What Does Systemic Change in California Look Like?

We're doing a specific group of podcasts this summer-- conversations focused on what systemic change looks like, particularly here in California, in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

Each conversation features two people: a young leader who has galvanized others by speaking out and leading demonstration and campaigns, and a "veteran" activist/ decision maker who has been working on race equity and justice issues for decades.

First up: Activist Stevante Clark and Chief Bon Harrison
These are two people who often look at law enforcement from opposing sides: a former police chief, and an activist whose brother's death at the hands of police officers made national headlines and led to California's groundbreaking police-use-of-force law.

The second conversation: Student Xavier Clark and Assemblyman Kevin McCarty
We look at some proposed laws on racial justice and equality that are being put for a vote by the state legislature, followed by California residents on the November ballot. Talking about them are a 19-year-old college student who helped to get 15,000 people protesting on the streets of Oakland last month about police brutality, and a state politician who proposed some of these new laws.

These conversations could have gone in any direction -- listen to find out how the two men agree on some things, disagree on others, and decide where to take this conversation next.

Listen to Our "New Normal in California" Podcasts

Doing live, in-person events is off the table for a while, but we’re still interviewing Californians doing groundbreaking things during “Pandemic Time.”

So here is our podcast series “The New Normal in California.” We started it in April, and over the summer – or however long it takes before we get the all-clear to leave our houses and enter other places again – we’ll be looking at the ways our coronavirus-affected lives are changing over the short- and long-term, and talking with Californians who are making significant change in this New Normal.

Episode 1: How DId This Thing Get Started? We talk with a top UC Davis epidemiologist about animals, humans, how they mix, how that leads to deadly pandemics, and how we can reduce them.

Episode 2: How Will This Thing (Hopefully) End? A conversation with two UC Davis medical researchers who are part of the global team working round-the-clock on the race to create an effective vaccine.

Episode 3: Ordinary People Doing Amazing Things We talk with a couple of guys who stepped up to make protective gear for essential workers, and got their local communities to volunteer time, skills and financial support.

Episode 4: One Chef’s Plan to Feed California and Save Its Restaurants Patrick Mulvaney started cooking up his biggest project yet: serving thousands of meals to Sacramento’s most vulnerable people. And now his project is scaling statewide.

Episode 5: Fixing California’s Broken Food Supply Chain A conversation with a cattle rancher and a farming advocate who are literally “in the field” and seeing how pandemic-induced glitches in the food supply chain are playing out.

Episode 6: Grocery Stores and Their Post-Pandemic Future A top executive at Raley’s Supermarkets tells us how the lessons grocery stores are learning today will shape the way we all get our groceries in the future.

Episode 7: TV and Podcast Picks to Pass the Pandemic Time A few people who read books, watch TV and produce podcasts for a living, give us their picks for current news, "comfort food" selections, learning new skills and hobbies, connecting better with others, and celebrating life.

Episode 8: Strategies for Keeping Your Mental Health Strong and Sound The Chief Wellness Officer at UC Davis Health System gives tips and advice for being less stressed and more upbeat.

Episode 9: The Future of Restaurants A Michelin-starred chef and the CEO of the California Restaurant Association tell us what dining out will look like in the New Normal.

Christine Pelosi Discusses the Book She Wrote About Her Famous Mom

Mom knows best . . . especially when she’s the Speaker of the House. So Christine Pelosi decided to write a book about her mom, Nancy, the homemaker and mother of five who became a Congresswoman from San Francisco and is now the most powerful woman in U.S. politics.

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, so we've started a new Q&A series called “The Women in Charge,” focusing on California women who are doing groundbreaking things in policy and politics, both here in the Golden State and around the nation.

We kicked things off by having a conversation with Christine Pelosi, a political mover and shaker herself (she’s currently Chair of the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus), an attorney, an author and the second-oldest of Nancy Pelosi’s five children. Her latest book is The Nancy Pelosi Way: Advice on Success, leadership and Politics from America’s Most Powerful Woman.

Whether you are a Dem, a Rep, something else or on the fence, you’ll learn some good management skills and leadership savviness from Nancy Pelosi on how to manage your career and move up the ladder.

Listen to the podcast of Christine discussing her mom, and what we can learn from the Speaker to get things done and move up the ladder.

Meatless Meats, Plant-Based Ice Cream and the Rise of the New "Alt Proteins"

Nom nom nom... our 1st event of 2020 was an especially tasty one because Burger Patch in Sacramento brought their meatless burgers and dairy-less shakes, and we ended things with scoops of plant-based chocolate ice cream served up by Eclipse Foods, a Bay Area-based startup that wants to be “the Impossivle Foods of dairy.” And it all tasted delicious.

Equally satisfying was this “ Food for Thought” discussion about Alt Proteins — clean meats, nut milks, plant-based ice cream that tastes just as good as the real thing — and how California is leading the charge in creating them and marketing them to the rest of the world.

Will they change the world? Are they truly a healthier choice for us? Are they a better alternative for the environment? Listen to the podcast discussion. And next time, join us for a live event — we’re always serving up something good for the crowd.

Gavin Newsom's Go-To Guy for Advice on California Business and the Economy

Our final “Policy and a Pint” of 2019 was a talk with a former dairy-farm boy from the Central Valley who is now the go-to guy for Governor Newsom about California’s economy, job growth, economic development and getting the High Speed Rail train built.

Lenny Mendoca’s mission now is to make the Central Valley the most desirable place to live in California, with good jobs, great transit, more housing and less inequality.

Listen to our podcast of this talk with Mendonca to find out how California’s head honcho of economic/ business development is doing on getting Bay Area CEOs interested in a valley that’s called something other than Napa, Sonoma or Silicon.

And because Mendoca is owner of Half Moon Bay Brewing, and moderates a similar speaker series called “Brews and Views,” we figured Ruhstaller Beer’s basement taproom in Downtown Sacramento was the best place to talk with him.

Our "Icebreaker" Podcast: Talking Wildfires with California's Top Firefighter

With fires blazing yet again in Wine Country and the hills of Los Angeles, PG&E power outages, and historic, triple-digit-m.p.h. windstorms blowing through the state, we thought it would be a good time to talk with someone who could help us make some sense of all this Wildfire Season craziness, someone with 30-plus years of experience dealing with it on a daily basis.

So we sat down with California's top firefighter Ken Pimlott, the just-retired head of Cal Fire, who was in charge over the past 8 years of putting out (in)famous blazes like the Wine Country, Woolsey, Mendocino Complex, Carr and Camp Fires.

Listen to our Icebreaker podcast for Pimlott's take on the latest round of fires blazing; last year's historic Wildfire Season and the 103 people it killed; PG&E and its power shutoffs; what he was thinking while briefing Jerry, Gavin and Donald about the Camp Fire (see photo above); and more.

Hear How These Two People Are Shaping Sacramento's Skyline

We were so impressed with the things these two people said at our "Groundbreakers Q&A,” and how they represent the "old" and the "new" of Sacramento architecture, design and urban planning.

Kris Barkley, design director of Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture (sitting on the right in this photo), is taking great care of his firm's 70-year-old history and reputation, leading projects like renovating the Modernist gem of SMUD's Headquarters Building (originally designed and built by Dreyfuss and Blackford back in 1959), and building the new Powerhouse Science Center on the Sacramento River.

Nikky Mohanna is definitely one to watch as she builds innovative new residences in Sacramento, like the just-opened 19J Midtown and the about-to-break-ground 10K. She has forward-thinking ideas about urban planning and the uses of buildings for live/work/play, and she's bringing a "let's think outside the box" mindset to her discussions with Sacramento's city planners, construction firms and architects.

These two were so much fun to interview. And you can listen for yourself in our podcast of this great conversation.

Getting the "Farm to Fork" Movement into California's Public Schools

First, a shout-out to Curt Miller of Miller's Citrus Grove in Penryn. He was tired of sitting around at farmers markets every weekend, so he contacted Sacramento City Unified School District and asked if they would buy all the citrus they wanted, and he would deliver it himself. That's how many students learned about -- and loved -- mandarins. Miller was one of the first farmers to work with Sac City Unified to get its "Farm to School" efforts into high gear.

That's one of the many interesting facts we learned in this great "Food for Thought" panel talk we held last month. ( There's also a useful "Farm to School" resource list of organizations listed here that panelists mentioned during their talk.)

It's a great 90-minute discussion, but if you're pressed for time, go to the 58:05-minute mark to learn how smaller school districts can emulate Sac City Unified's efforts and/or to the 1 hr-7 minute mark, where panelists give their most recent successes in getting Farm to Fork into Schools.

Refer to the "Podcast Play by Play" section to zero in on specific parts of the conversation.

Just in time for PG&E's "public safety power shutoff" - our discussion about living in a high-risk wildfire zone

We uploaded this podcast just as PG&E did its scheduled-in-advance power shutdown in Butte, Nevada and Yuba Counties, but there are plenty of other people in California’s high-risk zones who can listen and learn during this latest Red Flag Warning period.

We took a road trip to hold this conversation (our 50th event!) at the lovely Gold Rush town of Auburn because, according to Cal Fire maps, it sits in the “high” risk zone of wildfire hazards, and it’s right next to the “very high” risk zone that includes much of the Sierra Nevadas, including Paradise, Grass Valley and Nevada City, and all of Lake Tahoe.

For our second event focusing on “Wildfire Season,” we’re talking with a great group of panelists whose jobs involved making a lot of big decisions about the wildfires that hit California in the past few years. They explain those decisions and what it means to live in a risk zone for wildfires, and give advice on what you need to know, how you need to prepare; how things are changing, from forest management and firefighting to utility usage and homeowners’ insurance policies; and how all that will probably change your lifestyle and the place you live.

Listen here on Soundcloud, or upload it from iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Stitcher or any other podcast hub of your choice.

PANELISTS
* Todd Leopold, county executive officer for Placer County
* Michael Picker, newly-retired president of the California Public Utilities Commission
* Ken Pimlott, newly-retired chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal-Fire)
* Seren Taylor, senior legislative advocate for the Personal Insurance Federation of California

A "Groundbreakers Q&A" with the ultimate Trekkie: UC Davis Chancellor Gary May

In our great conversation at Antiquite Midtown on September 9, Gary May talks about:

* his Top 3 episodes of "Star Trek," and his favorite character from that show

* why comic books are a great educational tool (he has 14,000 of them)

* how his mom's own unique experience with higher education influenced his own

* getting more students into STEM careers, and more diversity into higher education overall

* the best ways for students to get into the college of their choice, and how UC Davis is trying to help ease students' debt load when paying for it

* milestone research coming out of UC Davis

* and what he wants to leave behind at the school before they "beam him up"

Listen to it here via our Soundcloud link and at other major podcast hubs like iTunes, Stitcher and Spotify