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…

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…

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 …

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, a…

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 …

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 an…

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 …

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 …

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 though…

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 y…

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 …

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…

Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale

Theme music: Sounds Supreme

Twitter: @WhatCalifornia

Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com

Email: [email protected]

Please subscribe wh…

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 Califo…

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 fel…

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 ama…

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 pr…

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…