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Conservative Provocateur Larry Elder Leads Field to Replace Gavin Newsom in Recall Election Aug 24, 2021

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Larry Elder, the diehard Trump champion who opposes the minimum wage and said that climate change is a "crock," is the frontrunner to replace Governor Gavin Newsom, should Californians vote to recall him next month. Elder, an attorney who grew up in South Central Los Angeles, forged a decades-long career as a libertarian talk radio host, at one point nurturing the aspirations of Trump advisor Stephen Miller. We'll talk about Elder's political views and the controversies that surround him.

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Poet Rita Dove Offers a ‘Playlist for the Apocalypse’ Aug 24, 2021

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Rita Dove, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the nation’s first Black poet laureate, has returned with a new volume of poems titled “Playlist for the Apocalypse.” It’s Dove’s first book in 12 years -- in part due to a health battle with multiple sclerosis that she reveals and poignantly reflects on in a sequence called “Little Book of Woe.” Both personal and political, Dove’s poems also meditate on American life today, in all its strife, uncertainty, complexity and beauty. Dove joins us to talk about the book and her return to writing.

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Global Semiconductor Shortage: How, Why and What the U.S. Can Do About It Aug 24, 2021

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Toyota will produce about 140,000 fewer cars and trucks next month, a 40 percent cut to its September production, as a result of the lack of microchips necessary for its electric vehicles. It’s just one of many recent effects from the global semiconductor shortage, which is slowing the delivery of cars, computers, medical technologies and many other products. This crisis in the semiconductor supply chain has widespread impacts on the global economy, as well as on our economy here in the U.S. We’ll analyze why this is such a major problem, what it means for Bay Area companies and what the U.S. could do to once again become a leader in semiconductor production.

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Erwin Chemerinsky on How the Courts Enable Police Misconduct Aug 23, 2021

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The use of the kind of chokehold that killed George Floyd last year should, according to constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, be a clear-cut violation of the Fourth Amendment's ban on excessive police force. But as Chemerinsky explains in his new book "Presumed Guilty," chokeholds remain in use in most of the United States because of a decades-old Supreme Court decision that tightly restricts federal lawsuits challenging police misconduct. We'll talk about the judicial doctrines that enable illegal police behavior and how to reform them.

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Russ Ellis Cut His First Album at Age 85, and It’s A Bop Aug 23, 2021

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Russ Ellis is a man for all seasons. He was a track star at UCLA, the first black professor to teach at Claremont and a UC Berkeley vice chancellor for student affairs and architecture professor. When Ellis retired in 1994, he threw himself into new pursuits. Painting classes. Sculpture. A men’s group. His latest venture is his first album, “Songs from the Garden,” which includes 11 tracks he wrote and recorded and is available on local label Berkeley Cat Records. In his words, he’s “kissing the joy as it flies.” We’ll talk with Ellis about his music and how this age has given him the gift of being “too old to get nervous.”

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Oakland High Class of 2020 Captured in Documentary ‘Homeroom’ Aug 23, 2021

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Documentary filmmaker Peter Nicks began filming at Oakland High School in fall 2019 to capture its seniors’ final year. He ended up capturing the specifically local experiences of a global turning point. From a student-led campaign to remove police officers from their school that begins months before George Floyd’s murder and resultant protests, to uncertain conversations around a new virus and an eventual Zoom graduation, the documentary “Homeroom” provides insight into the 2020 graduating class, depicting the students of Oakland High as the vanguard of national conversations on inequity and social justice. Nicks, whose previous Oakland-set documentaries depicted a public hospital and the city’s police force, joins us to discuss “Homeroom” and what it means to tell Oakland’s stories.

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What Parents Should Know as California Heads Back to School Aug 20, 2021

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Many parents and kids are feeling relief as the state's 6 million K-12 school children head back into the classroom for full time, in-person classes after more than a year of mostly distance learning. But fears over the spread of the highly contagious delta coronavirus variant have other parents signing their children up for independent study and demanding online zoom classes. Experts and state officials continue to back a full reopening, pointing to rising absenteeism, depression and anxiety among many children, as well as devastating loss of learning for students in predominantly low-income school districts. We'll talk about what California's schools are doing to keep students safe and address parents' concerns.

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‘Loud’ Podcast Highlights the History of Reggaeton Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

The story of reggaeton music is layered and complex, and, according to reggaeton pioneer Ivy Queen, “the real story of reggaeton is about la resistencia. Resistance.” Queen is also the narrator of the new podcast “Loud” by Spotify and Futuro Studios, which gives reggaeton the documentary treatment and explores its nuances. “Loud” journeys through reggaeton’s origins in Jamaican dancehall to Panamanian reggae in español to “las calles” of Puerto Rico to New York and beyond. Once criminalized in Puerto Rico in the ‘90s and early aughts, reggaeton is now one of the most popular genres in the world -- reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most-streamed artist in 2020. We’ll take a critical look at reggaeton’s origins and evolution, from its dancehall roots to the massive pop presence it has today.

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David Rooney on Why It’s ‘About Time’ to Understand How Clocks Shaped Civilization Aug 19, 2021

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"For thousands of years, time has been harnessed, politicized and weaponized," writes technology historian and horologist David Rooney in his new book, "About Time." Rooney examines a dozen timekeepers from sundials and hourglasses to the atomic clocks on satellites that create GPS. In doing so, he traces time's role in shaping civilization, pushing against perceptions of clocks objectivity and analyzing the utilization of time in accumulating and maintaining power. The son of a clockmaker and former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, Rooney joins us to discuss the power of clocks.

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Developments in Afghanistan Leave Local Afghan Community Anxious, Afraid Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

Outside the gates of the Kabul airport, thousands of Afghans seeking to flee the country camp along the access road, which is now blocked by the Taliban. Scenes like this have Afghan-Americans anxiously watching the news and waiting to hear from loved ones. Northern California is home to the largest Afghan diaspora in the country. As Afghanistan reels from the takeover by the Taliban, we talk to community members about how they are taking in the quickly shifting news and their work to prepare for the growing refugee crisis.

How you can help: NPR: The Simple Steps You Can Take to Help Afghan Refugees

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