About this episode

Joel Kotkin discusses the impact of Gavin Newsom's governance on California and the implications for the rest of America.

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. _____________________________________ Follow Joel Kotkin on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/joelkotkin Learn more about Joel’s work: https://joelkotkin.com/ _____________________________________ 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…

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