History of California Podcast

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 of my own nerdy domain.” Today Lazard is celebrated for her distinguished career as a librarian and public historian, and in these pages she connects her early intellectual pursuits—including a formative encounter with Alex Haley—to the career that made her a community pillar. As she traces her trajectory to adulthood, she also explores her personal experiences connected to the Summer of Love, the murder of Emmett Till, the flourishing of the Black Arts Movement, and the redevelopment of Oakland. As she writes with honesty about the tragedies she faced in her youth—including the loss of both parents—Lazard’s memoir remains triumphant, animated by curiosity, careful reflection, and deep enthusiasm for life.

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 several music and film projects as a writer and instrumentalist.

Thomas Mann’s Los Angeles: Stories from Exile 1940–1952, edited by Nikolai Blaumer and Benno Herz / illustrations by Jon Stich, is an amazing collection of essays and illustrations discussing the contributions of the many emigres and exiles who made it to and contributed to Los Angeles in and around WWII.

Buy the book here

Thomas Mann House

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 the Voice of San Diego

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 his writing Alden raises awareness for what he calls the deep present: the appreciation of the ancient underpinnings that shape the modern-day surroundings of daily life.

Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City book link

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 Masumoto.

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 appeared in the Catamaran Literary Reader, Rattle, the Monterey Poetry Review, Porter Gulch Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Frenzy, Salt, and others.

She is a poet and a nonfiction writer in Santa Cruz, California. Our focus in this conversation is twofold. First, we cover some of her famous conversation interviews with poets and writers from across California. We also discuss the history of California poetry. It was a wonderful conversation.

I know you'll love it. Let's go meet Maggie Paul.