Today, we have historian Dr. Sandra Bonura on the show. Dr. Bonura is a frequent storyteller and lecturer on the importance of using a multitude of primary sources to gain perspective on historical events, and the author of the 2020 biography of John D. Spreckles (the Hotel Del Coronado’s longest owner) entitled, “Empire Builder: John D. Spreckels and the Making of San Diego” and more recently "The Sugar King of California: The Life of Claus Spreckels." Please enjoy our conversation. Dr....

Today we have Dr. Richard J. Goodrich on the show. Dr. Goodrich is an author and historian. After 20 years as a history professor, Dr. Goodrich decided to move full time into writing. His interests range from ancient history, the Roman Empire, and early church history to the modern age. His latest book is L.A. Birdmen, A Gripping History of Early Aviation on America's West Coast. This joins his previous publication, Comet Madness, How the 1910 Visit of Halley's Comet Almost Destroyed...

Paul Haddad is the author of several books about his native Los Angeles, including the critically lauded, L.A. Times Bestseller "Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles," "Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles," "10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 57 Walking Adventures," and "High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years (1977-1981)." As a writer and contributor, his work has appeared in such media as...

In this introductory episode, we complete some table setting by looking at some of the history and development of railroads before diving into California and railoroads. 

Today we have Alex Brown on the show. Alex is a librarian, local historian, author, and writer, and an Ignite award winning critic. Much of their writing covers black history, librarianship, YA, and speculative fiction. The focus of our conversation today is their two books of nonfiction, Hidden History of Napa Valley and The Lost Restaurants of Napa Valley and Their Recipes. I really enjoyed talking with Alex. We had a lot to connect about, both in regards to libraries, but also into...

Today, we have Matthew Davenport on the show. Matthew is an attorney and the author of two books, the second of which, The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 is the topic for today's conversation. Matthew's first book, First Over There, was a finalist for the 2015 Guggenheim Lehrman Prize in military history, and was heralded by Pulitzer Prize winning historian James McPherson as "military history at its best." The Longest Minute is a fascinating look at the...

Eric Porter is Professor of History, History of Consciousness, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz, where he is also affiliated with the Music and Latin American and Latina/o Studies departments. He previously taught in the American Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz as well as at the University of New Mexico and the University of Nevada, Reno. His research and teaching interests include Black cultural and intellectual history, US cultural history, jazz and improvisation...

Today, we conclude by discussing the later life of Leland Stanford. 

Today, we have Langdon Moss on the show. Langdon is hosting a great new podcast called The Savage West where he unravels the complex web of early western expansion, taking listeners beyond the basic narrative to expose the raw realities of America's savage origins. What truths lie beneath the legends of violence, greed, hope, and courage? What do the history books get right, and what ideas, events and people deserve re-examination? Through dynamic, unscripted episodes, Moss explores divergent...

Dr. Natalia Molina is a Distinguished Professor and Dean’s Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Her influential research examines the interconnected histories of race, place, gender, culture, and citizenship. An award-winning author, teacher, and mentor, she has written three acclaimed books: How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts; Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los...

Before we begin our next major thematic section of the podcast on railroads, we will be looking at the life of Leland Stanford who serves a bridge between the Gold Rush era, the Civil War Era in California government, and the Transcontinental Railroad. 

Dorothy Lazard is an American writer, librarian, and public historian based in Northern California. Her new book is What You Don't Know Will Make a Whole New World. Click here to buy it!  Dorothy grew up in the Bay Area of the 1960s and ’70s, surrounded by an expansive network of family, and hungry for knowledge. Here in her first book, she vividly tells the story of her journey to becoming “queen of my own nerdy domain.” Today Lazard is celebrated for her distinguished career as a librarian...

Today we have Benno Herz on the program. Benno Herz was named Program Director at the Thomas Mann House, Los Angeles in spring 2022 and was previously Project Manager at the House. Prior to this, he studied theater, film, and media at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he completed his M.A. with a focus on digital aesthetics and interface theory. Since 2009, he has been creatively engaged in several music and film projects as a writer and instrumentalist. Thomas Mann’s Los Angeles: Stories...

Today, we have Randy Dotinga on the show. Randy has been a freelance writer since 1999 and specializes in health/medicine, politics, books, and the odd and unusual. We discuss the state of journalism, the many "San Diegos," the military industry, political history, the Mission period, the Civil War, graveyards, political scandals, and much more. Please enjoy our conversation.  Randy's Articles at the Voice of San Diego

Today we have Andrew Alden on the show. Alden is a geologist and geoscience writer who has worked for the US Geological Survey and reported for KQED and Bay Nature. Long fascinated with rocks and landscapes, Alden found inspiration for his debut book, Deep Oakland, in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which, as he writes, “ripped the city open and revealed to us its heart and character.” Through his writing Alden raises awareness for what he calls the deep present: the appreciation of the...

In this final episode, we discuss the end of the Civil War, and I recommend some further reading. 

Today, we have Mas Masumoto on the podcast. A farmer, writer, and a repository of memories of the valley, Mas is a central voice in the region. I am so excited to have him on the show to talk about farming, memory, writing, agrarian ideas, glyphosate, real estate development, tell intimate family stories, mental illness, pickled peaches, and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Mas Masumoto.

In this episode, we discuss social and political patterns during the Civil War in California. 

I have a special episode for you that I thought was lost. Sometimes when I record podcast episodes, audio files can get corrupted or go missing. This is one of those situations. But luckily, I was able to recover it. Today, I have for you Maggie Paul. Maggie is the author of Scrimshaw, Borrowed World, and the chapbook Stones from the Baskets of Others. Her poetry reviews and interviews have appeared in the Catamaran Literary Reader, Rattle, the Monterey Poetry Review, Porter Gulch Review, Red...

In this episode, we continue our series by discussion the Long Walk of the Navajo people and its connection to the Greater Reconstruction. 

Today we have Chris McGilvray on the show to talk about his new documentary film Eden, a beautiful story about the succession of a historic winery in the Santa Cruz mountains. Jeffrey and Ellie Patterson dedicated 40 years of their lives to Mount Eden vineyards and their children are wrestling with whether to carry on their family business or go off to pursue their paths away from the mountain.    The film “Eden” will premiere on March 9 at 4:30 p.m. as part of the San Jose Cinequest film...

Today, we have Ann Wolfe on the show, the Nevada Museum of Art’s chief curator and associate director to discuss the new exhibition: Sagebrush and Solitude: Maynard Dixon in Nevada, which will be on display at the Nevada Museum of Art March 2 – July 28, 2024, and which is the first comprehensive exhibition to document Dixon’s early wanderings and extended visits to Nevada and the Eastern Sierra. The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of a major 250+ page book co-published by Rizzoli...

Today we have Alexander Hamilton Cherin on the show. Cherin is an award-winning journalist whose work has been recognized by the Los Angeles Press Club where he was nominated as Journalist of the Year in 2020. A lawyer by training, his articles have appeared in the OC Weekly and Mr. Cherin has been a featured panelist on National news networks including CNN and Fox News. His new book is a fictional portrayal of an actual Radio contest in the 1980s in Los Angeles, with a hidden treasure and a...