California had 1,000 wineries in 1910. By 1965, it had 225. The story of how the industry collapsed, came back, and quadrupled past 4,800 wineries today runs straight through one Piedmontese immigrant family — and Kevin Ferguson's.

In this episode, Jordan sits down with Kevin — writer, former brand marketer, and great-grandson of John Gemello, founder of the Gemello Winery in Mountain View — to trace California wine from Prohibition's lost expertise through the 1976 Judgment of Paris and the boutique boom that followed. Along the way: Mike Grgich and Chateau Montelena, Steven Spurrier's reluctant bicentennial marketing stunt, George Taber as the only reporter in the room, and the little-remembered 2001 rematch in which Kevin's grandfather's 1970 Cabernet beat fourteen of sixteen judges' top picks — news he received by phone at age 82.

Plus: a chance meeting at a San Jose hotel that reunited two Piedmontese immigrants and started the Beltramo dynasty, cassette tapes that preserved a family's oral history, and why the best wine, for Kevin, is the one with the best story behind it.

Kevin's Substack

Historian Peter Richardson joins Jordan Mattox to discuss his new book, Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine, and to situate the magazine within the broader cultural and political history of the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Richardson — whose previous work includes a biography of Carey McWilliams and studies of Ramparts Magazine and the Grateful Dead — argues that Rolling Stone's founding in November 1967 cannot be understood apart from the counterculture it both chronicled and drew its sustenance from, nor apart from the failures of a mainstream media that created the opening for it in the first place.

The conversation traces Richardson's own intellectual trajectory from medieval English literature to California cultural history; revisits McWilliams's argument that California is less a "great exception" than a national avatar; takes up Hunter S. Thompson's ambivalent relationship to the Haight-Ashbury counterculture; and considers Kevin Starr's conspicuous reluctance to address the 1960s in his otherwise comprehensive survey of the state. The episode closes with Richardson's reflections on Theodore Roszak, on whether the conditions for a new counterculture now exist in the shadow of Silicon Valley, and with a set of book and film recommendations for listeners wishing to pursue these threads further.

California wine is often wrapped in romance—rolling vineyards, pioneering families, and world-class vintages. But beneath that familiar story lies a far more complex history of conquest, labor, race, and power. In this episode of the History of California Podcast, Jordan Mattox sits down with historian Dr. Julia Ornelas-Higdon, author of The Grapes of Conquest, to uncover the hidden foundations of one of the state’s most iconic industries.

Together, they trace the evolution of California agriculture from booster-era optimism to the labor struggles of the 20th century, examining how narratives about land, belonging, and identity were shaped—and often distorted—by those in power. From the overlooked role of Indigenous peoples and immigrant laborers to the surprising origins of the Anaheim Wine Colony, this conversation reveals how wine production functioned not just as an economic activity, but as a form of cultural production that helped define who counted as “Californian.”

Along the way, the episode explores historiographical shifts—from triumphalist agricultural histories to labor-centered and race-conscious interpretations—and asks what still remains missing. If California wine tells a story, this episode asks: whose story has it been, and who has been left out?

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox sits down with Ann Carlson to explore the history and legacy of air pollution regulation in California, as told in her book Smog and Sunshine.

The conversation traces the transformation of Los Angeles from one of the most polluted regions in the United States to a global leader in environmental policy. Carlson explains how early misdiagnoses—like the infamous Tucker Report—delayed action, and how scientists, activists, journalists, and government institutions eventually converged to identify automobiles as the primary source of smog .

Mattox and Carlson dig into the mechanics of environmental law, including the shift from bipartisan consensus to regulatory fragmentation, the increasing reliance on federal agencies, and the critical role of states—especially California—in advancing climate policy when the federal government stalls . The episode also highlights the catalytic converter as a case study in how ambitious regulation can drive technological innovation.

The discussion goes beyond policy to examine environmental justice, showing how pollution has historically—and continues to—disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color, particularly in regions like the Inland Empire .

Throughout the episode, Carlson makes a broader argument: that environmental progress is not accidental, but the result of sustained pressure from the public, media, scientists, and institutions working together over decades. The episode closes by connecting these historical lessons to the present, asking what California’s experience can teach us about confronting climate change in an era of political polarization and misinformation.

This is a conversation about history as both memory and blueprint—reminding us not just how far we’ve come, but what it might take to move forward.

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox interviews Jenny Chan, founder of the Pacific Atrocities Education Program, about the hidden histories of World War II in the Pacific and the importance of expanding historical education beyond a Western-centric narrative. Drawing from her own family’s experiences and extensive archival research, Chan explains how major events in Asia—from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria to atrocities like Unit 731—have been largely absent from U.S. classrooms.

The conversation explores how her organization works with educators to develop sensitive and accessible lesson plans, the challenges of uncovering fragmented archival materials, and the emotional power of oral histories from survivors. Chan also highlights the surprising ways California is connected to the Pacific Theater, including links to the Doolittle Raid, biological warfare threats, and local historical sites. Together, Mattox and Chan make the case for a more global, interconnected understanding of history—one that better reflects the scale of human experience during World War II and helps students make sense of the present.

The Academy Awards are one of the most recognizable cultural events in the world—but their origins reveal a much deeper story about Hollywood, labor, and the development of California’s film industry.

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox speaks with film scholar Dr. Monica Sandler about the origins and evolution of the Academy Awards. Dr. Sandler is the author of the forthcoming book The Oscar Industry: Creative Labor, Cultural Production, and the Awards System in Media Industry, which explores how awards function within the media economy and how recognition shapes creative labor in Hollywood.

The conversation traces the Academy’s founding in the late 1920s, when Hollywood studios were grappling with censorship controversies, labor tensions, and questions about whether film should be treated as an art form. What began as an industry organization meant to manage these pressures eventually developed into the Oscars—an annual spectacle that helps shape careers, cultural prestige, and the global film marketplace.

Jordan and Dr. Sandler also explore the political and social dimensions of Oscar history, including the complicated legacy of Hattie McDaniel’s historic 1940 win, the relationship between awards and labor in Hollywood, and the modern ecosystem of guild awards, campaigns, and media coverage that now make up “awards season.”

If you’ve ever wondered how the Oscars became Hollywood’s biggest night—or what they reveal about the film industry itself—this episode offers a fascinating historical perspective.

In this episode of the History of California Podcast, Jordan Mattox continues his series on the history of Chinese Californians by confronting one of the darkest chapters in the state’s past: the age of exclusion and anti-Chinese violence. Moving beyond the well-known Chinese Exclusion Act, this episode examines the vigilante terror, mob brutality, and legal indifference that paved the way for federal immigration restriction.

Jordan recounts the horrific 1871 Los Angeles massacre, in which a mob comprising nearly 10% of the city’s population lynched 18 Chinese residents after a shootout between rival associations spiraled into racial hysteria. He then takes listeners to Truckee in 1876, where arson attacks, gunfire, and courtroom acquittals demonstrated how deeply white supremacy shaped local justice. These were not isolated incidents but part of a broader climate of scapegoating, economic anxiety, and organized anti-Chinese activism.

The episode also situates California’s racial hostility within a national and international framework. From the Burlingame Treaty’s initially open immigration policy to its revision under mounting Western political pressure, Jordan traces how local xenophobia became federal law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—signed by President Chester A. Arthur—suspended Chinese labor immigration, barred naturalization, and shifted the burden of proof onto immigrants themselves It marked the first time U.S. immigration law explicitly targeted a group by nationality and race, fundamentally reshaping the nation’s immigration bureaucracy.

This episode asks listeners to grapple with the human cost of exclusion: families separated, communities destroyed, and violence forgotten in official memory. It sets the stage for the next installment, where Jordan will explore the long-term consequences of exclusion for Chinese Americans in California.

A sobering and essential chapter in understanding California’s past—and America’s.

In this episode of The History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox speaks with historian John Boessenecker about his new book, Bring Me the Head of Joaquin Murrieta: The Bandit Chief Who Terrorized California and Launched the Legend of Zorro.

Long remembered as a Robin Hood–like folk hero — and often portrayed as a symbol of resistance against Anglo oppression — Joaquin Murrieta has occupied a powerful place in California’s cultural imagination. But Boessenecker argues that nearly everything most people believe about Murrieta comes not from history, but from fiction, folklore, and deeply flawed research traditions.

The conversation explores how Murrieta’s legend was shaped by nineteenth-century writers like John Rollin Ridge, later amplified by twentieth-century folklorists, and repeatedly disconnected from primary evidence. Boessenecker explains how modern access to digitized newspapers and archival records allows historians to reconstruct what Murrieta actually did — including acts of extraordinary violence — and why earlier generations so often failed to distinguish myth from fact.

Beyond Murrieta himself, this episode offers a stark portrait of Gold Rush–era California as one of the most violent societies in American history, shaped by racial exclusion, vigilante justice, and a blurred line between criminals and lawmen.

What keeps Chinatown alive?

In this episode of The History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox speaks with Dr. Laureen Hom, author of The Power of Chinatown: Searching for Spatial Justice in Los Angeles, about the long history—and ongoing political significance—of Chinatowns in California.

Drawing on her research in Los Angeles Chinatown, Dr. Hom explains how Chinatowns have been shaped by racial exclusion, urban violence, redevelopment, immigration policy, and suburbanization, while also serving as sites of community formation, political organizing, and resistance. The conversation explores how the concept of gentrification has evolved, why displacement is often indirect and difficult to see, and how cities deploy tools like redevelopment agencies, multicultural planning, and business improvement districts to reshape ethnic neighborhoods.

Mattox and Hom also examine Chinatown’s changing demographics, its relationship to suburban Chinese communities in places like the San Gabriel Valley, and the challenges of coalition-building in multiracial neighborhoods where Chinese American and Latino residents share space, history, and vulnerability.

This episode offers a powerful framework for understanding Chinatown not as a static cultural enclave, but as a dynamic political space—one that reveals broader truths about California’s urban history, community power, and the ongoing struggle for spatial justice.

In this episode, host Jordan Mattox sits down with Dr. Michael Zeitler for an expansive conversation about John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat — its mythic structure, its treatment of poverty, the nature of friendship and communal codes, and how Steinbeck used the Monterey landscape to explore deep questions about history and identity. Together they examine the novel’s tragic undercurrents, its echoes of World War I trauma, its links to Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, and Cannery Row, and why Steinbeck’s early works continue to provoke debate about caricature, class, and representation. Dr. Zeitler also reflects on Hardy, Haney’s Beowulf, the anthropology of place, car mechanics in Steinbeck, and the philosophical lineage running from Emerson to Ellison. A wide-ranging, insightful discussion for Steinbeck fans and California history enthusiasts alike.

In this episode of The History of California Podcast, host Jordan Mattox sits down with attorney, author, and Yurok Tribe member Amy Bowers Cordalis for an intimate conversation about her new book The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. Amy shares the story of her family's deep roots along the Klamath River, the Yurok creation narrative that shapes their worldview, and the tribe’s intergenerational struggle to protect salmon and restore ecological balance. Together, Jordan and Amy explore the 2002 Klamath fish kill, the complex legal fight for dam removal, the importance of myth and cultural continuity, and the profound moment the river flowed freely once again. Throughout the episode, they examine Indigenous stewardship, the legacy of genocide, the nature of environmental restoration, and how the story of the Klamath fits into the larger arc of California’s history.