Podcast appearances and mentions of mark arax

Notes and Links to Will Sommer's Work      For Episode 229, Pete welcomes Will Sommers, and the two discuss, among other topics, his early relationship with the written word, his all-encompassing relationships with and love for student journalism, formative times at Georgetown, his lifelong interest in conservative media, and salient themes in his book, including the growth of QAnon through 4chan and 8chan and Trump's rise to power, QAnon's pop culture connections, questions of true believers and grifters in QAnon, key personalities in the movement, as well as possible remedies for loosening the hold QAnon has on some many people featured in his book.        Will Sommer covers right-wing media, political radicalization and right-wing conspiracy theories in the United States. His 2023 book is Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped América. He is also featured as an expert on QAnon in HBO's Q: Into the Storm. He has previously written for The Daily Beast, and now works as a media reporter for The Washington Post.  Buy Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America     Will's Wikipedia Page   Review of Trust the Plan in The New York Times   Review of Trust the Plan in The Guardian Will Discusses his Book with Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air At about 1:50, Will gives background on the inspiration for QAnon's motto, derived from the movie White Squall At about 3:20, Will talks about being “bookish and into writing,” unspooling stories,” high school and college newspapers, and his early love for journalism At about 6:25, Will talks about inspiring and formative texts and writers, including Patrick Radden Keefe, Janet Malcolm, Charles Bowden, and Mike Sager At about 10:00, Pete shouts out Mark Arax and a particularly unforgettable piece At about 10:50, Will responds to Pete's questions about his upbringing in Texas and Will expounds upon his appetite for conservative media and trends and feuds that he has observed over the years At about 14:10, Will traces his career journey from Georgetown to The Patch and on At about 17:20, Pete and Will discuss the book's Introduction, set during the January 6 rallies and riots; Will expounds upon his mindset during the day, the incredible things he heard rioters say, and the importance of his attendance for his research  At about 21:00, Pete asks about QAnon's beginnings, its placement in the Trump presidency, and Will gives background on Q's connections to 4chan At about 24:05, Will gives a summary of QAnon's beliefs and the idea of “The Storm” At about 24:45, Will provides history on “Pizzagate” and its early connections to QAnon At about 26:05, Will replies to Pete's questions about QAnon representation at the January 6 rally, and Pete cites a telling quote from the book by Will at the January 6 rally At about 29:00, Will gives examples of feedback and conversation with QAnon believers, as well as many of their mindsets/motivations and targets for their anger/frustrations  At about 30:20, Pete cites Chapter One's “Easter eggs” for QAnon, and Will talks about “Q Proofs” and other indicators, according to the believers  At about 32:10, Will points to a definition of “conspiracy theory” from the book and connects to real-life theories passed on by QAnon believers  At about 33:05, Will puts into perspectives some statistics about QAnon tenets and American beliefs in these, as measured by polls from the last few years At about 35:55, Will gives some history of 4chan and more connections to QAnon  At about 38:15, Will opines on Trump's ignorance of QAnon versus his manipulating and using their support for him At about 41:25, Pete asks Will about his views on people who believe in QAnon tenets and about those who promote QAnon At about 44:00. Pete traces social media's connections to QAnon and Will describes how Covid led to a resurgence of QAnon At about 46:00-QAnon Anonymous Podcast shout out-incredible episode regarding Jim Caviezel At about 47:00, Pete and Will focus on stories of individuals from the book and on QAnon's future based on its move outside the borders of the United States At about 49:50, Will, while not extremely optimistic, talks about remedies for breaking the QAnon hold       You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast.     I am very excited to be able to share one or two podcast episodes per month on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership!     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl      Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!       This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 230 with Chelsea T. Hicks, a Wazhazhe writer with an MA from UC Davis and an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her writing has been published in The Paris Review, Poetry, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. She was selected as a 5 Under 35 honoree by Louise Erdrich for the National Book Award, and her first book, A Calm and Normal Heart, was longlisted for the PEN America Robert W. Bingham Prize.     The episode will air on April 2.  

Der kalifornische Journalist Mark Arax zeigt in einem glänzend recherchierten Sachbuch, welche Folgen die rücksichtslose Ausbeutung der natürlichen Wasser-Ressourcen für Menschen und Umwelt in seinem Heimatstaat hat. Interviews mit Farmern und Erntearbeitern ergänzen eine Chronologie der Agrarrevolution in Kalifornien, für die natürliche Grenzen nie gegolten haben. Rezension von Claudia Fuchs. Aus dem Englischen von Eva Schestag Matthes und Seitz Verlag, 734 Seiten, 38 Euro ISBN 978-3-7518-2000-4

Virginia Sole-Smith exposes society's anti-fat bias and the issues surrounding childhood obesity. Restaurateur Karan Gokani revels in his first tastes of Sri Lankan food and traditional hoppers made of fermented rice and coconut. Mark Arax looks at the future of water in California's Central Valley. At Chao Krung, Katy Noochlaor explains how her parents put familiar Chinese dishes on their menu to lure in customers before Thai food was popular. Finally, Bob Wiebe brings his short-lived plucots to market while chef Macklin Casnoff shops for his newly-opened Melrose cafe.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Rick Wartzman, author of Still Broke: Walmart's Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism. Rick Wartzman is head of the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society at the Drucker Institute, a part of Claremont Graduate University. His commentary for Fast Company was recognized by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing with its Best in Business award for 2018. He has also written for Fortune, Time, Businessweek, and many other publications. His books include The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Current Interest and named one of the best books of 2017 by strategy+business; Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History and a PEN USA Literary Award; and The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire (with Mark Arax), which won a California Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Rick Wartzman, author of Still Broke: Walmart's Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism. Rick Wartzman is head of the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society at the Drucker Institute, a part of Claremont Graduate University. His commentary for Fast Company was recognized by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing with its Best in Business award for 2018. He has also written for Fortune, Time, Businessweek, and many other publications. His books include The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Current Interest and named one of the best books of 2017 by strategy+business; Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History and a PEN USA Literary Award; and The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire (with Mark Arax), which won a California Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month at Article Club, we've been diving into “A Kingdom From Dust,” by Mark Arax — a big, bold, outstanding piece about the magic and plunder of California. I've been hearing from many of you about how much you are appreciating the article. If you haven't read it yet, I highly encourage you to do so. And if you find the piece moving, I urge you to sign up for our online discussion on Sept. 25 at 2 pm PT.I'm very honored to announce that this week's issue of The Highlighter is dedicated to a conversation I had with Mr. Arax a few days ago. We talked about a range of topics, including: his love-hate relationship with California; how water politics determine who succeeds and who suffers in the state; how meeting William Saroyan influenced his writing; how he approaches reporting with compassion and nuance; and what we need to do to make sure California survives.I hope you take a listen, whether or not you've already read “A Kingdom from Dust.” Hearing from Mr. Arax made me proud to be a Californian, even if our state is facing potentially catastrophic climate calamity.The interview also got me excited to order Mr. Arax's latest book, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, which received rave reviews, including recommendations from Linda Ronstadt and Mark Bittman.I'd love to hear what you think of the conversation! Feel free to leave a comment here. What was thought provoking? What surprised you? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit articleclub.substack.com/subscribe

Startups love to tackle big problems in entrenched industries, but when it comes to the biggest problems, like say the Global Climate Crisis, sometimes it can be hard to find a new way to solve the problem. Our guest today, Devon Wright, Founder and CEO of Lumo, a smart irrigation system that helps growers save water, improve crop quality, and reduce costs. We talk to Devon about what Lumo is doing and how other startups can help solve the climate crisis.About Devon Wright:Devon Wright founded Lumo. Our mission is to massively improve fresh water efficiency for humanity. Our focus is on helping growers optimize their irrigation to continue to meet our growing food demand with an increasingly volatile water supply.Prior to this, he co-founded Turnstyle Solutions and grew it to one of the largest local marketing platforms of its kind before being acquired by Yelp in 2017. He helped build and run the Yelp Restaurants division until 2022.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:44 Jordan’s background and how he got here05:47 How capitalizing on opportunities has helped his career07:14 Challenges he’s faced as a non-technical founder11:05 The perils of outsourcing versus trying to make it work yourself13:26 How Devon found himself living on a farm17:10 Why the pandemic helped spur his interest in sustainable farming21:02 How Lumo came to be from Devon’s person need for a better solution to irrigation26:08 The prevalence of manual watering in 202227:35 Building the early prototypes32:38 How Lumo actually works33:54 Where Devon found his co-founders38:48 Why speed to market is so important to founding a company40:24 Lumo’s recent fundraising round led by Fallline Capital42:53 The longterm vision of LumoFast Favorites:🎙- Podcast: My Climate Journey (MCJ) 📰- Favourite Newsletter/Blog: Wine Industry Advisor📲- Favourite Tech Gadget: Arduino📈-  Favourite New Trend: Substack and direct content monetization📚- Favourite Book: “Dreamt Land” by Mark Arax and “The Water Paradox” by Ed Barbier🤔- Favourite Life Lesson: Follow your heart. Do what you care most about. Your passion is your biggest assetFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Welcome to Episode 5! Today we're kicking off the summer season with a road trip! Host Sarah Thorne is joined by Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program to talk about a new podcast mini-series. Over the past 2 years, Todd has been traveling across the country to visit people, places, and projects and he's been reflecting on his experiences by writing a travel blog. We're bringing highlights from the EWN On The Road blog to a podcast format—easy listening for summer travelers! In the summer of 2021, Todd and his wife and the unofficial EWN driver, Anita, traveled across 14 states from Mississippi to Montana and back in what Todd calls the Heartland Tour. “It was mind-altering for me,” Todd says. “It's so important to me, and I think to most of us, to put ourselves in places and in contexts to stimulate our minds, our creativity, and our thinking. Over the course of a month and 5,547 miles, it just changed the way I thought about the land, the landscape, nature, the relationship of people to nature, what we've done in the past collectively to nature, and what we need to do to remedy our relationship with nature.” During the trip, Todd was posting his thoughts and observations to the EWN On The Road page on the EWN website. “I've had the opportunity, really the blessing, professionally to have traveled extensively, not only across the United States, but in other countries around the world, to see projects incorporating nature-based solutions and natural infrastructure—what we talk about as Engineering With Nature—in a whole variety of places and to talk with the people who made those projects happen. I became increasingly convinced that I needed to share those experiences with others so, in a sense, they can also participate in those experiences and that learning that I was able to engage in by being there and having my feet on the ground or in the water and seeing those projects.” Todd describes how he was struck by the vast agricultural landscapes and the relationships between the land, the communities, and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. And he appreciated the opportunity to visit with USACE colleagues, including Eddie Brauer (St. Louis District, Heartland Tour Stop #3) and David Crane (Omaha District, Heartland Tour Stop #6) the two USACE Riverine EWN Practice Leads, whose work and projects represent the future of sustainable infrastructure development. In the winter of 2022, Todd and Anita headed out on the Southwest Swing, traveling nearly 8,000 miles through 8 states to visit more people, places, and projects, including Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, which is at its lowest level in its history, an alarming indication of the megadrought that has gripped the Southwest. Its current water level is at 35% capacity, for a reservoir that supports 40 million people. Lake Powell upstream on the Colorado River is also at a historic low. A paper recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change highlights that this is the most intense drought in the region in 1200 years. Todd notes, “The need is intense to make use of new ways—natural infrastructure—to address the cycles of drought and flooding that occur in the Southwest.” The California Swing in 2021 and continuing in 2022 makes a personal connection for Todd who was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California. As discussed on previous EWN Podcast episodes S3E8 and S3E9 with author Mark Arax, the water infrastructure story of California, as Todd notes, “is complex and impressive on any scale. It is the most complex water engineering of any place in the world and has created the $50 billion California agricultural powerhouse.” With that comes unprecedented challenges—social, environmental, and economic. Todd delves into these challenges and associated opportunities in upcoming EWN On The Road podcasts. During this summer's EWN On The Road podcast mini-series Todd reflects on his 13,000 miles of travel across the country: “Maybe during this holiday time over the summer, listeners will be stimulated to think beyond the interstate—get off road and think about what they see and their relationship personally, or collectively with their community, with nature and how improving that can serve the greater good.” Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn EWN On The Road EWN On The Road: The Heartland Tour EWN On The Road: The California Swing EWN Implementation Cadre Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021 – Nature Climate Change Journal EWN Podcast S2E7: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources EWN Podcast S3E8: The Dreamt Land – California Water, Sustainability, and EWN EWN Podcast S3E9: The Dreamt Land – Rebalancing the System EWN Podcast S4E2: High Energy Roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads

In this week's episode, host Alice Daniel talks to writer and journalist Mark Arax about what it means to grapple with trying to truly understand the place where he was born and still calls home, the San Joaquin Valley. Mark has been called a 21st Century John Steinbeck for his books that pry into the soul of California. His most recent work, "The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California," is a national bestseller and has been hailed by critics as one of the most important books ever written about the West.

In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, continue the discussion with Mark Arax, author of The Dreamt Land. In Episode 8 we discussed Mark's book about the history of California and “the great water experiment”, much of which has taken place in the San Joaquin Valley over the past 100 years. Today the Valley, the most productive agricultural region in the world, is running out of water due to a combination of climate change, expansion of agriculture, urban development, and a century of trying to control nature. How this system can be rebalanced is where we start the conversation.   According to Mark, “water becomes a metaphor to tell the story of California itself – the Golden State, the myth, the place where so many people have come to reinvent themselves”.  Both Mark and Todd grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, where their grandparents came to start a new life. Mark's grandfather fled the Armenian genocide in the 1920s: “As the train was chugging into the Valley, he said, ‘it looks just like the old land'. It might have looked like the old land on the surface, but it turned out to be something quite different. So, the book is a kind of memoir – an exploration of place, people and family.” Todd's grandparents came to California in the tumultuous 1930's as part of the significant migrations caused by an economic depression combined with the climate hazard in the form of severe drought better known as the ‘dust bowl' in the Midwest and Southern Plains.     Climate continues to shape California, as Todd notes, “swinging from wet to dry, wet to dry, and those swings are becoming more extreme. The Valley now is basically a human creation with the exclusion of nature bringing consequences in terms of an unbalanced condition. If, with Engineering With Nature, we can reintroduce the ‘natural' back into the system, we can help support and achieve a rebalancing.”   There are examples of rebalancing underway. On his recent visit to the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge near Modesto, California, Todd saw how the 7,000 acre refuge is being restored “to what it looked like back in 1772 when Pedro Fegas first visited that portion of the State.” Wetlands and rivers are coming together, to store flood waters and, at the same time, contribute to recharging groundwater. He adds, “it's landscape features like that, reintroduced into the network of agriculture, that can support the rebalancing of the system which is necessary to sustain the Valley and the people within the Valley.”   Restoring California's natural systems will be challenging.  Mark comments that “while California is one of the most progressive states in many respects, it is one of the last to regulate the extraction of groundwater. It took us 175 years of development before we decided that people living on the land could not just dig a well and extract to their heart's delight.” In 2014 California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which requires watershed basins to have a plan to avoid drawing out more water than nature replenishes by 2034. Mark adds, “this is going to be a huge kind of correction. The ground is sinking, so much water is coming out. To come to a sustainable equation is going to require the fallowing of a million and a half acres in the San Joaquin Valley alone. But this does open up new opportunities. What do you put on that land? Do you put millions of solar panels to capture the sun and create energy? Do you let a portion of those rivers run wild again? Do you bring back the salmon runs that have gone nearly extinct?”   From Todd's perspective, “rebalancing is hard because it involves not just the individual, but collective action. It's going to involve some pain because there's no pain-free change, especially change on a large scale. People and institutions must have time to adjust. Ultimately rebalancing should deliver a future for California, and for the San Joaquin Valley, which is even better, brighter.” His vision for the future involves “a network of natural features --like the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge – restored into the Valley that allow and support groundwater recharge and provide all the social value and equity those kinds of spaces can provide.” Mark and Todd discuss the possibility of restoring some portion of Tulare Lake, the now extinct California lake that used to cover more than 800 square miles in wet years.  It was drained in the 1920s as part of the transformation of the Valley into an agricultural center. Mark adds, “to see some of that come back would be wonderful.”   Given the urgency that climate change brings to an already unsustainable situation, there is a need and opportunity to apply EWN now as part of the solution to help rebalance California. Todd notes, “it's going to take thought, engagement and conversation. The Corps of Engineers will be doing research and demonstration projects, working with the California Department of Water Resources, along with other organizations and people in California, to try and make a positive contribution. During my recent travels, I've seen great interest in EWN and nature-based solutions. Our hope is to be able to contribute to that dialogue and have the kind of impact at a landscape scale that would make a meaningful difference for people and for communities within California.”   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Network of Engineering With Nature   EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: The San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge: A Natural Landscape Revived EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present and Future from the Air EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: Engineering Water in California and the Case of the San Joaquin River San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge Pedro Fages expeditions to the San Joaquin Valley Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley   EWN Podcast S2E7i: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources EWN Podcast S2E7ii: Integrating EWN into Critical Watershed Projects in California   Mark Arax The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust across California The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire How we drained California dry: A story of remaking the land and taking the water until there was nothing left – MIT Technology Review History of Water Development and the State Water Project – CA Department of Water Resources California State Water Project California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) Tulare Lake Joan Didion Essay: Holy Water

Bounded by two mountain ranges, the 450 mile long Central Valley dominates the middle of California and covers about 11% of the State. The Central Valley is divided into two parts: the northern Sacramento Valley and the southern San Joaquin Valley. Technically, because it averages less than 10 inches of rain a year, the San Joaquin Valley is a desert. And thanks to what is called the “great water experiment” of the last 100 years, it is the most productive agricultural region in the world, with more than 250 crops under cultivation. But the current system and approaches are unsustainable.   In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are joined by author Mark Arax. Mark's recent book, The Dreamt Land, describes in very personal terms the history of California's water challenges, it's unprecedented irrigation experiment and the emerging threats of climate change. Both Mark and Todd grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and were shaped by their early experiences, including the irrigation canals that sliced through their communities. As Mark notes: “It never occurred to me back then to ask, why are there irrigation canals? Where is that water coming from? Where is it going to? Who is it going to? This was the story of the reinvention of California.” Water became the central metaphor of The Dreamt Land. For Todd “the frogs, minnows and water striders of an irrigation canal were my introduction to aquatic ecology, which has everything to do with my career in life. It was only moving away and looking at it from another place and reading about it that I come to have a deeper understanding of what the Valley was in the past, what it is today, and some of the tensions that exist.” According to Mark, the Central Valley is “the strangest desert it can be” because of the lack of rainfall from April to October, but in the past, before people intervened, it also featured a number of significant rivers running through it, interior lakes, and in heavy snow and rain years, one of the “greatest wetlands in the world”. Those who came to California to farm this fertile ground believed those rivers had to be “conquered”. In the 1920s Tulare Lake, which would have covered more than 800 square miles in wet years, was drained using levees and pumps – extraordinary engineering that transformed the land into the richest cotton plantation in America.   Mark has spent 30 years trying to understand the history and continuous transformation of California and the Central Valley. The Dreamt Land tells the stories of the farmers, and prospectors, and miners who were drawn to California's bounty. “The gold rush is not something of the past,” Mark says. “We had to stop the gold rush experiment because it was fouling all the rivers. But then we started the experiment of water extraction and soil extraction. That gold rush mentality has never left California.”   Todd recently toured the Central Valley by helicopter with leadership from the Corps of Engineers and colleagues from the California Department of Water Resources and saw the Valley from a new perspective. His blog, The California Swing, tells the story. He notes that the result of “mining” water through human intervention and engineering has transformed the Central Valley into a vast agricultural landscape. “California is the number one agricultural state in the country with $50 billion a year in farm-level sales. Of that $50 billion, more than $34 billion comes from the eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresno County, where Mark and I are both from, is the number one agricultural county in the US – all of this made possible by water engineering.”   One of the challenges in the West is the vast swings between droughts and floods. “All of those water moving systems in the Central Valley were designed to even out the differences, to somehow soften that swing from drought to flood,” Mark says. “It was magical. We defied gravity with that system, moving water from one end of the state where it rained, to the other end of the state, where there wasn't enough water. And we did a pretty good job. But when you look at climate change now, hitching on to the inherent wild swings in weather, all bets are off. This is what we're confronting today.”   Todd agrees, adding: “With that artificiality comes consequence, in terms of poor air quality, water quality problems, and social inequity. Almost 25% of the population of the San Joaquin Valley lives below the poverty level, alongside very significant profit and wealth being generated within and across agriculture. From the philosophical point of view, imposing artificial landscapes upon a system brings forward these kinds of tensions and problems.”   The vast pumping of groundwater has expanded agriculture well beyond what is sustainable. In the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley, portions of the land subsided as much as 30 feet. The 444-mile-long California Aqueduct is sinking, and losing the gravity flow it depends on to move water from north to south. According to Mark: “In the San Joaquin Valley, we have 6 million acres of farmland. To get sustainable, we're probably going to have to lose a million and a half of those acres. That's an extraordinary transformation backward to making this land natural.”   Todd closes the episode by acknowledging the importance of agriculture, while highlighting the need for balance: “We don't have modern civilization without farmers and farms. Agriculture is so important to humanity, to California, and to the San Joaquin Valley. The question is balance. Understanding history is vitally important in understanding how to rebalance. How to get to a more stable equilibrium, within science – a rebalance of the system, the social and the ecological.”   In Episode 9, Todd and Mark return to continue the discussion about what must be done, and how this rebalancing could draw on Engineering With Nature approaches.   Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Network of Engineering With Nature   EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present and Future from the Air EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: Engineering Water in California and the Case of the San Joaquin River Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley EWN Podcast S2E7i: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources EWN Podcast S2E7ii: Integrating EWN into Critical Watershed Projects in California Pedro Fages expeditions to the San Joaquin Valley   Mark Arax The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust across California How we drained California dry: A story of remaking the land and taking the water until there was nothing left – MIT Technology Review History of Water Development and the State Water Project – CA Department of Water Resources California State Water Project Tulare Lake

With climate change what is the future of agriculture?  The author of The Dreamt Land, Mark Arax draws from his chronicles of California over the past three decades to consider where we've been and where we're headed to address the future of agriculture in a time of climate change.  No writer has devoted more pages to the story of California agriculture—small farmers and big farmers, conventional farmers and organic farmers, the migrants who work the crops—than Arax. A “culture of extraction”  has leveled valleys and drained rivers and lakes. In defiance of drought, flood, wildfire and earthquake Agriculture has been  invented and reinvented and it needs it again.  The Dreamt Land is one of the best books ever written about farming and ranching in the West. #EcoFarm2022 is back  at @AsilomarSB!  50+ workshops, inspiring keynote speakers, an engaging expo, mentorships, wine tastings, seed swaps, and farm tours. Register for @Eco_Farm: www.eco-farm.org/conference     

With climate change what is the future of agriculture?  The author of The Dreamt Land, Mark Arax draws from his chronicles of California over the past three decades to consider where we've been and where we're headed to address the future of agriculture in a time of climate change.  No writer has devoted more pages to the story of California agriculture—small farmers and big farmers, conventional farmers and organic farmers, the migrants who work the crops—than Arax. A “culture of extraction”  has leveled valleys and drained rivers and lakes. In defiance of drought, flood, wildfire and earthquake Agriculture has been  invented and reinvented and it needs it again.  The Dreamt Land is one of the best books ever written about farming and ranching in the West. #EcoFarm2022 is back  at @AsilomarSB!  50+ workshops, inspiring keynote speakers, an engaging expo, mentorships, wine tastings, seed swaps, and farm tours. Register for @Eco_Farm: www.eco-farm.org/conference     

Local award-winning author Mark Arax is the author of this week's story on Valley Writers Read.

Mark Arax is one of the foremost authorities on California's water. Two of his most recognized works about water are The King Of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire, and most recently The Dreamt Land. Both these books deal with water and agriculture in California and do not shy away from any controversy. Mark's strength in telling the story of California water comes from deep and unbiased reporting. He sees the situation for what it is and this helps him find solutions. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history, and memoir to confront the “Golden State” myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so profoundly delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's most prominent farmers—the nut king, grape king, and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. We are fortunate to be joined by Mark for an in-depth conversation about California water. We will explore the current water situation in California and possible changes needed to ensure success for California agriculture. We look forward to you joining us for this discussion, and we will be giving away free copies of his books for the best questions during the webinar. You can check out Mark's books here – https://mark-arax.com/

This week, author and journalist Mark Arax chronicles the journey water takes in California, from the mountainous peaks and snow melts of the north, through the nut and fruit farms of the Central Valley, and up and over the mountain to the faucets and swimming pools of Southern California. Environmental attorney Thomas Linzey discusses his work defending the “rights of nature.” Science writer Lucy Jones makes the connection between nature and mental health. At the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, Dawn Birch reveals unprecedented steps she and her husband are taking to irrigate their property, and Chef Carlos Salgado is in search of peaches. 

Governor Gavin Newsom will face voters on September 14, as Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis announces the date of the recall election. Marisa and Scott discuss the latest in the recall campaign and Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on voting rights. Then, author Mark Arax joins to discuss whether California's latest drought could reshape the state's water politics, his reporting on the Resnick family in his latest book, "The Dreamt Land," and grower politics in the Central Valley. 

On the next Valley Edition: When was the last time you really listened to someone with a different political view? We introduce our collaboration with StoryCorps' One Small Step. Plus, author Mark Arax discusses how history intersects with race and real estate in the city of Fresno. And how the pandemic forced one LGBTQ entertainer to assess his mental health. Listen to these stories and more in the podcast above.

On the next Valley Edition: When was the last time you really listened to someone with a different political view? We introduce our collaboration with StoryCorps' One Small Step. Plus, author Mark Arax discusses how history intersects with race and real estate in the city of Fresno. And how the pandemic forced one LGBTQ entertainer to assess his mental health. Listen to these stories and more in the podcast above.

Writer Mark Arax has been working to uncover some of the forgotten history that explains how many neighborhoods in Fresno were established. What he discovered was that some of the city's largest housing developers used restrictive real estate covenants to prevent Armenians and people of color from living in certain neighborhoods. Valley Edition host Kathleen Schock spoke with him about the legacy of this practice and what it might mean for Fresno's future.

On this week's Valley Edition: A street medicine team in Bakersfield educates people experiencing homelessness about COVID-19, and debunks myths about the vaccine. Plus, writer Mark Arax tells us about his research into the history of the Confederacy in the Central Valley. And, as part of our collaboration with the personal history project StoryCorps, 15-year-old Emily Gorospe interviews her mother Valerie Gorospe about her grandmother, Teresa De Anda. De Anda became a fierce environmental justice advocate after a pesticide drift poisoned people in the town of Earlimart in 1999.

On this week's Valley Edition: A street medicine team in Bakersfield educates people experiencing homelessness about COVID-19, and debunks myths about the vaccine. Plus, writer Mark Arax tells us about his research into the history of the Confederacy in the Central Valley. And, as part of our collaboration with the personal history project StoryCorps, 15-year-old Emily Gorospe interviews her mother Valerie Gorospe about her grandmother, Teresa De Anda. De Anda became a fierce environmental justice advocate after a pesticide drift poisoned people in the town of Earlimart in 1999.

The man who carried a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol during last week’s insurrection was arrested yesterday for an act that served as a reminder that the roots of our country’s divisions run deep. The now infamous images of him walking through the Capitol with the flag resting causally on his shoulder raise questions about the history of the Confederacy, not just in the South, but also here in the Central Valley. To learn more about that legacy, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with journalist Mark Arax, who wrote about that history in his book, “The King of California.”

On the next Your Call’s One Planet Series, we'll rebrodacast our conversation with journalist Mark Arax about his new book, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California.

California, the golden state, is known for many things, chief among them is its status as the breadbasket of the nation and the world. Yet, the ability to sustain agriculture and support the communities is limited by access to water. This podcast examines how access to groundwater is influenced by drought and climate change, but also, how the persistence of drought conditions can be tied to histories of human decision-making and structural racism within the Central Valley. This story features guest co-producers Dr. Clare Gupta and Cristina Murillo-Barrick; two social scientists on a team of hydrologists, engineers and economists at UC Davis. As part of a larger National Science Foundation research project, Clare and Cristina partnered with the Community Water Center to collect bilingual narratives of impacted residents who don’t have access to safe and affordable drinking water. They spent time talking with people who live and struggle with these issues every day to learn about experiences, strategies and triumphs related to water justice. They also spoke to leading researchers on California water issues. This podcast was made possible thanks to ongoing collaboration with the Community Water Center/El Centro Comunitario por el Agua and funding from the National Science Foundation’s Coupled Natural Human Systems grant. We would like to extend a special thanks to everyone who contributed. Community narratives feature several Central Valley residents and water justice advocates: Lucy Hernandez, Melynda Metheney, Vergie Nuñez, Cristobal Chavez, Tomas Garcia, Daniel Peñaloza and Susana de Anda. Researchers include Dr. Jonathan Herman, Mark Arax and Camille Pannu. Podcast editors and collaborators include Ryan Jensen and Ildi Carlisle-Cummings. Audio edits by Victoria Boston and podcast and Cal Ag Roots theme music by Nangdo. Photo Caption and Credit: Maria Elena Orozco from East Orosi examines a glass of her drinking water, picture taken by Community Water Center

Mark Arax (The Dreamt Land) is one of our finest chroniclers of the American West, and he joins Jessa to discuss the wildfires, the mismanagement of resources like water, soil, and timber, and why California is our land of extremes.  Support this podcast: http://patreon.com/publicintellectual http://jessacrispin.com

This year's winners are: GOLD MEDALS FICTION Your House Will Pay, Steph Cha, Ecco FIRST FICTION Home Remedies, Xuan Juliana Wang, Hogarth NONFICTION The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, David Treuer, Riverhead JUVENILE A Place to Belong, Cynthia Kadohata, Atheneum YOUNG ADULT Frankly in Love, David Yoon, G.P Putnam’s Sons POETRY Magical Negro, Morgan Parker, Tin House Books SILVER MEDALS FIRST FICTION Last of Her Name, Mimi Lok, Kaya Press NONFICTION Know My Name, Chanel Miller, Viking POETRY A Jazz Funeral for Uncle Tom, Harmony Holiday, Birds, LLC SPECIAL AWARDS CALIFORNIANA The Dreamt Land, Mark Arax, Knopf CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING Jim Marshall: Show Me the Picture, Chronicle Books In response to the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, this program took place and was recorded live via video conference, for an online audience only, and was live-streamed by The Commonwealth Club of California from San Francisco on August 28th, 2020.

The Time of Our Life returns for a bonus episode. For episode seven in our series, Mark Arax reads two short stories by William Saroyan, Laughing Sam and The Poor and Burning Arab, along with discussion hosted by Valley Public Radio's David Aus.

This week on The Time of Our Life, Fresno writer Aris Janigian reads William Saroyan's Five Ripe Pears and The Armenian and The Armenian. With host Mark Arax, Aris discusses Saroyan’s influence on his own work. The author of five novels, Aris Janigian is a writer, academic, and a wine grape packer and shipper. His latest novel is Waiting for Sophia at Shutters on the Beach.

This week on The Time of Our Life, Fresno writer Aris Janigian reads William Saroyan's Five Ripe Pears and The Armenian and The Armenian. With host Mark Arax, Aris discusses Saroyan’s influence on his own work. The author of five novels, Aris Janigian is a writer, academic, and a wine grape packer and shipper. His latest novel is Waiting for Sophia at Shutters on the Beach.

Our guest this week on The Time of Our Life is Fresno Poet Laureate and Fresno City College instructor Marisol Baca, whose poetry collection Tremor was published by 3 Mile Harbor Press. In this episode, Baca reads William Saroyan's The Hummingbird That Lived Through Winter and The Daring Young Man On the Flying Trapeze , and she and Mark Arax discuss the divergent styles in these two very different Saroyan stories.

Our guest this week on The Time of Our Life is Fresno Poet Laureate and Fresno City College instructor Marisol Baca, whose poetry collection Tremor was published by 3 Mile Harbor Press. In this episode, Baca reads William Saroyan's The Hummingbird That Lived Through Winter and The Daring Young Man On the Flying Trapeze , and she and Mark Arax discuss the divergent styles in these two very different Saroyan stories.

This week on The Time of Our Life, Fresno writer Tanya Nichols reads The Pomegranate Trees, which is part of Saroyan’s collection of short stories My Name Is Aram. Mark Arax and Tanya Nichols discuss themes of agriculture in Saroyan and in her latest novel, Stinger, co-written with Bill McEwen.

This week on the debut episode of the special series "The Time of Our Life", M ark Arax reads William Saroyan's The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse , originally published in 1940 as part of My Name Is Aram , a collection of short stories by Saroyan. Arax also shares recollections of his interactions with Saroyan, who was a family friend.

The story of the engineering of California's water supply. California leads the way, so they say. Unfortunately, as regards water, it seems to be leading us down a sinkhole. Music: Supernal Liquid (Reign Water Remix)

On this week’s Valley Edition: Today marks the 90th birthday of labor organizer and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta. We talk to her about her legacy of activism, and why our collective response to the coronavirus pandemic should be a united one. Plus, we hear from journalist and author Mark Arax, who invites us to revisit the work of William Saroyan. We also learn why a Shark Tank entrepreneur who runs a pet product company in Chicago is now supplying medical masks to hospitals in the Valley. Listen to those stories and more on the podcast above.

0:08 – Eric Foner, professor of History at Columbia, author of The Second Founding: How the Civil war and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. 0:34 – Mark Arax is an author and journalist, focused on California and the West. His latest book is The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California. 1:08 – Betty Reid Soskin – for the hour – the oldest living national park service ranger whose life history is chronicled in her new book, Sign My Name to Freedom: A Memoir of a Pioneering Life. The post Mark Arax: the worlds of water and lands behind the California Dream; Plus: Betty Reid Soskin on her 92 years of service and struggle (rebroadcast) appeared first on KPFA.

Author Mark Arax discusses his new book about California drought and flood.

In this special Books + Bites episode, Christy and Chloe discuss The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California by Mark Arax.

Weekly JourneywithJesus.net postings, read by Debie Thomas. Essay by Debie Thomas: *The Voice of One Crying* for Sunday, 8 December 2019; book review by Dan Clendenin: *The Dreamt Land; Chasing Water and Dust Across California* by Mark Arax (2019); film review by Dan Clendenin: *Rocketman* (2019); poem selected by Dan Clendenin: *The House of Christmas* by GK Chesterton.

ANNOUNCEMENT - The Climate Pod Live is happening on November 18th at 7 pm at Lincoln Hall in Chicago! GET TICKETS HERE *** This week, the Trump Administration announced formal plans to exit the Paris Climate Agreement. What does this mean? What happens next? How will voters feel about it? Axios' Amy Harder joins the show to explain the stakes and weigh in on our attitudes toward the agreement and climate change overall.  Then, Mark Arax, author of The Dreamt Land, discusses revisiting Paradise, California, on the first anniversary of The Camp Fire for his piece in California Sunday Magazine. Mark helps explains the myriad factors that have contributed to California wildfires, how the history of Paradise shaped the event, and who bears the most responsibility for the damage.  As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and more! Follow Amy Harder on Twitter  Follow Mark Arax on Twitter Further Reading:  Trump begins formal withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement by Amy Harder  Gone by Mark Arax    

Mark Arax in conversation with Kit Rachils discussing the subject of his new book THE DREAMT LAND: Chasing Water and Dust Across California published by Alfred Knopf. A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil–the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought. Mark Arax is an author and journalist whose writings on California and the West have received numerous awards for literary nonfiction. A former staffer at the Los Angeles Times, his work has appeared in The New York Times and the California Sunday Magazine. His books include a memoir of his father’s murder, a collection of essays about the West, and the best-selling The King of California, which won a California Book Award, the William Saroyan Prize from Stanford University, and was named a top book of 2004 by the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. He lives in Fresno, California.

In person, as on the page, Mark Arax is a captivating storyteller with a rich tone to his voice. If you think you don't care about water, listen anyway. Our live audience was mesmerized by what he had to say and how he said it. To the East of Silicon Valley is another low-lying region that is just as innovative, although the product feeds our bodies rather than our minds. For more than 100 years, the Central Valley has reflected the world's changing tastes in fruits, vegetables and nuts. Much of the Valley is naturally arid, and ranchers count on the relocation of water for their crop. Author Mark Arax traces the fascinating flow of water on its natural and unnatural paths in "The Dreamt Land." Interview Highlights: You're a resident, you're also a native of the Valley. When did you first understand that what we do with water might be a little different than what everybody else does with water? My grandparents, after we sold the last ranch along the San Joaquin River, moved to a suburb in Fresno called Fig Garden, and three houses down was this huge irrigation canal, and my grandmother made me promise I would never go near it. She said, “It's got a magical power to it. It will lure you up and into the waters, and you will drown.” She said, “And no one will come to save your body.” I said, “Why not, Grandma?” She said, “Because the flow of one irrigation canal is much more important to the Valley than the body of one silly boy.” To recover would mean to shut down that flow. So I had a sense that something was strange but I never bothered to ask where that water was coming from, where it was going, and to whom and by what right. So that's when I had a sense. One of your influences was Saroyan, and you come from the land of Saroyan. What was it about his writing? Saroyan was a very earthy writer. I knew him. He was a friend of my grandfather. He said, “I have 300 words in my vocabulary. Count them.” I never actually counted them, but I got what he was saying. You don't need a thesaurus to write beautifully, and he took those 300 words and they were magic. So I learned from him. You put into print the perfect description of a smell or the flow of water. Are you aware of how poetic it is? If someone is writing, and they're being honest with you, they're writing from insecurity. You always think that thing is going to leave you. It visits, and then sometimes it doesn't visit, and you can't articulate anything. The work involved in capturing something like that takes a lot. Saroyan might have been a genius and just tossed off these incredible lines. That doesn't happen for me. It's going in and polishing and polishing and polishing. Sometimes something comes out full blossom, but mostly it's work. Hard work. CapRadio's Donna Apidone interviewed Mark Arax on May 23, 2019.  Water Music; George Frideric Handel. Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin.

The rich story, and steep cost, of how California’s arid Central Valley became an agricultural powerhouse and what that means for farmers, rural communities, and our food supply as we face the climate crisis.

The California dream, with its promise of never-ending sunshine, fertile soil and rivers running with gold, has been beckoning people west for over two hundred years. But making that dream come true for an ever-increasing population has taken its toll on the landscape. Is the California dream coming to an end? When its current water system was built in the 1960s and ‘70s, California’s population was about half of the forty million who live there today. And every one of its citizens needs water to drink, bathe and cook. Add to that the demands of agriculture, livestock and the natural ecosystem, and the pool of available water gets smaller and smaller. “When the resource is finite then you have to make choices,” says author Mark Arax. “And so in the San Joaquin Valley they're gonna have to choose which land deserves that water. It's alfalfa, it's Holsteins.” In his new book, The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, Arax pulls back the curtain on the backroom deal-making between billionaire investors and regulators that has, in some cases, stolen the water right out from under our feet. Faith Kearns, a scientist with the California Institute for Water Resources, says it’s been going on for years. Even she has trouble keeping up. “I think there is a lot of stuff that goes on really behind the scenes and that is completely inaccessible to most of us, even those of us who work on this topic professionally,” says Kearns. California now experiences regular weather whiplash, amplified by climate change, careening between record drought and extreme rainfall. Diana Marcum won a Pulitzer Prize for her series of articles on California’s central valley farmers during the drought. Years of parched weather have taught her to appreciate the green times we do get. “I think that’s one thing I took away from the drought,” Marcum recalls. “During it I kept thinking, I wish I would've paid more attention. I wish I could picture the snow. I wish I could picture the grass. So right now I'm trying to look so hard that it almost hurts” Guests: Mark Arax, Author, “The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California” (Knopf, 2019) Diana Marcum, Reporter, Los Angeles Times Faith Kearns, Scientist, California Institute for Water Resources Related Links: The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California (Mark Arax) A Kingdom From Dust (Mark Arax) Scenes from California’s Dust Bowl (Diana Marcum, Los Angeles Times) California Institute for Water Resources This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on July 17th, 2019.

In his new book The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, author Mark Arax reveals the tumultuous history behind the myth of abundance in the Golden State. LA Times reporter Diana Marcum and water expert Faith Kearns explore the complex intersections between drought, climate change, and life in rural California. Can a decades-old distribution system meet the water needs of the future? How will climate change affect the California Dream? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth.

Mark Arax, a long-time California journalist, talks about the epic history of water in the Golden State. His new book, "The Dreamt Land," is a real-life "Chinatown," examining the water wars fought between farmers, activists, corporations, and governments. The story of the movement of water in California appears as a Rosetta Stone for understanding how these arteries of water literally and figuratively tie the state together

A verdict has been reached in the child cruelty case of Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula. After the not guilty decision by the jury, Arambula addresses the media. Our panel weighs in on the verdict and if Arambula's reputation is in the "toilet." The battle between the high-speed rail and the Trump Administration heats up as the Federal Railroad Administration cancels its $1 billion payment. Fresno Bee political reporter Rory Appleton says goodbye as he takes off for his new job in Las Vegas. Our three person panel returns to talk about Newsom's health care plan and the high-speed rail. Well-known author and award winning journalist, Mark Arax, talks about his new book and how he says climate change is real for farmers. Guests: Jim Verros, host of Unfiltered with Jim Verros and KSEE 24 political analyst; Lupe Espinoza, educational program director and former District 31 candidate; Ricardo Franco, democratic party delegate.

We discuss the article "A Kingdom from Dust" by Mark Arax in the California Sunday Magazine (https://story.californiasunday.com/resnick-a-kingdom-from-dust). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/artistmaterialist/support

Thank you for listening, feel free to e-mail to show at catruecrimepodcast@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram @catruecrimepodcast and on Twitter @catruecrimepod CAtruecrimepodcast is available on iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher please head over and leave a rating and review, every rating and review helps more people find the show. Music provided by Kevin McCloud you can find more of his music at https://incompetech.com/music/ Sound editing by DDFSound Research: https://lasvegassun.com/news/1999/oct/21/chronology-of-yosemite-slayings-case/ https://www.lanacion.com.ar/2118930-el-crimen-de-silvina-pelosso-la-cordobesa-que-fue-victima-del-asesino-serial-del-parque-yosemite The Yosemite Killer: Cary Stayner’s Twisted Mind - by Orrin Grey - date 9/11/17 https://the-line-up/yosemite-killer Los Angeles Times: Last Victim’s Struggle May have Saved Others - by Mark Arax, Dave Lesher and Eric Bailey - date 7/28/99 www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bodies-found-in-yosemite-serial-killer-casey Transcription Notes (Otter.AI) : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b7WnbeKixKohOEihFx57gjcjwvmsrxfR Thank you so much and remember…. stay safe and aware.

This week, we're talking about A Kingdom of Dust, by Mark Arax. This long-form article was published in California Sunday Magazine in late January. It's a long winding lyrical account of the largest grower of almonds, pistachios, and pomegranate in the country. You would probably recognize the Wonderful brand from the bottles of pom juice you seen in the grocery store or Fiji water. This is a story of a tycoon of American agri-business, the rights to California's scarcest resource, water, the company town of Lost Hills and the workers who live there, and the role of philanthropy in providing what are usually public services. Please consider supporting The Public Sphere and Contrivers' Review on Patreon. Brian Schatz, "California's Housing Crisis Is So Bad, Families Are Squatting Abandoned Homes Just to Survive," MotherJones (March/April 2018). Clair Potter, "How to learn from Conservatives," Public Seminar (April 18, 2018). Ronan Farrow, "Inside Rex Tillerson's Ouster," The New Yorker (April 19, 2018). Mark Arax, "A Kingdom from Dust," California Sunday Magazine (January 31, 2018). "Drought by the Numbers," KCET.org . Map of the Central Valley. The Public Sphere is a podcast from Contrivers' Review. Visit www.contrivers.org to read great essays and interviews. You can also sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or like our Facebook page. If you have a suggestion for the podcast, or an essay or review you'd like to pitch, get in touch with us through social media or email. The Public Sphere is on iTunes where you can rate and review us. Thanks for listening.

“Chinatown” created a mythology out of California’s water politics. Now Marina Zenovich investigates a modern version of that story in her documentary “Water & Power: A California Heist” airing on National Geographic. Her film, executive produced by Alex Gibney, draws upon the reportage of journalist Mark Arax, questioning the collusion between California politicians and Big […] The post PN 39: Marina Zenovich on Roman Polanski & California’s water crisis appeared first on Pure Nonfiction.

"The process of objectivity is becoming subjective"

Mark Arax, an Armenian American journalist at the Los Angeles Times, left the paper after an editor scotched an article he authored on the Armenian genocide. The show discusses mainstream media and the lack of freedom of speech in this particular case.