California Sun Podcast

Jeff Schechtman
  • 4.9 (52)
  • NEWS COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The California Sun presents conversations with the people that are shaping and observing the Golden State

  1. 1D AGO

    Tom Freston on how MTV changed our music, our culture, and even California

    Last week, MTV officially shut down, ending an era that revolutionized music, video, and shaped California's youth culture. Tom Freston co-founded the television channel 44 years ago, building a creative empire on principles that seem impossible today: hiring people with no experience, protecting creatives from corporate pressure, valuing disorientation over data, and treating loyalty as strategy. His memoir "Unplugged" chronicles how adventure became business,  and what we lost when Silicon Valley replaced joy with efficiency.

    42 min

  2. 12/11/2025

    Scot Danforth on the fight for disability rights in California

    Scot Danforth, author of the new biography "An Independent Man," talks about the life of Ed Roberts, who founded the Independent Living Movement. In the revolutionary 1960s, Roberts and his fellow Berkeley activists pioneered the disability rights fight. He later led change in Sacramento as California's Director of Rehabilitation, advocating for state legislation years before the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. But, as current threats show, hard-won gains like these can be taken away.

    28 min

  3. 12/04/2025

    Matthew Scott photographs L.A.'s hidden stories, from concrete rivers to palm-lined streets

    Photographer Matthew Scott captures Los Angeles through his lens, revealing stories hidden in plain sight. His projects include "Concrete River," an ongoing exploration of the 51 miles of channelized waterway where nature stubbornly persists, along with intimate studies of L.A.'s palm trees and Normandie Avenue. His work asks what our built environment becomes beyond its intended purpose, and what it reveals about who we are. Find his work at MathewScott.com.

    24 min

  4. 11/20/2025

    Gustavo Arellano on California families under siege

    Gustavo Arellano reports from California's ground zero of President Trump's deportation crackdown. The Los Angeles Times columnist explains why many Latino voters who supported Trump now feel betrayed, how Southern California's "suburban apathy" toward immigration raids contrasts with Chicago's whistle-led resistance, and how the dynamics of 1994's the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 — which radicalized a generation of California Latinos — have echoed in current debates over immigration.

    35 min

  5. 11/13/2025

    Roddy Bottum: A queer rock pioneer remembers San Francisco's lost era

    Roddy Bottum, a founder of the alternative metal band Faith No More, chronicles 1980s and '90s San Francisco — a dark, overlooked era between the Summer of Love and the tech boom. His memoir, "The Royal We" recalls a vanished city of bicycle messengers and punk rock in the shadow of the AIDS crisis. It's a poetic testament to community, loss, and the creative rebellion that defined pre-tech San Francisco.

    35 min

  6. 11/06/2025

    Ashlee Vance on robot gladiators and the future of AI combat

    Ashlee Vance reports from San Francisco's underground robot fight clubs, where humanoid machines controlled by virtual reality pilots battle in steel cages before roaring crowds. China dominates the hardware, America provides the spectacle, and artificial intelligence makes the robots increasingly lethal. The technology is advancing at breakneck speed — raising questions about entertainment, military applications, and what happens when these machines become truly intelligent.

    29 min

  7. 10/30/2025

    Todd S. Purdum: How Desi Arnaz invented modern television and lost himself

    Todd S. Purdum, veteran journalist and author of the new book "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television," explains how a Cuban refugee revolutionized Hollywood from his adopted home in Los Angeles. Though underappreciated as a showbiz entrepreneur, Arnaz pioneered the three-camera sitcom format, shifted television production from New York to Los Angeles, and created the business model that would sustain the industry and TV production for seven decades.

    33 min

  8. 10/23/2025

    John Freeman sees California as America's literary center

    John Freeman, author of "California Rewritten: A Journey Through the Golden State's New Literature," talks about how California has become America's new literary center, challenging New York's dominance. He discusses the pandemic book club that sparked his journey, the state's evolving mythology, and how diverse voices are redefining what it means to imagine America's future.

    32 min
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The California Sun presents conversations with the people that are shaping and observing the Golden State

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