Fresnolandia

Fresnolandia is going on an indefinite haitus as hosts Danielle Bergstrom and Jordan Mattox transition to other projects for the time being. This is not goodbye for good, just for now. Fresnolandia has been a labor of love and podcasts will return to Fresnoland in the future. In the meantime, keep enjoying the incredible investigative work by the hardworking journalists at Fresnoland.

If you thoughts, questions, or concerns, please email Danielle Bergstrom at [email protected]

In this episode of Fresnolandia, Danielle Bergstrom and Jordan Mattox sit down with Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias for a wide-ranging conversation about the controversy surrounding Measure P arts funding and the investigation into missing grant dollars. The discussion unpacks how the situation came to light, what safeguards were in place, and what happens next for Fresno’s arts community as the city grapples with questions of oversight, transparency, and trust.

Together, they explore the complicated balance between accountability and accessibility in public grantmaking, the role of nonprofits versus City Hall in administering arts funds, and the deeper tensions around who gets to define culture in a diverse city. The episode also looks ahead at how Fresno might rebuild confidence in the Measure P process, protect future funding, and ensure artists and organizations can continue their work despite uncertainty.

This week on Fresnolandia, Danielle and Jordan dive into a wide-ranging “grab bag” episode after a week off, catching listeners up on some of the biggest stories shaping Fresno right now. Investigative reporter Omar Rashad joins the show to unpack the breaking news that an ex–Fresno Arts Council employee is under investigation for the alleged embezzlement of $1.5 million — a story that raises urgent questions about public trust, Measure P funding, and what comes next for local arts organizations that rely on those grants. The conversation looks at what we know, what we don’t know, and how the fallout could affect the city’s cultural ecosystem.

The episode also explores the impact of Omar’s recent investigation into city contracts, including how public attention helped push the Fresno City Council to close a controversial loophole and begin building a new transparency page for residents to better track spending. Then the team welcomes reporter Gisselle Medina to discuss a lawsuit involving immigrant commercial truck drivers whose licenses were threatened by a DMV system error — a story with real economic stakes for families and the Central Valley’s logistics industry.

Jordan takes over the Fresnolandia feed with a special crossover: a repost of a conversation from The History of California Podcast with Dr. Oliver Rosales, a professor at Bakersfield College and the author of Civil Rights in Bakersfield.

This episode pairs perfectly with our recent trip to Bakersfield to examine downtown development, offering the deeper historical context behind the region’s politics, culture, and struggles for equity. Rosales unpacks what outsiders get wrong about Bakersfield, how stereotypes obscure a rich urban history, and why the Central Valley has been overlooked by scholars despite being a crucial site of American social change.

From legacies of segregation and “Juan Crow,” to student activism, coalition-building, and the limits of centering farm labor alone, this conversation broadens how we think about civil rights beyond the usual Southern narrative. It’s a reminder that Bakersfield—and by extension Fresno and the wider Valley—has long been a frontline for organizing, reform, and contested memory.

We’ll be back to regular programming next week. In the meantime, enjoy this timely and insightful deep dive into the hidden history of civil rights in our neighboring city.

In this episode of Fresnolandia, hosts Danielle Bergstrom and Jordan Mattox sit down with investor, philanthropist, environmental advocate, and California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer for a conversation about what the state’s biggest policy challenges mean specifically for Fresno and the Central Valley.

Steyer shares his perspective on the growing “abundance” discourse and why California must refocus on actually building things in the physical world—from housing and infrastructure to clean energy systems. He argues that the state’s housing crisis is fundamentally a supply problem, driven by high construction costs, slow permitting, zoning constraints, and outdated building technologies, and outlines how new construction methods and regulatory reforms could help make housing more affordable for working families in places like Fresno.

The conversation then turns to one of the most pressing issues for Central Valley residents: electricity costs. Steyer critiques PG&E as a monopoly with misaligned incentives and points out that Fresno residents are paying some of the highest electricity rates in the country—more than double the national average. He makes the case for reforming the Public Utilities Commission, introducing competition through local energy generation and microgrids, and leveraging the rapid advances in solar and battery technology to dramatically lower energy bills.

Throughout the episode, Steyer emphasizes that these problems are structural, not technical—and that solving them will require political courage to challenge entrenched interests, rethink regulatory systems, and prioritize affordability for everyday Californians. For Fresno, he argues, the combination of abundant sun, emerging battery technology, and local energy production represents a major opportunity to lead the next phase of California’s clean energy transition.

In this episode of Fresnolandia, hosts Danielle Bergstrom and Jordan Mattox sit down with Jennifer LeSar, founder and CEO of LeSar Development Consultants, for a wide-ranging conversation about Fresno’s housing future. Drawing on LeSar’s work advising governments across California—and lessons from global cities like Vienna—the discussion explores why housing remains so difficult to build in Fresno despite major zoning reform and historic investments in infrastructure.

The episode digs into the structural challenges facing Central Valley cities: the mismatch between construction costs and local incomes, the risk aversion of private capital, and the absence of long-term, durable housing finance institutions. LeSar offers concrete ideas for breaking the logjam, including regional housing finance agencies, alternative capital strategies, land banking, and mixed-income “social housing” models adapted to American political and cultural realities.

Along the way, the conversation connects Fresno’s downtown ambitions, high-speed rail, public land, and infill development to broader national debates about abundance, regulation, and affordability—while asking the hardest question of all: what will it take for Fresno to finally reach its housing tipping point?

In this episode of Fresnolandia, hosts Danielle Bergstrom and Jordan Mattox sit down with investigative reporter and assistant editor Omar Rashad to unpack a major two-part investigation into Fresno’s “under-threshold” contracts—city contracts under $100,000 that can be executed without City Council approval.

Rashad walks listeners through months of reporting that revealed how millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts have been distributed with little public visibility, including repeated contracts awarded to the same consultants and vendors. The conversation explores how Fresno quietly doubled its under-threshold limit in 2024, why tracking these contracts is so difficult for the public, and how Fresno compares to cities like San Diego and Oakland that offer far greater transparency.

The episode digs into the mechanics of how these contracts are approved, billed, and paid—raising thorny questions about oversight, pass-through expenses, public records delays, and the use of taxpayer dollars for services like Facebook advertising during election seasons. Bergstrom and Mattox also examine the policy trade-offs between government efficiency and democratic accountability, and what reforms could restore public trust.

Finally, Rashad reflects on the reaction to the investigation at City Hall, including a rapid and controversial press conference by councilmembers and the broader implications for how Fresno governs itself.

In this special year-end recap episode of Fresnolandia, Jordan and Dani discuss the year in local news coverage. 

Together, they unpack the most impactful stories of the year, starting with Fresnoland’s sustained coverage of the Southeast Development Area (SEDA) plan and how reporting on infrastructure costs and fiscal shortfalls helped shift public understanding of suburban growth. They also examine the CEMEX mining proposal along the San Joaquin River.

The conversation moves beyond headline stories to explore underreported issues like campaign ethics, dark money in local elections, and the fragility of civic institutions in Fresno. Dani reflects on what it means to run a newsroom with limited resources, how editorial choices are shaped by staffing realities, and why some stories demand sustained focus even in the face of backlash.

The episode also looks ahead: upcoming city council and school board elections, potential school closures, ICE enforcement fears, and what attentive residents should be watching in the year to come. 

PG&E bills are rising fast—and in the Central Valley, the pain is especially acute.

On this episode of Fresnolandia, hosts Danielle Bergstrom and Jordan Mattox sit down with Martha Guzman, one of the most influential policy leaders to come out of the Central Valley, to unpack why energy affordability has become such a crisis—and what can realistically be done about it.

Martha brings rare, inside perspective from her decades-long career in state and federal government, including her time as a California Public Utilities Commissioner and most recently as the Biden administration’s EPA Region 9 administrator. Together, they break down how investor-owned utilities like PG&E actually set rates, why wildfire mitigation and infrastructure costs are driving historic increases, and how fragmented decision-making at the CPUC makes affordability harder to control.

The conversation zeroes in on Fresno and the Valley’s unique burdens: extreme heat, aging housing stock, lower wildfire risk but higher electricity usage, and the frustration of hosting massive solar development without seeing direct local bill relief. Martha also explores the limits—and possibilities—of tools like the climate credit, debates around utility profits, and whether public power is a realistic option for cities like Fresno.

It’s a candid, wonky, and deeply human conversation about power—who pays for it, who profits from it, and what fairness should look like in a hotter, more unequal California.

In this special episode of Fresnolandia, hosts Jordan Mattox and Danielle Bergstrom take a trip to Bakersfield with Fresno developer Reza Assemi, to sit down with Austin and Anna Smith—two of the most successful infill developers in the Central Valley—whose work is reshaping downtown Bakersfield. Together, they explore the parallel stories of revitalization in Fresno and Bakersfield, the opportunities and roadblocks facing infill projects, and the lingering challenges of codes built for suburban fringe development rather than dense urban cores. This conversation dives into what each city’s downtown could become, how visionary builders are pushing those possibilities forward, and how communities across the valley can learn from one another to create more vibrant, livable, and connected places.