Ann Carlson discusses her new book "Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air." Smog was once as much a symbol of L.A. as palm trees — a bane to public health and a national punchline on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." An expert in environmental law, Carlson chronicles the decades-long battle that transformed the air from toxic to breathable, and what today's rollbacks threaten to undo.

Severin Borenstein, a professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and an expert on the economics of energy, explains how the Iran war is disrupting global oil markets and why California faces especially sharp price impacts. Beyond the crude oil disruptions affecting everyone, the state's refinery shutdowns, import constraints, and gasoline surcharge create unique vulnerabilities as supply chains scramble to adjust.

Miriam Pawel, author of the definitive Cesar Chavez biography, "The Crusades of Cesar Chavez," reflects on the recent shattering of the Cesar Chavez myth — and the harder questions beneath it: what was known, what was ignored, and why movements so often need saints. In this wide-ranging conversation, Pawel explores Chavez's charisma, control, contradictions, and the challenge of holding both his historic achievements and the harm he may have caused in the same frame.