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Episode 143 -- Joan Didion's California (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-07 05:24:21
Imported:
2026-09

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Content

It's Hot California Summer over here on In Bed with the Right! For this first installment (of probably three), Moira and Adrian delve into the work of noted California-native and inveterate California-explainer Joan Didion, whose conservatism was a central part of our episode on San Francisco in the conservative imagination. The episode's focus is on Didion's 2003 book Where I Was From, a brilliant diagnosis of, and only intermittently self-aware display of, a particular California ideology. It's an ideology that continues to shape how the world views California, and how California views the world.

Comments

Caitlin

I finished reading Where I Was From a few weeks ago, so this is good timing!

Sarah

As someone who grew up in Sacramento (but was not born in CA), feeling like you’re more Californian than anyone else is a very Sacramento pathology 😅😅😅 (said with love because Sac is basically my hometown and I love it dearly)

Murphy

(SF since '99) LOVED THIS. The "Palo Alto" book really helped me fill in some of the blanks and explain what I'm seeing in tech "culture" (Eugenics). I was also very involved with the SFUSD school board/Boudin ANTI-recall. I think I heard a little hint about Prop 13 for an upcoming episode? Many of us want this reformed. The crumbling schools, and infrastructure is really hard to square with the massive wealth. We have a legacy-wealthy mayor who doesn't send his kids to public school cut public health, while we watch NYC... I'm looking forward to more connections being made by Adrian.

Jenny

So excited for this series! I've been on the fence about moving to California for years now, and it'd be really helpful to get a critical look into its politics, culture, and history (as preparation / inoculation?) before taking the plunge 😂

Ruth

As a California scientist who (not through my own choice) had a chunk of my PhD funded by the Resnicks who are the owners of the Wonderful Company that owns POM and Cuties and Fiji water and such delights, I was intrigued by this delicious connection to Bari Weiss, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s correct? Off the cuff error I’m sure but I remember it in a previous episode too so mentioning now. Pretty sure the company you’re referring to here is the Wonderful Company, not the Nice Company, and the owners aren’t are parents of Nellie Bowles, delicious as that’d be. Always here for Resnick slander though! Fascinating ep, there’s a lot here I’d like to spend more time thinking on.

Laura

“You could confuse her [Nellie Bowles] for Kara Swisher” Adrian you clearly are not up to date on the lesbian gossip! Nellie and Kara dated!

Rosey

As a climate law specialist, I was grateful for Mike's beef rant. The pushback against even minor climate mitigation measures is depressinggg. The impacts on people's lives will be so much worse if there's no mitigation - I don't get why that's hard to understand

Astraea

Not to feed the pathology, but I feel like if you grew up in a place you probably DO get to feel a bit more Californian than recent transplants... -Signed, a native Arizonan who has Opinions about out-of-state developers! :P

testosteronefemme

grew up in san diego, and the whole "people do not remember the place you grew up" thing is SO real for me. i left (i am one of many zoomers that cannot afford to live in california and was not academically competitive enough for CA engineering schools... and i refused to go to merced/riverside or stay in san diego), and every fucking time i come back shit has changed. the houses in my (NORMAL, MIDDLE CLASS) neighborhood go for $1.3M now. there are people living on the 805. the weather is weird as fuck and has been since i left at 17 (wildfires and unseasonable heat in March my senior year, followed by crazy weird humidity, come back at 19 and there's fucking lightning in May even though it's not an El Niño year etc etc). like even though the population has leveled off, due to the everything, the way that climate change alongside the economic realities keep reshaping my home, it's like trying to find your footing in a perpetual earthquake. and my dad had stories about neighborhoods of SD that used to be farmland, and my mom used to call san diego cow town because she grew up in LA (even did the whole "6th generation californian" thing too! vs my dad's side moved to CA explicitly bc of suburbanization & the spoils of empire). anyway, feeling very seen by that section of the discussion, especially bc i was raised by california conservatives who were into charismatic renewal (a california phenomenon!), one of whom worked in the defense industry lol.

testosteronefemme

also i literally only know of joan didion as like, a reference people make when they want to be seen as intellectual (i specifically remember an article talking about the collation of aesthetics that women are doing to construct a persona, it's not about *reading* joan didion, it's about being seen as someone who would), so this is how i found out she was a CA conservative lol.

testosteronefemme

also, now that i live in the midwest, the way that I've had ppl assume my parents were loaded bc i grew up in california is insane. i have to explain to people that you used to be able to buy property as a TEACHER. it feels like i'm trying to keep alive an oral history of a place that should still exist but doesn't. the only thing that's the same is the set of hiking trails i hiked as a 6th grader at torrey pines tbh.

MARIA PRAMAGGIORE

I read Didion to understand more about LA when I lived there all too briefly. Salvador was much critiqued as she patachuted in. but her ominous observational tone was right for that story. No one does sinister and vaguely conspiratorial (hair on back of neck) like she did. Thanks for this and looking forward to more!

James Talley

The pioneer, made-the-crossing, sin eater entitlement vibe makes me kinda want to watch all those frontier shows by Taylor Sheridan, because I suspect they'd be a good lens into that POV, but there are so many, and I think they're all on Paramount.

Emily

Lindsey Graham prove us wrong

OuijaFBabysMama

I am just a girl standing in front of my favorite podcast asking them to please do a HOW POLITICAL SCIENCE SHAT ON AMERICA CROSSOVER BONANZA WITH MICHAEL HOBBES RT IN COVIDS WAKE AND OTHER STUFF SO HELP ME GODDESS JOAN RIVERS I LIT MY CANDLE I WILL NEVER STOP PRAYING FOR THIS episode please. No pressure, just wondering xoxo @ifbookscouldkill @moiradonegan @adriandaub @joanrivers