SacTown Talks

Today our guest is Rick Goddard, CEO of Caylym, who joins us to discuss their Guardian system. The Guardian creates a raindrop effect over the target area and using a standard cargo plane, crews can drop over 4,000 gallons every 10 minutes from the air 24 hours a day. This means firefighting does not have to stop at night due to low visibility or in higher wind conditions. He discusses how the Gua...

Today we welcome Assemblymember Christopher Ward of the 78th Assembly District, covering the San Diego coast. He joins us for an in depth look at AB 1771: The California Housing Speculation Act, which would impose a tax up to 25% on an investor’s net capital gain from the time of purchase until the final sale or exchange of a property to reduce housing speculation. We also discuss his background,...

Welcome back for part 2 of our SacTown Talks episode with Paul Mitchell. Paul is an expert on California redistricting: he founded Redistricting Partners, Inc and is the VP of Political Data Intelligence. Today’s episode cover’s the details of California’s lost congressional seat, more details on how redistricting requirements work, what communities of interest are, why California’s redistricting...

Today we welcome California Senator Melissa Hurtado of the 14th Senate District which covers parts of the southern Central Valley between Fresno and Bakersfield. She joins us to discuss the water, bureaucracy, and California’s future. Her bill, SB 1219, would establish a blue-ribbon commission to eliminate the State Water Resources Control Board and fundamentally change how California and its agen...

Today on the show we have another new face in Sacramento: Dr. Akilah Weber of the 79th Assembly District, which covers much of east San Diego and its suburbs. Dr. Weber is the daughter of California Secretary of State Shirley Weber but did not have politics as a career goal instead, she became an OBGYN until a hometown civil rights issue inspired her to run for city council. And when Governor News...

Today we welcome California Assemblymember Mia Bonta to the show. Mia won a race in California’s 18th Assembly District covering Oakland and Alameda County to replace her partner, Rob Bonta, who was appointed California Attorney General. We discuss her family story and background in education, what led her to run for school board and then the assembly, and how it’s been coming to Sacramento during...

Today we welcome California State Senator Sydney Kamlager, of the 30th Senate District which covers Century City to South Los Angeles and takes in Culver City, Cheviot Hills, Crenshaw District, USC, downtown Los Angeles, and a portion of Inglewood. She discusses her eclectic road to the legislature, the differences between the assembly and senate, how working in the arts made her a better communic...

Today we welcome San Francisco Supervisor and candidate for the California Assembly Matt Haney. Matt joins us in the thick of his campaign and talks about how he got into politics, why he’s running for the assembly, and what he’s been hearing on the campaign trail about the pandemic, housing, and homelessness.   SacTown Talks is a podcast about California politics, policy and culture. We feature i...

Today we welcome California State Senator Bill Dodd, representing the 3rd Senate District covering east to west from Petaluma to West Sacramento, and north to south Woodland to Martinez. Our most frequent guest, Senator Dodd joins us to discuss his major issues including fire prevention funding, eliminating feral pigs, expanding Highway 37, sports betting and much more. Stick around for the end fo...

Today our interview is with James Coleman, South San Francisco City Councilmember, and candidate for the new Assembly District 21. We discuss how an early family tragedy shaped the course of his life and led to his interest in government, how covid forced him to leave Harvard during his junior year and inspired him to work for political change, and run for and win a city council seat. Then he disc...

Today we welcome California State Senator Nancy Skinner of the 9th California Senate District, which covers the eastern San Francisco Bay. Nancy has been in elected office since she became the only University of California, Berkeley student to win a city council seat as a student. She also served in the California Assembly in the late 2000s so she has the perspective from when budget negotiations...

Dr. Marty Ralph, Director, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography joins us to kick off 2022 by discussing his research into atmospheric rivers, the long narrow bands of concentrated water vapor that produce major amounts of rainfall. We discuss how they relate to El Nino, La Nina, and last year’s bomb cyclone, and how his research is help...

Happy Holidays from SacTown Talks! We're taking a couple of weeks to recharge and refresh the show for 2022. While we're gone please enjoy some clips from the past year. And if any of you are joining the bread baking cohort before the New Year make sure to check out the end of the pod!  SacTown Talks is a podcast about California politics, policy and culture. We feature interviews with California...

Happy Holidays from SacTown Talks! We're taking a couple of weeks to recharge and refresh the show for 2022. While we're gone please enjoy some clips from the past year. And if any of you are joining the bread baking cohort before the New Year make sure to check out the end of the pod!  SacTown Talks is a podcast about California politics, policy and culture. We feature interviews with California...

Today we welcome Senator Maria Elena Durazo to the last interview of the year! She grew up in a migrant farmworker family and spent decades in the leadership of labor unions. Inspired to run by the 2016 election today she discusses those beginnings, her legislation focused on workers dignity and health, water infrastructure and much more!     SacTown Talks is a podcast about California politics, p...

SacTown Talks is a podcast about California politics, policy and culture. We feature interviews with California political leaders, and analysis by experts and insiders focusing on the Capitol. Like, share, and subscribe to learn more!

Today we welcome California Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris of the 74th Assembly District, covering Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Newport Beach, and portions of Irvine & Huntington Beach. We start with the story of her first assembly campaign victory: a striking upset of a long held GOP seat, then turn to comparing her business experience to her time in government, her work with the...

Today we welcome back Assemblymember Mike Gipson of the 64th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Carson, Compton, Gardena, Harbor Gateway, Lynwood, North Long Beach, Rancho Dominguez, South Los Angeles, Torrance, Watts/Willow brook and Wilmington. Assemblymember Gipson has been focused on police reform and he rejoins us to discuss progress on his bills and what he will be working...

Today we welcome Roxana Janka, coalition manager for the Good4U public awareness campaign. This coalition has done extension polling of California parents, teachers, and citizens and has come up with three ways California can help students, especially those vulnerable to dropping. The first is equity, the second is  personalized learning with trauma-informed practices, and the third is job and lif...

Today we welcome Heidi Harmon of the Romero Institute to discuss their Let’s Green California initiative. Heidi is a long time environmental activist who was on the San Luis Obispo City Council and Mayor of San Luis Obispo until transitioning back to activism at the Romero Institute. The Romero Institute is a nonprofit law and public policy center in Santa Cruz, California that focuses on environm...

Today we welcome California State Senator Anna Caballeros of the 12th Senate District, which covers the Salinas Valley and a swath of the Central Valley between Modesto and Fresno. We discuss how her family’s journey from a company town to LA led to her becoming a lawyer and public servant, the differences between the CA Assembly and Senate, why she was focusing on housing, broadband internet, and...

Today we welcome California Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of the 16th Assembly District that covers the eastern Bay Area. She starts with how the 2016 election had a profound impact on her and her family, the difference between working in the law and making laws, her bill AB988 that would establish a mental health crisis hotline that would provide a healthcare response instead of a police res...

Today we welcome California Senator Melissa Hurtado of the 14th Senate District which covers parts of the southern Central Valley between Fresno and Bakersfield. She starts the podcast with a lovely tribute to Scott Lay, then talks about how the Great Recession affected her, her road to the senate, and how reelection is shaping up. The majority of the conversation focused on her district and her w...

Today we welcome California Assemblymember Blanca Rubio of the 48th Assembly District that covers Baldwin Park and the East San Gabriel Valley. We discuss what a day during the legislative recess looks like for legislators, then how the pandemic has affected her district and her family, and why getting people vaccinated is the key to reopening California fully. The conversation then turns to her l...