Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at California Insurance Crisis, which was held in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. This is Panel 1: The State of the Insurance Industry, featuring Amy Bach of United Policyholders; Rex Frazier, Personal Insurance Federation of California; Meredith Fowlie, UC Berkeley. The panel was moderated by Levi Sumagaysay of Calmatters.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: In this Special Episode, we present the Keynote address from yesterday’s California Insurance Crisis, by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Commissioner Lara delivered a fierce defense of his administration’s efforts to stabilize the state’s struggling property insurance market, outlining new proposals and initiatives, including formation of a Smoke Claims and Remediation Task Force. He blasted special interests, and his predecessors in the office – both Republican and Democratic – describing them as placeholders who refused to address systematic problems in the state’s insurance market.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: In March, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a 22-bill package aimed at reforming the building permitting process in California, an effort to fast-track housing development statewide. Wicks joined us to talk about the bills, why they are needed, and what it will take to get the package to the governor’s desk this year. We’re also joined by Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero to talk about the impact of the Trump tariffs on the nation’s busiest port.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Our 400th episode! On today’s show we welcome April Manatt, Executive Director of the California Problem Solvers Foundation and former head of the the California Legislative Staff Education Institute. Manatt spoke with us about her work in both of these organizations, the importance of bipartisanship in policy making, and bridging the divide.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: First up, we chat with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber about The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, proposed federal legislation that would require all Americans to reregister to vote, in person, with either a birth certificate or passport. We also spoke with Trans activist Ebony Harper, founding executive director of California TRANScends, and the author of The Trans Manifesto.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Jeff Pearlman has been a sportswriter for three decades, and is the best-selling author of ten books on sports, including ‘Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s,’ which was adapted as the HBO series ‘Winning Time.’ In February 2025 he turned his attention to the ultimate contact sport: politics.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Democratic Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo joined us to talk about her legislative priorities, the Los Angeles Fires, the Chiquita Canyon Landfill environmental crisis, and why cuts to the VA are personal for her. And as always, we tell you Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: California political data expert Paul Mitchell joins us to talk about his recent polls that explored public reaction to Governor Gavin Newsom’s This is Gavin Newsom podcast, and the results of the first Capitol Weekly Insider Survey, which asked how and where the Capitol Community gets its news.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Today we welcome Asm. David Tangipa, the freshman Republican legislator from the 8th Assembly District, and at 29, the youngest member of the California Legislature. Tangipa joined us to talk about his path to Sacramento, his extraordinarily short tenure on the Assembly Insurance Committee, and why he – the first Tongan ever to serve in the #caleg – is not part of the AAPI Legislative Caucus.
Podcast
CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Longtime political columnist Dan Walters joins us to talk about his fifty years covering state capitol politics. Walters began covering politics in 1975 – just months after Jerry Brown was sworn in for his first term as Governor – and hasn’t stopped since.
L-R: Levi Sumagaysay of Calmatters, Meredith Fowlie of UC Berkeley, Amy Bach of United Policyholders and Rex Frazier of the Personal Insurance Federation of California. Photo by Ellie Appleby, Capitol Weekly
