California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a spate of lawsuits against the Trump administration, including challenges to mass terminations of federal employees, the sharing of Medicaid data with immigration authorities and the federal government’s takeover of the California National Guard. His office is also involved in lawsuits related to public health funding cuts and stalled clean energy projects. We’ll talk to the state’s top prosecutor about what’s at stake in the cases and what it’s been like to fight a president he says has an “endless desire to seize more power.”

Guests:

Rob Bonta, California Attorney General

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ukrainian town of Irpin made international headlines at the outset of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion when local reservists repelled Russian forces advancing toward Kyiv. But the toll was severe for the town Ukraine has now designated a “hero city.” Hundreds of civilians were killed during Russia’s month-long occupation of Irpin, and thousands of buildings were destroyed. Among those was the main campus building of the State Tax University. Now a Bay Area organization is helping to rebuild the university, bringing design and construction ideas that it hopes will be a model for other sites. We’ll talk about the project and the multilayered challenges Ukraine faces as it seeks to rebuild while still at war.

The reporting for this episode was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Women on the Ground: Reporting from Ukraine’s Unseen Frontlines Initiative in partnership with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

Zhanna Bezpiatchuk, reporter, BBC Ukraine

Margie O'Driscoll, executive director, Center for Innovation

Eugene Chumakov, design and project architect, Stantec - a sustainable engineering and architecture firm

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, professor of economics, UC Berkeley

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You can tell what a culture values by who it labels a genius—and also what it is prepared to tolerate. The Renaissance had its great artists. The Romantics lionized androgynous, tubercular poets. Today we are in thrall to tech innovators and brilliant jerks in Silicon Valley.” So writes Atlantic staff writer Helen Lewis in her new book, “The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea.” Lewis analyzes how the “genius” label is disproportionately applied to white men, often acting as an excuse for antisocial behavior. She joins us to share why she thinks we could all be more honest about the role history and collaboration play in any individual’s accomplishments—and the good that comes from allowing fewer lone wolves to make decisions on our collective behalf.

Guests:

Helen Lewis, staff writer, The Atlantic - author, "The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay Area is getting increasingly older at a faster rate than other parts of the country, making it the third oldest region in the U.S. Some neighborhoods in Berkeley have a median age of 60. What will it take for our infrastructures to be well set up for our aging population? We talk through the latest data, hear from aging experts and learn from local organizations who have been meeting the ‘silver tsunami’ head on.

Guests:

Stacy Torres, assistant professor of social behavioral sciences, UCSF

Danielle Echeverria, data reporter, San Francisco Chronicle

Shakirah Simley, executive director, Booker T. Washington Community Center

Diane Wong, executive director, J-Sei Community Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adolescence has always been turbulent, but what happens when you mix in early puberty, digital information overload and a world that feels increasingly unsteady? Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Matt Richtel says we’re living through a radical shift in how we come of age. In his new book “How We Grow Up,” Richtel draws on neuroscience and conversations with youth and their families to explore what’s behind a rising adolescent mental health crisis — and why it’s not just about the phones. He joins us.

Guests:

Matt Richtel, health and science reporter, New York Times; author, "How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first six months of his second term, President Trump has done a lot of what he said he would do, from proposing sweeping tariffs to gutting federal agencies and their workers to deporting thousands of immigrants. And Americans now await the effects of Republicans’ massive bill cutting taxes and expanding immigration enforcement while slashing popular programs. We check in on Trump’s ambitions and the ways Congress and the courts are expanding, or checking, his presidential power.

Guests:

Philip Bump, national columnist, Washington Post; author of "The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America"

Claudia Grisales, congressional correspondent, NPR

David Graham, staff writer, The Atlantic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Water conservation is a constant challenge for Californians, but according to the New York Times’s Michael Kimmelman, there’s one city that’s doing it right: Los Angeles. Kimmelman found that L.A. has consumed less water in total since 1990 even as the city gained millions of residents. We talk with Kimmelman and California water officials about the strategies L.A. is using and what other states can learn from its example.

Guests:

Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic, New York Times

Liz Crosson, chief sustainability, resiliency and innovation officer, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Mark Gold, board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; adjunct professor at UCLA’s Institute for the Environment and Sustainability; former director of Water Scarcity Solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To be a modern consumer is to experience poor customer service at some point in your life. The kind of service that has you in a fever dream of pressing “1” for “representative,” getting your call dropped, calling back again, and then asking to speak to a manager who can’t solve your problem. Experts call this kind of service “sludge,” an administrative morass meant to deter, not help, consumers. And for some businesses, it’s a feature not a bug. We’ll talk to journalist Chris Colin about the practice and hear from you: what’s your sludge story?

Guests:

Chris Colin, journalist, The Atlantic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist E. Jean Carroll has won two multimillion-dollar judgments against President Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. Her new memoir, “Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President,” is a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to sue a U.S. President: the toll it took, and how support and some dark humor helped carry her through. We talk to Carroll about her experiences and hear reflections from MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin about the significance of Carroll’s victory against a president who has otherwise avoided legal consequences for his actions.

Guests:

E. Jean Carroll, journalist; author of the long-running advice column "Ask E. Jean"; author, "Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President"

Lisa Rubin, legal correspondent, MSNBC; host of MSNBC's "Can They Do That?" on Youtube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No band may better reflect the multicultural, gender-expansive exuberance of the Bay Area dream than Sly and the Family Stone. A new documentary “Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” explores the life and context of Vallejo’s brilliant, charismatic and troubled bandleader. We talk with the film’s creators and participants about the gifts Sly gave the world and the tolls it took on him.

Guests:

Joel Selvin, San Francisco-based music journalist and author, his latest book is "Words and Demons"

Joseph Patel, producer of the documentary Sly Lives; he also produced Summer of Soul, which won an academy award for best documentary feature

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices