California Sun Podcast

Paul Theroux, the renowned travel writer and author of the new book "On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey," takes the trip that all of us in California should take to understand our southern neighbor. Traveling by car along the border and deep into the interior of Mexico, he helps us appreciate the people and places that impact our culture, our economy, and the future of our state.

California and Silicon Valley may have created much of today’s America. But according to tech entrepreneur and presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the impacts are only just beginning. While we worry about Facebook and social media, we’re overlooking larger threats on the horizon and the “techlash” that will result from artificial intelligence and automation.

Dr. Manuel Pastor, USC professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity discussed how the future of work, politics, demographics, and race can be found in California. A state was once considered reactionary in the 1980s became a progressive beacon. Now it’s paying a price for that success.

Lincoln Mitchell, author of "San Francisco Year Zero," makes the case that the San Francisco of today begins in 1978. The assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, the massacre of Peoples Temple members in Jonestown, the explosion of the city’s punk rock scene, and a breakthrough season for the San Francisco Giants, he says, all led inevitably to 2019 San Francisco.

Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, details how the school is developing our next generation of journalists while taking advantage of the unique media resources of Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.

Soleil Ho, the newly minted restaurant critic at the S.F. Chronicle, shares her modern approach to food criticism, the politics of food, and the responsibility of being our culinary cartographer at a time when food is inseparable from who we are.

Producer Rocky Lang and film archivist Barbara Hall share the intimacy of personal letters from the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, John Huston, Ingrid Bergman, and others. Their collection, "Letters from Hollywood," is a voyeuristic but heartfelt examination of a bygone era, where personal letters reflected the passion and work of the time.

Dr. Joely Proudfit has traveled from tribal poverty to become a three-time tenured Cal State University professor and was a member of President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Indian Education. She is a leading advocate for Native American education, sovereignty, cultural preservation, and ecological stewardship on behalf of California's largest-in-the-nation American Indian population.

Jonathan Littman, an author and innovation consultant, discusses his recent LA Magazine story that pries open how the traffic app Waze is hacking our city streets and adversely impacting neighborhoods — all with the artificial hope that we might get somewhere a few seconds faster.

Autumn McDonald, the director of New America CA and a former advisor to the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, details her organization's disruptive efforts to promote and aid non-profits in seeking economic equity and inclusion via innovation, technology, and storytelling.

Anne Lamott, the beloved California author, has always strived to help us better understand ourselves. She shares some personal touchstones she holds onto in the midst of turmoil and global chaos and she reminds us that “everything will work if you just unplug it for a few minutes.” Her latest book is "Almost Everything: Notes on Hope."

D.J. Waldie, in the tradition of historians Kevin Starr and Mike Davis, contextualizes our understanding of California and Los Angeles history and explains why, especially given the issues we face today, we’re really “just like the rest of America, but only more so.”

Paul Koretz and Marqueece Harris-Dawson represent polar opposite districts in Los Angeles. Yet the issues they face — housing, climate change, infrastructure, homelessness, and traffic — affect everyone. How they do their job, and whether or not they succeed, could very well determine the future of Los Angeles.

Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, the editor in chief of and long-time Bay Area science writer, talks about the resiliency of the largest estuary on the West Coast, the challenges facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, and the potential impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on the San Francisco Bay.

What really happened on August 8th and 9th, 1969? In his new book, CHAOS, investigative journalist Tom O’Neill argues that almost everything we know about the Manson murders is wrong. The results of his 20 years of investigation is a searing indictment of local, state, and federal law enforcement, possibly reaching all the way up the FBI and the CIA.

Author and journalist Noam Cohen dares to ask if we really signed up for all the technological change we now take for granted. Did we really need instant delivery of everything, ride-hailing on a whim, the commercialization of residential neighborhoods, or 5,000 friends? Whose disruption is it anyway?

David Ulin, the former book editor of the L.A. Times, points out that few American cities have changed more in the past two decades than Los Angeles. The city that existed at the turn of the century has been reinvented, and the longtime social and cultural critic takes us on a journey through today’s L.A.

Joe Talbot’s debut film, "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," captures the unsteady pulse of an ever-changing city. The film is an ode to what home means as both a brick-and-mortar place as well as a state of mind. Talbot wonders if anyone can still hold onto that sense of home in today’s San Francisco.

Leah Garchik is an original. In an era of transitory work, she had one employer for 47 years. For 35 of those years, as a daily columnist, her voice reflected back to us the world and her city of San Francisco. On the occasion of her retirement last month, she shared insights into her view of the world and how it came to be.

Tony Serra gives an exclusive look at his defense strategy in the ongoing Ghost Ship trial. He explains why he thinks his client, Derick Almena, is not guilty of 36 counts of manslaughter, and gives a preview of what we can expect to hear when Almena takes the stand. Regardless of the outcome, the trial is also about the future of the city of Oakland.