Explore every episode of the podcast Made In California: A Beach Boys Podcast

Made in California: A Beach Boys Podcast.

The Beach Boys made some of the greatest pop music ever recorded. They also have one of the strangest, funniest and most chaotic stories in popular music.

Made in California is a journey through all of it.

Starting at the very beginning and working chronologically through more than six decades of music, we explore the songs, albums, sessions, personalities and events that made The Beach Boys one of the most fascinating bands of all time — celebrating the extraordinary music while embracing the sheer absurdity of the story surrounding it.

And we're going deeper than the greatest hits. Alongside the main story, we'll pull apart the recordings themselves, diving into individual instruments, vocal parts, arrangements and production techniques to discover how that unmistakable sound was actually made. We'll dig through alternate mixes, obscure releases and the physical records themselves, uncovering the details, oddities and forgotten corners of an enormous catalogue.

But Made in California isn't just for people who already know the difference between SMiLE and Smiley Smile. This is a podcast for anyone who wants to discover why a band so often reduced to surfing, cars and striped shirts deserves to be considered among the most remarkable stories — and greatest bodies of work — in popular music.

Come for the harmonies. Stay for the increasingly inexplicable decisions.