PODCAST EPISODE: San Joaquin County Historical Museum’s executive director and fifth generation Stocktonian Phillip Merlo speaks on the rich history, abundant opportunities and dogged optimism of the port city.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Stockton was a manufacturing powerhouse, helping to send items to market like America’s first mass-produced tractors. Stockton’s manufacturing sector declined over many decades, though there are now local leaders working to strengthen it again.

Ananda Rochita’s first language was Indonesian; by the time she started kindergarten, however, she also spoke English — thanks to time spent in front of the television watching the news. Years later when it came time to decide on an area of study, perhaps unsurprisingly, she chose journalism. 

For Nathan Langley, entrepreneurship has meant integrating his drive to save lives with his passion for innovation and sales, and the synthesis has helped him succeed. “Everybody is different, and their experiences are different, but I would find it much more difficult to have overcome some of the challenges that we’ve faced over the years if it wasn’t something I believed in,” he says. 

If you’re ever on Jeopardy and you’re asked to name an American company that not only helped the country and its allies win a war (the Big One) and, a bit more than two decades later, helped send it to the moon — before getting mired in a sludge of litigation — remember one of this region’s more complicated and often controversial sagas: Aerojet.