California Sun Podcast

Matt Richtel, a Pulitzer prize-winning technology and science journalist for the N.Y. Times, is the author of "An Elegant Defense." In this week's podcast, he reminds us that while we search for the vaccine or the antiviral for the human operating system, we already have one. It's not made by McAfee or Microsoft, but rather it's our complex immune system. It's a system that is both saving us and also killing us.

Maybe we should be trying to solve our current coronavirus crises in Silicon Valley, and not at the National Institutes of Health? This week we talk with journalist Chip Walter, who takes us inside the work of a group of well-known tech boomer billionaires trying to find a way to achieve immortality by stopping the aging process.

Steve Lopez is one of California's legendary columnists and reporters. In his 45th year in journalism, 20 of those writing a column for the L.A. Times, Lopez's life has merged with the fabric and lifeblood of the city he covers. The author of the best-selling book "The Soloist" shares his views on his career in journalism, housing, and the future of California and Los Angeles.

Conor Dougherty — New York Times economics reporter, Bay Area native, and the author of "Golden Gates" — looks deeply into California's housing crisis, the historical economic forces that have driven it, the sad results we see on our streets, and the activists pushing for new public policies. He explains how and why what's happening in California should be a cautionary tale for the rest of the country.

Naomi McDougall Jones lays out the battle lines for gender parity in Hollywood. The actress, writer, and producer — whose Ted talk "What it's like to be a woman in Hollywood" has more than a million views, and whose new book is "The Wrong Kind of Women" — has helped ignite a new conversation about the women-in-film movement.

David Talbot, a long time Bay Area journalist and political activist returns to the California Sun podcast to share a reimagined view of the world after his life-threatening stroke. His near-death experience, and what he learned from it, is also the story of our times.

Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times film critic for almost 30 years and the regular film critic for NPR's "Morning Edition," looks at the state of Hollywood on the eve of the Oscars. He describes a business edgier than some of this year's movies, one that's operating far out on the precipice of change and about to be eaten by Netflix.

State Sen. Scott Wiener makes his case for SB 50 by first reminding us that almost one-third of the nation's housing shortage is in California. In homes per capita, California ranks 49th among U.S. states. Wiener argues that the California tradition of extreme local control of zoning has not worked, while sprawl continues and adds to our environmental woes. For too long, he says, we've allowed cites to do whatever they want in a race to the bottom.

Jared Farmer — an environmental historian and geohumanist, sometimes just called "the tree guy" — chronicles California's post-Gold Rush history through the evolution of four emblematic tree species: redwood, eucalyptus, orange, and palm. As they have changed, so have we. His observations remind us how what is perceived as natural is often just a jumble of cultural legacies.

Thomas Wolf wants to use his experience with and recovery from drugs and homelessness on the streets of the Tenderloin as an opportunity to help others, thank the police officer who rescued him, and reinvent San Francisco's response to the drug crisis.