California Sun Podcast

Gary Kamiya, a long-time San Francisco writer and journalist, in a recent article in the Atlantic, zeros in on the tectonic political shifts resulting from San Francisco's voters' recall of three school board members and the district attorney. While few cities have personified the progressive vision more than San Francisco, Kamiya says there seem to be limits to its progressive agenda. Is it a harbinger for other "blue" cities?

David Koepp, one of our most distinguished and prolific screenwriters, turns to the novel for his latest work, "Aurora." Springboarding from our fear of over-dependence on technology, he creates a story sure to scare PG&E, Southern California Edison, and utility companies everywhere. Soon to be a major motion picture from director Kathryn Bigelow, Koepp redefines what "being prepared" really means, whether for the next pandemic, earthquake, or fire.

​​Alexa Koenig is using Silicon Valley tech for the prosecution of war crimes. As the executive director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, she is proving how the device that each of us has in our pockets and which gives us the ability to bear witness to the world might be used to help secure international justice. At a time when atrocities from Ukraine to Uganda are being documented like never before, Koenig, a product of Marin, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco School of Law, is evolving the framework for professionals to use social media and other digital tools to strengthen human rights advocacy and accountability.

In his new book "Inspired," Matt Richtel gets to the heart of why so much of the future seems to happen in California. In this week's podcast, he discusses where creativity comes from and why it gives the state a competitive advantage. Like opposable thumbs, the ability to imagine the future is what makes us human. It is the source of our creativity, our anxiety, and our fulfillment.

Fernando Guerra, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, discusses the aftermath of the primary election and the power of the homeless issue to reshape L.A. and its politics. The nation turned its eyes to Los Angeles this past week, and Guerra helps us better understand the city.

Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times columnist and host of The Times podcast, provides a personal and provocative view of Los Angeles and Southern California politics. He talks of his ongoing feud with Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the endless ads for mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, and the future of young Latino power brokers. With California's June 7 primary election only days away, Arellano shares a perspective on the candidates, elected officials, and Latino vote that you won't hear anywhere else.

Filmmaker John Waters has long been a fixture in San Francisco. After a very rough week, a conversation with him gives us a few moments of levity courtesy of his sometimes twisted worldview. The 76-year-old writer, director, and curator of bad taste has made a career of showing us the weirdest of human behavior. In films including "Pink Flamingo," "Mondo Trash," and "HairSpray" and books such as "CarSick" he's made us laugh or at the very least taken us briefly out of the day's reality. He's now written his first novel, "Liarmouth," which continues the John Water legacy.

Carolyn Chen, a sociologist and professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, argues in her new book "Work Pray Code" that Silicon Valley has become a "techtopia" where workplaces and charismatic leaders now provide for employees' every need. The workplace has become their community, their place of worship, and resulted in the elimination of boundaries between work and life. Remote work may have changed this, but the institutions that might pick up the slack have now disappeared.

Long-time tech journalist Tripp Mickle explains how Steve Jobs's personality defined Apple. He was both a founder and a legend. But his successors, Tim Cook and Jonny Ive each had their own very different ideas about the company's future. Their battle was so fundamental that it deconstructed the company culture built under Jobs. Mickle tells the story in his new book "After Steve." However, the final story is still being written inside Apple's $1 billion dollar headquarters in Cupertino.

Lettie Teaque, a longtime Wall Street Journal wine columnist, created a buzz recently with a column about how the Napa Valley may have jumped the shark with respect to pricing and gentrification. It's a look at $10,000 weekends, $1,700-a-night hotels, and $200 tastings that are becoming de rigueur. What might all this mean for our future perception of Napa Valley and its wines?