National Review's Radio Free California Podcast

The San Diego assemblywoman behind AB5 now wants the state Department of Industrial Relations to train porn stars. Seven local officials have sued the state over a 2018 ban on speech that might encourage workers to think about leaving their unions. Hoping to solve homelessness, Governor Gavin Newsom just made it worse. Bonus track: Will talks with two real-estate developers about their encounter with California Environmental Quality Act, the biggest hurdle to new home and commercial construction in the Golden State.

David makes the case for President Trump’s pardon of California investor Michael Milken. Meantime, California’s ruling class condemns the inherent body-shaming of PE classes, an LA councilman wants to confiscate apartment buildings as the next logical step in rent control, and YouTube says it’ll ban “misleading political content.”

Governor Gavin Newsom introduces a record-setting state budget he says proves what “big-hearted government” can do and proposes a state takeover of private utilities, including PG&E. In other news: we'll discuss the case against Assemblyman Bill Brough (R., Dana Point), and school kids dousing themselves in fake oil to fight climate change in Sacramento.

San Diego County GOP boss blasts congressional candidate Darrell Issa for anti-gay messaging, Trump threatens California for requiring insurers to cover abortion, and reflections on the death of Kobe Bryant, the family man and neighbor. Bonus: A serious question about the moral origins of taxation.

The internal contradictions of squatters’ “rights” in Oakland, the limits of “free” community college, and implications for California’s poor of the U.S. Supreme Court case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. Bonus! The role of government in Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros scandal, “conservatives” who love corporate welfare, and California’s showdown with the NCAA goes national.

As California looks more pyritic than golden, David and Will discuss Gavin Newsom’s emerging ambition (a 2024 presidential run from a spiraling state?), Trump’s apparent misstep on California’s homeless crisis (we made the mess, make us clean it up!), and how teachers unions earn cash by directing the personal investing of their teachers.

David and Will consider the sex-assault scandal roiling California’s Democratic party, the state assembly’s grab-bag California Green New Deal, and the rise of the New Loyalty Oath for University of California faculty.

Former New York mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg parachuted into California, entirely missing the landing zone. In other news, Google’s hiring of an anti-union consulting firm reveals the internal contradiction in Silicon Valley businesses, and what to make of religious imagery deployed on behalf of illegal immigrants.

Will and David celebrate this landmark episode with a dramatic reading of Charles C. W. Cooke’s funeral oration over the defunct Harris presidential campaign, consider the implications of Planned Parenthood’s victory over reporters in the “Baby Body Parts” trial, and discuss Victor Davis Hansen’s revisionist take on how Republicans lost California.

Will talks with top statehouse staffer Lance Christensen about claims that Governor Newsom's actions in the most recent legislative session indicate the gov is not quite as liberal as his backers might have hoped.