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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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.