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California Sun Podcast

Latest episodes

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Mar 13, 2025 • 36min

Chris Roberts unearths San Francisco's toxic nuclear legacy

Journalist Chris Roberts discusses the long-forgotten history of the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Following atomic bomb tests in 1946, the Navy towed radioactive ships to San Francisco, creating a research program that exposed more than a thousand people to varying levels of radiation. Roberts' seven-part series in the San Francisco Public Press, "Exposed," details how the lab conducted human experimentation with questionable consent, incomplete record-keeping, and environmental contamination that plagues redevelopment efforts today. The former shipyard remains a Superfund site marred by cleanup fraud scandals, while surrounding communities face potential health impacts that remain largely unstudied.
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Mar 6, 2025 • 35min

Gregory Weaver on how a land conservation program delivered a windfall to mega-farms

In a two-part Fresnoland investigation, journalist Gregory Weaver exposed the false promise of California's Williamson Act, a tax break created in 1965 to protect agricultural lands from suburban sprawl. The program, tax records showed, now primarily benefits 120 mega-farms that collect roughly half of its $5 billion tax shelter, benefiting Wall Street investors and foreign pension funds. Weaver's reporting details how the system ultimately harms small farmers and depletes precious public resources.
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Feb 27, 2025 • 22min

Randy Shaw champions San Francisco's Tenderloin through decades of change

Randy Shaw is the director of San Francisco's Tenderloin Housing Clinic, founder of the Tenderloin Museum, editor of Beyond Chron, and author of the newly updated book "The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco." For over 45 years, he has advocated for this unique neighborhood which has maintained its character and resisted gentrification. Shaw discusses the Tenderloin's rich history as a refuge for marginalized communities, its struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic when it became a "containment zone" for homelessness and drug problems, and his hopes that Mayor Daniel Lurie will fulfill promises to improve safety and support local businesses.
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Feb 20, 2025 • 28min

Dr. Shayan Rab is taking psychiatry to the streets

Dr. Shayan Rab, associate medical director at Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, explains his revolutionary, if controversial, approach to helping mentally ill homeless individuals. As the county's first street psychiatrist, he created the Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement, or HOME Team, despite resistance from some quarters over concerns about liability and diagnostic protocols. His innovative program combines medical treatment, housing assistance, and human connection. While challenging conventional wisdom, Dr. Rab's work has become a model for how to approach the intersection of mental health and homelessness.
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Feb 13, 2025 • 28min

Lili Anolik maps the orbit between Joan Didion's cool detachment and Eve Babitz's raw sensuality

Lili Anolik, author of the new book "Didion & Babitz," delves into the complex and largely unexplored relationship between literary icons Joan Didion and Eve Babitz in 1960s Los Angeles. Through newly discovered letters and extensive research, Anolik explains how these contrasting personalities — Didion's calculated reserve and Babitz's uninhibited sensuality — shaped our understanding of them and the era. Their story illuminates broader themes about women's voices in American letters, the nature of literary persona, and the price of artistic ambition.
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Feb 6, 2025 • 25min

Dr. Mildred García is driving the CSU system beyond diplomas

As the first Latina chancellor of the California State University system, Dr. Mildred García is seeking to transform the nation's largest public university system. Beyond focusing on diplomas and graduation rates, she is emphasizing career success and employment outcomes for CSU's more than 460,000 students. Her vision includes integrating artificial intelligence education, allowing campuses to reflect their unique communities, and launching programs like Second Start, which helps students who dropped out restart their studies.
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Jan 30, 2025 • 42min

Daniel Swain on the disasters still to come

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources reveals why Los Angeles' recent devastating fires weren't just another disaster, but a harbinger of California's volatile future. Swain explains how climate change created the conditions for unprecedented destruction, and how "hydroclimate whiplash" — or dramatic swings between wet and dry periods — is reshaping our understanding of extreme weather events and challenging traditional approaches to disaster response.
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Jan 23, 2025 • 37min

Stephen Pyne reimagines our ancient pact with fire

Stephen Pyne, a renowned fire historian, discusses how climate change is creating unprecedented conditions for "mean fires" that overwhelm traditional firefighting approaches. He challenges the "war on fire" mindset, arguing instead for viewing fire as a biological force requiring public health-style interventions. Pyne talks about the need to distinguish between urban and wildland fire management, advocating for both hardened cities and controlled burns in wild areas. Drawing from historical lessons and Australia's experience, he warns that without fundamental changes in our approach, California's fire conditions will only worsen.
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Jan 20, 2025 • 20min

Jim Carlton takes us inside the inferno

Jim Carlton, reporting for the Wall Street Journal, takes us beyond the headlines and into the thick of Los Angeles’ wildfire battles. For a recent article, he embedded with a wildfire strike team in Topanga Canyon, where he witnessed the harsh realities faced by the men and women fighting flames in some of the most punishing terrain. From the relentless grind of hand crews to the life-saving precision of aerial bombardments, Carlton gives us an unforgettable look at what it takes to stand against the inferno.
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Jan 16, 2025 • 26min

David Ulin finds hope in a burning city

David Ulin, one of Los Angeles's most perceptive chroniclers and an editor of Joan Didion's collected works, reflects on the city's unprecedented urban wildfires through the lens of history, identity, and belonging. Ulin talks about how disasters in Los Angeles paradoxically forge deeper connections between Angelenos and their landscape. Drawing parallels to 9/11 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, he explores how this watershed moment — with its destruction of thousands of structures across a burn area of roughly 60 square miles — may reshape Southern California's future. 

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