National Review's Radio Free California Podcast
National Review
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 lifestyles of the future – and generating the political dollars to make them a reality in a community near you. Hosts Will Swaim (California Policy Center) and David Bahnsen (The Bahnsen Group, Fox Business News commentator, conservative activist) beam this weekly show internationally, from mostly undisclosed pirate-radio platforms west of the Sierra Nevada.
- 1 hour 32 minutesEpisode 379: What’s the Matter with California?
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- The Victor Davis Hanson Show
- Feb 24 1942 The Battle of Los Angeles
- Gavin Newsom is launching his own podcast — and inviting MAGA favorites
- While ‘Trump-Proofing’ California, Gov. Gavin Newsom asks Congress for $40 billion in fire relief funds
- Column: Bass fires the L.A. fire chief, but her own smoldering political crisis is far from over
- Trump attempting ‘end-run’ around California car pollution standards, expert says
- Will Gavin Newsom support Republican bill that bars funding for violent undocumented immigrants?
- San Diego migrant shelter hailed as national model will shut down, with 100-plus layoffs
- California bill restricts self-defense, ends crime-stopping protection, mandates ‘retreat’
- The SEIU’s power grab puts patients at risk
- Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers Shouted Down During Stanford's 'Democracy and Disagreement' Class
- Fremont’s homeless encampment ban divides the community
Mirabelli v Olson:
26 February 2025, 9:36 pm - 1 hour 18 minutesEpisode 378: The Call Is Coming from Inside the Statehouse
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Roosevelt interns Japanese-Americans (Feb 19, 1942)
- Go for Broke! (1951 film)
- Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, “Farewell to Manzanar”
- JD Vance speech
- Newsom to business owners: Shut up!
- California court rules against baker in revival of same-sex wedding cake disputes
- We forced the San Diego Housing Commission to repeal its race-based housing assistance program
- Californians are in for a ‘rude shock’ on fire
- Trump envoy Richard Grenell floats California governor bid — if Kamala Harris runs
- This alien-like field of mirrors in the desert was once the future of solar energy. It’s closing after just 11 years
- US Dept. of Education investigates California sports organization over trans athlete ban enforcement
- Petition calling for Denmark to buy California secures more than 230K signatures as Trump eyes Greenland
Free Speech in the California workplace:
20 February 2025, 3:56 pm - 1 hour 27 minutesEpisode 377: California’s Synthetic Outlaws Bring the Chaos
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Gov. Pat Brown on the decline of the Democratic Party, UCLA, 1967
- ‘Built to burn.’ L.A. let hillside homes multiply without learning from past mistakes
- Gov. Newsom says meeting with Pres. Trump at White House over LA wildfire aid was 'very productive'
- California governor signs 2 ‘Trump-proofing’ bills a day after returning from DC trip
- Newsom signs the bill while acknowledging loophole allowing for money to be spent fighting deportation of undocumented convicted on other crimes
- California wildfire aid will have conditions, US House Speaker Mike Johnson says
- Republicans rip California’s wildfire ‘overregulation’ while Gavin Newsom seeks help for victims
- Honoring the Pronouns of . . . Trans Vegan Anarchist Cult Members?
- LSD, veganism, high-IQ suspects: Probe of six murders takes feds into strange territory
- Suspect and Possible Cult Member Makes Court Appearance In Vallejo Killing as Further Links Revealed to Other Murders
- California plans to continue allowing trans athletes to compete in girls' sports despite Trump executive order
- California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta won’t run for governor in 2026
Julie Hamill, California Justice Center:
- [email protected]
- California Justice Center: “No federal funds to California public schools”
- California superintendent Tony Thurmond sends note to schools about Title IX protections
- California students still struggling with math and reading skills
- California teachers demand better pay, fully staffed schools as districts battle financial woes
- California AG touts safe haven for LGBTQ+, undocumented students amid Trump executive orders
11 February 2025, 7:40 pm - 1 hour 3 minutesEpisode 376: Trump-Proof . . . Poof!
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@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Knute Rockne, All American
- Reagan as George Gipp
- A disinformation deluge on California policies
- The owner of the LA Times takes the red pill
- Thousands rally in downtown Los Angeles, shut down 101 Freeway to protest Trump’s immigration policies
- California Democrats delay vote to ‘Trump-proof’ the state and protect immigrants
- Gavin Newsom heads to D.C. to meet with Trump officials about wildfire disaster aid
- Trump says California's High-Speed Rail project should be investigated
- Inspector General: High-Speed Rail off schedule for Merced-to-Bakersfield route
- Citing LA fire victims, Trump orders more water for Central Valley agriculture and less for fish
- Newsom issues order to ‘maximize’ water capture during storms. Critics say it sounds just like Trump
- California fires don’t justify an energy industry shakedown
- California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy
- Long Beach is considering a major hike in waste collection fees. Expect a higher trash bill
6 February 2025, 10:24 pm - 1 hour 12 minutesEpisode 375: Exxon Strikes Back
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@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
Julie Hamill: @hamill_law
- California Justice Center
- ExxonMobil sues Rob Bonta over defamation campaign
- Rob Bonta gives back more fraught campaign funds
Seneca Scott: @SenecaSpeaks21
4 February 2025, 8:51 pm - 1 hour 32 minutesEpisode 374: This Plane Is Going to Cuba
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@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes
- Conservatives chalk up win as PepsiCo agrees to ‘viewpoint neutrality’ in ad-buying
- Alleged Hijacker Brought Back to U.S. After 32 Years
- List of Cuba–United States aircraft hijackings
- The Hijacker at Pump #4
- Donald Trump lays out two demands in exchange for California wildfire aid
- Wildfire of the Vanities: California’s political model has failed
- Revived effort to put California secession on the ballot gets OK to collect signatures
- California attorney general charges L.A.-area real estate agent with price gouging in wake of wildfires
- How a rumor about ICE on Muni spun out of control
- Yuba City and Sutter County want to skirt high PG&E rates. They found a way
- California Democrats are building a giant political slush fund
Edward Ring at Trump’s Los Angeles Wildfire Roundtable:
28 January 2025, 2:49 pm - 58 minutes 54 secondsEpisode 373: Donald Trump Is Coming to Town
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Cracks emerge in House GOP after speaker's threat to saddle California wildfire aid with conditions
- Trump is trying to end birthright citizenship. Now, California is suing him
- Trump wants to ‘drill, baby, drill.’ California wants to push electric cars
- Moss Landing, the world’s biggest grid battery, caught fire again
- How California could benefit if Trump actually dissolved the Education Department
23 January 2025, 10:34 pm - 1 hour 44 minutesEpisode 372: Karen Bass-O-Matic
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Speaker Mike Johnson suggests 'conditions' needed on federal aid for LA wildfire victims
- Newsom adds LA wildfire funding to Trump-proofing special session
- Gavin Newsom and California Democrats reach $50M deal to Trump-proof the state
- Newsom on “Meet the Press”
- California’s wildfire insurance catastrophe
- As LA fires rage, California’s insurance commissioner imposes 1-year ban on policy cancellations
- LA Times Owner Calls Paper’s Karen Bass Endorsement a Mistake: ‘We’ll Accept Some Blame’
- Did Mayor Karen Bass really cut the fire department budget? The answer gets tricky
- Firefighter salaries from Transparent California
- Incarcerated Firefighters Do Risky, Low-Pay Work. Many Say It’s The Best Job Behind Bars.
Julie Hamill on evacuated kids
Edward Ring on fire mitigation from cisterns to robots
14 January 2025, 9:46 pm - 39 minutes 9 secondsEpisode 371: L.A. Is Burning
Email Us:
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Mayor out of the country as Los Angeles burns, residents plead for help
- Trump, Musk unleash on California Democrats over wildfires
- Biden awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Hillary Clinton, George Soros
- George Gascón Admits He's Behind Soros Progressive Prosecutor Project, Secured $50M Seed Donation to ACLU
- Some Anti-Israel Protesters Are Paid
- Fact-checkers, targeted by MAGA loyalists, blast Zuckerberg’s assertion their work was ‘biased’
- Accountability is key to fixing Facebook: Will Swaim
- California GOP lawmaker introduces bill to ban transgender girls from women’s sports
- Serena Williams on playing against men
- Oakland's city employee counts show a dramatic shift in service priorities over five years
- The case for (and against) Barbara Lee
9 January 2025, 6:53 pm - 1 hour 1 minuteEpisode 370: Civil Fights
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- Trump allies warn California leaders, including LA Mayor Karen Bass, that they could go to prison over sanctuary city laws
- How Harmeet Dhillon can tame the beast at DOJ
- California restaurant cites ‘Ladies Night’ discrimination lawsuit as cause for closure
- Lima Chef John Marquez
- Amid threats to rewrite the Constitution, Senator Wiener calls for rescinding California’s calls for Constitutional Convention to protect civil liberties and democracy
- Trump-supporting urban planners propose destroying Presidio in SF
- Disney removes transgender storyline from upcoming Pixar streaming series
- Gov. Gavin Newsom doubles down on opposition to Prop. 36
- California manicurists face uncertain future as bill’s exemption nears end
3 January 2025, 8:55 pm - 1 hour 16 minutesEpisode 369: The Year of Living Dangerously Again
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@DavidBahnsen
@WillSwaim
@TheRadioFreeCAShow Notes:
- L.A. Times’ billionaire owner (and is family) ignite a tug-of-war over paper’s future
- L.A. Times Guild calls for one-day walkout
- L.A. Times owner’s decision not to endorse in presidential race sparks resignations, questions
- Los Angeles Times Owner Wades Deeper Into Opinion Section
- Patrick Soon-Shiong’s controversial shakeup at the L.A. Times: ‘Bias meter,’ opinion upheaval and a call for growth
- California says gas prices could spike 50 cents a gallon next year thanks to this climate program
- What Chevron's move to Houston means for the energy capital
- Governor Newsom signs legislation to prevent gas price spikes and save Californians money
- Gavin Newsom confronted at press conference about missing $24bn spent on tackling homelessness
- Newsom vetoes future audits
- Supreme Court gives cities in California and beyond more power to crack down on homeless camps
- Stalled Labor pick Julie Su lets herself off the hook for California’s missing billions
- Unions Give Thanks For Trump’s Labor Pick
- Trump refused to give California wildfire aid until told how many people there voted for him, ex-aide says
- 'A Failed Medical School': How Racial Preferences, Supposedly Outlawed in California, Have Persisted at UCLA
- Exclusive: San Francisco school district directs teachers to resources that condemn ‘Israeli terrorism’ as worse than Hamas
- Judge Orders Union To Halt UC Campus Strikes
- Newsom Signs AB 1955 And Okays Schools Lying To Parents, Opening The Door To Lawsuits And Child Exploitation
- ‘This person should not be president’: Kamala Harris takes hits in book on Biden
- Trump Didn't Deserve to Win, But We Deserved to Lose
- Kamala Harris for California governor? These Democrats say she’s best choice to fight Trump
- She lost the presidential election. Now Vice President Kamala Harris is losing popularity
- ‘He was Mr. San Diego’: Basketball icon Bill Walton remembered for his generosity, philanthropy, civic pride
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