California Sun Podcast

Victoria Chang, the author of six collections of poetry, was recently awarded USC's prestigious 2023 Chowdhury Prize in Literature. Her work covers a wide range of subjects, including art, film, history, and grief and she gives particularly insight into the elusive nature of identity. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Harvard, and Stanford, she shares some of her history and words with us.

Dean King, in his new book, Guardians of the Valley, shares the origin story  of John Muir, which equally involves his editor Robert Underwood Johnson.  Through a powerful personal relationship Muir and Johnson combined Muir’s vision of nature, his elegant writing and Johnson’s penchant for action. Together they got people to come journey to the wilderness, founded the Sierra Club and saved Yosemite. All with a humanity that got people to appreciate nature, more than just preserving it.   

Eric Porter, the author of "A People's History of SFO," sees the nation's No. 1 ranked large airport, San Francisco International, as a metaphor for the Bay Area. He explores how SFO and other airports mirror their cities' art, culture, and values. While emphasizing the significant role public art plays in enhancing the airport experience, he explains how just observing people at any airport reveals much about the community, its workforce, and class structure. 

California is on the verge of becoming the 4th largest economy in the world. Its economic and cultural impact ripples around the globe, and taxes on its tech economy provide a large portion of our state's budget. The city of Palo Alto, home of Stanford University, sits at the epicenter of this modern world. Yet Malcolm Harris, author of the new book "Palo Alto," argues on this week’s podcast that it’s an economy he thinks we should be ashamed of, built on misery and inequity.

Southern California is often associated with beaches, bungalows, and opulence, but there is more to the region than Los Angeles and Hollywood. Riverside, San Bernardino, and other often-overlooked areas reveal a Southern California of warehouses, workers, farms, and freeways that is home to diverse and deeply connected communities. In her latest book, "Mecca," the celebrated novelist Susan Straight tells an epic story that captures these communities and explores the lives of native Californians navigating race, history, and family. Straight, who was born and raised in Riverside and still lives there, has been writing about Southern California and the Inland Empire for over 40 years. She shares some of that story with us. 

Kanishka Cheng, an urban planner, served 15 years in housing and community development in San Francisco government. In this week’s podcast, she shares why she resigned from city government to lead TogetherSF, an organization she co-founded with Mike Moritz, whose recent New York Times op-ed on San Francisco's political dysfunction set off a vigorous debate. TogetherSF is dedicated to activating citizens to address what Cheng says are the issues that San Francisco politicians have been unable or unwilling to solve.

Lila LaHood discusses her work as the Publisher of the San Francisco Public Press, an online, radio, and streaming news outlet. Her efforts are part of a growing group of nascent but thriving local news initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. From time to time we have taken a look at these efforts and how they are contributing to community news and cohesion. 

Mark Rozzo, journalist and the author of "Everybody Thought We Were Crazy," shares with us a glimpse of the cultural and cinematic revolution that defined Los Angeles in the 1960s. Rozzo acts as a time machine, taking us back to the era when Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward played significant roles in birthing a new cultural and Hollywood movement. One that would ultimately shape both Los Angeles and the film industry for decades to come.

Peggy Orenstein, the Bay Area author, took advantage of her time during the pandemic to embark on a unique adventure at a ranch in Sonoma County. During this conversation and in her book "Unraveling," she shares her story about learning the art of sheep shearing, wool dying, spinning, and even creating a sweater from start to finish. As she recounts her journey, she weaves together themes of freedom, bravery, politics, and modernity.

John Gedmark thinks California can still be a center of aerospace innovation. The founder and CEO of Astranis is building satellites in a building that once produced war ships within walking distance of Chase Center in San Francisco. Gedmark explains how he set out to solve what he sees as one of the world's great problems, bringing broadband internet to the most remote and rural parts of the world. How he set out to do it, the huge technical challenges, why he chose the Bay Area, and how his success is helping the community are all parts of a story he shares with us.