National Review's Radio Free California Podcast

Governor Gavin Newsom eases COVID restrictions as the recall effort gathers strength, but he’ll have a tough time persuading his allies in the state’s teachers union that it’s safe to reopen schools. Kiss frontman Gene Simmons leaves California for income-tax-free Washington, John Sutter was a very bad man, Kevin Faulconer’s bungled effort to move left, and Henry “Hank” Aaron is an American hero. Bonus: Will and David go deep on one powerful police union’s readiness to smear its political enemies by misusing the alleged victim of a 2015 rape.

Welcome to episode 150 which, like each of its 149 forebears, considers the madness of California. This week, the masklessness of lockdown enthusiasts continues, entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Joe Lonsdale move to Texas, the path of destruction that led Xavier Becerra into the Biden administration, and Gavin Newsom’s golden opportunity to name replacements for state attorney general, secretary of state, and U.S. Senate. Bonus: Mark Zuckerberg’s role in the Biden victory.

David and Will discuss the now-regular cycle of watching public officials who vote for COVID lockdowns quickly violate them, and then apologize for their great sin. What Janet Yellen didn’t learn while living in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Chronicle hopes Joe Biden will weigh in on California’s stupid lawsuits against oil companies. Bonus: Let us now praise Pacific Legal Foundation for its defense of Central Valley farmers vs. the State of California.

Never mind the flood of entrepreneurs leaving California for safer states, the Golden State’s political class is still bullish on failed policies. The Biden team wants to Make America California Again. Bonus: Listener letters!

The Los Angeles Times turns over its letters page to Trump supporters for a single day. Governor Gavin Newsom locks down 95 percent of California under threat of COVID — but still finds time to celebrate with a lobbyist at French Laundry. Bonus: David and Will discuss waterboarding Will.

What’s with the Biden team’s bottomless affection for policies tested — failed — in California? Who will Gavin Newsom name to fill the Senate vacuum created by Kamala Harris’s rapid rise? Why do California’s political elites hurt the working class they say they love so much?

California’s political class continues its war on Californians, but nowhere is the fighting so lopsided as San Francisco. Gavin Newsom battles a virus only he can see. And we answer this question: When Kamala Harris tells a lie and there’s no honest media to check it, does it become true?

Progressives open a new front in the identity politics war, demanding that Kamala Harris fight Indian caste prejudice in California. David and Will fact-check Harris on her Lincoln references. Special Bonus: The final Radio Free California assessment of state ballot propositions.

Wildfires have achieved what government could not, burning through California at a rate unseen since prehistory. Gavin Newsom appoints the first openly gay man to the state Supreme Court. Kamala Harris relabels “free” college tuition for black audiences. Disney’s Bob Iger bails on the governor’s business-reopening commission. Xavier Becerra wins and San Franciscans lose in the court battle over housing. Trump’s bizarre intervention in the federal COVID bailout, and California’s likely abuse of same. Bonus: Former California assemblyman Chuck DeVore talks about how California looks — from his new home in Austin, Texas.

David and Will process investor Jeffrey Gundlach’s threat to exit California, the state’s multiple appearances in the first presidential debate, and Governor Newsom’s latest foray into corporate-board diversity and slave reparations.