History of California Podcast

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...

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 seve...

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...

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 hi...

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 Masumot...

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 appear...

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.   ...

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. T...

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 fictiona...

In this episode, we continue our story of California and the Civil War by introducing the major conflict in the southwestern theater: Union Forces and Indigenous Tribes. 

Today, we have Dr. Andrew Shanken. Dr. Shanken is an architectural and urban historian with an interest in how cultural constructions of memory shape the built environment (and vice versa). He also works on the unbuilt and paper architecture, themed landscapes, heritage and conservation planning; traditions of representation in twentieth-century architecture and planning; keywords in architecture...

Today, we have Tom Moon on the show. Tom is the History and Culture Coordinator for In-N-Out and is known as In-N-Out Burger’s official historian. If you grew up in California like me, you likely have childhood memories of this California icon. This was such a fun conversation where we covered everything from the history, the birth of the secret menu, to employee development, the consistency of cu...

We've taken a few weeks off and are returning with some updates and changes.

Today, we have author and historian Ann Vileisis on the show. Ann is the author of a number of books and the focus of our conversation today is on her latest book Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California's Iconic Shellfish, which came out in May 2020. The book is a wonderful history of this amazing shelled creature and the human relationship to its flourishing and potenti...

Today, we have Dr. Patrick Allitt on the show. Dr. Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American History and the Undergraduate Honors Coordinator at Emory University. He has a PhD from UC Berkeley and is the author of seven books, most recently A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism. He’s also the presenter of a number of lecture series through the Great Courses, one of wh...

Today, we have two of the hosts of the amazing podcast Water Talk, one of my favorite podcasts on the internet that explores all things water, with emphasis on California Water issues, but also covering broader areas related to water.  The first is Dr. Mallika Nocco. Mallika is an Assistant Professor in Cooperative Extension specializing in soil-plant-water relations and irrigation management and...

We continue the story of California and the Civil War by discussing the fighting in the Southwest. 

Today we have Sherry Monohan on the show. Sherry is a culinary historian who has written a wide variety of books including work on historical recipes, the history of Madams and brothels in California, an elegiac book about Pike’s Peak, the history of wine in California, and more. This conversation was such a fun conversation and is chocked full of lots of fun food conversation leading up to Thanks...

In this episode, we continue our story of the Civil War and California. 

Today we have an interview with Eric Nusbaum. The former sports editor at Vice, Nusbaum is now the editor-in-chief of Seattle Met. He is the author of Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, which is the subject of our conversation. Please enjoy.