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Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Confronts Critical Issues in Early Days in Office Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

In her first weeks in office, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has placed the police chief on administrative leave, dealt with a mass shooting and coped with the departure of the city’s homelessness czar. The problems facing Oakland, like other cities in the state, are not for the faint-hearted. Thao, the youngest person to serve as mayor of Oakland, ran on her credentials and her compelling life story as a daughter of Hmong refugees and a formerly unhoused single mother who went from community college to Cal. We’ll talk to Thao about what she hopes to accomplish and take your questions for the mayor.

Guests:

Sheng Thao, Mayor, Oakland

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Pop Music, Fandom and Sincerity: What it Means to Love BTS Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

Described as “a love letter to Korean pop sensation BTS and an ode to fandom,” the new book "On BTS” by Atlantic senior editor Lenika Cruz compiles and expands upon Cruz’s coverage of the band for the Atlantic since 2019. “To cover BTS seriously over time is to engage with many complex issues and phenomena,” she writes, “fandom, authenticity, social media, and taste, as well as artistic ownership, South Korean society, mainstream music’s institutional biases, tensions between commercialism and creativity, and so much more.” We’ll talk with Cruz about the surprising depth of the group’s work and the joys of being a fan, and we’ll play some of your favorite songs by BTS.

Guests:

Lenika Cruz, senior editor covering culture, The Atlantic - and author, "On BTS: Pop Music, Fandom, Sincerity"

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Half Moon Bay Farmworker Community Processes Mass Shooting Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

After seven farm workers were killed Monday in a mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, the city’s vice-mayor Joaquin Jimenez said in a press conference, “Many of you come to our community for the pumpkins, and ignore the farm workers. Not today.” Forum discusses the work, lives and struggles of farmworkers on California's central coast, and we get the latest on the investigation and fallout from the massacre.

Related article:

ALAS: Ayudando Latinos a Soñar

Guests:

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent and co-host of Political Breakdown show, KQED

Madi Bolanos, co-host of The California Report, KQED

Antonio De Loera-Brus, Director of Communications, United Farm Workers

Belinda Hernandez Arriaga, executive director and founder, ALAS, a community group in Half Ayudando Latinos A Soñar in Half Moon Bay and licensed clinical social worker

Ximena Bustillo, politics reporter, NPR; former food and agriculture policy reporter, Politico covering immigration, labor and equity issues

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Monterey Park, Half Moon Bay Reeling After Mass Shootings Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

On Saturday night it was Monterey Park, where 11 people died and nine more were injured after a gunman opened fire in a popular ballroom, on the eve of the Lunar New Year. On Monday it was Half Moon Bay, where a gunman claimed the lives of at least seven in the vicinity of a mushroom farm. We'll talk about how the impacts of the shootings are being felt in communities across California.

Guests:

Cynthia Choi, co-executive director, Chinese for Affirmative Action; co-founder, Stop AAPI Hate

Josie Huang, Asian American communities correspondent, KPCC

Rep. Judy Chu, U.S. congresswoman representing Monterey Park

Sherry Wang, associate professor of counseling psychology, Santa Clara University

Guy Marzorati, reporter and producer, KQED's politics and government desk

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The Man Who Captured Motion on Film Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

The Bay Area’s fascination with technology didn’t start with Silicon Valley. In the late 19th century, San Franciscan Eadweard Muybridge, an eccentric, misanthropic murderer became the first person to capture motion on film. At the time, Muybridge was a well-known photographer whose moody images of Yosemite Valley stood out from the conventional landscape photographs of the time. Because Muybridge was known as an inventor and innovator, Leland Stanford approached him about trying to photograph his horse in motion. Those images of a horse galloping at speed revolutionized photography. We’ll talk about Muybridge and how his inventiveness with camera and film laid the groundwork for how we see and record the world today.

Guests:

Rebecca Solnit, author & essayist - Solnit is the author of "River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West" as well as "Orwell's Roses," "Recollection of My Nonexistence," "Whose Story is This: Old Conflicts, New Chapters," and "Drowned River: The Death and Rebirth of Glen Canyon on the Colorado," among other works.

Marc A. Shaffer, Director, "Exposing Muybridge"

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How’s Your Dry January Going? Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

After enjoying a few booze-infused holiday weeks last month, many of us are drying out in January, reducing or completely eliminating alcohol from our diets. Have you been cutting back? Or maybe you’ve developed a mindful practice with alcohol or a casual way of telling friends you’re opting out when going out? We’ll hear how your dry January is going and learn about emerging research finding that — buzzkill — even moderate amounts of alcohol are not good for our health.

Guests:

Dana G. Smith, reporter on the Well Desk, New York Times

Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford School of Medicine; author of the forthcoming book, “Addiction: A Very Short Introduction"

Dr. Tauheed Zaman, associate professor of psychiatry and leads the addiction psychiatry training program, UCSF; director of Addiction Consult and Opioid Safety, San Francisco VA Medical Center

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Migrant 'Parole' and President Biden’s Approach to the Southern U.S. Border Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

This month, the Biden Administration began allowing migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to seek “parole” to enter the United States and stay temporarily. The move is seen as a way to alleviate the numbers of people showing up at the nation’s southern border hoping to seek asylum. Immigration rights advocates have been disappointed by Biden’s lack of sweeping reforms or policy changes, and for leaving policies from the Trump administration in place. We check in on the situation along the border and Biden’s efforts on immigration policy.

Guests:

Hamed Aleaziz, immigration policy reporter, L.A. Times

Tyche Hendricks, senior editor covering immigration, KQED

Salvador Rivera, correspondent based in San Diego, BorderReport.com

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Video Games, Friendship and Renewal Light ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ Jan 20, 2023

Show notes

Gabrielle Zevin’s most recent novel “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” draws its title from what Zevin calls one of the bleakest speeches in all of Shakespeare, as Macbeth contemplates life’s monotony and meaninglessness. But to one of her characters, the soliloquy is hopeful, and it expresses the essence of a video game: “the idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.” We talk to Zevin about the video games, art and friendships that animate the novel, and why California occupies a special place in it.

Guests:

Gabrielle Zevin, author, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"

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Cheech & Chong on the Comedy High Life Jan 20, 2023

Show notes

Comedy duo Cheech & Chong started doing improv theater together about 55 years ago, in an act they’ve called “hippie burlesque,” at a Vancouver strip club. Ten years later they invented the stoner buddy movie genre with Up In Smoke, introducing mainstream America to a lot of weed jokes and also a friendlier 70’s Chicano culture than had been portrayed on screen. We talk with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, who are part of the comedy festival SF Sketchfest, about their long careers, art, activism and whether legalization has made marijuana any less funny.

Guests:

Tommy Chong, comedian, actor and musician

Cheech Marin, comedian, actor and musician and founding donor, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture

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Judy Woodruff Steps Away as PBS NewsHour Anchor — to Report on America’s Divisions Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

Veteran journalist Judy Woodruff stepped down as the anchor of PBS NewsHour at the end of last month. Widely considered one of the most trusted figures in the media, Woodruff’s laureled career includes an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and the inaugural Peabody Award for Journalistic Integrity. Though no longer anchor, she plans to next report on America’s political divides — how we got here, how we heal and where we go next — in a series called "America at a Crossroads.” Woodruff joins us to share how she’s seen the country and its politics change over her 50-year career and what trust in the media really means.

Guests:

Judy Woodruff, former anchor, PBS Newshour; reporter, upcoming PBS project, "Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads"

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