John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle (1936) is the coldest and most clinical of his California labor novels — the story of a fruit strike that offers no easy heroes and no comfort, only a chain of cause and effect grinding toward violence. It's also the book that established Steinbeck as an authority on farm labor and pointed him toward The Grapes of Wrath.

Host Jordan Mattox is joined by Steinbeck scholar Dr. Jon Dawson to unpack the novel and the history beneath it: the real strikes at Tagus Ranch and in the cotton fields, the organizers who inspired — and resented — its characters, the company stores and migrant camps of California's Depression-era agricultural economy, and Steinbeck's complicated relationship to communism, ideology, and violence. Along the way they dig into naturalism and determinism, why the novel keeps its characters at arm's length, the debt the title owes to Milton, and why a labor dispute from 1933 still feels urgent today.

The first installment in our Steinbeck labor series, leading into Of Mice and Men. Plus Dr. Dawson's parallel-reading recommendation: Carey McWilliams's Factories in the Field.

Founded in 1776, the Presidio of San Francisco has served three nations, guarded the "harbor of harbors" for nearly 250 years, and evolved from a modest Spanish adobe fort into a Cold War missile site before becoming one of the country's most successful national parks. Historian John Langellier — former curator of the Presidio Army Museum and author of more than fifty books on the American West — joins Jordan to trace that remarkable arc, drawn from his new book Bastion by the Bay: The Presidio of San Francisco, from Outpost of Empire to Magnificent Park (University of North Texas Press, 2026).

Along the way, John and Jordan get into a lot more than fortifications: what it's like to consult on Hollywood Westerns and the films that actually get history right; whether museums exist to comfort us or to make us a little uncomfortable; the debate over expert authority and community voice in public history; and the Autry Museum and Gene Autry himself. Then they dig into the Presidio's story proper — the Ohlone who lived on the peninsula first, the complexity of the California mission system, the geopolitical paranoia over Russian, French, and British encroachment, the farcical 1876 "sham battle" staged to reassure taxpayers, the Endicott-era coastal buildup, Nike missiles in the Cold War, and the irony that this heavily armed outpost may have mattered most as a place of refuge and rescue.

John also shares how to spend an afternoon in the Presidio (start at Fort Point), reflects on fifty years on the trail of the Buffalo Soldiers, offers his California reading list, and previews what he's working on next.

A rich, wide-ranging conversation about memory, myth-making, and the strange afterlives of the places we build to defend ourselves.

Books mentioned include works by Herbert Eugene Bolton, Hubert Howe Bancroft, and Kevin Starr, plus Langellier's own El Presidio de San Francisco.

The grizzly on California's flag has been gone for a century — hunted to extinction in the very state that made it a symbol. What does it mean to build a mythology of abundance on top of a landscape of loss?

In this episode, host Jordan Mattox sits down with Dr. Daniel Lanza Rivers of San José State University to dig beneath the Golden State's story of endless plenty. A scholar of environmental history, California studies, and settler colonialism, Rivers traces how a century and a half of promises about California's "natural" bounty shaped everything from Central Valley agribusiness to the state's long history of extraction, dispossession, and resistance.

Their conversation follows the throughline at the heart of Rivers's new book, California Futures: Haunted Ecologies, Decolonial Relations (Duke University Press) — out August 18th. The book traces a single powerful thread across the state, from the eradication of the grizzly to the making of Central Valley agriculture, the historic dam removals on the Klamath River, and the unhoused encampments of Oakland. Along the way, Rivers asks a hopeful question: what would it take to build a more just and livable California, one rooted in returning land and in the movements that have never stopped fighting for it?

It's a conversation about loss — but just as much, it's one about hope.

In this episode:

Dr. Daniel Lanza Rivers (they/them) teaches in American Studies at San José State University. Their new book, California Futures: Haunted Ecologies, Decolonial Relations, is available August 18th from Duke University Press.

California had 1,000 wineries in 1910. By 1965, it had 225. The story of how the industry collapsed, came back, and quadrupled past 4,800 wineries today runs straight through one Piedmontese immigrant family — and Kevin Ferguson's.

In this episode, Jordan sits down with Kevin — writer, former brand marketer, and great-grandson of John Gemello, founder of the Gemello Winery in Mountain View — to trace California wine from Prohibition's lost expertise through the 1976 Judgment of Paris and the boutique boom that followed. Along the way: Mike Grgich and Chateau Montelena, Steven Spurrier's reluctant bicentennial marketing stunt, George Taber as the only reporter in the room, and the little-remembered 2001 rematch in which Kevin's grandfather's 1970 Cabernet beat fourteen of sixteen judges' top picks — news he received by phone at age 82.

Plus: a chance meeting at a San Jose hotel that reunited two Piedmontese immigrants and started the Beltramo dynasty, cassette tapes that preserved a family's oral history, and why the best wine, for Kevin, is the one with the best story behind it.

Kevin's Substack

Historian Peter Richardson joins Jordan Mattox to discuss his new book, Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine, and to situate the magazine within the broader cultural and political history of the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Richardson — whose previous work includes a biography of Carey McWilliams and studies of Ramparts Magazine and the Grateful Dead — argues that Rolling Stone's founding in November 1967 cannot be understood apart from the counterculture it both chronicled and drew its sustenance from, nor apart from the failures of a mainstream media that created the opening for it in the first place.

The conversation traces Richardson's own intellectual trajectory from medieval English literature to California cultural history; revisits McWilliams's argument that California is less a "great exception" than a national avatar; takes up Hunter S. Thompson's ambivalent relationship to the Haight-Ashbury counterculture; and considers Kevin Starr's conspicuous reluctance to address the 1960s in his otherwise comprehensive survey of the state. The episode closes with Richardson's reflections on Theodore Roszak, on whether the conditions for a new counterculture now exist in the shadow of Silicon Valley, and with a set of book and film recommendations for listeners wishing to pursue these threads further.

California wine is often wrapped in romance—rolling vineyards, pioneering families, and world-class vintages. But beneath that familiar story lies a far more complex history of conquest, labor, race, and power. In this episode of the History of California Podcast, Jordan Mattox sits down with historian Dr. Julia Ornelas-Higdon, author of The Grapes of Conquest, to uncover the hidden foundations of one of the state’s most iconic industries.

Together, they trace the evolution of California agriculture from booster-era optimism to the labor struggles of the 20th century, examining how narratives about land, belonging, and identity were shaped—and often distorted—by those in power. From the overlooked role of Indigenous peoples and immigrant laborers to the surprising origins of the Anaheim Wine Colony, this conversation reveals how wine production functioned not just as an economic activity, but as a form of cultural production that helped define who counted as “Californian.”

Along the way, the episode explores historiographical shifts—from triumphalist agricultural histories to labor-centered and race-conscious interpretations—and asks what still remains missing. If California wine tells a story, this episode asks: whose story has it been, and who has been left out?

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox sits down with Ann Carlson to explore the history and legacy of air pollution regulation in California, as told in her book Smog and Sunshine.

The conversation traces the transformation of Los Angeles from one of the most polluted regions in the United States to a global leader in environmental policy. Carlson explains how early misdiagnoses—like the infamous Tucker Report—delayed action, and how scientists, activists, journalists, and government institutions eventually converged to identify automobiles as the primary source of smog .

Mattox and Carlson dig into the mechanics of environmental law, including the shift from bipartisan consensus to regulatory fragmentation, the increasing reliance on federal agencies, and the critical role of states—especially California—in advancing climate policy when the federal government stalls . The episode also highlights the catalytic converter as a case study in how ambitious regulation can drive technological innovation.

The discussion goes beyond policy to examine environmental justice, showing how pollution has historically—and continues to—disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color, particularly in regions like the Inland Empire .

Throughout the episode, Carlson makes a broader argument: that environmental progress is not accidental, but the result of sustained pressure from the public, media, scientists, and institutions working together over decades. The episode closes by connecting these historical lessons to the present, asking what California’s experience can teach us about confronting climate change in an era of political polarization and misinformation.

This is a conversation about history as both memory and blueprint—reminding us not just how far we’ve come, but what it might take to move forward.

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox interviews Jenny Chan, founder of the Pacific Atrocities Education Program, about the hidden histories of World War II in the Pacific and the importance of expanding historical education beyond a Western-centric narrative. Drawing from her own family’s experiences and extensive archival research, Chan explains how major events in Asia—from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria to atrocities like Unit 731—have been largely absent from U.S. classrooms.

The conversation explores how her organization works with educators to develop sensitive and accessible lesson plans, the challenges of uncovering fragmented archival materials, and the emotional power of oral histories from survivors. Chan also highlights the surprising ways California is connected to the Pacific Theater, including links to the Doolittle Raid, biological warfare threats, and local historical sites. Together, Mattox and Chan make the case for a more global, interconnected understanding of history—one that better reflects the scale of human experience during World War II and helps students make sense of the present.

The Academy Awards are one of the most recognizable cultural events in the world—but their origins reveal a much deeper story about Hollywood, labor, and the development of California’s film industry.

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox speaks with film scholar Dr. Monica Sandler about the origins and evolution of the Academy Awards. Dr. Sandler is the author of the forthcoming book The Oscar Industry: Creative Labor, Cultural Production, and the Awards System in Media Industry, which explores how awards function within the media economy and how recognition shapes creative labor in Hollywood.

The conversation traces the Academy’s founding in the late 1920s, when Hollywood studios were grappling with censorship controversies, labor tensions, and questions about whether film should be treated as an art form. What began as an industry organization meant to manage these pressures eventually developed into the Oscars—an annual spectacle that helps shape careers, cultural prestige, and the global film marketplace.

Jordan and Dr. Sandler also explore the political and social dimensions of Oscar history, including the complicated legacy of Hattie McDaniel’s historic 1940 win, the relationship between awards and labor in Hollywood, and the modern ecosystem of guild awards, campaigns, and media coverage that now make up “awards season.”

If you’ve ever wondered how the Oscars became Hollywood’s biggest night—or what they reveal about the film industry itself—this episode offers a fascinating historical perspective.

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, Jordan Mattox continues his series on the history of Chinese Californians by confronting one of the darkest chapters in the state’s past: the age of exclusion and anti-Chinese violence. Moving beyond the well-known Chinese Exclusion Act, this episode examines the vigilante terror, mob brutality, and legal indifference that paved the way for federal immigration restriction.

Jordan recounts the horrific 1871 Los Angeles massacre, in which a mob comprising nearly 10% of the city’s population lynched 18 Chinese residents after a shootout between rival associations spiraled into racial hysteria. He then takes listeners to Truckee in 1876, where arson attacks, gunfire, and courtroom acquittals demonstrated how deeply white supremacy shaped local justice. These were not isolated incidents but part of a broader climate of scapegoating, economic anxiety, and organized anti-Chinese activism.

The episode also situates California’s racial hostility within a national and international framework. From the Burlingame Treaty’s initially open immigration policy to its revision under mounting Western political pressure, Jordan traces how local xenophobia became federal law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—signed by President Chester A. Arthur—suspended Chinese labor immigration, barred naturalization, and shifted the burden of proof onto immigrants themselves It marked the first time U.S. immigration law explicitly targeted a group by nationality and race, fundamentally reshaping the nation’s immigration bureaucracy.

This episode asks listeners to grapple with the human cost of exclusion: families separated, communities destroyed, and violence forgotten in official memory. It sets the stage for the next installment, where Jordan will explore the long-term consequences of exclusion for Chinese Americans in California.

A sobering and essential chapter in understanding California’s past—and America’s.