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.

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.

"San Francisco Politics Is Like a Knife Fight in a Phone Booth" - A Groundbreakers Q&A with Scott Wiener

San Francisco politics is like “a knife fight in a phone booth.” And that's why State Senator Scott Wiener says getting his start in that city has made him sharp enough to handle politics in Sacramento and NIMBYers around the state.

Our "Groundbreakers Q&A" with the buzzed-about State Senator from June 26 is up -- listen in to the conversation about housing, homelessness, education and LGBTQ legislation.

The podcast is currently up on Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Sticher, Google Play and other podcast hubs -- just type "California Groundbreakers" into the search box.

"Groundbreakers Q&A" with Two of Sacramento's Top Chefs

One of our favorite conversations in 20190 was with two guys who know their way around a kitchen.

Rick Mahan and Patrick Mulvaney are two of longest-running and most-admired chefs in Sacramento. Their restaurants, The Waterboy (opened in 1996) and Mulvaney B&L (in 2006), set the bar for fine dining in this city, and they're still atop the list of places worth opening up your wallet for a memorable meal.

Join us for a great conversation with these two seasoned veterans of the city's ever-changing, often-challenging restaurant scene as we talk with them about Michelin stars, minimum wage hikes, the mental health movement, farmers markets, and other things that are shaping their menus today.

Listen to the podcast of this conversation on SoundCloud, iTunes and other major podcast players (just type “California Groundbreakers” into the search box.)

A "Groundbreakers Q&A" with Sacramento's Art Mavens Liz Moe and Estella Sanchez

Liv Moe, founding director of Verge Center for the Arts, and Estella Sanchez, founder and executive director of Sol Collective, play big roles in shaping Sacramento’s arts scene, supporting and promoting local artists, and getting their efforts talked about in cultural circles around California and nationwide. They’re two major reasons why the Capitol City’s cultural scene is on fire, and why it has such a passionate community rooting it on.

Listen to this great conversation with Moe and Sanchez about the state of the arts in Sacramento, what they’re working on now, and what they want to happen so that the city’s artists get the support they need and the recognition they deserve.

Groundbreakers Q&A with Sacramento's "First Couple" of Real Estate Development

We’re talking with some of Sacramento’s mightiest movers and shakers this year, people who are bringing changes, making waves and putting California’s capital on the map in bold font.

Our first “Groundbreakers Q&A” conversation of 2019 was with two of Sacramento’s most well-known groundbreakers — literally — who are building up new hot spots in the city (and just got married recently). Katherine Bardis and Bay Miry like to go into under-the-radar parts of town and revitalize them (Miry ‘s R Street Corridor and the 700 block of K Street; Bardis’s housing community, the Mill, on Lower Broadway). As Sacramento grows up — and upward — they’re two of the people responsible for what that growth will look like.

Listen to some of this great conversation we held at Ruhstaller in February as Bardis and Miry talk about:
* their favorite buildings in Sac (that are not theirs)
* the significance of specific projects they’ve worked on
* how they see the "Bay Area effect" and the impact of gentrification on Sacramento
* innovative projects elsewhere in the U.S. that they want to bring here