California Attorney General Rob Bonta at the University of San Diego for Politifest 2023 on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta at the University of San Diego for Politifest 2023 on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. / Vito Di Stefano for Voice of San Diego

Voice of San Diego held one of our most popular and thoroughly reported events ever: Politifest 2023.

We dedicated this year to housing and water, California’s foremost crises. The public affairs extravaganza featured lively panels, debates and discussions dedicated to these complex issues — aiming to make policy plain, break news and inform the public. Now, we’ll be dropping some of our favorite discussions in the VOSD Podcast feed for you.

First up is our capstone convo with California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Our regular podcast hosts — Scott Lewis, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Jakob McWhinney — roped in LA Times reporter Liam Dillon and Voice environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer, who are experts on this year’s themes.

Ahead of Bonta’s arrival, they reviewed highlights of the day from our water panels. Then they got into housing laws. This podcast ends with Dillon interviewing Bonta one-on-one, drilling down on housing policy, homelessness and shelter. The AG made some news with us, discussing homeless enforcement, San Diego jail deaths and Coronado’s housing defiance. It’s a great recap of the event.

See all of our reports, videos and transcripts from Politifest 2023 here.

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Nate John is the digital manager at Voice of San Diego. He oversees Voice's website, newsletters, podcasts and product team. You can reach him at nate@vosd.org.

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