just such a force.
Notes and references from this episode:
What is California? Episode 1: Gov. Jerry Brown
Glass House Group
Schumer proposes federal legislation to decriminalize marijuana, by Emma Newburger, CNBC
6th Assessment Report, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
California Pot Seen Commanding Extra Cachet, by Tiffany Kary, Bloomberg
Thomas fire, California’s largest on record, finally 100% contained, by Michael Livingston and Shelby Grad, LA Times
An inconvenient truth (about weed), by Natalie Fertig and Gavin Bade, Politico
Relentless (Graham Farrar profile), by Jolene Hansen, Cannabis Business Times
A Brief History of the Drug War , Drug Policy Institute
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Marisa Lagos is a politics correspondent with KQED, based in San Francisco.
We love direct democracy, and we love to bitch about direct democracy. It really is in our DNA here that we constantly have these ballots---whether it’s this recall or Schwarzenegger’s or the two dozen initiatives that we often see on big ballots. And everyone, every time, is like, “Why are we doing this? This is crazy.” But if you turn around and say, “So you don’t think we should have this?”, they’re like, “No, no, no! We want this power!” So I think it’s very much in keeping with the tone of the state. [...] Every time we get through an election, I sit back, and I actually have a lot of gratitude for how much folks do engage here.
Notes and references from this episode:
Political Breakdown, KQED
My father had 91 years of joy, love and fighting for justice. It wasn’t enough (essay on Richard Abcarian), by Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times
Karen Tumulty on the Politics of Nancy Reagan, Political Breakdown
Kevin Faulconer on Governing San Diego and His Agenda on COVID and Crime, Political Breakdown
For Low-Income Parents, Most Child Support Goes to the State — Not the Kids, by Marisa Lagos, KQED
Judge Finds Attias Guilty of Murder, by Marisa Lagos, The Daily Nexus
San Bruno fire levels neighborhood - gas explosion, by Marisa Lagos, Kevin Fagan, Michael Cabanatuan, Justin Berton; SFGate
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Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
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Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. is the 34th and 39th governor of California.
"We’re dealing with news. We’re dealing with the Texas abortion statute, a recall, polarization, Obama, Biden, McConnell… This is all the hurlyburly of politics. Government as I experienced it is more mundane. You show up—first of all, you’ve got to hire a staff. The Legislature puts in 4,000 bills. They’ll probably land 1,200 on your desk. You sign 90% of them, but then you’ll have an issue, and reporters will be hounding you about this or that. At the end—and I’ve had the end, twice—of eight years, if you say to yourself, 'Well, what the hell really happened?', it takes a certain amount of humor and insight to formulate a worthwhile answer, in my opinion."
Notes and references from this episode:
California State of Mind, CalMatters / Capital Public Radio
California Sun Podcast, The California Sun
The California Report, KQED
Leading Lady, by Stu VanAirsdale, Sactown magazine
California: The Great Exception, by Carey McWilliams
“Demonym” definition, Merriam-Webster.com
The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, by Miriam Pawel
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography, by Miriam Pawel
Gregory Bateson at The California Museum
Steps to an Ecology of Mind, by Gregory Bateson
“An Introduction to the Life and Spirituality of Dorothy Day,” by James Allaire and Rosemary Broughton, The Catholic Worker Movement
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Theme music by Sounds Supreme
Twitter: @WhatCalifornia
Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Support What is California? on Patreon: patreon.com/whatiscalifornia
Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com
Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you liked the show, please consider rating and reviewing What is California? on Apple Podcasts! It helps new listeners find the show.
"What is California?" is a new podcast hosted by journalist Stu VanAirsdale. The show features conversations with notable Californians in a quest to understand the Golden State.
The podcast premieres Sept. 9 (aka California Admission Day!). Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Check out the website at whatiscalifornia.com
Subscribe to the free newsletter at whatiscalifornia.substack.com
Follow "What is California?" on Twitter: @WhatCalifornia