National Review's Radio Free California Podcast

San Francisco parents run over three school-board members in a stunning recall vote. Common sense scores a huge win over Covid-19 panic at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, and West Coast rap and hip-hop shine at halftime. Also: California and bovine flatus. Music by Metalachi.

Peter Thiel leaves Meta for MAGA. Elon Musk blasts California’s Insurance Commissioner over data-driven auto-insurance rates, then joins forces with Hollywood celebs to maintain solar subsidies for the rich. Palo Alto says it'll go all-electric with a plan that will leave residents in the dark. Can San Jose really charge residents for exercising their 2A rights? Gavin Newsom lifts the indoor mask mandate for everyone but the people least vulnerable to Covid. Jerry Brown’s “weed equity” initiative was supposed to help communities of color but didn’t. Music by Metalachi.

Governor Gavin Newsom unmasked at the NFL Championship. Former California AG Xavier Becerra will take the fall for Biden’s ham-fisted Covid response. Why the state takeover of California health care died a quiet death in the Assembly. Sacramento moves ahead on a plan to manage the fast-food biz. The relationship between postmodern philosophy, identity politics, and threats to shoot up UCLA. Bonus track: Will talks with education expert Dr. Lance Izumi about his latest book, 'The Homeschool Boom.' Music by Metalachi.

California-based Intel’s back-and-forth on China's human-rights issues is largely overshadowed by its decision to build in Ohio what may be the world’s largest chip manufacturing facility. Kamala Harris gets the all-important lead-pipe portfolio, even as Joe Biden assures America that she’ll be his 2024 running mate. Never mind the parents, state senator Scott Wiener wants to let kids choose to get vaccinated. In the Battle of California, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams move to the NFC Championship but without the old-school political divide, and Neil Young tells streaming service Spotify, “It’s me or Joe Rogan.” Music by Metalachi.

Biden transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg visits SoCal ports, decries infrastructure “disinvestment,” and leaves town as news breaks that gangs are ransacking rail shipments in Los Angeles. Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis fire cross-continent warning shots in the runup to 2024. The California Exodus is so intense that it broke U-Haul. California columnist Joe Mathews’s modest proposal to create real equity: A state takeover of parenting. A state judge sides with parents, says no more state-mandated prayers to Aztec gods. The state agency that lost $20 billion in unemployment benefits to organized crime wants you to pay for it -- with higher taxes. Bonus track: Will talks with Zach Whiting, the Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow who wrangles California tech firms relocating to the Lone Star State. Music by Metalachi.

Assembly Bill 1400 would double California taxes and transform doctors into virtual state employees. Gavin Newsom’s new budget aims to signal his “global leadership” on global-climate issues but reveals instead his documented failures to achieve more modest goals at home. The remarkable, 21-year run of California’s standout auditor ends with a crucial fight over her replacement. Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik says we ought to dance on the graves of vaccine refuseniks who die from Covid-19 -- but he’s the same guy who savaged the vaccine when he thought it might improve Biden’s 2020 election chances. Bonus Track: Historian John Bicknell discusses the life of John C. Frémont, U.S. Army officer, Bear Flag Revolt leader, and first U.S. Senator from California. Music by Metalachi.

Newsom & Co. want to kill the state’s referendum and initiative process, declaring it a danger to democracy. Lorena Gonzalez resigns from the Assembly to take a job with the California Labor Federation. LA Unified imposes mandatory Covid testing on half a million kids. A judge stops the San Diego Unified School District’s vaccine mandate for K–12 students. Teachers' unions have a new plan for failing to educate (no more F's!) and for declining student enrollment (more money!). In other news, we mark the passing of Joan Didion, recall the not-so-Great Flood of 1862, and consider the ongoing crisis in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Newsom’s showdown with Biden over pension reform, Elizabeth Warren’s Twitter war with Elon Musk, and new evidence of the decline of California. Music by Metalachi.

Will and guest co-host Jim Righeimer run down the ways in which California has made life more difficult and dangerous for Americans everywhere. Hidden track interview with Tony Woodlief, author of 'I, Citizen: A Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance.' Music by Metalachi.

Gavin Newsom imposes a new indoor mask mandate and then fights one unconstitutional law with another. San Francisco officials say the long municipal nightmare is over: They’ll eliminate the tax on legal weed -- even as Newsom threatens to raise it. A San Francisco Chronicle reporter figures it’s time to go HGTV on Kamala Harris’s White House office. Stanford officials wig out about “nooses” on campus. In the midst of a supply-chain crisis, California makes it tougher on truckers. California exodus: Gordon Ramsey. Music by Metalachi.

With Roe in the balance, Gavin Newsom says Californians will pay for abortion tourists. Who’s trying to kill Kamala’s career? Sacramento’s government-pension-fund managers find a new way to transform corporations into carriers of lefty change. California government is still the cause of supply-chain nightmares. Santa Cruz County requires masks at home. L.A. Unified says it’ll send unvaccinated kids to one of its worst campuses. This week in California history: Mayhem at Altamont, 1969. Music by Metalachi.