California Sun Podcast Jeff Schechtman

Jan Sramek grew up enamored with the California dream. Today he tells us how he wants to transform that dream into the development of a new 21st-century city on 60,000 acres of rural Solano County. Dubbed California Forever, the project is designed, Sramek says, to reshape the Bay Area housing landscape by adding more than 25,000 homes, creating thousands of jobs, mitigating traffic congestion, and recapturing the spirit of a California that once dreamed big.

What were you doing at 22? Cecilia Lunaparra, a senior at UC Berkeley, was just elected to the Berkeley City Council at that age, making her the youngest and first undergraduate to hold the office. She's not new to activism and making a difference in her community, and thinks that the young people protesting on campus today may be at the forefront of a new revolution.238

Over the years, the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting has typically been awarded to major legacy media brands. However, this year a hyperlocal online publication, the Santa Cruz Lookout, received the prestigious honor for its coverage of the once-in-a-century floods that devastated Santa Cruz in January 2023. Ken Doctor, who founded the Lookout in 2020, details how the newsroom covered the floods, and how it has emerged as a potential model for the future of local journalism.

California has often been identified with divorce, at least in the media. After all, California was the first state to introduce no-fault divorce in 1970 under then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, and celebrity divorces make lots of headlines. Our guest, Lauren Petkin, has been practicing family law in Los Angeles for 36 years. She lays out today's divorce landscape, including mediation vs. litigation, the rise in prenups, collaborative divorce, alimony reforms, and the use of private judges.

In his new book "Cast Out of Eden," Robert McNally removes John Muir from his pedestal and exposes his contempt for the Indigenous peoples whose homeland he helped expropriate. McNally contends that Muir, while rightly celebrated as a nature mystic who introduced the concept of wilderness to Californians and fought for the preservation of wild places, believed that Indigenous people had "no right place in the landscape." The author takes an unflinching look at the troubling aspects of Muir's legacy, arguing that his vision of a pristine wilderness erased the long history of Native Americans on the land.

Bay Area author Sylvia Brownrigg embarked on a captivating journey to uncover family secrets, set against the backdrop of California's allure of reinvention. In her new memoir, "The Whole Staggering Mystery," a lost package sparks an exploration that intertwines identity, hidden family histories, and the enduring influence of the past on the present. Through her evocative storytelling, Brownrigg juggles the essence of reinvention and the longing for self-discovery.