California Sun Podcast

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.

Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham, two Bay Area investigative journalists, discuss the systemic corruption and brutality in Oakland's police department, and the more than two-decades-long saga of attempted reforms and explosive scandals. In their recent book, Riders Come Out at Night: Brutality, Corruption, and Cover-up in Oakland, they examine the notorious group of sadistic Oakland cops known as "The Riders."

Lee Herrick is California's newly minted Poet Laureate. The former Fresno Poet Laureate, he also teaches at Fresno City College and the University of Nevada, Reno. He is the author of three noteworthy collections of poetry, "Scar and Flower," Gardening Secrets of the Dead" and "This Many Miles From Desire." Born in South Korea, Herrick discusses his upbringing in Danville and Fresno, his appreciation and love of language, and the role of poetry as a tool for transformation, empowerment, understanding racial division, and seeing both the light and dark of the human condition.

Erica Gies returns to the California Sun podcast to talk about the water crisis we face today...one of too much water in all the wrong places. Flash flooding and storms in one part of the state, massive droughts in others, climate change, and a growing concrete-built environment, have all impacted our plans for water control. Gies explores other options in her recent op-ed in the New York Times and in this podcast. She suggests the use of unique geologic features called paleo valleys, which could be a way for California to find a sustainable solution to an ongoing water crisis.

Erica Hellerstein, a Bay Area journalist, talks about "Grieving California," her moving story about the grief of living in a state often on fire. She talks of our changing landscape, driven by climate change and natural disasters, and how it drives a feeling of nostalgia for a past that no longer exists, and a psychological toll heightened by fear for the future. As we look for solace in old memories, she says, we must come to terms with the fact that we can never go back to what used to be. As Joni Mitchell said, "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."