Gregory Weaver on how a land conservation program delivered a windfall to mega-farms
Release Date: 03/06/2025
Scott Alan Lucas on San Francisco, misinformation, and the killing of Bob Lee
California Sun Podcast
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Jim Newton on freedom, community, Jerry Garcia, and the Grateful Dead
California Sun Podcast
Jim Newton joins us to discuss his new book "," exploring how Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead emerged from 1960s California to become unlikely architects of America's counterculture. Newton reveals Garcia as a reluctant icon who feared leadership yet created a multigenerational community that thrives decades after his death. We explore the Dead's anti-commercial ethos, their role as cultural catalysts rather than political activists, and how their California values of freedom and authenticity continue to influence everything from music to tech culture.
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Sam Yebri on L.A.'s decline and a path forward
California Sun Podcast
Sam Yebri, a young Yale-educated labor attorney and board president of the civic organization Thrive LA, offers a stark assessment of Los Angeles's decline. Yerbi arrived as a refugee from Iran to L.A., where he has embodied the American dream in a city that has served as a beacon for immigrants and dreamers. But he paints a not-so hopeful picture of crime, homelessness, and corruption overwhelming the city. Yebri believes change is possible but requires new leadership and greater civic engagement.
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Matt Ritter and Michael Kauffmann on California's iconic native trees
California Sun Podcast
Matt Ritter, a botany professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Michael Kauffmann, a research plant ecologist, have written a new definitive guide to California's 95 native tree species, "." The authors discuss their field work across the state, from the rare conifers of the Klamath Mountains to the Joshua trees of the Southern California desert. They reveal how citizen science and new mapping techniques are documenting biodiversity hotspots, and how climate change and wildfires are rapidly reshaping California's forests.
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Gene Seroka: At the helm of America's busiest port
California Sun Podcast
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, oversees a gateway that handles 20% of America's incoming cargo and powers one in nine jobs in Southern California. In this conversation, he reveals how the 7,500-acre complex serves as an economic bellwether, highlighting trends months before consumers feel them. From automation debates to tariff-induced cargo swings, Seroka explains how what happens at the port ripples through California's economy and shapes global trade.
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Christopher Beam on how AI safety birthed a killing spree
California Sun Podcast
Christopher Beam, in a recent , reveals how a group of brilliant minds from Google, NASA, and the rationalist movement in Berkeley became part of a murderous cult-like group known as the "Zizians." He story recounts six deaths, from a blood-soaked Vallejo property to a fatal Vermont shootout. Unlike Charles Manson's dropouts, these tech elites weaponized artificial intelligence fears and rational thinking into deadly extremism, which was enabled by California’s tolerance for radical ideas.
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Sharona Nazarian on leading Beverly Hills' Iranian diaspora through crisis
California Sun Podcast
Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian fled Iran with her family during the revolution to escape religious persecution, learning English as her third language before building a career in clinical psychology. Now the first Iranian American woman to lead the city, she governs a diverse community where roughly 20% of the population trace its roots to Iran. As war unfolds in the Middle East, she's tells us how she's become the de facto voice of a diaspora caught between American dreams and a longing for peace in their homeland.
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Josh Jackson discovers California's BLM lands
California Sun Podcast
Josh Jackson, author of the new book "" found a hidden refuge in the mountains and prairies of California's 15 million acres of Bureau of Land Management lands. In times of crisis and uncertainty, we often turn to nature for solace and perspective. These overlooked "commons," dismissed as leftover lands too harsh for homesteaders and too ordinary for national parks, offer free camping, wildlife corridors, and democratic access to wilderness. They now face threats from proposed selloffs and budget cuts.
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Gustavo Arellano on demonstrations, deportations, and downtown L.A.
California Sun Podcast
Gustavo Arellano, the longtime Los Angeles Times columnist and chronicler of the Latino community, brings his deeply personal perspective to the immigration crackdown unfolding in Los Angeles. He shares observations from the epicenter of protests that have drawn President Trump's National Guard deployment. Born to a Mexican father who as a teenager, Arellano's voice carries both the weight of historical context and the urgency of someone who sees his community under siege.
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Michael Hiltzik deconstructs the California dream
California Sun Podcast
Michael Hiltzik, the author of "," examines five centuries from the Spanish conquistadors to Silicon Valley, challenging the enduring mythology that has shaped both California and America. Rather than offer another celebration of the California dream, Hiltzik reveals how the state has served as America's testing ground — where national ideals about opportunity, innovation, and reinvention were both realized and betrayed. The state's true history, he argues, provides essential insights into America's character and future.
info_outlineIn 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.