After 75+ shows of the Soul of California, I am closing out the podcast. This finale is a short five minutes, reflecting on the podcast, some of the stories and a few of my takeaways. A MASSIVE thanks to you out there. I hope that you learned something, enjoyed it along the way and felt inspired to go out and have a California experience. I certain…

In this 32-minute episode, Violet Grgich, President of Grgich Hills Estates, discusses the history of the Napa wine producer and the Paris Tasting of 1976, which catapulted her father Mike Grgich, a Croatian villager who fled Yugoslavia to settle in the US, to the center of the wine industry. Violet then touches on the types of wines that Grgich pr…

In this 34-minute episode, UC Santa Cruz artist/scientist Juniper Harrower places the iconic Joshua Tree in the context of the desert, her PhD research (complete with her mom and a ladder), then moves on to the implications of climate change on the tree (min. 6), and her own nod to social media's dating power for the tree (min. 12). She then moves …

In this 17-minute episode, photographer Julian Wasser shares some of his best stories from a 50-year career shooting the titans of entertainment. Julian's lens caught the likes of MLK, the Kennedy brothers, Joan Didion and Roman Polanski, among dozens of others, freezing important moments in time, becoming instantly iconic and acting as a reference…

In this 45-minute podcast, Richard Strozzi-Heckler shares the importance of the body in leadership. The eyes, the walk, shoulders, breathing - it plays a massive role in how you are perceived and the confidence that you exude. Richard gives background on the Dojo (the place) and the Soma (the whole body) and its role in leadership, then moves onto …

In this 33-minute episode, Lauren Jabusch of the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) discusses the increasingly important influence and financial impact that divestment is having within the public school system. Lauren starts with CSSC's origins as well as the massive reach of the Golden State's public university system and its multi…

In this 41-minute podcast, Stanford’s Paul Brest (and former President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation) gives an overview of the philanthropy sector, explaining the growth of foundations, the trade-off between a foundation and a donor-advised fund and the coordination of foundation policy on big bets, particularly climate change. Much o…

In this 41-minute episode, cancer survivor Cheryl Buck shares her own experiences of being one of 1.6 million per year diagnosed with cancer. To her, the tumor is just a symptom of an imbalance - the real problem rests with a body's metabolism. Cheryl disregarded the usual “cut, burn or poison” approach, embracing the protocol advocated by Dr. Max …

In this 39-minute podcast, Obi Kaufmann takes us on a big picture ride of the system, indeed the organism, that is California. Fresh off the surprise hit of his California Field Atlas, Kaufman recounts his beginnings as a painter, respect for the environment verging on the spiritual and his hope about the “wild reimagining” of the Golden State. Obi…

Politician, icon, myth, Jerry Brown leaves an impression on everyone. Love him or loath him, he is the governor of the 5th largest global economy, with the (moral) authority resembling that of a head of state. In this 55-minute podcast, journalist Narda Zacchino shares with us the background to Brown's 1970s revolution as the State's youngest gover…

In this 52-minute podcast, author Deborah Miranda discusses the plight of Native Americans in California, who underwent near genocide over the course of two centuries with the Spanish, the Mexicans and then the Americans all but ensuring their extinction. Deborah begins with the historical context and the role of the church, the defamation of Nativ…

In this 52-minute podcast, Richard Walker, author of Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity, discusses the negatives impacts that the Tech Boom has had in the analog world - housing, sprawl, labor, you name it.... Richard talks about the origins of the book, then moves on to inequality (min. 6), why we hate the word "class" (…

In this 29-minute podcast, Viet Nguyen discusses The Sympathizer, which takes aim at the Vietnam genre, particularly Coppela’s Apocalypse Now, and how it is ripe for parody. He then moves into the impact of literature vs. film (min. 5) and the duality of 30 April - the day in 1975 when Saigon fell (min. 9). Viet shares with listeners the body of li…

In this 49-minute discussion, the Godfather of Multiculturalism Ishmael Reed discusses his writing (min. 7), his love of contagions and his just released book Conjugating Hindi (min. 10) and critical acclaim outside of the US (min. 17). He then continues regarding the establishment and the “space” for minority viewpoints, his thoughts on teaching (…

In this 21-minute episode, Kristine Poggioli, co-author with Carolyn Eidson of Walking San Francisco's 49 Mile Scenic Drive, discusses how Carolyn and her implemented a new year's resolution, walking what was originally created to be enjoyed behind the wheel. Kristine tells about the drive's origins and then talks about some of her favourite walks,…

In this 33-minute podcast, Susan Anderson of the African American Museum and Library (AAMLO) in Oakland provides the history and context of AAMLO, describes some of its archives and recent events. Shell equally reflects on who writes which narrative, with California not being part of the usual US narrative. Susan also touches on the digital/analog …

Novelist. Law Professor. Art Critic. Yxta Maya Murray juggles her life between the three. In this 37-minute interview, Whiting Award winner Yxta discusses how listening to defendants tell their story inspired her to come up with 26 lines of text per day. She then continues with how she juggled writing and a legal career (min. 6), treasures from Lat…

In this 29-minute episode, David Laws recounts the history and background of the "Fairchild Eight" and their Notebooks, what makes them so special technologically and the personalities of each one (min. 6). David then talks about the equivalent today (min. 14), its complete analog beginnings and the memory challenge (min. 16) and closes with how th…

The brainchild of the Packard family and built out of the enormous success that has been the Monterey Bay Aquarium, MBARI is a global leader in oceanography, with an extensive array of equipment and the leadership and R&D to back it up. In this 35-minute podcast, Judith Connor discusses MBARI's origins and mission, the specificities and advantages …

The Best of 2017 - 26 minutes of snippets of some of the policies, persons and personalities that defined the Soul of California this year. In the following order: UCLA's Donald Shoup on why company parking is massively unjust: Bassist Nathan East on picking up a guitar for the first time; Secretary Norman Mineta on being a “non-alien” of Japanese …

In this 38-minute podcast, Joe Lewis shares with listeners Noah Purifoy (1917-2004) the man, the social worker, the Director of the Watts Towers and pioneering arts advocate and activist. Known for his work with the vernacular, read “junk”, which started in 1965 using debris leftover from the Watts Rebellion, Purifoy worked steadily out of Los Ange…

Dana Johnson talks about a different side of Los Angeles, one that is under the radar and usually on the other side of the tracks. In this 38-minute podcast, Johnson discusses the changing nature of LA and the suburbs of West Covina where she grew up, the portrayal of a different LA in film (min. 10), her writing style and schedule (min. 12), how s…

In this 39-minute podcast, Stephen Provost (pronounced Provo), author of Highway 99 - California’s Main Street, takes listeners down one of American's first highways. Stephen starts out with how California led the way in highway building and the adaption of signs and traffic safety and then moves on to the construction of the mythic Grapevine and t…

In this 43-minute podcast, Earle Labor gives an extensive overview of Jack London, starting with his two mothers and two fathers and the hard life that he had as a kid (“poverty made me hustle”). Earle then discusses ultimate vs. immediate happiness and the havoc that it wreaked on his life (min. 4) and also argues that London had a substantial “se…

In this 37-minute episode, Michael Dear, author of Why Walls won’t Work, takes us through the evolution of the US-Mexico border from quaint and lacklustre demarcations to its current full-fledged military industrialisation. Michael talks about the rise of borderland mentalities (min. 4) slowly etched into those living in that region, the intertwine…

In this 65-minute interview, writer Luis Rodriguez discusses his nine lives, going from being a barely pubescent gang member in East LA and the San Gabriel Valley, to being shot at, doped up and finding redemption through the arts, literature and his own writing. After all this, he sets an example to others facing the same temptations and challenge…

In this 39-minute podcast, Jim Harris of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation provides listeners an insight into the history and ongoings at one of the US’s most iconic structures. After touching on its original purpose (treating sewage), Jim and I discuss the true and not to true stories such as the Route 66 and the origins of Popeye (min. 7), and ci…

In this episode, TC Boyle discusses the impact that humans have on their environment, citing the Channel Islands, the Galapagos of North America. We then take a tour d’horizon covering writing (min. 12), his historical fiction (min. 20), the disappointment of Hollywood for writers and his tenure as a professor (min. 22). We continue, referring to h…

94 years young - Betty Reid Soskin sparkles with insight, humility and at times giddiness as to what she has been able to experience. In this 40-minute podcast, Betty discusses moving to Oakland when Calvin Coolidge (!) was US President and tells life as she experienced it - the unpleasantness of racism in her community (including death threats) an…

As a 19-year old, Clayborne Carson went to the March on Washington, which some in the civil rights struggle deemed a “picnic”. That aside, the March dramatically affected him, turning Clayborne into an activist, based out of Los Angeles. Moving from activist/journalist to a Stanford professor, Clayborne went on to publish the papers of Martin Luthe…

Chuck Prophet’s new album “Bobby Fuller died for your sins” was just released to very solid reviews. In this 30-minute podcast, Chuck describes the album as California Noir, and discusses a few of the album’s standout tracks. He then touches upon his recording and writing style and his collaboration with the poet klipschutz and many others. Chuck a…

Judy Baca shares a life in the arts that began when Spanish-only speaking Baca drew and painted as a way to communicate. In the early 1970s, she worked in LA's parks with rival gangs, spearheading the first wave of mural painters in the 1970s. Since then, her work and influence went viral - inner cities awash in murals, leading to more engaged yout…

In this 36-minute podcast, former Secretary of Transport Norman Mineta recounts his response to the 9/11 attacks. His day started innocuously enough in a meeting with the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and finished in a bunker, deep below an empty White House. It was there that he gave the orders to ground the more than 4,600 planes at that time in …

Norman Mineta has lived the 20th century. Born in San Jose, Mineta’s life was typical of a Japanese-American family, at least until World War II. For his being a “non-alien” of Japanese descent, Mineta and his family were interned first at Santa Anita racetrack and then in Wyoming. He brushed off the initial discrimination of his early years to bec…

Bassist Nathan East has been keeping busy - contributing to 2,000 albums over the last 35 years, touring with Clapton for decades, contributing 25% to jazz quartet Fourplay - all starting from humble beginnings at Christ the King Church in San Diego, where he first picked up a guitar with four strings…. In this 28-minute podcast, Nathan discusses h…

We’re all guilty of it, cruising for parking, hoping for a free space. But what’s the downside? In this 33-minute podcast, UCLA’s Donald Shoup gives us a rundown on parking’s catastrophic inefficiencies, highlighting poor policy and planning and the outright injustice of the entire sector. Donald shares how he became involved in the sector, the act…

In this 20-minute podcast, Wild Records founder Reb Kennedy shares his experiences in starting an East LA-based record label from scratch. Reb discusses his approach to finding promising, yet struggling and immature bands and turning them into proper acts. Over the course of the last 15 years, Reb has played a number of roles with his label’s music…

This 32-minute episode takes a look back at a few of this year’s best stories and reflections. In the following order, we have: Shelly Spiegel-Coleman on the need for a dignified and humane approach to the treatment of illegal immigrants and their families; Sabrina Fendrick of Berkeley Patients Group on the domination of women in the cannabis indus…

Here is the latest SoC podcast on bilingual education with leading proponent Shelley Spiegel-Coleman of Californians Together. Shelley and her colleagues are fresh from an electoral mandate to implement bilingual education all over the Golden State, the first State in the nation to offer a Seal of Biliteracy. In this 30-minute podcast, she recounts…

With Proposition 64 passing, marijuana is legal in California. In this 39-minute podcast, Sabrina Fendrick of Berkeley Patients Group gives listeners a history of the century old “Reefer Madness” stereotypes, runs us through the changes in legislation (min. 7), the economic aspects, both the freeing up of the criminal justice system and the potenti…

In this 25-minute podcast, Dr. Emily Burns of Save the Redwoods League discusses how scientists can now measure the carbon content of Redwood and Giant Sequoia trees, and how these trees hold much more than previously thought. Emily explains how the teams, consisting of scholars from Humboldt State University and UC Berkeley, have been able to exam…

The Transamerica building in San Francisco, Los Angeles International Airport, Pepperdine University, UCSD's Geisel Library, even master planning the city of Irvine, William Pereira’s buildings are littered all over California. A career embedded in the mid-20th century at a very special moment in history - the creation of a suburban metropolis in o…

Magnus Torén of the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur provides listeners with a deeper undestaning of Big Sur - one of the most mythic places in California. In this 42-minute podcast, Magnus discusses hitchhiking down the coast to Big Sir in the late 1970s, the work of the Henry Miller Library (where "nothing happens" - min. 2), how Miller first arri…

Lindsay Hatton's novel Monterey Bay takes on a lot - Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck and the founding of the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. She squarely takes on that history and legacy, delivering an enjoyable and thought provoking examination of character set against the tapestry of the Monterey peninsula. In this 28-minute podcast, Lindsay talk…

In this 39-minute podcast, singer-songwriter Louise Goffin discusses the release of her latest album The Essential Louise Goffin, Volume 1, reflecting on the choice of songs and the origin of several of them. She then discusses the songwriting process generally, her favourite instrument, sharing the same profession as her parents, performing recent…

Here is episode two of the interview with Eames scholar Daniel Ostroff, author of An Eames Anthology. In this 21-minute podcast, Daniel talks about what separates an Eames piece from pseudo designers (and why there is no serious threat to copyright infringement), Apple and “good design”, how Daniel’s poor choice of rented furniture in a high profil…

Charles and Ray Eames are a couple that left an indelible mark on modern design. Based out of Los Angles for the majority of their careers, the two worked on all things design and in a considerable amount of media, whether it be wood, wire, film or toys. Those in Los Angeles are able to see their 1949 masterpiece Case Study House #8, which sits tod…

As California enters the 21st Century, it is in real need of a “Re-Coding” - making it ready to maintain its Top 10 global economic position. UCLA Institute for the Environment and Sustainability's Jon Christensen discusses this "Re-Coding", the importance of not only financial muscle and political will, but also cultural adjustment, particularly i…

The city of Bakersfield served as an unlikely centre of a new kind of country music, one tinged with electricity, which catapulted musicians Buck Owens and Merle Haggard to international acclaim. We take a different approach for this show and interview a practitioner - Dallas Good of the Toronto-based Sadies. The Sadies have cross-polinated a numbe…

In this podcast, Akers Chacón discusses California’s draconian Prop 187, the United Farm Workers change in tactics and discusses policy improvement in an election year. He continues with a commentary on the European refugee influx, integration and language acquisition, the value of bilingual education and the influence of Marx in bringing about cha…