California Insider

California’s water, land, and fire systems are, in many cases, driven by federal court orders from litigation decided decades ago, before current conditions existed. That distance between today’s challenges and the decisions governing them may explain more about California’s long-term planning struggles than most coverage admits. In this episode, Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary of Natural Re...

California’s push to phase out fossil fuels has accelerated the closure of the refineries that still supply fuel to its military bases, airports, and 40 million drivers. If the plan is to move away from oil, what happens to everything that gets made from it before it ever reaches a gas pump? In this episode, Ronald Stein, author, columnist, and founder of PTS Advance, and Deborah Sivas, Luke W. Co...

Crime in California is at some of its lowest levels in decades. So what explains what people are still seeing on the street every day? In this episode, Siyamak sits down with Magnus Lofstrom, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, to look at what the data actually shows and where it stops being able to answer that question. *Views expressed in this video are the opinions of th...

California’s gasoline supply was already under pressure before the Strait of Hormuz developments complicated things even more. With refinery closures accelerating and import sources drying up simultaneously, how much runway does the state actually have? In this episode, Skip York, chief energy strategist at Turner Mason & Company, explains why California is structurally isolated from the relie...

A state audit found that a Southern California school district issued California high school diplomas to students in China who never set foot in the state and never attended a single class. The scheme ran for years before it surfaced. How does something like that go undetected? In this episode, Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School Board, walks us through what the audit uncovere...

California produces only 25% of the crude oil it consumes and has no pipelines bringing refined fuel into the state. When global fuel supply tightens, where does a state that depends on imports turn? In this episode, Jodie Muller, President and CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association, explains how California's shrinking refinery base and dependence on imported fuel affects what consumers p...

LA hosted the Olympics in 1984 with 23 events. In 2028, it's committing to more than double that, and the city carrying that weight today is a fundamentally different place. In this episode, Artin Sodaify, LA County Commissioner, walks through what's actually being built and contracted right now to get the region ready. The question of whether those preparations outlast the games is one LA residen...

California's post-production workforce, the people who edit, score, and mix every film and show you've ever seen, has been losing work to other states and countries for years. How does an industry this embedded in a state end up competing for its own survival? In this episode, we speak with a panel of post-production professionals about the economic forces driving work elsewhere, and about the bil...

Battery storage plants have been exploding in California with a regularity that is easy to miss if you are not living near one. Eight went up last year alone, and the one in Moss Landing burned for three weeks. In this episode, physicist and Chairman of the Board of the California Arts and Sciences Institute, C. Michael Hogan explains what these facilities actually release when they go, and why th...

Billions of taxpayer dollars have moved through California’s homelessness system over the past decade. Yet on the streets of Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego, the tents remain and the strain on local services continues. How are state and local leaders evaluating the impact of that spending? In this episode, we sit down with Alex Villanueva, Former Sheriff of Los Angeles County, Assemblymembe...

California’s housing costs are among the highest in the nation, while single-family construction continues to lag demand. If land is not the only constraint, what is driving the gap between need and supply? In this episode, we sit down with Michael Capaldi, Partner at FBT Gibbons, to examine the approval process, local fees, and state mandates that influence what gets built. We trace how those cho...

The Port of Long Beach recorded its highest cargo volume in 2025, marking a strong year for one of the nation’s most critical trade gateways. With imports surging and competition rising from other U.S. gateways, attention now turns to whether this pace can hold and what it could mean for the state’s broader economy. In this episode, we sit down with Noel Hacegaba, Chief Executive Officer of the Po...

California vineyards are operating in a market where harvested grapes may not have a buyer. The reasons are not always visible from the outside, but the effects are showing up across growing regions. In this episode, Rodney Schatz, owner of Peltier Winery who manages about 1,100 acres of farmland, explains what is changing inside the business and why those changes matter beyond wine country. Views...

What happens to a family home after it is passed down? In California, voters approved Proposition 19 in 2020 with the promise of helping seniors and wildfire victims. For many families, the outcome has been sharply different from what they expected. We look at how Prop 19 affects family decisions around inherited homes. We also examine changes in property tax assessments and how higher ownership c...

A year after the Palisades fires, signs of rebuilding are starting to appear, but progress looks uneven once you move from street to street. What decides whether a home comes back now or stays on hold? In this episode, Renzo Pali, Associate Director of Operations at SPF:a, Matt McRoskey, Head of Growth at Ghost Factory, and Dylan Hart, Partner at Village Rebuild, talk through what is happening at...

California's fuel system is under pressure, not because demand has fallen, but because the path from oil to fuel has narrowed. What happens when pipelines shut down and oil that once flowed underground now requires nearly 100 trucks a day on Kern County roads? Steve Layton, president of E&B Natural Resources, explains how recent infrastructure changes are affecting how oil moves through the st...

A proposed wealth tax aimed at California’s billionaires is headed for the 2026 ballot, presented as a one time measure to raise revenue for public programs. How would that one time label function once the rules are applied? In this episode, Hank Adler, Associate Professor and Burra Executive Professor of Accounting at Chapman University, walks through how the proposal would operate in practice an...

Across parts of Northern California, law enforcement officials say investigations are revealing the ways criminal operations have evolved in response to enforcement and regulations. In this episode, Humboldt County Sheriff Bill Honsal describes how these enterprises function and why their methods are having economic and social effects that extend beyond the areas where they operate. Views expresse...

California has seen protests tied to events unfolding inside Iran. Inside the country, demonstrations show a level of organization and leadership absent from earlier waves, as authorities respond with force and communication shutdowns. We speak with Bijan Kian, an Iranian American activist closely following developments, about leadership linked to Prince Reza Pahlavi, the security and economic sta...

California’s electricity rates are far higher than most of the country, and that gap did not emerge from a single decision or moment. It developed over time as the state responded to real challenges, with effects that became clearer only years later. In this episode, we speak with James Boyd, a former California Energy Commissioner. Drawing on decades of public service, he explains how the state a...

Long term property investment in Los Angeles is becoming more uncertain for small landlords, often leaving them with little choice but to exit the rental business. But what factors are making rental housing harder to operate, and what’s the impact of these landlords leaving LA? In this episode, we discuss with Dan Yukelson, CEO of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, and Rich Kissel,...

California’s diversion law was designed to steer some defendants away from jail and into treatment. But when the same statute produces very different outcomes across the state, what determines how much risk the public is expected to accept? In this episode, Deputy District Attorney Matt Greco and San Francisco public defender Matt SotoRosen explain how the law works in practice and where its impac...

California reservoirs are above capacity after several wet years, yet water deliveries to farmers remain uncertain. High storage alone does not guarantee reliable supply, as the system for moving and allocating water continues to limit what reaches the fields. In this episode, we speak with sixth-generation California farmer Cannon Michael about how these conditions affect everyday farming and the...

Major rideshare companies are now routing more of their trips to regulated taxis in San Francisco, and that shift is changing how the city’s transportation system actually works. It comes down to cost pressure on the platform side and the steady coverage that commercial drivers provide. In this episode, we talk with Hansu Kim, longtime SF political consultant and Chairman of Flywheel. He walks us...

State leaders want cities to allow far more housing near transit. Supporters see a needed shift while others question the practical outcome. In this episode we sit down with Tony Hall, former San Francisco supervisor, and Christopher Elmendorf, law professor at UC Davis. We look at what these changes could mean for San Francisco and how the policy meets the city’s real conditions.