What is California?

Stu VanAirsdale

5.0 (8)
PLACES & TRAVEL
UPDATED WEEKLY

Conversations with notable Californians in a quest to understand the Golden State

11/29/2022

Farewell (for now!) from 'What is California?'

===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com

3 min
11/15/2022

Episode 39: Anita Chabria

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

41 min
11/08/2022

Episode 38: Dan Walters

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

59 min
11/01/2022

Episode 37: Ellen Pao

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

44 min
10/25/2022

Episode 36: Alicia Garza

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

43 min
10/18/2022

Episode 35: Greg Lucas

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

51 min
10/11/2022

Episode 34: Rep. Jackie Speier

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

43 min
10/04/2022

Episode 33: Dr. Garen Wintemute

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 ===== Produced, hosted and edited by Stu VanAirsdale Theme music: Sounds Supreme Twitter: @WhatCalifornia Substack newsletter: whatiscalifornia.substack.com Email: hello@whatiscalifornia.com 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.

1h 3m

5

out of 5

8 Ratings

Conversations with notable Californians in a quest to understand the Golden State

Creator

Stu VanAirsdale
Years Active

2021 - 2022
Episodes

44
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2021 Stu VanAirsdale
Show Website

What is California?