California Groundbreakers California Groundbreakers

This pandemic has created a major upheaval in Los Angeles, the global hub of entertainment.

We’re now used to streaming movies and TV shows whenever we want, and we’re finding new types of entertainment in places like YouTube, Twitch and TikTok.

So what does the future hold for movie theaters, streaming services, film and TV studios, and the people who work for all of them, when this pandemic ends?

Listen to two experts in entertainment and pop culture who tell us what types of things we’ll be watching in the future, how we’ll be watching then, and what that all means for one of California’s biggest economic forces, the entertainment industry.

GUESTS
* Gene Del Vecchio, adjunct professor of marketing at USC's Marshall School of Business, marketing consultant for the entertainment industry, and author of business books like "Creating Blockbusters" - https://www.marshall.usc.edu/personnel/gene-del-vecchio
* Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at USC, writer/editor of 20 books about media and popular culture, and co-host of the podcast "How Do You Like It So Far?" - https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/henry-jenkins

PODCAST PLAY-BY-PLAY
* 0 to 6:15 min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, and this episode
* 6:15 min - The biggest changes that Del Vecchio and Jenkins made in their entertainment consumption during this pandemic
* 10:30 min - Are movie theaters going to survive?
* 17:40 min - How the movie experience, and types of movies, will change as more of us stop going to the movies
* 23:10 min - What's the relevance of movie stars these days, and will Scarlett Johansson's "Black Widow" lawsuit against Disney change the way they're paid?
* 31:25 min - How the rise of streaming video is changing TV production and the traditional TV and cable networks
* 42:05 min - How GenZ's tastes in entertainment are changing the way Hollywood makes entertainment
* 48:20 min - How social movements are hitting Hollywood (i.e., MeToo, PayUpHollywood, cancel culture), and are they causing significant change?
* 57:25 min - Will Los Angeles remain the epicenter of entertainment, and will Hollywood still be "Hollywood?"
* 1 hr, 30 sec - Del Vecchio and Jenkins' recommendations for what to watch this summer

Silicon Valley has always been the global hub of technology, and in the past 18 months, it has made the tools that allowed Americans -- and the American economy -- to survive the pandemic.

Right now, California’s tech industry is triumphant, and flush with profits. What will it do with all that money and power? And who, if anyone, can restrain tech, and its potential to dominate the way we live our lives?

We talk with Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, about what Big Tech and Silicon Valley are doing – and should be doing – when it comes to misinformation, consumer data, cyberattacks, dealing with Congress and the FBI, and more (https://www.eff.org/about/staff/cindy-cohn).

PODCAST PLAY-BY-PLAY
* 0 to 4:40 min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, and to this episode
* 4:40 min - How Cohn has personally experienced the boons and the banes of pandemic-time technology
* 7:40 min - With the Delta variant of the coronavirus on the rise, should tech be used to create vaccine passports and immunity passports, and for public health monitoring in general?
* 14 min - How privacy and security of our consumer data gathered online has changed during the pandemic
* 18:05 min - How the battle of the Feds vs. Big Tech will affect us
* 25 min - "This is an example of everyone agreeing on a problem and rushing to a really awful solution"
* 28:10 min - What the tech industry should do (or not) about the issue of misinformation vs. freedom of expression
* 33:30 min - Can Silicon Valley protect us from ransomware, spyware and cyberattacks?
* 41:30 min - Why California's "broadband destiny" now has a bright future
* 46 min - Because we're more online now, how can we better protect our digital privacy and freedoms?
* 50:30 min - Silicon Valley is always rising and falling -- how will it do this time post-pandemic?

RESOURCE GUIDE
* Electronic Frontier Foundation's tools for web privacy and security - https://www.eff.org/pages/tools
* EFF's "How to Fix the Internet" Podcast - https://www.eff.org/how-to-fix-the-internet-podcast

California's arts institutions are dealing with budget cuts and revenue shortfalls due to the pandemic, and a reckoning with systemic racism in the art world.

So what progress have they made in diversifying their staffs, their artwork, and their audiences over the past year? And will any of us ever look at art, and the meaning of it, in the same way again?

We talk with two people who present great works of art to the public, but do it in very different ways.

GUESTS
* Thomas Campbell, CEO and director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and former CEO/director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (https://deyoung.famsf.org/Becoming-an-Anti-Racist-Institution)
* Andre Jones, a.k.a. Natty Rebel, designer, muralist and founder/director of the Bay Area Mural Program (https://bamp.netlify.app)


PODCAST PLAY-BY-PLAY
* O to 4 min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, and to this episode

PART ONE: Thomas Campbell
* 4 min - Why Campbell, an Englishman who had a prestigious career in London and New York, decided to make the move to California
* 7:40 min - How he views art in California, California art, and how we perceive it
* 10:25 min - What Campbell learned about leading two top museums through two tough times in U.S. history
* 14:20 min - How George Floyd's murder shaped Campbell's view of the art world, and his decision to create an anti-racist institution
* 20:05 min - What should California's arts institutions be doing to create "blockbuster" exhibitions of non-white-male California artists?
* 26:35 min - Diversifying museum staff and management - do they all need Masters and Ph.D degrees?
* 31:15 min - How to make a museum's board of directors more diverse -- and still have a board that brings in the money needed to run the museum
* 35:25 min - Using California's role as a technology hub to revolutionize art
* 40:50 min - How the inaugural DeYoung Open brought in a new range of art and artists
* 46:10 - What art institutions, and us art lovers, can do to support artists and make the art world more accessible

PART TWO: Andre Jones
* 51:20 min - What brought Jones from the East Coast to the Bay Area, and how his new home has inspired the way he creates art
* 57:20 min - His approach to creating public art
* 59:45 min - How the Bay Area Mural Program got started and is now expanding
* 1hr, 2:25 min - How the events of 2020 made Jones take action as an artist and activist
* 1 hr, 6:55 min - Is the new focus on diversity of art turning into more financial success for artists of color?
* 1 hr, 10:15 min - Creating the new generation of artists
* 1 hr, 13:40 min - Jones' recommendation for public art that really resonates today
* 1:16:10 min - Jones' prediction for the future of public art in California, and how Californians can make that future bright

RESOURCE GUIDE
* Institutional Blog for the Museums of Fine Arts in San Francisco - https://deyoung.famsf.org/blog/category/1494
* Black Liberation Walking Tour in Oakland - https://www.blwt.org

IMAGE CREDIT: "United We Rise" Mural in Downtown Oakland by Divya Bala (https://www.instagram.com/artbydivya/?hl=en)

Few business sectors in California were more battered by the pandemic than the dining industry -- nearly a third of the state’s restaurants permanently closed in the past year, and two-thirds of workers temporarily lost their jobs.

Now as California opens back up, how many restaurants will reopen, and will they bounce back?

We talk with two people who write about California’s dining scene about how restaurants are adapting post-pandemic, and what we should expect now when we go out to eat.

GUESTS
* Janelle Bitker, food enterprise reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle (https://www.sfchronicle.com/author/janelle-bitker)
* Javier Cabral, editor of LA Taco (https://www.lataco.com/author/javiercabral)

PODCAST PLAY-BY-PLAY
* 0 to min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, and this episode
* 4:20 min - Janelle and Javier share their "This Changes Everything" moment covering the food scene in the past 15 months
* 10:25 min - Do people still want to pay $300 for a fine-dining meal?
* 13:30 min - How "ghost kitchens" are changing up the restaurant industry
* 18:45 min - How the labor and racial justice movements are changing up the restaurant industry
* 26:10 min - More people of color being hired as food critics at top California publications -- how will their articles and POVs change our food scene?
* 33:55 min - How we Californians can support and help restaurants stay alive and thrive
* 37:50 min - Janelle and Javier give some of their favorite dining-out picks in SF and LA

RESOURCE GUIDE
* Janelle's eat-here pick in San Francisco: Nari in Japantown (https://www.narisf.com)
* Javier's eat-here pick in Los Angeles: Tamales Elena Y Antojitos in Bell Gardens (http://ordertamaleselenayantojitos.com)
* LA pop-ups: Golden Rice (https://www.goldenrice.co), Little Fish (https://www.instagram.com/littlefish_echopark/?hl=en) and Quarantine Pizza (https://www.instagram.com/quarantinepizzaco/?hl=en)
* Nonprofits that are helping keep restaurants open: SF New Deal(https://sfnewdeal.org)and Restaurants Care (https://restaurantscare.org/get-involved)
* "The Taco Chronicles" on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/81040704)
* "Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles" by Jonathan Gold (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312267230)

The pandemic has changed the concept of physical stores – do we still need them, what’s their purpose now, and how should they change to stay relevant?

And what about the stuff we buy – do we need to have the same things we bought before the pandemic, and do we still need to shop for so much of it?

We talk with two retail experts about how the coronavirus has shaken up the industry, how our consumer spending habits are shifting, and what shopping will look like in the future.

GUESTS
* David Fishbein, co-founder of the Runyon Group, a real-estate development firm in Los Angeles that owns, creates and manages new types of shopping hubs (https://www.voguebusiness.com/consumers/is-la-platform-the-future-of-retail)
* Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association (https://calretailers.com)

PODCAST PLAY-BY-PLAY
* 0 to 4:55 min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, and this episode
* 4;55 min - Notable turns, twists and trends in shopping and retail since the pandemic shutdowns began
* 11:25 min - How stores will look different in this new experiential type of shopping
* 17:40 min - How Amazon -- and everyone buying all their stuff online -- are threatening brick-and-mortar shopping
* 22:50 min - How consumer tastes and trends -- especially those of younger people - are changing what's in and out of style with shopping
* 28:20 - Will shopping malls stick around? And will we still go shopping in our downtowns?

Travel is bouncing back, but there’s still plenty we don’t know about how the pandemic -- and new variants of the coronavirus -- will play out, either here in California or overseas. And those big unknowns are still dramatically shaping the future of travel.

We talk with two California-based travel experts who have been on the road this year about what to expect for local, domestic and international travel, what’s quickly going back to normal, what may be changing permanently, and what’s still to be determined.

GUESTS
* Julia Cosgrove, vice president and editor in chief of Afar Media (https://www.afar.com)
* Hugh Garvey, editor in chief of Sunset Publishing (https://www.sunset.com)

PODCAST PLAY-BY-PLAY
* 0 to min - Intro to California Groundbreakers, and this episode
* 5:25 min - How the pandemic has changed travel trends and people's preferences since shutdown started
* 11:10 min - What travel in California looks like now
* 16:50 min - How shortages (i.e., rental cars, restaurant employees) are going to affect your travel plans
* 19:35 min - New and different types of trips that are now in style
* 27:35 min - Will plane travel be any different or go back to the (unfortunate) norm?
* 33:50 min - The future of the cruise industry
* 36:55 min - How "working from home" and "digital nomads" are reshaping travel
* 41:40 min - Julia and Hugh pick the best California trip to take (after the summer is over)

RESOURCE GUIDE
* Arundhati Roy's travel essay, "The Portal Is a Pandemic," that Julia cited - https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca
* Nominate a place or a person for Sunset Magazine's Travel Awards 2021 by July 16 - https://www.sunset.com/travel/sunset-travel-awards-returning-2021
* What to know about camper van rentals - https://lushpalm.com/camper-van-rentals-california-coast
*Santa Ynez Valley - https://www.visitsyv.com
* Bell's Restaurant in Los Alamos - https://www.bellsrestaurant.com
* White Water Lodge in Cambria - https://whitewatercambria.com