National Review's Radio Free California Podcast

David and Will discuss the governor’s renewed lockdown order and the LA teachers union’s ransom note to the public demanding higher taxes and terminating school police and universal health care in exchange for reopened schools. In other news: Bay Area Rapid Transit will defund police and hire unarmed “ambassadors.” We celebrate the anniversary of Negro League baseball with a memory of the day Walter “Big Train” Johnson (Fullerton High School and Washington Senators) lost to the Los Angeles Giants.

Citing evidence gleaned through arduous research in the Playboy magazine archives, state Democrats demand a name change for Orange County’s John Wayne Airport. (Next up: Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport?) Teachers union pet Joe Biden declares total fealty to NEA. SCOTUS defends LA Catholic schools. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers reward failing schools, and administer CPR to California’s illegal affirmative action system. Bonus: Can the NFL prove its anti-racist bonafides by insisting that someone hire former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick?

Will talks with historian Robert M. Senkewicz about Junípero Serra, founder of the California missions; object of veneration, admiration, and hate. In other news, Steve Greenhut talks about police reform, Dr. Jeff Barke says K–12 schools should open — no masks, no social distancing — and CPC’s own Ed Ring discusses one city’s revolutionary approach to the problem of fire fighting.

State lawmakers order the century-old statue of Cristoforo Colombo removed from the capitol, the FBI cracks widespread corruption in LA City Hall, the real John Sutter, what causes homelessness (a brief survey), Oakland’s mayor sees lynching where others see sports equipment, Vallejo’s real-time experiment in “defunding” police, and the Cal State faculty union’s dumb teaching of American history.

In his Supreme Court fight with the Trump Administration, California attorney general Xavier Bacera invokes conservative principles to defend the Golden State’s sanctuary state declaration -- and wins. In other news, police union leaders demand that they reform themselves, San Francisco transit officials refuse to give cops a ride, David unwinds the state pension agency’s “new” investment strategy, and Will talks with Reason’s Marc Joffe about the latest effort to derail High-Speed Rail.

California’s Democratic leaders -- in Congress and Sacramento, and on Main Street -- are scrambling to appease public outrage over the police killing of George Floyd. But their solutions neatly avoid touching the Left’s unbridled affection for government unions, including police unions. Bonus: David and Will discuss how Californians are lifting the COVID lockdown without permission.

Our problem with bad cops isn’t that they’re racist, it’s that they’re protected. State lawmakers seize the moment to resuscitate affirmative action. Justice comes slowly to Orange County assemblyman who offer political favors in exchange for sex.

David and Will spend too much time on Trump vs Twitter, and then consider the Ninth Circuit’s decision declaring the Bill of Rights a “suicide pact” to be suspended by judges “with a little practical wisdom.”

Governor Gavin Newsom’s focus on protecting everybody may have cost lives, a Trump-backed House candidate flips a Dem seat in SoCal, Kamala’s VP stock is dropping, and the New York Times’s problem with capitalism is now epidemic. Bonus track: Will talks with Williamson Evers about the dangers of AB5.

Elon Musk’s battle with regulators reveals everything about the late, great state of California. In other news: Union leaders see hospital layoffs as evidence of capitalism's failure, and 150 economists beg Governor Gavin Newsom to let his people go. Bonus track: Will talks with the brains behind the free-market YouTube comedy series 'Love Gov.'