California Sun Podcast

Peter Lunenfeld, vice-chair of UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts, appreciates Los Angeles as one of the world’s supercities. Even amid Covid, politics, and competition for the future from Silicon Valley, he sees a city thriving with reinvention. The metropolis he depicts in his book "City at the Edge of Forever" is certainly not your father's Los Angeles.

Esther Mobley never thought that being a wine writer would involve covering land use, migrant worker issues, wildfires, and climate change. The San Francisco Chronicle wine critic looks at the lasting impact of these issues on the future of the Napa Valley and the $40 billion California wine industry.

Kendra Atleework's memoir "Miracle Country" is inspired by the work of writers like Mary Hunter Austin and Reyner Banham in capturing the harsh beauty of life in the arid Eastern Sierra. Having grown up in the Owens Valley, she returns amid the 2015 Round Fire to absorb the area's history and celebrate the harsh and majestic environment that lies at the cutting edge of climate change and defines what it means to really appreciate California.

James Thebaut is a Los Angeles ecological documentarian and long-time environmental activist. He argues in his latest documentary, "On The Brink: California’s Watershed," now airing on PBS, that the intensity of California's wildfires is due as much to bad policy as it is to climate change. He talks about the state of California's forest system and how both water scarcity and forest clearing practices are impacting the watershed and the ability of forests to absorb water or resist fires.

Davie Pina and Johnny White, vineyard managers in the Napa Valley, say that every fire teaches them something new. With firefighting resources spread thin, they and their colleagues have had to take on more personal responsibility for fighting fires. They shared the story of how they have faced the threat of repeated wildfires and where the future of private firefighting might be headed in California.

Nick Neely walked for 12 weeks and 650 miles from San Diego to Palo Alto. Recreating the journey taken by the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola in 1769, he became immersed in the history, people, and topography of the Golden State. Writing about both the natural and built landscape along the way for his book "Alta California," one of our premier environmental writers short-circuited time and made yesterday's history today's reality.

Leon Panetta ascended to the highest of jobs in Washington, but he never lost sight of his California roots. The former congressman, Office of Management and Budget director, White House chief of staff, CIA director, and defense secretary reminisces about growing up in Monterey, building the Panetta Institute on the campus of Cal State Monterey, and a remarkable life journey.

Jeffrey Tumlin took a job that almost no one wanted. The head of San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Agency was facing the impossible before the pandemic. Since then, public transportation and increased traffic have become unsustainable. Still, Tumlin hopes to find a way to make his city a model for the nation.

Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks wanted to make sure legislation on housing and family and medical leave had her vote. When she was denied a request to vote by proxy, she drove with her 1-month-old girl in tow from her home in Oakland to the State Capitol in Sacramento. What happened next has become a rallying point for working women.

Geoffrey King, an attorney and native of Vallejo, cared deeply about his city. He said he could no longer stand by and watch the underreported killings of civilians by one of the most violent police forces in the nation. So he launched Open Vallejo, a nonprofit newsroom focused on local accountability journalism. He details why he felt it was so important to shine a light on a police department that uses more force per arrest than that of any other police force in California's major cities.

Dr. Jennifer Brokaw, daughter of the news anchor and author Tom Brokaw, is an emergency care physician and patient advocate. In February, she was appointed as the physician for San Francisco’s first responders. She explains how her job overseeing the health of firefighters and paramedics has taken on dimensions she never could have imagined before the pandemic.

Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from Lakewood, became California’s 70th Assembly speaker in 2016. He talks about his work with two very different governors and how the legislative focus has changed from budget surpluses, housing, wildfires, affirmative action, and the gig economy to deficits, eviction, unemployment, health care, and a no-frills future. He also shares the personal journey that prepared him for his role.

Alia Volz reminisces about growing up in the family business in the 1970s and ‘80s, where her mom baked and sold 10,000 “magic” brownies per month in San Francisco. It was a time when growing a single marijuana plant was a felony offense. The business that started selling to hippie craftspeople in Aquatic Park became a cultural icon.

David Randall, author of "Black Death at the Golden Gate," tells a story that reminds us that history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. He details how the bubonic plague overran San Francisco and the West Coast in 1900, fueling denial of emerging science, quarantines, anti-Chinese racism, and fears of a second wave.

Dr. Robert M. Wachter is a professor and chair of UC San Francisco Department of Medicine. The author of more than 300 articles and six books, he’s been ranked as one of the most influential physician-executives in the U.S. He discusses California’s original success in dodging the Covid-19 bullet, and why it now may be catching up with us. He discusses how much smarter we’ve become in four months, how much longer Covid-19 may be with us, and how medicine will be transformed forever.

Connie Rice, the long-time Los Angeles civil rights lawyer and activist, has played an important role in the transformation of the LAPD. Yet she looks at our current moment and reminds us that the police rank-and-file still have a long way to go. In minority communities, she says, police are the preeminent symbol of systemic oppression and racism further fueled by a lack of economic justice.

Lt. Ben Kelso, a 30-year veteran of the San Diego police force and the president of the Black Officers Association of San Diego, gives us an inside view of policing and race in Southern California. Sitting astride two worlds, he details the pain, anger, and opportunity of the moment. It’s a view of law enforcement from inside the squad room.

Peiley Lau a researcher at the UC Berkeley Global Lab explains a new study showing that nearly 1.7 million coronavirus infections may have been avoided in California — and many more throughout the world — thanks to policies that kept people at home. It was a collective action unlike anything that has ever happened.

Eloy Ortiz Oakley, the chancellor of California’s community college system oversees the largest education system in the country with more than 2.1 million students and 115 colleges. That puts Oakley on the front line of many of the social and policy problems we now face. At a time of growing enrollment and shrinking budgets, the college system is confronting the challenges of moving education online, training our next generation of police and first responders, anticipating the employment needs of the future, and navigating a system that is awash with diversity and racial tension.

California's chief election officer, Secretary of State Alex Padilla brings the background of a long-time politician and his training as an engineer to the challenge of ensuring safe and secure voting. From mail-in ballots to recruiting a whole new generation of poll workers, it's going to be a tough year to oversee California's next election.