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California Delegation Heads to High Stakes UN Climate Summit Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

The 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, begins Sunday, collecting world leaders and activists to discuss and negotiate ambitious climate change policies with the aim of staying below 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise. California, which has already been experiencing the effects of climate change in the forms of sea level rise, record-breaking wildfires and extensive droughts, will be represented by a 22-member delegation of state lawmakers and a number of activists. We’ll talk about the goals of California’s delegation and what’s at stake for the state.

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Historian Keisha Blain on ‘Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America’ Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

Activist and former sharecropper Fannie Lou Hamer famously said “you are not free, whether you are Black or white, until I am free.” Hamer and her bold, radical honesty are the subject of a new biography by historian Keisha Blain, who sheds light on Hamer’s life and the ideas and political strategies that were central to the Civil Rights movement. In “Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America,” Blain documents key moments in Hamer’s activism, including her pivotal role in co-founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. As voting rights remain a battleground in the U.S., Blain joins us to talk about Hamer’s legacy and the lessons we can learn from her activism.

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What You Need to Know About COVID Vaccines for Kids Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

This week, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended a dosage for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 and up and California state officials say they’re preparing to offer them by the end of next week. The vaccines would be authorized under emergency use with full FDA approval expected sometime in 2022. While some parents say they are eager to vaccinate their elementary-school-age children, many remain hesitant. Meanwhile school districts in California including in Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento have already set up vaccine mandates for students starting as early as January. Public health and education officials now face the challenge of getting as many of the state’s eligible 3.5 million children vaccinated as possible. We dig into the latest news and answer your questions about pediatric vaccines and school mandates.

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Zombies, Ghouls and Clowns: Horror Movies and Why We Love (or Hate) Them Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

In time for Halloween frights, horror podcast hosts share their picks for the best films of the genre. From zombie apocalypses to tales of the demon-possessed, we'll hear what makes for a satisfying cinematic descent into terror. And we'll explore why some of us avoid the scary stuff, and why others can't get enough of the dark side.

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McSweeney’s “Audio Issue” Experiments With Storytelling Across Mediums Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

McSweeney’s, the idiosyncratic San Francisco publishing company, releases a literary journal, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, with no fixed format. The quarterly has been published in a variety of artistic, unusual forms from an oblong edition to a bundle of mail delivered to the wrong address. Its new “Audio Issue” may be the most elaborate yet. It’s a box of booklets, a scroll, a keychain, a fictional toy company catalog and other objects that, in a collaboration with Radiotopia producers, all have audio components. The issue experiments with ways audio and text work together in storytelling, and it seeks to expand our understanding of what it means to make art accessible to those with impaired hearing, or sight, by expanding content across the senses.

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San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora Reopens, Spotlights Amoako Boafo and Billie Zangewa Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora reopened its doors to the public last week. Featured in the museum's newly renovated space are the first solo exhibitions of two of Africa's most critically-acclaimed contemporary artists: Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo and Malawi-born, Johannesburg-based Billie Zangewa. We'll talk with the curators about the shows, which both center and celebrate the Black gaze.

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Fossil Fuel Executives Set to Testify on Climate Disinformation Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

Top oil and gas executives from Chevron, ExxonMobile, BP America and Shell will testify Thursday before a house committee examining the fossil fuel industry’s role in promoting climate disinformation. The probe, which House Democrats plan to model on the Big Tobacco hearings of the 1990s, will examine whether Big Oil has misled Americans about how fossil fuels have contributed to climate change and whether those companies can be held accountable. We’ll preview the hearing and also hear about efforts to hold responsible parties in the oil spill in Southern CA earlier this month.

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Exploring the 'Great Immigrant Food City' of San Jose Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

San Jose’s food scene has long flown under the radar. It’s overshadowed by the established culinary reputations of its San Francisco and Oakland neighbors and the city suffers from its association with frequently derided tech culture. But KQED food editor Luke Tsai says he’d rather eat in San Jose than almost anywhere else in the Bay Area. Tsai says San Jose’s robust immigrant communities have formed a thriving and diverse dining experience that deserves more time in the spotlight. Tsai joins us to talk more about the San Jose food scene and some of his favorite restaurants in the city.

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The Personal Toll of ‘Chronic Catastrophe’ Caused By Climate Change Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

Sonoma County has seen a 100-year flood, a historic drought and six major wildfires that have left death and destruction in their wake, and subjected residents to months of bad air days and routine power shut-offs -- just in the last four years. What does living with chronic catastrophes like these do to people? How does it affect their minds, bodies and spirits? The four-part podcast, “Chronic Catastrophe,” led by journalism students at Santa Rosa Junior College, takes up that question, interviewing experts and local residents about the real impacts of climate change on people’s lives. We’ll talk with the podcast’s producers about the series and their own personal experiences coping through “chronic catastrophe.”

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Judge LaDoris Cordell on How to Fix a Broken Legal System Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

"Judging is not for the faint of heart," writes Judge LaDoris Cordell in her new memoir "Her Honor." Over two decades, as the first Black female jurist to sit on a superior court in Northern California, Cordell oversaw thousands of civil and criminal cases, many of which laid bare for her the racial biases and other structural flaws that infect the legal system. We'll talk about her experiences on the bench and her proposals to reform how justice is administered in U.S. courts.

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