National Review's Radio Free California Podcast

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National Review's Radio Free California Podcast episodes

April 24Episode 442: The Wizard of Oz Wrap Party
Just six weeks from the California gubernatorial primary, Democrats are still auditioning for a lead — and risk watching Republicans steal the show. Can someone please introduce candidate Tom Steyer to the U.S. Constitution? State Senator Scott Wiener’s attempt to muzzle ICE melts in the Ninth Circuit. A fake bear wreaks fake terror on luxury vehicles in Lake Arrowhead. Bonus! A brief history of California’s Modoc War. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
Trump ally Roger Stone hired to lobby for Bay Area tribe seeking control of Presidio

‘San Francisco treasure’: City, state leaders blast Trump for firing Presidio Trust board

3 sentenced for insurance fraud after using bear costume to stage fake attacks on luxury cars

Takeaways from the first California governor’s debate since Eric Swalwell’s exit

‘Becerra Bounce.' How Xavier Becerra surged from behind to be a frontrunner in governor's race

‘Dark Horse’ Gets Sudden Jolt in Packed California Race

Steyer proposes ending ICE, jailing police

9th Circuit blocks California limits on anonymous immigration agents

G.B. V. Environmental Protection Agency (9th Cir. 2026)

How Newsom Boosted His Book Sales With $1.5 Million From His PAC

CA hasn’t signed off on a promised deal to help bail out LA if the Olympic Games lose money

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57 min
April 16Episode 441: Making a Federal Case of It (Emergency Episode)
United Teachers of Los Angeles activists are celebrating the massive salary hike they won on Tuesday, but Lance Christensen says all Californians will pay the price. That same day, attorneys for Rocklin Unified School District asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of a little-known California administrative court that California Justice Center attorney Emily Rae says violates the federal rights of parents of schoolchildren. Music by Metalachi.
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Emily Rae:
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Rocklin Unified Takes Parental Notification Fight to U.S. Supreme Court
Lance Christensen:
Follow @lancelands
The price of LAUSD union peace will be $1.2 billion a year. Next up is paying for it

Strike or not, Los Angeles Unified is on an unsustainable trajectory

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55 min
April 15Episode 440: Swalwell Hits Cesar Chavez Speed
As his career prospects evaporate, disgraced former Representative Eric Swalwell now begs exemption from the “believe women” standard he applied to his conservative political opponents. An Easter Egg hunt in Long Beach leads to a human skull, Mayor Karen Bass celebrates the return of Baywatch but says nothing about the return of typhus to L.A., Kamala Korner is back, and the Wiener Watch never left! David offers an explainer on a clash of the tech titans in Musk vs. Altman. Bonus: Kenneth Schrupp discusses Manhattan Institute’s investigation into allegations of fraud in the state’s $30 billion annual In-Home Supportive Services Program. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
Eric Swalwell Reaps What He Sows

An Easter Egg Hunt in a California Park Leads to a Human Skull

Mayor Bass welcomes Baywatch and major productions back to Los Angeles

Typhus from fleas hits record level in L.A.: Where the hot spots are and how to protect yourself

World Cup: 2 Months Out, FIFA and Host Cities Sideline Rights

‘Thinking About It’: Kamala Harris Teases 2028 Presidential Run

Newsom administration won't say how much Kamala Harris' CHP security detail is costing California taxpayers

Senator Wiener Announces Bill To Protect Survivors Of Conversion Therapy

Lawmaker backing transgender treatments for kids squirms as man says puberty blockers destroyed him

Meta builds AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with staff

Elon Musk Lawsuit Claims OpenAI Used a Fake Charity to Build an $800 Billion Empire

California tries to criminalize journalism — to protect fraud

California unveils hospice fraud arrests, pushing back on ‘kingdom of fraud’ claim by Trump official
Kenneth Shrupp, Manhattan Institute
Gavin Newsom’s $30 Billion Fraud Magnet

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1 hr 9 min
April 08Episode 439: Newsom’s House of Card Sharks
Angling for a White House run, Governor Gavin Newsom talks up his plan to bring white men back to the Democratic Party while his wife warns women that Republicans are working to push women “back into the straitjacket of femininity that is only in service of men.” In other news: Newsom will spend $19 million to persuade Americans that California is awesome and Trump endorses gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton. In the history department, Will and David discuss the 1972 state Supreme Court decision that ended the death-penalty convictions of 107 California killers including Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, and one Robert Page Anderson. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
People v. Anderson

UCLA crushes the Other USC to win NCAA women’s basketball national championship

ICE Busts Slain Iranian Military Leader’s Niece & Her Daughter Who Called US ‘Great Satan’ In L.A.

San Diego warship to recover Artemis II astronauts when they splash down in ocean Friday

Trump endorses Steve Hilton in California governor's race

Billionaire candidate for California governor catching heat for past business interests, wealth

Sexual Harassment Allegations Could Rock Swalwell’s Campaign For Governor

Major global PR firm Edelman wins $19 million state contract to promote California in a better light

For Democrats, the Era of the Girl Dad and Male Ally Is Over

Governor Newsom convenes leaders to confront crisis facing boys and men

CNN black sheep Scott Jennings gives withering take on Jennifer Newsom: ‘She’s a real problem’

Jennifer Siebel Newsom Has Bleak Warning For MAGA Women After Recent Firings

Gavin Newsom’s wife pushed weird gender films into California classrooms — while paying herself a fortune

The great corruption of behested payments in California

Air district fines Fairfield Budweiser brewery $2.3M over alleged emissions violations

Major cheese producer closes Fresno-area facility, cuts jobs as it opens Texas site

Yamaha moves US headquarters out of California after nearly 50 years

Public Storage is the latest company to leave California for Texas

Public Storage to Acquire National Storage Affiliates in $5.6 Billion Stock Deal

The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate

CCSF union president violated policies in antisemitic rant, investigation finds

Long Beach City College votes to name its Labor Center in honor of Dolores Huerta

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1 hr 17 min
April 01Episode 438: Maybe We Call This ‘Jaime Escalante Day’?
Governor Gavin Newsom signed an emergency bill to rename the Cesar Chavez holiday “Farmworkers Day.” Will and David suggest we commemorate instead the East Los Angeles teacher who was the subject of the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver -- and was then driven from teaching by his own union. Representative Eric Swalwell earned a key campaign endorsement from the California Teachers Association -- a kind of Surgeon General’s Warning for voters in the state’s June primary. In other news: Tech’s very bad week in court, and it’s time for San Francisco to defund its corrupt “Defund the Police” campaign. Bonus tracks! Red State reporter Jen Van Laar on LAUSD’s all-in-the-family negotiations with the state’s largest teacher’s union, and former Los Angeles Times religion reporter Bill Lobdell on the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal, televangelists, Cesar Chavez, and California’s public schools. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes
Newsom signs law renaming Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day

A Calculated Move : Jaime Escalante Prepares to Leave to Teach in Sacramento

UTLA’s response

The USC professor at the center of the debate debacle

A big weekend for Eric Swalwell

F.B.I. Said to Dig Up Old Investigative Files on Democratic Lawmaker

Swalwell campaign in the hot seat after accepting almost $15K from CCP-tied law firm: 'Stop playing footsie'

Social media trials usher in Big Tech's latest moment of reckoning

Top S.F. official who led Dream Keeper equity program charged with felonies: ‘abuse of power’

Holed up: L.A. tries closing off manhole where people live, nearly sealing someone inside

LA’s Declining Homelessness Numbers: Real or Illusory?

California introduces financial literacy course starting with class of 2030-31

'New Era': Landmark Policy to Expand Tribal Stewardship for At Least 7.5 Million Acres in California
Jen Van Laar
Literal bedfellows among teacher union activists and the district negotiating their pay package
Bill Lobdell
“Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America and Found Unexpected Peace”

Newport Beach in the Rearview Mirror podcast

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1 hr 48 min
March 23Episode 437: The Labor Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
The union behind the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act says it will generate $110 billion for public health programs, but Hoover Institution researchers calculate that it will actually cost California $25 billion. In the “Why Now Department,” Will and David consider multiple hypotheses about the timing of claims that United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez raped young women half a century ago. The legal case against Meta and YouTube asks us to believe that social media companies bear absolute responsibility for addictive use of social media. Will tells the true story of Ah Louis, a California Gold Rush-era immigrant who became the unofficial mayor of San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown. Bonus! Lance Christensen provides a first look at the year’s legislative Race to Absurdity. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
Read the Statement From Dolores Huerta on Cesar Chavez’s Abuse

From streets to murals, the erasure of Cesar Chavez is fast underway in California

The complicated legacy of César Chávez

‘I will miss them’: Khanna mocks tech billionaires threatening to leave California for wealth tax

Kathy Hochul’s Seller’s Remorse

The Fiscal Losses from California's Billionaire Tax Act

Gavin Newsom’s $114 Million Butterfly Bridge

Jury deliberations continue in landmark social media addiction trial against Meta, Google

Social media use is tied to well-being, according to the new World Happiness Report

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1 hr 24 min
March 18Episode 436: Killing Cesar Chavez
The once-powerful, still-iconic founder of the United Farm Workers is now getting the old Me-Too makeover with his own union reporting allegations that he was the radical left’s Jeffrey Epstein. Also: Newsom’s hypocrisy on surging gasoline prices, Oscar-winner Jessie Buckley’s defense of family, population-alarmist Paul Ehrlich is dead, L.A. County’s fraud problem, the Silicon Valley's deeply flawed initiative to block the wealth tax, and more! Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
Cesar Chavez allegations jolt California’s labor movement

Jessie Buckley’s Beautiful Homage to Mothers

The End Is Still Near

The sleeper initiative that could upend more than the wealth tax

We visited “ground zero” for hospice fraud: Los Angeles, California

Progressive lawmakers Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna unveil $4.4T wealth tax targeting billionaires

SEIU California Endorses Eric Swalwell for Governor

You get an endorsement! You get an endorsement!

Sable’s president in shining armor

Governor Newsom blasts Trump for raising gasoline prices on Americans with no plan and no accountability

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1 hr 3 min
March 12Episode 435: Newsom Presidential Campaign Ads You Won’t See
California Governor Gavin Newsom says taxpayers will spend $19 million on advertising designed to burnish his record in advance of his White House run. Will and guest Will O’Neill consider recent news stories that won’t make the final cut -- skyrocketing oil prices, gender transitioning in the state’s schools, the stabbing victim who died after his ambulance was stolen, and the governor’s own flirtation with antisemitism. Bonus! Remembering Edward Dickinson Baker, the first Californian to die in the American Civil War. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
Army Reserve soldier from Sacramento among six killed in Kuwait drone strike

Newsom planning $19-million push to polish California’s national image

In a Political Campaign, City Officials Can Spend Your Money Against You. They Call it 'Education'

He was stabbed while charging his car. He died after his ambulance was stolen

Newsom likens Israel to ‘apartheid state,’ questions future military support

Newsom Digs in After SCOTUS Rebuke, Claims Teachers ‘Forced to Be Gender Cops’

Amid angry backlash, serial child molester is rearrested the same day he was set to be paroled

Here’s how Newsom’s spending binge outstripped revenues, creating California’s chronic deficit

Marathon, Chevron, PBF Warn Governor Newsom of Widespread Refinery Shutdowns, Fuel shortages, Economic Collapse

California’s economy faces threats with new energy policy changes

Nevada governor fires warning shot at Gavin Newsom over oil crisis: ‘Real-world consequences’

Fearing GOP upset, top California Democrat urges lagging candidates for governor to drop out of race

California Unions May Decide Which Republican Advances In The Governor’s Race — And Which One Doesn’t

Poll: Hilton’s rise could spare Dems from disaster in California gov’s race

Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley files to run as independent

A budget plot twist in Oakland: From ‘fiscal emergency’ to $17 million in the black

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1 hr 12 min
March 09Episode 434: Emergency Episode — SCOTUS Affirms California Parent Rights
Following a smashing victory in a San Diego federal court, attorney Paul Jonna describes the U.S. Supreme Court’s dramatic intervention to end California’s determination to hide student gender-transition plans from parents. Bonus! California attorney Michael McClellan lays out the conservative case for skepticism about artificial intelligence. Music by Metalachi.
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Paul Jonna on Mirabelli and SCOTUS
Paul Jonna, Limandri & Jonna

Thomas More Society

Court sides with parents in dispute over California policies on transgender students
Michael McClellan on AI
Governor DeSantis Hosts Roundtable on AI Policy at New College of Florida

2028: The Consequences of Abundant Intelligence

Gemini Said They Could Only Be Together if He Killed Himself. Soon, He Was Dead.

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1 hr 33 min
March 03Episode 433: Iran Out of Gas in California
The Iran war exposes California’s fragile oil supply, how the media transformed the death of nine skiers near Donner Pass into a case of “climate change,” and Attorney General Rob Bonta’s very bad week. Bonus! Attorney Andrew Quinio describes Pacific Legal’s lawsuit to block San Francisco reparations payments, and CPC senior fellow Mark Moses considers whether government exists to serve citizens -- or whether citizens exist to serve government. Music by Metalachi.
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Show Notes:
In Gov. Newsom’s California, It Makes Sense to Get Gasoline from the Bahamas

When US Gasoline Has to Leave the Country to Move Within It

Avalanche experts fear conditions that led to deadly Tahoe slide could become ‘new normal’

Apple quietly removes environmental metrics from executive pay

California bill would make fossil fuel companies help pay for rising insurance costs

The Tangled Web of the Boulder v. Suncor Cert Grant: Pass me some aspirin. Attorney General Rob Bonta might want some, too.

Judge Axes Exxon’s Defamation Suit Against Environmentalists

The hypothetical nuclear attack that escalated the Pentagon’s showdown with Anthropic

Merrill Kelly rejected Padres’ lucrative contract offer due to California’s ridiculous tax laws

‘Like an Uber Share’ but public: South Bay city to bring low-cost, rideshare-style public transit service
Bonus track! PLF attorney Andrew Quinio on San Francisco’s reparations program
Andrew Quinio bio

San Francisco taxpayers challenge race-based reparations fund in court

San Francisco mayor quietly signs reparations fund that could lead to $5M payments per person

The Cost Of San Francisco’s Reparations Proposal: Nearly $600,000 Per Household
Public finance expert Mark Moses on the proper role of government
Mark Moses bio

The Municipal Financial Crisis – A Framework for Understanding and Fixing Government Budgeting (Palgrave Macmillan, January 2022)

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2 hr 4 min

About National Review's Radio Free California Podcast

From the publisher's feed

A show about the perilous state of the Golden State—and what that means for you, wherever you live. California is the hothouse lab of the Left, the nation-state creating the statist policies, art, and…