The New Deal and a surge in arts funding led to the creation of public works of art throughout the country. In Southern California, muralist Edward Biberman offered an evocative interpretation of Venice with "Abbot Kinney and the Story of Venice."

The only ghosts in this episode are the dreams of the past — visions of wealth, of new cities, and of new ways of living that failed. One of our stops was at Zzyzx, where we found echoes of a radio evangelist named Curtis Howe Springer among the...

Former insurance salesman turned radio evangelist Curtis Howe Springer successfully transformed a seemingly barren patch of desert now known as Zzyzx into a bustling business, selling snake oil and salvation. Yet, in a familiar story, it was his...

“The Endless Summer” grew from a simple idea into a cultural product, a lifestyle available to anyone with the means for a ticket. Filmmaker Bruce Brown set out to sell a documentary film about surfing and, in doing so, he inadvertently sold a dream.

The Llano del Rio commune offered a way out of the “circle the drain” life of most Americans. More importantly, it did so while forcibly demonstrating to the rest of the world the validity of dreams.

Before we made this episode, I didn’t realize how far surfing’s influence extended, even to my own childhood. Conversations with surf culture historians Dick Metz and Peter Westwick, and a visit to Muscle Beach, helped to tell the story.

The aerospace industry and surfboarding have a historic connection through technology, and have worked together to popularize the California Dream across the globe.

When people talk about baseball greats, it is usually a discussion of the players. Yet there are legends in the stands as well. 

Californians have generally learned to love their arid eastern lands. Joshua Tree National Park continues to enjoy (or suffer from, depending on your perspective) record visitation. Music and art festivals draw hundreds of thousands more. And of...

California history, much like that of America’s, rests on the noblest of deeds, the most nefarious of acts and a sea of grey in between, all driven by the very dreams that fuel boom and bust cycles.