California Sun Podcast

Jeff Schechtman

jeff@jeffschechtman.com

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Booking Overview

This is a California-focused interview podcast featuring conversations with authors, journalists, technology figures, founders, and other people shaping or analyzing the state. Agencies could credibly pitch California-connected subject-matter experts, technology and artificial-intelligence leaders, authors, journalists, and public-affairs experts with original perspectives; booking difficulty is medium.

Metrics

Episodes: 335

Frequency: Weekly

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Unknown

Location: USA

Instagram: 2.3k followers

Contact Information

jeff@jeffschechtman.com

For verified host and producer emails, sign up to view.

Host

Jeff Schechtman - Journalist, interviewer, and podcast host focused on California’s politics, culture, history, technology, and public affairs.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

medium
Typical Credentials:  
California-connected authors, journalists, founders, technology leaders, and subject-matter experts with firsthand experience or original analysis of the state’s major industries, institutions, history, and public issues.
Required Achievements:  
Published books or major essays, Founded or led technology ventures, Held senior roles at prominent technology companies, Developed specialized research, tools, or expertise

Recent Guest Discussions

Erika Anderson - Humane Artificial Intelligence, Measuring AI Behavior, And The Human Implications Of Relationships With Bots.

Mark Arax - California’s History Of Extraction, The State’s Myths And Contradictions, And The Relationship Between The Gold Rush And The Artificial-intelligence Boom.

Matthew Stepka - Silicon Valley’s Earlier Values, The Evolution Of The Technology Industry, And Whether Artificial Intelligence Can Support More Socially Responsible Innovation.

Recent Topics

California, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, History, Public Affairs

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on
California Sun Podcast
:

Erika Anderson asks: Can AI be humane?

July 16, 2026

Erika Anderson isn't an engineer — she's a writer who came to artificial intelligence and to the Bay Area asking what it means to be human. She built HumaneBench, a tool that evaluates whether AI systems actually treat us well. As we increasingly develop relationship with bots, Anderson argues that we can only manage what we measure. And once we start measuring, we have an obligation to do something about it.

Mark Arax on California's extraction ethos

July 09, 2026

The author and journalist Mark Arax joins us to discuss his recent sweeping essay in the Guardian, published under the headline "California: Land of Plunder and Hypocrisy." From the Gold Rush to the artificial intelligence boom, Arax explores how California's myths, ambitions, and repeated reinventions have often concealed a far more complicated history of extraction, contradiction, and self-deception.    

Matthew Stepka and the Silicon Valley that once was

June 26, 2026

Matthew Stepka is a product of Silicon Valley — a teenager who built worlds on an Atari, a founder of one of the first internet cafés, and a Google insider shepherding its mission projects. He offers a deeply personal account of a place that once believed companies should do good, the anxiety shadowing it now, and why he hopes artificial intelligence might yet honor those older California values.

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