Out of the 47 California Sun podcast episodes we shared with you in 2025, we’ve curated seven for our “best of” list — an odd number, perhaps, but a lucky one as we are about to begin our seventh year together. Choosing just seven proved impossible until it didn’t, and each one captures a distinct piece of the California story that defined our year.

— Jeff Schechtman

Josh Jackson discovers California’s BLM lands

Dr. Shayan Rab is taking psychiatry to the streets

Joe Kloc explores Sausalito’s vanishing ‘anchor-out’ community

Todd S. Purdum: How Desi Arnaz invented modern television and lost himself

Ari Gold on what happens when ‘live cinema’ meets family dysfunction

Alissa Wilkinson explores Joan Didion’s warning about America’s entertainment politics

Peter Jones explores privilege and vulnerability at a school for sons of the Los Angeles elite