Mar 26, 2026
Miriam Pawel, author of the definitive Cesar Chavez biography, "The Crusades of Cesar Chavez," reflects on the recent shattering of the Cesar Chavez myth — and the harder questions beneath it: what was known, what was ignored, and why movements so often need saints. In this wide-ranging conversation, Pawel explores...
Mar 19, 2026
Caroline Tracey explores the world's threatened salt lakes with a focus on California — Mono Lake, Owens Lake, and the Salton Sea — where irrigation diversions have transformed stunning desert ecosystems into sources of toxic dust. She discusses landmark environmental cases that established California's public...
Mar 12, 2026
Joe Flint, a media reporter for the Wall Street Journal, joins us as Hollywood heads into Oscar weekend — a moment when the world celebrates the glamour of the movies even as the business faces deep uncertainty. Flint looks at the industry’s economic upheaval: mergers, mounting debt, streaming disruption, and the...
Mar 5, 2026
Chef Geoff Davis opened Burdell in Oakland to cook the soul food his grandmothers made — a distinct American cuisine rooted in migration and adaptation rather than Southern tradition. In 2024, Food & Wine named it the "Restaurant of the Year." But it was a 20% service fee at the bottom of Burdell's receipts that...