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Godmother of the Parklet, Artist Bonnie Ora Sherk Celebrated in Retrospective Jan 31, 2024

Show notes

Bonnie Ora Sherk began her career as a landscape painter, but then realized she wanted to be in the landscape herself. From the nucleus of that idea, her 1970 installation “Portable Park,” a popup farm complete with sod, trees, and farm animals situated under a San Francisco freeway overpass, was born. As she observed, “Freeways are beautiful, but they need to be softened. Why use them just for cars?” Sherk, who died in 2021, spent her career transforming “dead spaces” into lived experiences like gardens, farms, and trails, all meant to engage audiences by showing them the wonders of the overlooked world around them. Today she is considered the godmother of urban reinvention, gardens, and the parklet. We’ll talk about a new retrospective of her work with curators and artists who have been inspired by her.

Guests:

Tere Almaguer, environmental justice organizer, Poder - Almaguer works with Hummingbird Farms, a seven-acre urban farm in San Francisco

Frank Smigiel, director of arts programming and partnerships, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture; former curator, SF MOMA - Smigiel helped bring the Bonnie Ora Sherk retrospective to Fort Mason

Tanya Zimbardo, curator, "Bonnie Ora Sherk: Life Frames Since 1970"

John Bela, urbanist; artist - Bela has created a garden space in conjunction with the Bonnie Ora Sherk retrospective at Fort Mason. Bela is also a partner at Urban Field Studio, a Bay Area urban design collective

Rae Alexandra, staff writer, KQED Arts & Culture; creator and author, "Rebel Girls from Bay Area History" series

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SF Chronicle Investigates Mixed Record of California Voting Rights Act Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

In 2002, California became the first state to pass its own voting rights act with the aim of increasing minority representation at the local level. But as a recent San Francisco Chronicle investigation found, the California Voting Rights Act has produced mixed results— and the state does not track its outcomes. In some localities, the law has led to better community representation and more people of color sitting on city councils and school boards. But in others, it had no effect — and even caused more no-contest or canceled elections. And the financial penalties it allows for have hurt cash-strapped smaller municipalities — without necessarily changing the demographics of elected officials. We’ll talk about the three-part investigative series into how the California Voting Rights Act changed community elections and local governments — and its unintended effects.

Guests:

Jason Fagone, narrative writer, San Francisco Chronicle

Daniel Lempres, criminal justice reporter, San Francisco Chronicle

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What’s Killing – and What Could Revive – Journalism in America Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

Journalism in America was a highly profitable business for more than a century until the internet – and other factors – disrupted the traditional business model resulting in decades of declining advertising and subscription revenue. Last week, the Los Angeles Times cut about 20 percent of its staff, adding to a growing list of news organizations making cuts in the past few months: The Washington Post, Business Insider, Sports Illustrated and NBC News. Meanwhile, hedge funds and private equity firms buying up newspapers has also changed the industry – a trend Bay Area filmmaker Rick Goldsmith examines in his new documentary, “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.” We’ll talk about the demise of local newspapers, efforts to revive the news business, and what it means for democracy.

Guests:

Rick Goldsmith, documentary filmmaker; director, "Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink" (2023), "Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press" (1996) and "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" (2009)

Julie Reynolds, freelance journalist; producer, Gray Area - a podcast about justice and redemption; part-time associate editor, The Imprint

S. Mitra Kalita, CEO, URL Media - a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue; publisher, Epicenter-NYC; veteran journalist; media executive; prolific commentator and author

Ramona Giwargis, co-founder and CEO, San Jose Spotlight

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Simon Shuster on the ‘Showman’ Who Became Ukraine’s President Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky knew that the Russian military would be hard to defeat – not only because of its strength but because for years “the Kremlin had waged its war through propaganda, seeking to convince anyone who speaks the Russian language that Ukraine does not exist.” That’s according to Time Magazine senior correspondent Simon Shuster, who says that Zelensky’s former life as an entertainer made him both acutely aware of the power of persuasion and effective at winning support for Ukraine from abroad. We talk to Shuster about Zelensky’s rise from stage actor to wartime leader and how his art informed his politics. Shuster’s new book, based on years of reporting and interviews with Zelensky and his inner circle, is “The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky.”

Guests:

Simon Shuster, senior correspondent, TIME; author, "The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky"

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Visiting Ukrainian Officials Seek Rebuilding Support, Expertise Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

Nearly 1.5 million homes have been destroyed in Russia’s war on Ukraine, and rebuilding the country could cost more than $400 billion, according to the United Nations. Despite the ongoing fighting, Ukrainian leaders say they urgently need to start rebuilding homes, factories, and other structures, so that the millions of Ukrainians who fled the war – and who are key to redeveloping the country – can return. To that end, a delegation of Ukrainian officials and leaders are visiting the Bay Area to seek local expertise and support for their efforts. We’ll talk to several of them about their experiences since the Russian invasion and the financial and logistical challenges they face.

Guests:

Margie O'Driscoll, executive director, Center for Innovation - a San Francisco-based non-profit

Andrii Lakshtanov, construction professional, Hilti Ukraine; leader, Dobrobat

Konstiantyn Demenkov, chief advisor for reconstruction, the city council of Kharkiv

Volodymyr Kreidenko, member of Ukraine's parliament

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‘Wastewater to Tap’ Could Become Reality for Californians Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

California regulators approved new rules last month to enable water suppliers to treat wastewater and redistribute it as drinking water. The state says that the new standards, which took years to craft, are the most advanced in the nation for treating wastewater and will add millions of gallons of additional drinking water to state supplies. But hurdles, including stigmas that surround what’s known as “direct potable reuse,” persist. We talk about California’s new approach to wastewater recycling and its potential to address shortages and ensure a consistent water supply in the face of increasing demand and climate challenges.

Guests:

Heather Cooley, director of research, Pacific Institute

Sean Bothwell, executive director, California Coastkeeper Alliance

Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the division of drinking water, California State Water Resources Control Board

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Berkeley Perfumer Mandy Aftel on the 'Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance' Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

“You don’t just smell an aroma; you fall into it,” writes artisan perfumer Mandy Aftel. And entering her exquisite small museum, the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, tucked into a backyard in Berkeley, is to fall into an ancient, mysterious world. Amid centuries-old books, bottles and curios are natural fragrances that come from the secretions of civets and the bowels of sperm whales, as well as from resins, rare flowers, roots and so much more. We talk to Aftel about her collection, the art of building a fragrance, and her new book, “The Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance”.

Guests:

Mandy Aftel, artisan perfumer and founder, Aftelier Perfumes and the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents in Berkeley; author, "The Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance"

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How to Forage for California's Mushrooms Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

As winter rains descend, mushrooms are blooming across California — in oak and conifer forests, along riverbanks and even in your own garden. You can forage for “the winter trio:” yellow-footed chanterelles, black trumpets and hedgehogs. And you may even come across our new state mushroom, the massive (and delicious) California golden chanterelle. We’ll talk about how to identify California’s mushrooms, where to find them and how to forage ethically.

Guests:

Jess Starwood, author, "Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager's Guide to Finding, Identifying and Using More Than 25 Wild Fungi"; founder, The Wild Path School

Gordon Walker, PhD biochemist, mushroom educator and fermentation consultant; host, Fascinated By Fungi podcast

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We’re Living in ‘Filterworld,’ a Cookie Cutter Culture Created by Algorithms Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

Millennial writer Kyle Chayka longs for the good old days of the Internet, when online forums and MP3 piracy helped him define his own personal sense of style and taste. You had to work at it: Wake up early to catch that anime you wanted to watch and record on a VHS tape, find the MySpace page devoted to your favorite show, search out the music magazine featuring cool bands. But today, he observes, the algorithm has flattened culture by constantly feeding us media that it thinks we will like because a lot of other people like it too. According to Chayka, we’re now living in “Filterworld,” which is the title of his new book. We talk to Chayka about how we can reclaim our technological and cultural autonomy and find ourselves.

Guests:

Kyle Chayka, author, "Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture"; staff writer, The New Yorker

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Brutality of Philippines’ War on Drugs Laid Bare in ‘Some People Need Killing’ Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

In most of the world, “salvage” is a hopeful word, writes journalist Patricia Evangelista. But in Philippine English, to salvage is also to execute a suspected criminal without trial. The salvages of suspected drug users and dealers encouraged by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are the subject of Evangelista’s new book “Some People Need Killing,” which draws its title from the words of a vigilante she interviewed. According to human rights organizations, more than 30,000 people were extrajudicially executed in the Philippines for alleged narcotics offenses by the time Duterte left office in 2022. Evangelista interviewed the families of victims, and we talk to her about the impact Duterte’s terrifying war on drugs had on them and on the country.

Guest:

Patricia Evangelista, journalist; author, “Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country”

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