I sat down with Joel Kotkin to discuss how California’s utopian ideology and Gavin Newsom’s disastrous governance have the turned the state into a cautionary tale.

Joel breaks down how one-party rule became the norm in California, with the Democratic Party tying itself to both Silicon Valley oligarchs and public sector unions and leaving the middle class to fend for itself.

With welfare fraud scandals in the news and Newsom’s likely 2028 presidential run, Joel warns America about what’s at stake if California’s institutional and cultural failures go national.

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Follow Joel Kotkin on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/joelkotkin

Learn more about Joel’s work: https://joelkotkin.com/

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Outline:

[0:00] California’s ideology and culture

[9:43] How Republicans lost California

[21:45] Why can’t California have a sane election?

[27:41] Hollywood stopped trying to appeal to people

[34:43] Silicon Valley’s military origins

[39:38] Was Silicon Valley’s utopianism inevitable?

[43:46] The oligarchs and unions run California

[51:58] How Gavin Newsom failed up

[1:02:50] California’s fraud epidemic

[1:07:02] The feedback loop of radical politics

[1:15:49] Is there anything good about Newsom?

[1:18:53] Can we restore the political center?

[1:20:53] Is the Iran war worth the cost?

[1:24:54] Trump was necessary crazy

[1:35:26] Where’d the curious students go?

[1:42:26] Can we have freedom without religion?

[1:50:27] Community is physical, not abstract

[1:54:12] What makes Judaism different

[2:07:37] Are we in a civilizational clash with Islam?

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