The California Report Magazine

First Time Latino Voters Embrace Their Political Power; New Film Digs Into Gold Rush Myths Nov 01, 2024

Latinos make up the second largest voting group in the upcoming 2024 election, totaling 32 million eligible voters nationwide. But Latinos are not a monolith, and both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been courting Latino voters on the campaign trail. Andrés Cediel is a filmmaker and a journalism professor at UC Berkeley. He’s also a producer of VOCES: Latino Vote 2024, a new PBS documentary project that explores the vast interests and priorities of Latino voters across the country. The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha spoke with Cediel about how California’s Latino voters could tip the balance.

And a new documentary film takes a peek behind the curtain of a San Francisco opera about Black and Latina women during the California Gold Rush. In conversation with The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha, the film’s director, John Else shares the true story of a mob-fueled lynching of a Mexican-American woman, and the lessons for our current political moment.

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Even Californians Who Can't Vote Are Focused on the Election Oct 25, 2024

Six-year-old Sumaya Kaur Sidibe beamed with pride when she watched Kamala Harris become Vice President in 2021. She identified with Harris in a big way: she is also mixed race – Indian and Black – and she’s from Oakland. We produced a story about the family preparing for Kamala Harris to take office back in 2021. But four years later, Sumaya has complicated feelings about the vice president’s politics and the way she talks about her own biracial identity. Host Sasha Khokha checks back in with the Sidibe-Singh family about how they are feeling about this upcoming presidential election, and the questions they have for Kamala Harris.

And Incarcerated people can’t vote in this upcoming election, but their lives may be directly impacted by the results. Our friends at KALW’s Uncuffed podcast bring you a conversation between currently and formerly incarcerated journalists at San Quentin: Ryan Pagan, Will Harris, Anthony Gomez and Thanh Tran. They discuss statewide ballot measures propositions 6 and 36. If passed, Proposition 6 would end involuntary servitude in prison, and Proposition 36 would increase penalties for certain theft and drug crimes.

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Great Redwood Trail Proposal Unearths Painful History for Indigenous Tribes Oct 18, 2024

California has grand plans to turn a stretch of abandoned railroad tracks into 300 miles of walking and biking trails, connecting the rolling hills of Marin County with the redwood forests near Eureka in Northern Humboldt. If completed, the Great Redwood Trail could become the longest rail-trail in the nation. But some Indigenous communities and other groups are not on board. Reporter Sam Anderson explores how this grand idea has resurfaced the painful and complicated history behind the original railroad tracks that were built more than a century ago.

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Forced Sterilization Survivors Undertake Own Healing After Feeling 'Silenced Again' by State Oct 11, 2024

Moonlight Pulido is a mother and a caretaker for her own mom in Los Angeles. But she couldn’t have more children after a prison doctor gave her an involuntary hysterectomy while she was incarcerated in 2005. She’s one of hundreds of living survivors of state-sponsored sterilization.

Here in California, more than 20,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in state prisons, homes and hospitals under eugenics laws. People classified as “unfit to reproduce” were disproportionately poor women, people of color, and people with disabilities. Even though California’s eugenics laws were repealed in 1979, people who were incarcerated were still forcibly sterilized as recently as 2013.

In 2021, the state passed a historic reparations law to make amends for this shameful chapter in our history. For more than a year, reporter Cayla Mihalovich has been investigating how the law has been implemented. It was intended to compensate survivors for their suffering. But roughly 75% of applicants have been denied reparations.

Plus. our friends at KPBS in San Diego have a new series highlighting volunteers who devote their time in unique and unexpected ways. Today, we meet Jillian Shea at the Mesa Rim Climbing Center. She’s an athlete who lost a hand at birth. Now she’s introducing newcomers to the sport of adaptive climbing.

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Fighting for Reparations in Palm Springs; Uncovering Women Miners' Forgotten Legacy Oct 04, 2024

You might think of Palm Springs as a wealthy town filled with luxury hotels and swimming pools. But it's also a place shaped by brutal racism. People who lived in Section 13, a once a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood, were pushed off their land. Their homes were bulldozed and burned down. Now, The California Report’s Madi Bolanos. talked to some of the former residents who are now fighting for reparations.

And we continue our Hidden Gems series with a visit to Mineral King. It's located in the southern part of Sequoia National Park. Mineral King's remote location means it gets fewer visitors than other parts of the park. But the campers and backpackers that make the trek are rewarded with a spectacular mountain range with rushing waterfalls. There are only a handful of buildings here, including some historic wooden cabins that belong to a few families who’ve been here long before this was a national park. One of those cabins belongs to Laile Di Silvestro’s family. Her connection to Mineral King goes back to the 1870s. Today, she’s an archeologist, and she’s looking for the stories she didn’t hear growing up. The California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha hiked Mineral King with Di Silvestro to learn about some surprising trail blazers in the California gold rush. And the discrimination some people faced during those boom times.

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How a Young Kamala Harris Was Shaped by Rainbow Sign, Berkeley’s 1970s Black Cultural Center Sep 27, 2024

Today, it’s an unassuming beige building on a busy Berkeley street. But in the 1970s, the Rainbow Sign was a groundbreaking center for Black culture, politics, and art. It hosted dozens of high-profile Black thought leaders and performers, including James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, and Shirley Chisholm. Although it only existed for a few years, seeing these performances and speakers left a profound impression on one young member of the Rainbow Sign community: Kamala Harris. As Harris takes center stage as a presidential candidate, and tries to tell the nation her story, we revisit our story from January 2022 about the Rainbow Sign and its influence on her as a child growing up in Berkeley.

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How These Wine and Cheesemakers Fold Music Into Their Recipes Sep 20, 2024

In California, music and winemaking seem to go together. Visit any of the state’s countless wineries and you can hear all kinds of music, from jazz and folk, to classical and Americana. But one artist on the Central Coast takes that connection especially seriously: he spent years making an album full of sounds from a vineyard. Reporter Benjamin Purper takes us to San Luis Obispo to learn more about a sonic journey through a Central Coast wine harvest.

And we'll meet one of California’s most celebrated cheese-makers, Soyoung Scanlan. But years ago, before she’d ever really eaten cheese, Soyoung had another love. Growing up in South Korea, she trained in classical piano. So every cheese she’s made over the last 25 years has a musical name and connection. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visited the cheesemaker in the hills outside Petaluma.

We end today with a story that comes to us from KPBS in San Diego. They recently launched a new series, sharing stories of volunteers. We’ll be bringing you some of those profiles, starting with Ron Peterson, a guide at the Tijuana River Estuary. After losing his sight, Ron now leads a very unique kind of tour.

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Unaccompanied Minor's Quest for Citizenship Illuminates Pilot Program; San Francisco School Shelters Unhoused Families At Night Sep 13, 2024

In this election year, the issue of immigration has become especially contentious. As one of the four states that share a border with Mexico, California has often tried to lead compassionately, especially when it comes to supporting immigrant children who come here alone. So far this year, nearly 10,000 immigrant youth have made new homes in California. Hundreds of them have benefitted from a unique program that provides legal help and guides them as they adjust to life in a new country. Reporter Lauren DeLaunay Miller brings us the story of one high school student whose life was transformed by the program, and tells us why he believes this program needs to stick around for good.

Plus, we visit San Francisco's Buena Vista Horace Mann school. By day, it's a Spanish immersion school for students from kindergarten to 8th grade. But by night, it transforms into something completely unique in the city: a homeless shelter for families with children enrolled in the school district. The shelter provides a hot meal, shower and a place to sleep in the gym or auditorium. To boost their morale, parents at the shelter are able to cook a meal together twice a month. KQED’s Daisy Nguyen takes us into the kitchen.

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Encore: Making a Home in Fire Country Sep 06, 2024

This week, as wildfires continue to burn across our state, we’re re-airing a story from Erin Baldassari, KQED’s Senior Editor for Housing Affordability. Erin’s reporting took her back to Nevada County, where she grew up.

She wanted to learn how people there are adapting to the rising risk of wildfires due to climate change. And she started by asking folks there the same question she’s been asking herself: What do you do if climate change makes the place you love an increasingly dangerous place to live?

Erin’s story comes to us from the KQED podcast, Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.

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How The Black Panthers Changed Schools; Keeping Japanese American Culture Alive in the Central Valley Aug 30, 2024

How the Black Panthers Helped Shape U.S. Schools

Back in the 1960s, people were challenging the status quo in a lot of ways, including how schools should be run. At the same time, the Black Power movement was gaining traction, when the Black Panther Party formed in Oakland in 1966. The FBI considered them dangerous becuase of their belief in Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense against police brutality. But the Black Panthers also changed schools in ways we can still see today.

This week, we’re bringing you an episode from our friends at KQED’s Mindshift podcast about how one high school in Oakland is still continuing the legacy of community schools.

Taiko is Helping Keep Japanese American Culture Alive in the Central Valley

The Central Valley town of Ballico sits in the middle of acres of almond orchards. It’s the kind of place you might miss as you’re driving past. But it’s got a rich history: some of the first farmers who settled here came from Japan. And these days, while the folks who live here come from many backgrounds, if you visit the local school, you can still hear the influence of Japanese American culture.

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Oakland Harpist Destiny Muhammad Charting Her Own Path; The Pesky (But Lovable) Bishop Pine Aug 23, 2024

Oakland Composer and Harpist Destiny Muhammad Has Always Charted Her Own Path

Sitting on stage with her harp resting in her lap, Destiny Muhammad repeats this mantra: “Excellence, Beauty, and Success.” It’s part mic-check and part pump-up. When she first started learning to play the harp, the Oakland-based composer and musician used to suffer from stage fright. Now, more than 30 years later, she commands the stage with a presence fit for a woman who calls herself the “sound sculptress.” As part of our series on California composers, KQED’s Bianca Taylor brings us her story.

The Pesky (But Lovable) Pine Native to the Northern CA Coast

California is home to a lot of iconic trees, including giant sequoias, windswept Monterey cypresses, and Joshua trees. The bishop pine doesn’t have that kind of celebrity status. But if you live on the Point Reyes Peninsula in west Marin County you’re all too familiar with it. These indigenous trees are so well-suited to growing here, that to locals they’re notorious pests, not because of how easily they grow, but because of how they die. The California Report’s intern Lusen Mendel takes us to Tomales Bay State Park to meet someone who’s made it his mission to deal with the pesky and strangely loveable, pines.

Meeting Monarch the Grizzly Bear

If you spend much time in the Sierra, you’ve probably been warned to look out for black bears. But there’s another kind of bear that once roamed our state, one that’s got a much bigger – and fiercer – reputation: the California grizzly. It's been 100 years since the extinction of the grizzly, but you can see one of the last of its kind, a bear named Monarch, up close at a new exhibit at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. Host Sasha Khokha paid a visit.

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Encore: The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Japanese American Story of Love, Imprisonment and Protest Aug 16, 2024

Nine months into Satsuki Ina’s parents’ marriage, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their life was totally upended when, along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans, they were sent to incarceration camps. After unsuccessfully fighting for their civil rights to be restored, they renounced their American citizenship. That meant the US government branded them as “enemy aliens.” Ina was born in a prison camp at Tule Lake, but didn’t know much about that difficult chapter in her parents’ life. Then she discovered a trove of letters that they sent to each other while they were separated in different camps. Now, at close to 80 years old, Ina – who spent most of her career as a trauma therapist — is publishing a memoir about how her parents’ relationship survived prison camps, resistance and separation. Using letters, diary entries, haikus written by her father, and photographs, The Poet and the Silk Girl is a rare first-person account of a generation-altering period in Japanese American history. Sasha Khokha sat down with Satsuki Ina to learn more about her parents’ story and how it shaped the course of Ina’s own life.

This episode first aired in March 2024.

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Mexican Americans Building New Lives in Mexico; The Job That Keeps Water Flowing to California Farms Aug 09, 2024

On a recent afternoon, a group of mechanics gathered at a lowrider show. This isn't Los Angeles – a city where lowrider culture has deep roots – it's more than a 1,000 miles away in Mexico City. For decades, Mexican immigrants have headed north and shaped the culture of California’s cities. But now, a growing number of their children and grandchildren are leaving California and moving to Mexico. Reporter Levi Bridges met up with some of them in Mexico City to learn why they made the move.

Plus, in the Central Valley, you often see signs from the California Farm Water Coalition that say “Food grows where water flows." The system of canals and reservoirs that feeds farmland there is one of the biggest in the world. But irrigation canals are also places where people dump unwanted objects, like toilets, furniture or shopping carts. It's Big Valley Divers job to clean and maintain the canals and the dams that feeds farmland, For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse spent a day in Colusa County with Big Valley Divers to learn all about the unusual job that keeps the water flowing.

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LA Composer Finds Inspiration in the Cosmos; First Hijabi Runner Completes Western States Race Aug 02, 2024

Some composers picture colors or abstract shapes when they’re working on a new piece. Derrick Skye thinks about space. His fascination with the cosmos is threaded throughout his compositions, including the latest in his series "Prisms, Cycles, Leaps." For our series on California composers. reporter Clare Wiley sat down with the Los Angeles-based Skye to hear how he brings his otherworldly ideas to life and how living in multicultural LA has influenced him.

Plus, we go to the oldest 100-mile ultramarathon in the world: The Western States Endurance Run. This grueling race starts near Lake Tahoe and winds along old mining trails in the Sierra, drops into the canyons of the American River, and finishes outside Sacramento.

Thousands of people are on the waitlist to attempt it, but just a fraction make it to the starting line. The runners who do compete are overwhelmingly white, even though the race is trying to include more BIPOC athletes. KQED’s Mark Nieto got to watch this year’s race at the end of June and he followed one competitor who’s inspiring other runners of color.

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MIXED!: Mixed-Race Californians Share Stories of Joy and Complexity Jul 26, 2024

With the presidential race now in uncharted territory, Kamala Harris’ candidacy is putting her under a microscope. Not just her political career but everything about her background, including her mixed race heritage.

Last year, we brought you a series inspired in part by Kamala Harris’s visibility as a mixed race person when she became Vice President. Mixed! Stories of Mixed Race Californians explored both the complexity, and the joy of growing up multiracial. And California is the place to tell these stories from because the state is home to one of the largest multi-racial populations in the U.S,

This week, we’re bringing back the first episode from that series, which features the voices and stories of listeners from across the state.

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Caregiving Can Be Tough and Isolating. It Can Also Connect Us. Jul 19, 2024

Caregivers don’t get a lot of recognition despite doing hard and essential work. This week, stories about caregiving at all phases of life and how hard it can be for some families to provide that care themselves or even find professional help.

Systemic Neglect: How Staffing Shortages In Nursing Homes Leave Patients Trapped in Hospitals

When taking care of a loved one becomes too hard, families often look to nursing homes for help. But finding long term care in California s not easy right now. The industry took a big hit during the pandemic and many facilities are still recovering from staffing shortages. Some patients with complex diagnoses are waiting weeks, months and even years for a bed. KQED health correspondent Lesley McClurg has the story of one man in the Bay Area who has tried everything to find care for his wife.

A Caregiving Son and a Mom with Alzheimer's Find a Musical Connection

What happens when the parent-child role is reversed? In caregiving, this kind of role reversal is common. And it’s what happened to Rob Fordyce. After his 85-year-old mom, Susan, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease two years ago, Rob moved back into his childhood home to take care of her. And despite Susan’s advancing disease, Rob found a surprising way for the two of them to connect, through music. Cayla Mihalovich has their story.

How An LA Child Care Influencer Became A Resource For Providers Across The Country

Child care happens in a lot of different settings: a school, or a center, or a church. What you may not know is that more than a quarter of California’s child care facilities are actually in private homes. And for those providers, it can be a real challenge to juggle caregiving with running a small business. Tonya Mohammad knows this firsthand and understands the myriad of issues that child care providers face. So she's built a following via social media by sharing her three decades of experience taking care of infants and toddlers in Los Angeles. LAist's Mariana Dale brings us her story.

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‘Arabology’ Podcast Champions Indie Arab Musicians; Indie Rocker Hana Vu takes 'Romanticism' On Tour Jul 12, 2024

On this week's show:

For the past 13 years, DJ Ramzi has been sharing his deep knowledge and passion for Arabic music with listeners all over the world through his radio show and podcast, “Arabology.” But Ramzi Salti is not just a deejay, he's also an advanced lecturer in the Arabic program at Stanford University. His goal is to expose people to the wide variety of Arabic music, and along the way, push back against the stereotypes and demonization of Arabs and Arab-Americans. KQED’s culture reporter Ariana Proehl visited him at Stanford and brings us this story.

And we meet musician Hana Vu. She just released her second album and started a North American tour that will end in her hometown of Los Angeles in August. Critics have called her an “an indie-pop prodigy” who’s “old beyond her years.” That’s because the prolific musician, who started recording and playing shows in her teens, is just 24. Guest host Bianca Taylor talked with Hana Vu about her new album “Romanticism,” and why she chose touring over music school.

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From Mannequins to Musical Roads: More of California's Hidden Gems Jul 05, 2024

This holiday weekend, we're replaying stories from our Hidden Gems series about out-of-the-way secret spots in California - places you might want to visit on a road trip!

How This Oakland Business Gives Mannequins New Life (Almost)

You might not notice them, but mannequins can be found everywhere from the tiniest boutiques to Target. But what happens to these non-biodegradable figures when stores go out of business or styles change? In California, many of them end up at Mannequin Madness, an Oakland warehouse run by a woman whose mission is to keep mannequins out of the landfill.

This Stretch of the Mojave Desert Plays the ‘Lone Ranger’ Theme

There’s a road in the western Mojave Desert that’s supposed to sound like the "William Tell Overture" by Rossini. Honda built the road back in 2008 as part of a TV commercial for the Civic. But it's seen better days. Reporter Clare Wiley headed out to Lancaster to make some music with her tires.

Fort Bragg’s Larry Spring Museum Preserves Creativity in California

The tiny Larry Spring Museum is dedicated to a Mendocino County TV repairman who lived in Fort Bragg most of his life. He was an amateur physicist, a keen observer of nature and the items he left behind reveal his deep curiosity about the world. KQED’s Katrina Schwartz takes us to this whimsical museum to learn more about the man behind it.

This episode originally aired in February 2024.

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Inheriting: Leialani & The Occupation of Guam Jun 28, 2024

This week, we're sharing an episode from Inheriting, a new podcast from our friends at LAist Studios and the NPR Network. The show, hosted by Emily Kwong, is centered on the stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander families. It explores how one event in history can ripple through the generations of those families.

In this episode, we hear from Leialani Wihongi-Santos. Leialani is CHamoru and lives in Southern California, but she was born and raised on the island of Guam. Growing up, Leialani was taught that the United States "saved” her island from occupation by Imperial Japan. But she later learned that framing is not entirely true. Emily sits down with Leialani and her grandfather, Joseph Aflleje-Santos, for answers.

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The Enduring Reign of El Daña, Drag King of the Central Valley Jun 21, 2024

Elsie Saldaña is a living piece of queer history. The 79-year-old has been doing drag since the 1960’s, making her the oldest drag king still performing in the U.S. She’s known as El Daña, and she didn’t get her start in LA or San Francisco. She’s from Fresno, where she worked the fields as a child. This pride month, reporter Celeste Hamilton Dennis brings us this profile of El Daña and tells us why the king isn't ready to hang up her crown.

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Memories, History and a Soundtrack for Fathers Day Jun 14, 2024

Songs In the Key of Fatherhood

Rightnowish host Pendarvis Harshaw's love of music was passed to him from his mom. He says her love of funk, R&B, new jack swing and hip-hop laid his musical foundation. Now that he's a dad, Pendarvis is now passing all of that musical knowledge down to his daughter, song by song.

Santa Cruz Museum Celebrates Filipino Manongs In New Exhibit

Fathers are at the heart of a new exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Sowing Seeds: Filipino Americans in the Pajaro Valley highlights an archive of oral histories, photos, and stories from the first generation of Filipino men (or manongs) who came to California. KAZU’s Janelle Salanga visited with some of the families who contributed their dads’ stories to the archive.

What Sounds Remind You of Your Father?

Five years ago, we opened up the phone lines for California Report Magazine listeners to call in and share stories about the sounds that remind them of their fathers and grandfathers. Here we explore their messages and listen to some of those sounds: foghorns, Giants baseball on TV, an impact wrench, and even Kai Ryssdal's voice. These touching memories are certain to get you thinking about the sounds that remind you of your father.

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Heavy Metal and Video Games Influence This California Composer; A 30-Year Journey of Authentic Mexican Cuisine and Recycled Art; Santa Cruz Company 3D Prints Surfboards Jun 07, 2024

Jens Ibsen is a dynamic young composer putting his spin on classical music, infusing it with prog rock, heavy metal and Japanese video game music. Isben's bold and non-traditional style is getting a lot of attention from major institutions like the San Francisco Symphony. But it hasn't been easy. He has had to confront racism as he found his unique place in classical music. He’s a lot of different things at once, and you can see that reflected not just in his music but also in who he is as a person. Reporter Jessica Kariisa's profile of Jens Ibsen is the first in our series celebrating California composers.

Plus we visit Tio’s Tacos in Riverside. Just drive off the 91 freeway onto Mission Inn Avenue and stop when you see a huge orange butterfly hanging off the side of a building. You’ll see the airplane parked on the roof and two giants made from recycled aluminum cans taller than the building behind them. This Mexican restaurant/sculpture garden is an immigrant entrepreneur’s labor of love. For our series Hidden Gems, KQED’s Daniel Eduardo Hernandez takes a trip back to his hometown to meet the owner and creator of the Tio's Tacos wonderland.

And we head South to Santa Cruz. The city has played a big role in surfing history – it’s where Hawaiian princes first introduced the sport to California back in 1885, and where surfers began using wetsuits in the 1950s. Since then, the city has been on the cutting edge of a lot of modern surf technology. A new company there is hoping to build on that history and help the sport become more environmentally friendly – by using a 3D printer to create surfboards made from recycled hospital trays. KAZU’s Erin Malsbury went to check out how these surfboards get made.

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An Ethnic Conflict in India Echoes in California; Creating a Space for Brown and Black Creatives in Oakland May 31, 2024

About a year ago, a conflict began in Manipur, a mountainous state in northeastern India. What set off the fighting was a dispute between a predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and a Christian minority called the Kuki.

Aptos resident Niang Hangzo is originally from Manipur, but moved to California in the 1990s. Her family back home became refugees more than a year ago. And ever since, she’s transformed into an activist here in California fighting to draw attention to this crisis. KQED’s Lakshmi Sarah traveled to India to follow Niang’s family story.

And we visit a vinyl listening party at Oakland's couchdate. The event combines all the cozy comforts of home with the fun of going out: stimulating conversation, maybe eye contact with a cute stranger, all while the music vibrates around you. This unique social space, especially for creative people of color, is the brainchild of a mixed-race entrepreneur who wants to create an inclusive community for all. KQED’s Ariana Proehl has his story.

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Tasty Tales of Conference Room Crab, a Cold Turkey Fruitarian, and Tiger Food May 24, 2024

Think about all the things you love about radio and podcasts: the suspense, the characters, the drama and humor — Back Pocket Media takes all of those elements and puts them live on stage.

On today’s episode, Back Pocket Media co-founders McArdle Hankin and Ellison Libiran guest host the California Report Magazine and play three of their favorite stories from their last San Francisco event. The theme of that event was Taste of Then: stories about food and memory.

What I’d Cook for Love

Most people who’ve had a job at a workplace, which is to say almost all of us, have at some point developed an office crush. You see the person day in and day out. You know you can’t make a move but you secretly want to. Secretly you wait for some sort of signal or opening. Well, for storyteller JP Frary, that opening…. Is Dungeness crab.

The Fruitarian

People have always come together around shared taste in food, but in contemporary culture it’s just as likely to see communities – and even identities – formed around the foods we don't eat. Storyteller Don Reed takes a specialized diet to a new extreme.

When the Forest Goes Quiet

This story was told to the audience over the phone… That’s because the storyteller is currently incarcerated in San Quentin. Kelton O’Connor starts his story in the yard of a different prison. It's the middle of the day and he’s walking up to a tall barbed wire fence — a fence that is the only thing separating him from the outside world.

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The Nüümü People Claim LA Stole Their Water, Now They're Fighting for Its Return May 17, 2024

Back in the early 1900s, the burgeoning city of Los Angeles needed water, and the Owens Valley—more than 200 miles northeast—had plenty of it. Today, about a third of LA’s water supply comes from the Owens Valley and other parts of the Eastern Sierra. But the city got that water at the expense of the Nüümü people, who have been working to get it back ever since. This week, reporter Teresa Cotsirilos from the Food and Environment Reporting Network brings us the story of one tribal elder's fight to reclaim these water rights for his community.

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The First Indigenous-Named Marine Sanctuary; A Climber's Story; A New Home for a Beloved Diner May 10, 2024

California's Central Coast is the ancestral homeland of indigenous California tribes including the Chumash and Salinan peoples. For years, the Northern Chumash have been working to create a new marine sanctuary. If the federal government approves that designation this summer, California would be home to the first national marine sanctuary nominated by, and named after, an indigenous tribe. It’s the culmination of decades of tribal conservation work. And, as reporter Benjamin Purper tells us, it’s also the legacy of a father and daughter.

Later, we talk to professional rock climber Beth Rodden who has conquered some of the most treacherous climbs in the world. She was the first woman to complete two routes up Yosemite's famous El Capitan, with no gear helping to pull her up. But despite her success, she’s battled raging self-doubt and multiple injuries. Rodden spoke to KQED's Bianca Taylor about her new memoir, A Light Through the Cracks: A Climber's Story.

Finally, we're revisiting a story from our Hidden Gems series about an old-school Los Angeles diner called Dinah’s, which closed its doors at the end of April. A developer bought the restaurant site and announced ambitious plans for new construction. Dinah’s is reopening as a new kind of restaurant in Culver City, but it’s the end of an era for the diner that’s been serving customers for more than six decades in the same location near the LA airport. Sasha Khokha takes us there.

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‘I’m Gonna Miss It’: Saying Goodbye to San Francisco's Beloved Cabaret, AsiaSF May 03, 2024

Famous for showcasing transgender performers for more than a quarter century, AsiaSF, the beloved San Francisco restaurant and club, closed its doors this week. Reporter Wilma Consul went to one of the final shows at AsiaSF, and tells us how the groundbreaking venue became a place where people from all over the world could find joy and authenticity.

And, California has had a state flower and state animal for awhile now, but this year we finally got an official state mushroom. KQED's Danielle Venton takes us foraging to try to find the Golden Chanterelle.

Finally, we head to Fresno County, where a group of farmworkers living in a mobile home park did something that might seem impossible in a time of rising housing costs: They bought the park from their corporate landlords. The California Report’s Madi Bolanos tells us how they did it.

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A Peek Behind the Scenes at the California Report Magazine May 01, 2024

We're in your feeds a little early this week, but for good reason: We're giving you a little peek behind the scenes! You'll be meeting some of the people who make The California Report Magazine, and we'll take you through the process of how a story gets made. If you like what you hear, please consider visiting donate.kqed.org/podcast and supporting the work we do at KQED. Thanks.

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Parents (and Teachers) Just Don't Understand Apr 26, 2024

It's Youth Takeover week here at KQED, a time when we hand the mics over to local high school students. This year, we hear from teens at Fremont High School in in East Oakland. They talk about the challenges they face right now and tell us why they feel so misunderstood.

And we visit the San Fernando Valley, where high school seniors have taken over one of the most anticipated rights of passage: prom. LAist's Mariana Dale discovered a program at Sylmar Charter High School where students don’t just choose the theme and set up decorations: they actually grow and arrange the flowers for the big event.

Plus, why doesn't California have more school buses? How kids get to and from school is a big part of the school experience for many kids. But if you’ve been looking closely you may have noticed there aren’t as many school buses as there are in other states. Katrina Schwartz, who’s a producer with KQED’s Bay Curious podcast, set out to figure out why.

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After Parole, ICE Deported This Refugee Back to a Country He Never Knew Apr 19, 2024

After escaping genocide in Cambodia, Phoeun You’s family settled in Long Beach. But after being bullied as a teen, You joined a gang. He ended up shooting and killing a teenager. You served 25 years in California prisons and tried to turn his life around while he was behind bars. He thought he'd gotten that chance when he was granted parole, but upon release, he was deported to a country he had never really known. Producer Mateo Schimpf brings us his story.

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Why Italians in California Were Treated as 'Enemy Aliens' During WWII Apr 12, 2024

Within months of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, as more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were being sent to incarceration camps, other ethnic groups also became the target of new wartime security measures. Italian citizens living near California’s coastline and military sites — some 10,000 of them — were forced to leave their homes and find somewhere else to live. It was just one of many government measures meant to protect the West Coast from an enemy invasion that never came. Reporter Pauline Bartolone brings us this story from the Bay Curious podcast.

Plus, we look at the labor behind reality television. From blind dates to tiny homes, the genre has exploded in recent years But some workers say the success of the industry hasn't translated into stability for people behind the scenes. Guest host Bianca Taylor talks to KCRW's Megan Jamerson, who's talked to some reality TV workers who say they’re being overworked and underpaid.

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Making a Home in Fire Country Apr 05, 2024

As journalists, we don’t often tell our own stories. We separate ourselves from the issues we cover. But sometimes, the story hits close to home. This week, we’re featuring a story from Erin Baldassari, KQED’s Senior Editor for Housing Affordability. Growing up in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, wildfire has always been part of her consciousness. Her earliest memory is fleeing a fire as it bore down on her childhood home. As she and her family consider moving back, she wanted to learn how people there are adapting to the rising risk of wildfires due to climate change.

Erin’s story comes to us from the KQED podcast, Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.

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A Queer Journalist Reflects on the Legacy of the Proposition 8 Tapes Mar 29, 2024

Proposition 8 's Lessons for One Queer Journalist

In November 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, taking away the right to marry from same-sex couples. But two years later, two same-sex couples sued the State of California in federal court. Prop 8 was eventually overturned. That landmark trial was videotaped, but the recordings were never released to the public. Until a few years ago, when KQED sued for access to the tapes and won. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed them to be unsealed in October 2022. KQED’s community engagement reporter Carlos Cabrera Lomeli, spent hours watching those tapes. As a queer journalist covering California’s gay marriage journey, Carlos says he learned a lot about himself in the process.

Plus, we head to Santa Cruz where Judi Oyama first learned to ride a skateboard in the 1970s. Today, 50 years into a groundbreaking career, she's considered of the best skateboarders in the nation. In fact, Judi recently qualified to race at the World Skate Games in Rome this fall. At 64, she says she’s the fastest she’s ever been. KAZU’s Erin Malsbury brings us her story.

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'Racist Trees' Uncovers Little Known History of Palm Springs' Black Community Mar 22, 2024

Today Palm Springs is known for mid-century modern architecture and queer-friendly culture. But a new documentary on PBS's Independent Lens explores the history of racist housing practices in the city that effectively hid a black neigborhood behind a wall of trees. “Racist Trees” covers the fight to remove those trees decades after they were planted, and asks the question: 'Who takes responsibility for the wrongdoing of the past?' Directors Sara Newens and Mina T. Son join Sasha Khokha to talk about the film.

Plus we visit San Francisco's Prelinger Library, a treasure trove of ephemera from books of soil samples to zines. In the 1990s, libraries started to become digital and began clearing out their catalogs. A network of like-minded librarians brought the “discards” to Rick and Megan Prelinger’s attention. The husband and wife, already collectors of print and text items, opened their library in 2004 and say 'it's available to any and everyone who believes our past can pave a path to a better future.'

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The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Japanese-American Story of Love, Imprisonment and Protest Mar 15, 2024

Nine months into Satsuki Ina’s parents’ marriage, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their life was totally upended when, along with 125,000 other Japanese-Americans, they were sent to incarceration camps. After unsuccessfully fighting for their civil rights to be restored, they renounced their American citizenship. That meant the US government branded them as “enemy aliens.” Ina was born in a prison camp at Tule Lake, but didn’t know much about that difficult chapter in her parents’ life. Then she discovered a trove of letters that they sent to each other while they were separated in different camps. Now, at close to 80 years old, Ina – who spent most of her career as a trauma therapist — is publishing a memoir about how her parents’ relationship survived prison camps, resistance and separation. Using letters, diary entries, haikus written by her father, and photographs, The Poet and the Silk Girl is a rare first-person account of a generation-altering period in Japanese-American history. Sasha Khokha sat down with Satsuki Ina to learn more about her parents’ story and how it shaped the course of Ina’s own life.

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Oscar-Nominated Shorts Tell Joyful California Stories Mar 09, 2024

When Oscar season rolls around, everyone’s trying to catch up on the blockbuster films. But there’s rarely buzz about the short films, especially the short documentary category. This year, two joyful California films made the nominee list. Nǎi Nai and Wài Póis a love letter from Fremont-raised filmmaker Sean Wang to his two grandmothers, 94 year old Nǎi Nai and 83 year oldWài Pó. They are in-laws turned best friends who spend their days together, even sharing a bed. The Last Repair Shop tells the remarkable stories of the people behind the scenes who fix instruments for students learning music in LA Unified School district. Sasha Khokha talks to Sean Wang as well as Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot, the co-directors behind The Last Repair Shop, about their films.

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On Our Watch: A Whistleblower at California’s Most Violent Prison Mar 02, 2024

When correctional officer Valentino Rodriguez first stepped behind prison walls, he wasn’t just starting a job, he was joining a brotherhood. What he didn’t know was that he was now bound by an unwritten code that would ultimately test his loyalty to his oath and his fellow officers. Valentino’s sudden death on October 21, 2020 would raise questions from the FBI, his family and his mentor in the elite investigative unit where they both worked. For more than two years, our colleagues with KQED’s investigative podcast On Our Watch have been looking into what happened to Valentino Rodriguez, because his story is part of something much bigger. He was a correctional officer at New Folsom prison, near Sacramento, where the reporting team has found use of force that’s off the charts, and a pattern of suspicious beatings. This week we bring you an excerpt from the first episode of the series.

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How the Freeway System Shaped California Feb 24, 2024

In many California cities, freeways and sprawl are just a fact of life. They’re baked into the design of much of the state. But how did we get here? Just how did freeways come to be such a big part of California life?

This week, we’re featuring a story from our friends at the KPBS podcast Freeway Exit. Host and producer Andrew Bowen looks at how our relationship with the freeway has changed over time, and how it will have to change in the future.

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Could 'Urban Villages' Help Fix San Jose's Suburban Sprawl? Feb 17, 2024

How The Bay Area’s Biggest City Wants to Overcome Its Sprawl

The cars and trucks we drive account for nearly half of California’s total carbon emissions. And bringing those emissions down is going to require more than just swapping out gas guzzling cars for electric ones. It’s going to mean redesigning our cities around people, not cars. KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us to San Jose where local leaders are trying to rethink how residents live and how they get around. This story comes to us from KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.

LA’s Bé Ù Puts a New Spin on Vietnamese Takeout, and Workers’ Rights

Many chefs will tell you their cooking reflects the food they grew up eating. Food shared on holidays or at family parties. For our series Flavor Profile, The California Report’s Keith Mizuguchi introduces us to a chef cooking up Vietnamese comfort food inspired by her family’s recipes. She’s also a former union organizer trying to build a business where workers are paid a fair wage.

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From Mannequins to Musical Roads: More of California's Hidden Gems Feb 10, 2024

This week, we feature stories from our Hidden Gems series about out-of-the-way secret spots in California - places you might want to visit on a road trip!

How This Oakland Business Gives Mannequins New Life (Almost)

You might not notice them, but mannequins can be found everywhere from the tiniest boutiques to Target. But what happens to these non-biodegradable figures when stores go out of business or styles change? In California, many of them end up at Mannequin Madness, an Oakland warehouse run by a woman whose mission is to keep mannequins out of the landfill.

This Stretch of the Mojave Desert Plays the ‘Lone Ranger’ Theme

There’s a road in the western Mojave Desert that’s supposed to sound like the "William Tell Overture" by Rossini. Honda built the road back in 2008 as part of a TV commercial for the Civic. But it's seen better days. Reporter Clare Wiley headed out to Lancaster to make some music with her tires.

Fort Bragg’s Larry Spring Museum Preserves Creativity in California

The tiny Larry Spring Museum is dedicated to a Mendocino County TV repairman who lived in Fort Bragg most of his life. He was an amateur physicist, a keen observer of nature and the items he left behind reveal his deep curiosity about the world. KQED’s Katrina Schwartz takes us to this whimsical museum to learn more about the man behind it.

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How an Entire Oakland Block Decided to Go Solar Feb 03, 2024

Roughly a quarter of California’s carbon emissions come from our buildings and the energy that powers them. And we need to cut those emissions down to next to nothing to avoid the scary effects of climate change. Making a home green is pretty easy if you start from scratch. But it gets a whole lot harder when it comes to converting the millions of homes in California that already exist. The ones where most of us live. Climate reporter Laura Klivans takes us to East Oakland, where one city block is taking a revolutionary approach to reducing their emissions: by electrifying together, all at once. This story comes to us from KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In America.

And it's been just over a year since the mass shooting at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay killed seven farmworkers, all of whom were immigrants from China and Mexico. One nonprofit has been providing survivors and the farmworker community with mental health support including a music therapy class. KQED’s Blanca Torres brings us this story.

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A Taste of Southeast Asia at Stockton's Angel Cruz State Park Jan 27, 2024

On the northern end of Stockton, you'll find Angel Cruz Park. Most weekends it's lined with food vendors, many of them Hmong and Cambodian immigrants. For more than 30 years, this has been a destination for made-to-order dishes, where locals argue over who has the best beef sticks or papaya salad. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse spent a day at the park, learning about the people behind the food.

Next we got to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The area is known for farming, boating and fishing. And it’s got some new migrants: Artists from cities.Reporter Jon Kalish wondered how these urban newcomers are fitting into life in the rural Delta and what an influx of creatives has meant for the community. He talked to transplants who were challenged when they became part of the community.

And finally, more than half of people in the US choose to be cremated when they die, in part because of the high cost and the environmental toll of conventional burials. In the next few years, Californians will have another option when it comes to a loved one's remains: human composting, which turns the bodies of people who've died into fertilizer for forests and home gardens. KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky brings us the story of one man from San Francisco who didn’t want to wait for the law in California to change.

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Could Pickleball Help Change Prison Culture? Jan 20, 2024

California’s oldest prison, San Quentin, has a new name. It's now the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. It was already known for its college classes and arts programs. But Governor Newsom is hoping a major overhaul of the prison and new programs for everything from therapy to education and job training will be a model for prisons across the state. This week, Uncuffed, a podcast produced by incarcerated journalists at San Quentin, shares a moment when the wall between correctional officers and incarcerated men broke down just a little bit over something new...a game of Pickleball.

And KQED's Lesley McClurg brings us the story of Dr. Alfredo Quiñones Hinojosa or "Dr. Q" as he's better known. The 56-year-old attended UC Berkeley and Harvard and is a leading neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic. But he started out as Freddy, a fifteen-year-old migrant worker from Mexico who picked tomatoes in the San Joaquin Valley.

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Unhoused Californians on the 'Bleeding Edge' of Climate Change Jan 13, 2024

Whether it’s severe heat, cold, fires, or floods, people experiencing homelessness are on the bleeding edge of the climate emergency. Reporting for the KQED podcast, Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In America, Vanessa Rancaño follows the story of one woman who is trying to keep herself and her adult son alive on the streets of Fresno, California. She talks to advocates pushing lawmakers to find solutions, and creating their own in the meantime.

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A Pandemic Pivot Helped These Californians Launch Successful Food Businesses Jan 06, 2024

This week we're featuring stories from our ongoing series Flavor Profile, featuring folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

Gas Station Filipino Dessert Shop Is Among NorCal’s Most Delicious Secrets

Inside a nondescript National gas station off the 205 in Tracy, is Ellis Creamery. Marie Rabut and her husband Khristian got the idea to open the shop in 2020 as a way to supplement their income after Khristian lost his tech job in San Jose. Tired of long commutes for work, they wanted to stay local and saw the shop as an opportunity to bring Filipino flavors to their community. KQED's Katrina Schwartz went to find out how they're adding their own unique spin to traditional Filipino desserts.

How SF's Rize Up Sourdough Puts Black Bakers on the Map

Like many others, San Francisco's Azikiwee Anderson took up making sourdough during the pandemic. Once he mastered the basics, he started experimenting with ingredients no one had ever put into sourdough: gojuchang, paella and ube. Those flavors transformed his hobby into a successful business that wholesales to bakeries and restaurants across the Bay Area. All this success has made Azikiwee rethink how the food industry brings equity into the workplace, and how to elevate cultural appreciation, not appropriation, through ingredients. KQED's Adhiti Bandlamudi tells us how Anderson wants to give a chance to more Black and Brown bakers, because of his own experience feeling like an outsider as a Black man interested in commercial baking.

This Spicy, Crunchy Chili Topping Is the Essence of Balinese Flavors

Celene and Tara Cerrara had successful careers, one a doula and the other a make-up artist, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then, they both lost their jobs and moved home where they rediscovered a passion for cooking their native Balinesefood. They started a successful pop up, Bungkus Bagus, and are now transitioning towards packaged products. Clare Wiley brings us their story from Glendale.

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Encore: Oakland Rapper Guap on His Black and Filipino Roots Dec 30, 2023

This week we're revisiting a story from our series Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians. It originally aired in March 2023.

Even if he’s not always recognized as part of the Asian American community, Oakland-born rapper Guap is fiercely proud of his Filipino roots. On the last track of his 2021 album, 1176, he tells an origin story spanning decades and continents. His grandfather, a Black merchant marine stationed in Subic Bay in the Philippines, ripped the pocket of his uniform. He knew he'd be in big trouble if he didn't fix it, so he found a young Filipina seamstress to repair the pocket — and fell in love. When his time in Subic Bay came to an end, the two married and moved to a one-story house in West Oakland, where they would eventually raise their grandchild Guap, the first-born child of their youngest daughter.

Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Guap about growing up Black and Filipino, the cultural impact his lola had on him, and how his mixed identity shows up in his music.

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Encore: The Little Known Wartime History of Japanese Americans Living in Japan Dec 23, 2023

This week we’re sharing a story from August 2023. It’s the little known history of Japanese Americans who were living in Japan during World War II.

Reporter Kori Suzuki found out that his own grandmother, who he’d always thought was born in Japan, is a Kibei Nisei, a second generation American who returned after living through World War II in Japan. He explores his grandmother’s memories and discovers new aspects of himself along the way.

This story was originally produced by our friends at Code Switch.

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Centering Shared Humanity In Wartime Dec 16, 2023

‘I’m Pro-Humanity’: One Palestinian’s Call for Peace in the Face of Tragedy

Like a lot of people, journalist Asal Ehsanipour has been in a state of despair since the latest war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7. One of the only times she’s found comfort was at a San Francisco Jewish Community Center event with Israeli and Palestinian speakers who’ve lost a loved one to the ongoing conflict. One of the speakers was a man who’d moved from Gaza and now lives in the Bay Area. Coming to California opened up his thinking about embracing our shared humanity – even during times of war.

'It is Possible to Love People and Disagree': For These Two Friends, Hard Conversations Are Key Right Now

As the war continues, Californians are coming together and having tough interfaith conversations in groups like the Jewish-Muslim organization the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom. It tries to build relationships between Muslim and Jewish women of all ages. The Palo Alto chapter is where Doctor Lama Rimawi and Rabbi Amy Eilberg met. KQED’s Brian Watt spoke with both of them recently about how they’ve stayed good friends in light of the ongoing conflict.

This California Facility is Fully Devoted to the Search for Alien Life

Many people like to speculate about the existence of extraterrestrial life, but does it really exist? For our Hidden Gems series, KQED’s Katherine Monahan headed to the Hat Creek Radio Observatory to meet some very serious scientists dedicated to finding out.

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Uncovering Abuse in a CA Disability Group Home Dec 09, 2023

Katrina Turner lives in Fair Oaks, outside of Sacramento. She’s 43, nonverbal and developmentally disabled. Katrina lives in a special kind of group home for people who need a lot of support day to day. She has a history of self-injury, so the group home is required to monitor her 24/7. But Katrina’s family was alarmed when a staff member reported finding bruises and marks on her body. They suspected something was seriously wrong.

This week, we’re bringing you the results of a year and a half long investigation into allegations of abuse at one of California’s most tightly regulated group homes, the “Illinois Home” in Sacramento County. Reporter Chris Egusa spent months collecting stories from parents, testimony from employees, and documentation from state agencies. And what he uncovered suggests that Sevita Health, a national health care company, may have allowed, and even contributed to the abuse of the very people it was supposed to protect.

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Towns Along Pacific Coast Trail Struggle After Dixie Fire Dec 02, 2023

Two Years After the Dixie Fire, Towns That Relied on Pacific Crest Trail Hikers Are Still Struggling

Two years ago, the Dixie Fire nearly wiped the Pacific Crest Trail off the map. With a lot of work, the trail has mostly been repaired. But sections of the PCT remain inaccessible, and for the first time in history, doing a continuous hike of the trail from beginning to end is almost impossible. It's a huge blow to rural towns along the trail, which rely on the hikers and trail tourism to survive. Reporter Dana Cronin ventured out into a tiny town called Belden, to see how people are doing after the fire.

Fresno’s New Gordita Shop is an Homage to Mom’s Cooking

Americans may be more familiar with tacos, but in the northern regions of Mexico, gorditas are a more popular kind of street food. And for Lizett Lopez, a Fresno native who recently moved back to the Central Valley during the pandemic, gorditas are closely tied to her identity, her culture and heritage – and now, her mother. As part of our Flavor Profile series, Reporter Olivia Zhao brings us the bittersweet story behind Lucy's Gorditas, the latest addition to Fresno's Mexican food scene.

The Coolest Place on Earth: The Public Library

We're sharing an excerpt of the latest episode of KQED's Rightnowish featuring Fairfield’s Mychal Threets. Threets is a superstar librarian, who readily professes the importance of childhood literacy, library access, and mental health. Because of that, he’s amassed a social media following that rivals your favorite artists and entertainers.

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Stories of California History Through Food and Family Nov 25, 2023

On this week's show we're revisiting two stories about family, food and farming.

We start in the Central Valley where David “Mas” Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. On his family’s organic peach, nectarine and grape farm south of Fresno, California, Mas says the labor and lessons of his ancestors are in the soil and he’s passing these on to the next generations. Reporter Lisa Morehouse has visited Masumoto Farm for years, picking luscious peaches and nectarines in summer. For her series California Foodways, she returned to hear about a family secret at the center of Mas’ recent book, Secret Harvests.

Next we meet chef Crystal Wahpepah. She says she wanted to be a chef since she was 7 years old. Like her grandfather and mother, Wahpepah is a registered member of the Kickapoo tribe of Oklahoma. She remembers learning to make fry bread with her aunty and grandmother — and picking berries with her grandfather on the Hoopa Reservation where she spent time as a child. But while growing up on Ohlone land in Oakland, Wahpepah was struck by the Bay Area’s lack of Native restaurants, despite the region’s large Indigenous population and palette for diverse cuisine. So she decided to change that. It wasn’t just a matter of culinary representation, it was a matter of reclaiming Native food sovereignty. KQED’s Bianca Taylor brrought us her story as part of our series Flavor Profile, which features folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

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The Aftermath of an LA City Council Scandal Nov 18, 2023

It’s been a year since one of the biggest political scandals in its history rocked the Los Angeles City Council. In October 2022, a secret audio recording of three Latino council members and a labor leader was leaked to the public. Their conversation about redrawing council district maps included racist comments about fellow council members, their families, the Black community and indigenous Mexicans. Council president Nury Martinez’s comments were some of the most shocking and led to her resignation. Martinez seemed to have disappeared until recently, when she agreed to an exclusive interview with LAist's Antonia Cerejido. That interview, as well the perspectives of other Angelenos close to the scandal, are featured on the podcast Imperfect Paradise. The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha sits down with Cerejido, the host of the series "Nury and the Secret Tapes," to find out what's changed a year after the scandal broke.

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Searching For Home On Higher Ground Nov 11, 2023

This week, we’re featuring an episode from our friends at the KQED podcast SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing In America. This season they're focusing on how climate change is affecting where and how we live. Climate change is intensifying wet periods across California, turning waterways that humans corralled with dirt and concrete into wild torrents. When the river comes for your town, what do you do, how do you adapt? Is abandoning life in the floodplain the only real option? Ezra David Romero visits the Monterey County town of Parajo where he meets the Escutia family. He learns how a flood swallowed their hometown, and follows them for months afterward, as they searched for an affordable home on higher ground.

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How a California Tribe Fought to Get Their Ancestral Land Back in Eureka Nov 03, 2023

In the winter of 1860, white settlers massacred dozens of Wiyot people as they slept. Most were women, children and elders. Settlers then stole the Wiyot people’s land, including an island the tribe considers the spiritual center of the universe. Cheryl Seidner’s great-grandfather was an infant during the attack and one of only a handful of survivors. Generations later, Seidner would lead her tribe to successfully get the island back. Reporter Izzy Bloom takes us to Tuluwat Island, off the coast of Eureka, where a land back effort succeeded long before the current movement began.

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Did I Actually Contact a Dead Person? A Science Editor In Search of His Mother’s Ghost Oct 27, 2023

This Halloween weekend, we enter the realm of the unknown, and bring you a ghost story produced in collaboration with the Bay Curious podcast. Jon Brooks is a reporter and former KQED science editor who lives in the world of evidence, facts and data. But many years ago, Jon witnessed something inexplicable, something that just couldn’t be squared with reality. A recent personal tragedy has prompted him to run that story over and over again in his mind. We join Jon on a journey to make sense of it all.

This episode originally aired on Oct. 28, 2022.

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Resilient Family Farmers Making It Work Oct 20, 2023

From Laos to California: The Remarkable Journey of Ia Moua

When the Vietnam War ended, thousands of Hmong people who had fought with American troops were no longer safe in their homelands. Many relocated to the U.S, like Ia Moua. She, along with her husband and her eight children, arrived in Fresno in 1993.

Unable to speak or read English when she arrived, Ia felt adrift in California at first. But she found some stability after finding a small plot of land where she could grow Hmong rice, a variety unlike anything found in grocery stores. Now, Ia’s field is much more than a livelihood – it’s become a gathering place for the Hmong community and a reminder of home.

California author Lisa Hamilton traces Ia’s journey from a tiny village in Laos to the Central Valley in her new book, The Hungry Season: A Journey of War, Love, and Survival. She joins guest host Lesley McClurg to share Ia’s story and talk about the surprising process of reporting the book, most of which took place while working alongside Ia in a rice field.

Hidden Gem: One of San José’s Last Working Orchards Has Been Family Run Since 1945

Before San Jose became synonymous with tech companies, it was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight because of the luscious fruit orchards that proliferated there. Many of those orchards have been paved over to make room for homes and tech campuses, leaving only 5% of Santa Clara County’s original farmland. For our Hidden Gems series, Reporter Daphne Young takes us to one of the last working orchards in San Jose. It’s been run by the same family for almost 80 years.

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California Prisons Fail to Uphold Transgender Rights Despite State Law Oct 13, 2023

California’s Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act was meant to protect transgender people, reducing the trauma of physical and sexual assault experienced by many transgender women in particular when housed in men’s prison. But the culture at state prisons and rising anti-trans fervor throughout the country have exposed some transgender women to new traumas. Like Syiaah Skylit, who is currently in solitary confinement at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. She’s experienced harassment, taunting, and attacks from other incarcerated women because of her gender identity. Reporter Lee Romney, who covered criminal justice at the LA Times, and Jenny Johnson, a former public defender, spent a year interviewing Syiaah and other transgender incarcerated people to gauge how the law – meant to protect gender-expansive people in prison– may not actually be working out the way it was intended.

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All-Female Mariachi Band Shatters Stereotypes Oct 06, 2023

This All-Women Mariachi Group From Sacramento Is Redefining the Genre

One hundred years ago, all-female mariachi bands didn’t exist. Even 50 years ago, women playing mariachi was rare. Today, though, women like Dinorah Klingler are rewriting the story of mariachi culture. Her band, Mariachi Bonitas, is an all-female, woman-led, multi-generational mariachi band based in Sacramento that’s carving out a new space for women in the traditionally male-dominated genre. Bianca Taylor explores the history of women in mariachi and what makes this the right time to innovate the art form.

Welcome to Bumpass Hell, a Bubbling, Stinky Sliver of 'California's Yellowstone'

At Lassen Volcanic National Park, sometimes called “California’s Yellowstone,” there’s a hike that takes visitors to a place that looks like Mars. It’s called Bumpass Hell, known for its bubbling mud pots and steaming vents. Katherine Monahan brings us this story as part of our Hidden Gems series, where we take you to out-of-the-way spots in the Golden State.

Beyond Bánh Mì: This San José Pop-Up Plays With Classics of Vietnamese Cuisine

Hieu Le and DuyAn are Vietnamese immigrants who grew up eating the food of the Mekong Delta, the “rice basket of Vietnam.” With their San Jose-based pop up, Hết Sẩy, Hieu and DuyAn are representing their moms’ cooking, but also refreshing the traditions to reflect their California palates. Rachael Myrow brings us this story as part of our ongoing series Flavor Profile, which features folks who pivoted to start successful food businesses during the pandemic.

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An Ode to Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" Sep 29, 2023

Flavor Profile: Rize Up Gives Visibility to Black Bakers

Like many others, Azikiwee Anderson took up making sourdough during the pandemic. Once he mastered the basics, he started experimenting with ingredients no one had ever put into sourdough: gojuchang, paella and ube. Those flavors transformed his hobby into a successful business that wholesales to bakeries and restaurants across the Bay Area. All this success has made Azikiwee rethink how the food industry brings equity into the workplace, and how to elevate cultural appreciation, not appropriation, through ingredients. He wants to give a chance to more Black and Brown bakers, because of his own experience feeling like an outsider as a Black man interested in commercial baking. Adhiti Bandlamudi brings us this story as part of our ongoing series Flavor Profile, which features folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

'We Belong Together': How Ritchie Valens' Music Inspired a New Book of Poetry

Growing up, poet J. Michael Martinez loved the “La Bamba,” a movie about the life and music of Ritchie Valens. Valens was a rising rock n’ roll star who died, tragically, in a 1959 plane crash at the age of 17. He was from the San Fernando Valley and had begun his recording career less than a year before his death. Yet, his legacy was already cemented through his timeless hits including, “We Belong Together,” “Donna” and his widely beloved interpretation of the Mexican folk song, “La Bamba.” Sasha Khokha talks to San José State professor J. Michael Martinez, who has created a new, poetic ode to Valens. Tarta Americana (Spanish for ‘American Pie’) uses the life and music of Valens to better understand issues around race, culture and politics as they show up in Martinez’s own life.

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Symphony by Non-Verbal Teen Is His ‘Unforgettable Sunrise’ Sep 22, 2023

Non-Verbal Teen to 'Take On the World' With a Symphony Written in His Head

Jacob Rock is a non-verbal, autistic teenager from Los Angeles who wasn’t able to speak until 2020. That’s when he began to vividly type out his thoughts and feelings on an iPad. His parents were flabbergasted to realize that he could read and write and convey his emotions and creativity through text. Six months later, he told them he had a 70-minute symphony in his head. Unforgettable Sunrise is the result of a months-long collaboration between Jacob and Rob Laufer, a musician and composer who translated Jacob’s painstaking notes into a musical score. The symphony, which will be played Sept. 30 by an orchestra from USC’s Thornton School of Music, chronicles Jacob’s journey with physical pain, his inability to speak for most of his life and his joy in finally translating his voice to the world. Sasha Khokha visited Jacob and Rob to learn more about their collaboration.

‘Days Like This’ In Oakland Is a Party For the People, by the People

This free/donation-based party happens every Friday by Lake Merritt, in Oakland. It’s all about community joy through great DJs and dancing. Created by two friends who started it as a socially distanced dance hangout during the early days of the pandemic, the party has become a weekly ritual for many. Reporter Ariana Praehl takes us to the dance floor.

Alameda's Pacific Pinball Museum Used To Operate Like 'a Little Speakeasy'

The Pacific Pinball Museum on the island of Alameda has nine rooms that take visitors through the evolution of pinball. But this isn't one of those museums where you can't touch the art — here visitors are encouraged to play! For our Hidden Gems series, reporter Olivia Zhao takes us to play pinball.

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Cambodian Californians Seek Ways To Heal Trauma Of The Past Sep 15, 2023

Cambodian Americans Work to Heal Cycle of Intergenerational Trauma

More than 40 years after a genocide that killed two million people in Cambodia, the refugees who survived are still struggling to move past the trauma of the Khmer Rouge regime. From 1975 to 1979, soldiers under communist leader Pol Pot, murdered, tortured and starved people in an attempt to rebuild a society free of Western influences. Though many survivors have created a new life in the U.S., their children often bear the scars of the past. KVPR’s Soreath Hok explores the ways in which intergenerational trauma has affected Cambodian Americans in Fresno and how mental health care is evolving to meet their needs.

This Spicy, Crunchy Chili Topping Is the Essence of Balinese Flavors

Celene and Tara Cerrara had successful careers, one a doula and the other a make-up artist, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then, they both lost their jobs and moved home, where they rediscovered a passion for cooking their native Balinese food. They started a successful pop up, Bungkus Bagus, and are now transitioning towards packaged products. Clare Wiley brings us their story as part of our ongoing series Flavor Profile, which features folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

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Encore: W. Kamau Bell’s Family Explores the Mixed-Race Experience in New Film ‘1,000% Me’ Sep 08, 2023

This week we're revisiting one of our favorite interviews from our Mixed! series. W. Kamau Bell has centered conversations about race in much of his work as a comedian, author and TV host. But when Kamau, who's black, and his wife Melissa, who's white, had kids, they knew their experiences around race would be much different than their daughters. So The Bells set out to make a film that centers the lives of other mixed-race kids like them. In a conversation with hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos, the Bells open up about how about they talk about race in their own family and the conversations they hope this film sparks in living rooms across the country.

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The Invisible Work that Makes Hollywood Hum Sep 01, 2023

LA Food Bank Welcomes Striking Writers and Actors

Actors and writers are still on strike and a lot of folks behind the scenes from screenwriters to stunt doubles – are struggling. To help strikers, some businesses are offering discounts to union members. Actor and comedian Kristina Wong is trying to make sure that while strikers are out on the picket lines, they can get enough to eat. She's become a self-proclaimed 'food bank influencer' encouraging fellow union members to use the World Harvest Food bank in Los Angeles.

How a Hollywood Food Stylist Makes Food a Character

While much of the media attention is focused on the Hollywood writers and actors strike, thousands of other movie industry workers are impacted by the work stoppage. People like food stylist Melissa McSorley, whose work is often invisible. For the series, California Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse spent the day with McSorley to see what it takes to create the dishes you see onscreen.

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Indigenous Californians Flexing Their Power in Big and Small Ways Aug 25, 2023

Oakland’s Wahpepah's Kitchen Reclaims Native Dishes

Crystal Wahpepah wanted to be a chef since she was 7 years old. Like her grandfather and mother, Wahpepah is a registered member of the Kickapoo tribe of Oklahoma. She remembers learning to make fry bread with her aunty and grandmother — and picking berries with her grandfather on the Hoopa Reservation where she spent time as a child. But while growing up on Ohlone land in Oakland, Wahpepah was struck by the Bay Area’s lack of Native restaurants, despite the region’s large Indigenous population and palette for diverse cuisine. So she decided to change that. It wasn’t just a matter of culinary representation, it was a matter of reclaiming Native food sovereignty. KQED’s Bianca Taylor brings us her story as part of our ongoing series Flavor Profile, which features folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

Round Valley Residents Hope Pedestrian Path Saves Lives

Round Valley is located in one of the farthest reaches of Eastern Mendocino County. At its center sits the small town of Covelo, a remote community way up in the hills, with Highway 162 running through the middle of town. There’s no public transportation here, so locals, many of them members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, have to walk on the highway, which has almost no shoulder. Residents have been hit and killed over the years, so the community has been pushing authorities for more than a decade to build a pedestrian path. Reporter Eileen Russell lives near Covalo and tells us what’s held the project up for so long.

Coast Miwok Group Buys Marin Property, a Piece of Their Ancestral Land

When Joe Sanchez was 8 years old, his grandmother asked him to make a promise to never forget his California Indian heritage. He’s spent his life living up to that charge, studying the history of his people and volunteering in the community. In July, he and the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin purchased a 26-acre piece of land in the rural Marin County community of Nicasio, once Coast Miwok territory. It’s believed to be the first modern “Land Back” effort in Marin County, part of a growing movement across California to get land back to the original indigenous people who lived on it. KQED's Vanessa Rancaño reports.

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Giant Sequoias Are Burning. Should We Replant Them? Aug 18, 2023

When the Castle Fire started burning in August of 2020, it ripped through Sequoia National Park, burning for months and with an intensity that has become increasingly normal during wildfire season. Just one year later, the KNP Complex fire devastated this same region. Together, these two massive fires burned grove after grove of giant sequoias, thousands of the largest trees on earth. Trees found only in California.

Sequoias are adapted to fire, but decades of fire suppression and hotter, drier conditions from human-caused climate change have led to infernos that even these magnificent trees can’t weather. Since 2020, up to one fifth of the state’s sequoias have died from severe fire. Sometimes, the cones that hold their seeds have been incinerated too. Some scientists are worried there will be no sequoias in Sequoia National Park in the future.

Now, national park scientists are proposing a plan to harvest surviving sequoia seeds, nurture them into seedlings in a protected environment, and then replant them in the wilderness. But critics say that proposal goes against the very definition of wilderness. At the heart of this debate are some big questions: What is natural? And how much should humans intervene?

KALW reporter Marissa Ortega-Welch explores both sides of the issue while hiking out to see the damage done to a sequoia grove in the middle of a wilderness area in the national parks.

This story was brought to us by KALW Public Radio, and made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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From Cesar Chavez to La Pulga: Latino Activists Make Their Mark on San Jose Aug 11, 2023

Latinos helped build the city of San Jose, though its a history largely forgotten or ignored. This week, we’re highlighting the impact Mexican-Americans have had on the Bay Area's biggest city, through the lens of one Chicana trailblazer. And we'll hear how this activism is helping guide those hoping to keep a fixture of the city's immigrant communities alive, as vendors at the Berryessa Flea Market fight for its future.

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The Little Known Wartime History of Japanese Americans Living in Japan Aug 04, 2023

This week we’re featuring a story from our friends at Code Switch. It’s the little known history of Japanese Americans who were living in Japan during World War II. Recently, reporter Kori Suzuki found out that his own grandmother, who he’d always thought was born in Japan, is a Kibei Nisei, a second generation American who returned after living through the war in Japan. In this story, he explores his grandmother’s memories and discovers new aspects of himself along the way.

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Foretold: A Fortune Teller's Unpredictable Future Jul 28, 2023

This week we’re featuring the Los Angeles Times’ podcast, “Foretold.” It’s the story of a young mother, Paulina Stevens, who was raised in a Romani American family on the Central Coast. Paulina shared her story with reporter Faith Pinho as she sought to leave the sometimes stifling culture she’d grown up in and the life of fortune telling prescribed for her in her teens.

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Did Mac Dre Go to Prison Because of His Lyrics? Jul 21, 2023

One of the biggest stories in hip-hop right now is set to play out in a courtroom later this year, when Atlanta rapper Young Thug goes on trial for gang-related activities. One of the key pieces of evidence cited in the indictment are his lyrics.

The phenomenon of rap songs being played in court dates back to the early ’90s, with an early example happening in the Bay Area during the trial of one of the region’s most famous rappers, Vallejo’s own Mac Dre.

There’s a lot of lore around Mac Dre’s trial, so as part of That’s My Word, KQED’s yearlong project on Bay Area hip-hop history, reporter Jessica Kariisa set out to discover what really happened.

Plus, there’s all kinds of slang that comes out of hip hop, but that doesn’t mean we’re always using it the right way. Pendarvis Harshaw, host of the KQED podcast Rightnowish, has some opinions about how to use “slap.”

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How a Group of Surfers Helped Save Malibu from Wildfire; Redwoods Struggling Jul 14, 2023

In 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned nearly 97,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It was one of the most destructive fires in Southern California history. Among the stories that emerged from the fire was one that seemed made for Hollywood: a group of Malibu surfers who stayed behind and helped save their town from the flames. In the new podcast Sandcastles, host and producer Adriana Cargill explores their story and tells us what we can learn from them about living safely in wildfire country.

Plus, there were many things Julie Menter loved about her Oakland home when she first moved there in 2017. Chief among them were the three towering redwood trees in her backyard. Last year, one of the trees started to look sick. It had lost almost all of its leaves and, despite Menter watering it, it wasn’t bouncing back. She’s noticed, not just in her backyard but all around Oakland, redwood trees are looking dry and scraggly. So our friends at the Bay Curious went to find out what was going on with these iconic coast redwoods.

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Encore: Mapping a Radical Legacy of South Asian Activism in California Jul 07, 2023

This week we’re bringing you one of our favorite stories from 2022.

You’ve probably heard of Bobby Seale and The Black Panthers. Or Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement. But what about Kartar Singh Sarabha and the Ghadar Movement? Or Kala Bagai and the fight against redlining? This week we dive deep into the hidden history of early South Asian activism in our state. How Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other South Asian immigrants and their children laid the groundwork for social movements that still resonate today in California. Host Sasha Khokha teams up with KQED politics correspondent Marisa Lagos, and they meet a couple who created the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour.

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More California Armenians Are Moving Back to Their Parents’ Native Land; Flavor Profile: LA's Saucy Chick; Petaluma Teens' Find Community at the Phoenix Theater Jun 30, 2023

Communities in LA County, like the city of Glendale, are home to the world’s largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. Starting more than a century ago, Armenians fled their homeland during the Armenian Genocide and many of them ended up in California. But now, some LA Armenians are moving in the other direction, back to Armenia. Reporter Levi Bridges traveled to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to meet some of the Angelenos who’ve made the move.

And this week we kick off our new series “Flavor Profile,” about folks who opened successful food businesses during the pandemic. Some of them had little or no experience, like Rhea Patel Michel and Marcel Michel in Los Angeles. They took flavors from their Indian and Mexican heritages to start Saucy Chick Rotisserie. Sasha Khokha brings us their story from Los Angeles.

Plus, our Hidden Gems series continues with a visit to Petaluma. The Sonoma County city has a lot of beautiful historic architecture, in part because many of its buildings were spared the devastation of the 1906 earthquake. One building dates back to 1904, and though its name has changed, it’s been a theater for over 100 years. The group that is keeping it alive is not a historic society, but rather teenagers. Reporter Jessica Kariisa brings us the story of the Phoenix Theater.

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Activism Through Performance: Oakland’s House/Full of Black Women Jun 23, 2023

This week we're featuring an excerpt from the Kitchen Sisters' special, House/Full of Black Women.

For eight years now 34 Black women have gathered monthly around a big dining room table in Oakland, California. They meet, cook, dance, and strategize — grappling with the issues of eviction, erasure, gentrification, inadequate health care, and the sex trafficking of Black women and girls that overwhelm their community.

Spearheaded by dancer/choreographer Amara Tabor-Smith and theater director Ellen Sebastian Chang, these women have come together to creatively address and bring their mission and visions to the streets. Over the years they have created performances, rituals, pop-up processions in the storefronts, galleries, warehouses, museums and streets of Oakland.

You can hear the full version of House/Full of Black Women and more stories on the Kitchen Sisters Present podcast.

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Checking Out Santa Monica's 'Human Library'; Hidden History of Oceano Dunes Jun 16, 2023

At This Library, You Check Out a Human, Not a Book — and Sit Down to Talk

California prides itself on being a diverse state that welcomes folks from all kinds of backgrounds. But actually connecting people who have radically different life experiences — that can be a challenge. The Santa Monica Public Library is hosting events to encourage deep one-on-one conversations between people from different backgrounds. Reporter Clare Wiley tells us about “The Human Library.”

‘It’s All I’ve Wanted’: How an Innovative Bay Area Training Program Is Helping This Fire Victim Become a Firefighter

In the fall of 2017, Lupe Duran was overwhelmed with feelings of loss and uncertainty. The Tubbs Fire had just killed 22 people and decimated thousands of homes in Santa Rosa, including his own. A welding student at the time, it occurred to him he should become a firefighter, like the professionals he’d seen save people’s homes. Through an ad, he found the FIRE Foundry, a nonprofit collaboration of the Marin County Fire Department, local organizations and universities. The organization offers free educational services and support aimed at propelling women and people of color into sustainable careers in the fire service. KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero reports.

How the Oceano Dunes Became a Refuge for Artists and Writers in the 1920s

Just south of Pismo Beach, along California’s Central Coast, the Oceano Dunes are a popular recreation spot for locals and tourists alike. It’s one of the few state parks where people can drive motorized vehicles on the sand. But those dunes also hold some little known history. For two decades, starting in the 1920s, the dunes were home to a colony of artists, writers and intellectuals called “Dunites.” KCBX’s Benjamin Purper reports it was a place where they could live freely and make art without much money.

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The Passion of Chris Strachwitz Jun 09, 2023

California music legend Chris Strachwitz passed away last month in San Rafael at the age of 91. He was the founder of Arhoolie Records, which championed traditional roots music like zydeco, blues, Norteño and Tejano. Starting in 1960, Strachwitz recorded hundreds of albums documenting this music, traveling to far flung corners of the country to find improbable stars. In 2019, his longtime friends and collaborators the Kitchen Sisters produced a documentary called “The Passion of Chris Strachwitz,” which we bring you today.

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Is California Really the Abortion Haven It Claims to Be? Jun 02, 2023

When Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, California declared itself an abortion haven, an abortion sanctuary. The governor invited women from around the country to come here for safe, accessible abortions. He even set aside taxpayer dollars to help pay for their travel expenses. But for many people who live here and need abortion care, the state is anything but a sanctuary. Despite having some of the strongest abortion protections in the country, there are corners of California’s healthcare system where state laws can’t reach. One-on-one, in the exam room, what a doctor says - and doesn’t say - can affect the care patients receive. KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky brings us the story of one woman who struggled to get straight answers from three different doctors.

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‘We Had a Mission’: Longtime Richmond Teacher Reflects on Once-Stellar High School; Cooking Up LA's Next Chefs May 26, 2023

When John F. Kennedy High School opened in 1967, it was a model of innovation. The Richmond school was designed for flexible scheduling, team-teaching and empowered students to take responsibility for their own learning. It also had award-winning extracurriculars and powerful vocational pathways. All this made it a destination school and one of the few examples of successful integration by race and class. Families from all over the district chose Kennedy High for their kids, some even participating in a voluntary bussing program to get there. Reporter Richard Gonzales describes Kennedy’s hopeful beginning and traces the factors that led to harder times through the eyes of one teacher who has been there since day one. Mike Peritz was on the founding faculty of the school and fell in love with the mission, students and school community. More than 50 years later you can still find him there volunteering several days a week.

And Jackie Orchard from the LAist brings us the story of a community college in Los Angeles that has built a reputation as one of the strongest culinary training programs in the state. In 2021, Los Angeles Trade Technical College opened a 70,000 square-foot facility for the culinary arts. Orchard stopped by to make bread with one of their baking classes, and find out what it takes to become a chef in L.A.

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The End of Wood Street: Inside the Struggle for Stability, Housing on the Margins of the Bay Area May 19, 2023

KQED's Erin Baldassari has spent months reporting on what was once the largest settlement of unhoused people in Northern California. The city of Oakland has recently evicted some 300 people who were living in tents and trailers along Wood Street, some of whom had been there for a decade. Now, as residents scatter, many are mourning the loss of the community they had built. Baldassari follows two residents as they navigate the last year at the settlement, weathering eviction notices, sweeps and ultimately being forced to move on. It’s a nuanced story about why local and state policies towards encampments like Wood Street often fail to get people into permanent housing. Plus, what could officials across the state learn from the community at Wood Street about the kind of resources and services unhoused people need to successfully move on from encampments?

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Allensworth Braces For Floods; ’70s Band Fanny Reclaims Their Right To Rock May 12, 2023

Back in the early 1900s, the town of Allensworth became the first California town founded, financed and governed by Black Americans. The fertile Tulare Lake region should’ve been a utopia for the Black doctors, professors and farmers who settled there.

But historic power dynamics left them, and the Allensworth community today, on the losing side of many water and land use questions. Now, as the Sierra snowpack melts and floods the Tulare Lake Basin, communities like Allensworth are uniquely vulnerable to flooding. Reporter Teresa Cotsirilos visited Allensworth earlier this spring to learn how residents are coping.

Plus, when you think of California rockers from the 1970s, bands like the Eagles or Journey might come to mind. You probably don’t picture an interracial band of women — some of them Filipina-American and queer — from places like Sacramento and Folsom. Fanny was the first all-female rock band to release an album on a major label, breaking ground for women musicians like the Go Gos, the B52s, and Bonnie Rait. In fact, Fanny released five albums by 1974, but today, a lot of people haven’t heard of them.

A new documentary film screening at CAAMFest in San Francisco follows band members nearly 50 years later as they record a reunion album. Sasha Khokha spoke with June Millington, Fanny’s lead guitarist, and film director, Bobbi Jo Hart, about the band’s legacy, the film and why age is just a number.

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Farming With Ghosts: David 'Mas' Masumoto On Learning A Family Secret May 05, 2023

David 'Mas' Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. On his family's organic peach, nectarine and grape farm south of Fresno, California, Mas says the labor and lessons of his ancestors are in the soil and he's passing these on to the next generations.

Mas is an author, too, who has delved into the stories of his farm and family in more than 10 books. In his latest, Secret Harvests, Mas writes about the shock of a newly uncovered family secret.

Reporter Lisa Morehouse has visited the Masumoto farm for years, picking luscious peaches and nectarines in summer. For her series California Foodways, she returned to hear what Mas learned about this hidden story, and how he rediscovered just how resilient his farming family is.

Plus, Christopher Beale tells us about the flight over San Francisco's iconic Castro Theatre. Historically a movie palace, the building’s new managers want to remove seats to renovate the space for other live events like concerts. But the plans have raised tensions, with some pointing to the theater’s historical significance in San Francisco’s gay community as a reason to restore the space rather than renovate it.

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MIXED!: W. Kamau Bell’s Family Explores the Mixed-Race Experience in New Film ‘1,000% Me’ Apr 28, 2023

W. Kamau Bell has centered conversations about race in much of his work as a comedian, author and TV host. But when Kamau, who's black, and his wife Melissa, who's white, had kids, they knew their experiences around race would be much different than their daughters. So The Bells set out to make a film that centers the lives of other mixed-race kids like them. In a conversation with hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos, the Bells open up about how about they talk about race in their own family and the conversations they hope this film sparks in living rooms across the country.

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MIXED!: A Psychologist and Mixed-Race Teen Offer Advice To Parents For Raising Strong Multiracial Kids Apr 21, 2023

Parenting is already a challenge, but it can be even more complicated when you’re raising a kid with a different racial identity than yours or your partner’s. Mixed!: Stories from Mixed Race Californians continues as co-hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos talk to Dr. Jenn Noble, a clinical psychologist who often works with multiracial families and Rahul Yates, a high school senior and host of the podcast Mixed by Gen Z, who's spent a lot of time thinking about his identity and creating ways for young people to find community and connection. They share about what parents can do to support their mixed race kids, the importance of talking about race early, and how the conversation about being mixed is changing with a younger generation.

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MIXED!: Author Cherríe Moraga on Her ‘Mixed Blood’ Chicana Heritage and Embracing Discomfort Apr 14, 2023

Half-and-half. Cream and coffee. Almost every mixed-race family develops their own, sometimes bizarre, metaphors to explain their kids to the outside world.

Chicana feminist, playwright, poet and author Cherríe Moraga prefers the term “mixed blood.” Her recent memoir, Native Country of the Heart, is a tribute to her powerful and complicated Mexican mother, Elvira Moraga. It’s a more seasoned reflection on the concepts she first explored when she co-edited the groundbreaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color in 1981. Her essay “La Güera” focuses on straddling identities as a mixed-race queer woman who’s light-skinned — or güera in Spanish. Moraga says people sometimes perceive her as white, despite her deep ties to her Mexican culture and heritage. In the essay, she explores the privilege she experiences in the world because of her phenotype, but also her vulnerability as a working-class woman and as a lesbian.

California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha and KQED correspondent Marisa Lagos spoke to her at her home for the series “Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians.”

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MIXED!: Educator Joemy Ito-Gates on Why Ethnic Studies Matters Apr 07, 2023

Bay Area Teacher on Growing Up 'Multiracial Japanese American' — and Why Ethnic Studies Matters

“Woman. Daughter. Adoptee. AIDS Orphan. Hapa. Japanese-American. Asian. Asian-American. Queer Musician. Writer. Martial Artist. Alive.” Those are the words a 21-year-old Joemy Ito-Gates wrote below a photograph of her taken by artist Kip Fulbeck.

Some 20 years later, she’s also now a mother, an ethnic studies teacher and an advocate against cultural appropriation in fashion. And she’s changed the words she uses to describe her racial background to “multiracial Japanese American.”

Our series “Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians,” continues with hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos in conversation with Ito-Gates about growing up as a multiracial adoptee, the loss of her parents to AIDS, and the ways she’s reclaiming Japanese heritage garments.

Thrifting and Bio-Art: Two Different Approaches to the Fast-Fashion Problem

You might not realize it when trying on a new pair of jeans, but some estimates put the greenhouse gas emissions from clothing and shoe manufacturing at eight-percent of the global total. And thousands of tons of textiles end up in landfills each year. While fast fashion has many Americans buying more and more new cheap clothes, others are wondering what they can do to help. From KCBX in San Luis Obispo, Gabriela Fernandez profiles two California women who are championing more sustainable ways to shop.

'Stud Country': Queer Line Dancing Finds Home in Los Angeles

We’re heading to a night of boot scootin’ boogie in Los Angeles, at a spot that’s a little more than your usual honky tonk. Stud Country is a weekly dance party, a safe space for folks of all genders, sexualities and dancing abilities. KCRW’s Danielle Chiriguayo recently hit the dance floor.

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MIXED!: 'Can't You Be in the Black Struggle and Be Multiracial Too?' Late UCSB Professor On Challenging the One-Drop Rule Mar 31, 2023

Our series MIXED!: Stories of Mixed Race Californians, continues with a wide ranging conversation with the late UCSB professor Reginald Daniel. He passed away suddenly in November 2022, just a few weeks after speaking with co-hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos. Before his death Professor Daniel taught the longest running college course on multiracial identity in the nation.

Daniel's family identified as Black, but he had big questions about his family's ancestry. Questions that his family never wanted to address.

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MIXED!: 'Jump Higher, Spin Faster': Olympic Figure Skater Tai Babilonia on Her Rise to Fame Mar 24, 2023

Olympic figure skater Tai Babilonia and her skating partner Randy Gardner rapidly ascended figure skating’s ranks to become World Champions in 1979. They were favorites at the 1980 Olympics, but an injury ended their dream of a medal. For our series Mixed! Stories of Mixed Race Californians, co-hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Babilonia about growing up in a mixed race family in the 1960s and the racism and exotification she faced as an athlete and public figure.

And we have an update on a family we've been following. In 2019, José Luis Ruiz Arévalos left his wife and kids in the Central Valley to apply for his green card in Mexico, but he ended up separated from them for almost four years. He got caught up in changes the Trump administration made to the questions consulate officials ask people trying to become legal residents. Last month, José was finally able to return home, but as Edsource Reporter Zaidee Stavely tells us, his forced absence changed the course of his children’s lives.

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MIXED!: Rapper Guap on Growing Up Black and Filipino in Oakland Mar 17, 2023

Even if he’s not always recognized as part of the Asian-American community, Oakland-born rapper Guap is fiercely proud of his Filipino roots. On the last track of his 2021 album, 1176, he tells an origin story spanning decades and continents. His grandfather, a Black merchant marine, stationed in Subic Bay in the Philippines, found himself with a rip in the pocket of his uniform. He found a young Filipina seamstress to repair the pocket and fell in love. When his time in Subic Bay came to an end, the two married and moved to a one-story house in West Oakland, where they would eventually raise their grandchild Guap, the first born child of their youngest daughter.

1176, created in collaboration with Filipino-American producer !llmind, is Guap’s most personal work to date. It’s the culmination of a circuitous path into the music industry, from first getting recognition as a scam rapper to being featured on a Marvel movie soundtrack. For the series Mixed: Stories of Mixed Race Californians, hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Guap about growing up Black and Filipino, the cultural impact his Lola had on him, and how his mixed identity shows up in his music.

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MIXED!: Mixed-Race Californians Share Stories of Joy and Complexity Mar 11, 2023

Identity is always complicated, and for multiracial folks who straddle many identities, it can be isolating. It can also be invigorating and rich to belong to multiple communities and celebrate that complexity. The latest census shows it's demographic to pay attention to: 2020 data reflect a 276% increase in people who identify as multiracial compared to 2010.

Sasha Khokha is joined by special guest host Marisa Lagos as they delve into the mixed race experience, grounded in their own backgrounds. We're kicking off our new series, Mixed! with a conversation with pioneering artist Kip Fulbeck, whose hapa project allowed mixed-race folks to answer the question "What Are You?" Plus, two listeners who share a similar Black/Filipina background, but straddle different generations.

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Proven Schizophrenia Treatments Keep People in School, at Work and off the Street. Why Won't Insurance Companies Cover Them? Mar 04, 2023

Have you ever heard someone calling your name, butthen you look around and no one’s there? Or you feel your phone vibrate, but actually, it didn’t. Then you’ve technically experienced psychosis. For most of us, it will never go further.But for people who later develop schizophrenia, it often starts like this. On this week's show, KQED Health Correspondent April Dembosky takes you inside the minds of three young people experiencing psychosis. They describe how it crept up on them, how it took hold, and how new treatments helped them rewire their thoughts. But also, how insurance companies won’t pay for the full package of care.

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Raising Shasta Dam Could Put Sacred Indigenous Sites Underwater Feb 25, 2023

As California looks for ways to alleviate drought, the federal government is considering raising Shasta Dam by 18-and-a-half feet in order to store more water in wet years. Behind it, three rivers backup creating Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in the state. If the dam enlargement proceeds, areas up river from the dam that aren’t currently underwater will flood.

The Winnemem Wintu people have opposed the dam enlargement project. Much of their ancestral land has already been taken from them and the proposal would flood many of the group’s remaining sacred sites.

This week, host and reporter Judy Silber takes us on a journey "around the world," a Winnemem Wintu phrase for visiting the sacred sites, to understand what these places mean to their original inhabitants. This episode is part of a series from KALW's The Spiritual Edge podcast called A Prayer For Salmon.

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75 Years After Deadly Plane Crash, Families Get Answers for 'Deportees' Feb 18, 2023

This year marks the 75th anniversary of one of the worst plane crashes in California history. In 1948, 32 people died when a plane heading from Oakland to the Mexican border landed nose-first into a canyon near the Central Valley town of Coalinga. The passengers were 28 Mexican Braceros who were being deported from California to the border. While the bodies of the white pilot, flight attendants, and immigration agent on board were sent home to their loved ones, the deportees remained unnamed, buried in a mass grave in Fresno. Poet and author Tim Z Hernandez has spent more than a decade trying to piece together what happened in that devastating plane crash. Host Sasha Khokha joined him as he continues to connect with people touched by that 1948 crash.

California’s changed a lot since that plane wreck back in 1948. But the challenges some immigrants face here can still be overwhelming. And when tragedy strikes, folks who are undocumented can be especially vulnerable. During heavy rainstorms earlier this winter, the streets in the Merced County town of Planada became rivers, hundreds of homes flooded. The whole town was evacuated. Now people in this rural, unincorporated community in the Central Valley are trying to put their lives back together. KQED’s Vanessa Rancaño visited Planada and brings us two stories of how residents are struggling to recover after the storm.

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Chumash Tribe ‘Reunites the Rock;’ Social Justice Sewing Academy's Push to Make Craft More Inclusive Feb 11, 2023

Chumash Tribes 'Reunite' Sacred Rock in Morro Bay Ceremony

The nearly 600-ft. volcanic rock poking out of Morro Bay is a Central Coast landmark, known to most as Morro Rock. But two Native American tribes indigenous to this area call it something else: Le’samo by the Salinan, and Lisamu’ by the Chumash. For 80 years, starting in 1889, the Army Corps of Engineers quarried the rock and used it to build infrastructure throughout San Luis Obispo County. The desecration of their sacred site has long been a wound for the Salinan and Chumash peoples. After more than a hundred years, the Corps is returning pieces of the sacred rock to the tribes. KCBX’s Benjamin Purper takes us to a ‘Reunite the Rock’ ceremony, where Chumash members returned stones to their source, one step towards healing.

Stitching for Change: Inside the Bay Area's Social Justice Sewing Academy

Amanda Stupi profiles Sara Trail, the founder of the Social Justice Sewing Academy. As a kid Trail was a quilting marvel. She started sewing at age four and published a book on sewing when she was 14. Her work mostly focused on mastering traditional and difficult quilting techniques until Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012. Moved by his murder, she started to view quilting and textiles as an avenue of emotional expression, social change and community building. But others in the sewing world haven’t always been welcoming to her ideas.

‘Light the Beam’: Sacramento’s City-Wide Rallying Cry

In Sacramento, a beam of light is bringing people together. It all has to do with long suffering basketball fans who feel like they finally have a reason to celebrate. Bianca Taylor has the story of how the Sacramento Kings are exceeding expectations this season.

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From Yoga Darling to Conspiracy Theorist: The Wellness to Q-Anon Pipeline Feb 03, 2023

Yoga isn't just an ancient practice. It can also be a lucrative business, especially in fitness-conscious California. What’s more, yoga teachers can often have a lot of influence over their followers, making suggestions about their diet, sleep and sometimes, even politics.

But as the Coronavirus pandemic dragged on, many people started noticing a surprising overlap between some of the alternative theories circulating in the wellness community and the conspiracy theories espoused by followers of Q-Anon — that the world is controlled by "the Deep State."

Producer Emily Guerin from LAist Studios spent months looking into this connection. This week, we feature part one of her series, "Imperfect Paradise: Yoga's Queen of Conspiracy Theories."

Guerin focuses on one LA-based yogi who went by the name Guru Jagat. She had a studio in Venice and was beloved as a charismatic, down-to-earth practitioner of Kundalini yoga. She had a book deal, a fashion line, celebrity clients like Alicia Keys and Kate Hudson and tens of thousands of Instagram followers.

But within months of the first lockdown orders Guru Jagat had started questioning vaccines, holding in-person classes in defiance of lockdown orders, and wondering out loud whether the virus had something to do with alien invasions and secret space programs.

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California Overturned Her Murder Conviction. ICE Still Wants to Deport Her Jan 28, 2023

Sandra Castaneda was 20 when she was given a life sentence for a murder she didn’t commit. After she’d spent 19 years in prison, a judge overturned her conviction and ordered her release. But instead of walking free, she found herself behind bars again, in a holding cell in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. That’s because California prisons notify ICE whenever they release a person who wasn’t born in the U.S. – even someone like Sandra who’s a legal permanent resident who’s lived here since she was a child.

What happened next is a window into an all-too-common story for immigrants who get funneled from the criminal justice system into the deportation system. Even when states like California have overturned their convictions. KQED’s Senior Immigration editor Tyche Hendricks has been following Sandra’s case for months, and brings us her story.

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Building Thriving Spaces For Black Californians Jan 21, 2023

We're featuring work from our colleagues at the Bay Curious podcast this week. Reporter Ariana Proehl digs into the history of Parchester Village, a neighborhood in the Bay Area town of Richmond. After World War II, Black ministers there made a deal with local politicians to build some of the state’s first housing intended to be racially integrated. Parchester Village soon became a hub for Black political power, excellence and community. Residents remember the powerful sense of belonging they felt growing up there.

And host Sasha Khokha talks to Nikki High, owner of Octavia's Bookshelf, a new bookstore in Pasadena. When High’s grandmother died last year, she started reevaluating her life. She’d always wanted to open a bookstore and decided it was time to finally chase that dream. The store, named after science fiction writer Octavia Butler, will open in February. High tells us about the type of community she hopes to foster in the space and why Butler’s writing was so important to her growing up.

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Murder in the Emerald Triangle Jan 14, 2023

This week, Sasha Khokha sits down with Sam Anderson, host and reporter of the new podcast, Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle. In 2016, after finding out that a high school friend was wanted for a murder on an illegal pot farm, Anderson began a five-year journey to investigate the crime. He had to earn the trust of people close to the victim and the accused, all while living and working out of a tent, which became his “office.”

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Lee Herrick Named CA Poet Laureate; Transamerica Pyramid at 50 Jan 07, 2023

Poet Lee Herrick has taught at Fresno City College since the late 1990s, and is now our state’s first Asian American poet laureate. His work has touched on some of the unique experiences Californians share, including our diverse culture and questions of identity. Host Sasha Khokha chats with Herrick as he shares some of his poems as well as his plans to spread the of poetry across the state.

And when it comes to instantly recognizable structures, San Francisco suffers no shortage. But if asked to pick their favorite, many people might go for a classic: the Transamerica Pyramid, which opened in 1972. In a story produced by Carly Severn for Bay Curious, we learn about its surprising origins, and why something that is now an architectural icon was once quite controversial.

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California Stories: Three of Our Favorite Author Interviews from 2022 Dec 31, 2022

This week, as we say goodbye to 2022, we share some of our favorite conversations with California authors this year.

‘All My Rage’: A Story of Love, Loss and Forgiveness in the Mojave Desert

Author Sabaa Tahir based her new young adult novel “All My Rage” on her experiences growing up in her family's 18-room motel in the Mojave Desert. As the child of Pakistani immigrants, and one of the few South Asians in her rural town, Tahir faced racism, Islamophobia, and taunting from other kids. She's an award-winning young adult author, and her earlier series “An Ember in the Ashes” – which had a woman of color hero – hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Tahir joins host Sasha Khokha to talk about her new book.

Jaime Cortez’s World of Humor, Queerness and Tenderness, in a Farmworker Labor Camp

“Gordo” is the new book of short stories from visual artist and author Jaime Cortez. It’s set in the Central Coast farmworker camps he grew up in near Watsonville and San Juan Bautista. By the time he was 10, Cortez was a veteran of the annual garlic and potato harvests. The collection, which he says is “semi-autobiographical,” is a journey of queer self-discovery and complex identities that don’t fit the usual stereotypes of Steinbeck country. Jaime Cortez talks to host Sasha Khokha about “Gordo,” and shares some passages from the book.

Wajahat Ali on His New Memoir and the Merits of Investing in Joy

“Go back to where you came from.” It’s an insult that unfortunately, many of us have heard. For writer Wajahat Ali, it’s also the title of his new book. It traces his childhood in Fremont, CA, his activism as a UC Berkeley student after 9/11, and the challenges he’s faced as a son, a father, and a writer. It chronicles him almost dying from a heart condition, his young daughter getting cancer, and other family tragedies. But the book is funny. Host Sasha Khokha talks to Ali about why he’s decided to actively invest in joy.

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Two of Our Favorite (and Most Joyful) Stories from 2022 Dec 24, 2022

This week, we say goodbye to 2022 with two of our favorite stories from this year.

The Sizzler: The California Origin Story Behind One of India’s Flashiest Dishes

Take any popular dish – pizza, ice cream, hot dogs – and try to trace its origin story. Chances are, you’re going to go on a winding road with conflicting accounts of who actually invented the dish, or whether it was invented by one, single person at all. KQED’s Silicon Valley reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi recently ate a dish so mish-mashed with foods from different countries, that she found herself on a food origin story journey that led her across the world and then back to the Bay Area.

Phương Tâm, Sixties Star of Vietnam Surf Rock, Reclaims Her Legacy at 77

In 1960s Saigon, a singer named Phương Tâm rode the wave of edgy modern music inspired by the California surf sound. It was nothing like the French jazz or folk opera that Vietnamese were used to hearing. The major Saigon labels recorded Phương Tâm’s songs, she headlined the nightclub circuit, and she collaborated with famed composers and musicians. But then, she disappeared from the music scene for more than 50 years. Turns out, she became a doctor’s wife, living in suburban San Jose. But at 77 years old, she’s now reclaiming her identity as Vietnam’s first rock ‘n’ roll queen, with a new album of her restored classics called “Magical Nights.” Reporter Christine Nguyen brings us her story.

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Sacrifice Zones: How Bay Area Community Activists Are Preparing For Sea Level Rise Dec 17, 2022

This week, we're devoting our show to KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero’s series “Sacrifice Zones.” He explores how sea level rise could push contaminants into certain neighborhoods, especially places that are near former military or industrial sites, and that have a history of racism, redlining, and disinvestment. Ezra profiles activists in San Francisco, Oakland and Marin City who are pushing for more data on these contaminants, and calling for reparations to clean up toxic sites, restore consent to community members, and give residents power in climate policy.

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Big Changes for Central Valley Farmers, Disability Rights Activist Alice Wong on the Cost of Care Dec 10, 2022

A tiny local election in the Central Valley caught our attention last month. A group of candidates promising change took over control of a big, farmer-run organization that delivers their irrigation water: Westlands Water District. It’s an empire built on imported water and political power. But these newly elected Westlands board members – all farmers themselves – are now saying: We need a new strategy. A recognition that water is scarce, and large-scale farming will have to shrink. Reporter Dan Charles brings us this story as part of a collaboration with the Food and Environment Reporting Network.

And we hear from author and disability rights activist Alice Wong, who’s had a tough time trying to figure out how to get the care she needs to survive. Earlier this year, she was finishing the final edits to her memoir, “Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life,” when she suffered several medical crises. She lost her ability to speak and started using a text to speech app, which you’ll hear in her story.

Plus, ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, California legislators have been passing bills aimed at providing abortion access for out-of-state patients. And last month, voters overwhelmingly agreed to enshrine the right to an abortion in our state’s constitution. But in some rural communities in California – like Bishop, in the Eastern Sierra – access to abortion remains extremely limited. That’s where Reporter Lauren DeLaunay Miller is from and she started hearing from women in her hometown about how hard it’s been for them to figure out where to get an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy.

And finally, California is home to so many immigrant communities who have their eyes glued to The FIFA World Cup in Qatar right now. One of those fans who’s been rooting for his home country is KQED’s Sebastian Miño-Bucheli.

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‘Bad Indians’ Author Deborah Miranda Continues Fight for Native Californians Dec 03, 2022

Deborah Miranda is an award-winning poet, writer, professor, and an enrolled member of the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation of the Greater Monterey Bay Area, with Santa Ynez Chumash ancestry. Miranda researched wax cylinder recordings made almost a century ago of some of the last speakers of indigenous languages in California, along with other primary source materials about the history of California Indians, for her award winning book, “Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir.” It features drawings, poems, newspaper clippings, photos, and prose. Miranda talks with host Sasha Khokha about the book, which has just been released with new material for an updated 10th anniversary edition.

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When You Don't Learn Your Parent's Language, What Is Lost? Nov 26, 2022

This Thanksgiving weekend, we’re reprising one of our favorite episodes about family and belonging. It’s about what happens when you don’t learn your “heritage language," the language your parents or grandparents speak. Like many of us who are multiracial, or children of immigrants, KQED reporter Izzy Bloom gets asked all the time why she doesn’t speak her heritage language, Japanese. She usually says she's not as good as she'd like to be because her mother didn't teach her older brother, and because he wasn't taught Japanese, neither was she. It sounds simple enough, but the story is actually much more complicated. We hear about Izzy’s journey to get to the real answer, and find out what she discovers about her family along the way.

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The Promise of California: Stories of Detention and Freedom Nov 18, 2022

California has always been a place people come to seek refuge. This week, two stories of people seeking the promise of the Golden State, with very different experiences.

First, immigrants held in ICE detention centers often hold jobs in those facilities: cleaning, folding laundry, even working as barbers. Those positions often only pay a dollar a day. For the last several months, some of those immigrant detainees in two facilities in and around Bakersfield have gone on strike, demanding better pay and working conditions. KQED’s labor correspondent, Farida Jhabvala Romero, has been talking with immigrants from inside detention who say they’ve been retaliated against for going on strike.

Then, a new law declares California a safe state for families who want to come here to get hormones or puberty blockers for transgender kids. The law protects parents who have nonbinary or trans kids and want gender-affirming care for them. This year, 21 states have tried to restrict or ban medical care for trans kids. KQED’s health correspondent Lesley McClurg brings us the story of one family from Texas who just upended their life and moved to California to protect their child.

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A Wedding Behind the Walls of San Quentin Nov 12, 2022

On this week's show, we're sharing an episode of the KALW podcast Uncuffed, which is made by inmate journalists at Solano State Prison and San Quentin State Prison.

A prison might not be the first place you'd think of to celebrate a wedding. But it's where Uncuffed producer Edmond Richardson is marrying the love of his life, Avelina. He talks about his joys and his fears as the day approaches and we learn what it takes to have a ceremony at San Quentin.

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Grass Valley Students Focus on School Board Election; Aztec Dancers Preserve a Proud Heritage; Childhood Prank Helps Heal Grandmother's Grief Nov 04, 2022

We head to Nevada County, where students are mobilizing around an election for school board next week. Some of them are even too young to vote, but they’re working to defeat conservative school board trustees who they say have failed to stop racist and homophobic bullying on school campuses. As KQED’s Julia McEvoy tells us, these students in Grass Valley are trying to help elect candidates they hope will take racist and anti-gay behavior more seriously.

Plus, communities across California marked Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, with altars and processions honoring loved ones we’ve lost. In some of those ceremonies you may have seen an Aztec dance (Danza Azteca) troupe performing as an offering to the spirits, and as a celebration of their lives. Reporter Sebastian Miño-Bucheli has spent some time with Aztec dancers in San Francisco, and tells us how they show up for their community not just for Day of the Dead, but all year round.

And in honor of Day of the Dead – and Halloween week – we bring you a story about spirits…and some mischievous kids. Storyteller JP Frary, six-time winner of the Moth StorySlam, shares this tale from his childhood in Mendocino County.

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Did I Actually Contact a Dead Person? A Science Editor In Search of His Mother’s Ghost Oct 28, 2022

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Exploring the Bay Area’s African Music Scene; Remembering Art Laboe Oct 21, 2022

Reporter Jessica Kariisa is Ugandan American, and she’s spent years listening to and writing about African pop music. When she moved to the Bay Area, she wasn’t sure what she’d find in terms of an African music scene. Gentrification and the rising cost of living have pushed many Black communities out of cities in the Bay Area and beyond. But, after doing some digging, Jessica discovered an African music scene that's thriving.

And we pay tribute to the first DJ to play rock and roll on the West Coast. Art Laboe cultivated a devoted fan base over his nearly 80 years on the air. He trademarked the term “oldies but goodies,” and claimed to have invented the on-air dedication, where lovers send songs to each other over the airwaves. Laboe died earlier this month at age 97. We reprise host Sasha Khokha’s interview with him from 2019.

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LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s Unlikely Rise to Power Oct 14, 2022

This week, we bring you the first episode of the new season of a podcast from LAist Studios called Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff. KPCC correspondent Frank Stoltze explores how a former Sheriff’s lieutenant with almost no leadership experience rose to become the head of the largest law enforcement agency west of the Mississippi, and how he turned out to be a leader with authoritarian tendencies. Alex Villanueva, a longshot maverick candidate, ran for LA County Sheriff as a progressive reformer and won, surprising everyone. After taking office in 2018, he mocked reform, resisted oversight, and launched criminal investigations of his enemies. Now, the people who propelled him to power are looking to boot him from office in this year's election.

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Riding the Bánh Mì Bus; Rediscovering SF's Playland-at-the-Beach Oct 07, 2022

In East San José, a scrappy strip mall anchored by a bánh mì shop doesn’t look like much. But it's a bustling transportation hub. Every morning by 8 a.m., there’s a steady stream of riders lining up for the daily run of the Xe Đò Hoàng, or “Royal Coach” in Vietnamese. Those in the know call it the “Bánh Mì Bus,” which takes passengers all the way to Orange County and back. Christine Nguyen takes us along for the ride.

And we head to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach and travel back in time to the early 1900s. That’s where an amusement park sprung up, drawing loyal visitors for decades. As part of a collaboration with our friends at KQED’s Bay Curious podcast, reporter Christopher Beale takes us on a journey to learn about Playland-at-the-Beach.

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From Losing a Farm to Healing Trauma: Families in Transition Sep 30, 2022

What is it like to be a dad and your first-born son goes off to college? That just happened for Adolfo Guzman-Lopez. He’s covered higher education for years at KPCC in Los Angeles, but when his own son moved into his freshman dorm this month, Adolfo was not prepared for the reaction he’d have.

And we meet a mom from East Palo Alto who's spent years trying to help her kids cope with anxiety and trauma. They’re among a rising number of children across California struggling with their emotional and mental health. KQED's Blanca Torres found that just as before the pandemic, most kids who need help don’t get it. But she also discovered what happens when families like Jasmine’s canaccess care.

And we end with writer Caroline Hatano's ode to the Japanese American community that once farmed all over Southern California. Her grandfather farmed flowers on the Palos Verdes peninsula for 70 years. This summer, the city of Palos Verdes terminated the lease, closing the last Japanese American farm in the area.Her story comes to us as part of a collaboration with Civil Eats, a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system.

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'The Real Ambassadors': Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong and the Story Behind a Groundbreaking 1962 Civil Rights Jazz Musical Sep 23, 2022

As the Monterey Jazz Festival kicks off again this weekend, we go back in time to a chilly evening in 1962. Sixty years ago, a groundbreaking musical premiered at the festival called “The Real Ambassadors.” It featured a glittering array of jazz titans, including Louis Armstrong. This was during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement, and the musical cast artists of different races, challenging racism and social injustice through jazz. “The Real Ambassadors” was written by two Californians influential in moving jazz into the mainstream: Dave and Iola Brubeck. He grew up on a cattle ranch in Ione in Amador County, she in Redding. They met in Stockton at College of the Pacific in 1945, and went on to become a couple and lifelong collaborators. We bring you this story from The Kitchen Sisters and producer Brandi Howell.

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Hollywood's First Chinese American Star + Pronouns Lost in Translation Sep 16, 2022

The pioneering Asian American actress Anna May Wong will be one of five American women the U.S. Mint is recognizing this year with an image on the American quarter. Wong was born in Los Angeles in 1905, and she grew up helping out at her father's laundromat. As a kid, she skipped school to visit movie sets and mimicked the actors at home. She would eventually become Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star. Host Sasha Khokha talks with Nancy Wang Yeun, a sociologist and expert on race in Hollywood about Wong's legacy and some of the difficult roles she had to play.

Then we ask what is it like to talk about your gender identity in different languages? What happens when the pronouns for “he” and “she” in a particular language are similar, or even identical? We meet Emmett Chen-Ran, who decided during his senior year of high school to tell his parents he is transgender. While he grappled with whether they would accept and understand him, there was another challenge: deciding what language he should use to tell them – English or Chinese?

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A Historically Black Community Honors Its Past – and Fights For Its Future Sep 09, 2022

About 30 minutes off Interstate 5, in the Central Valley, there’s a town that’s a vital part of California's history, and Black history in the U.S. It’s called Allensworth, and it was founded as a kind of Black utopia back in 1908. It was self-governed by Black residents, and had its own school, church, bank, debate society and glee club. And for a while, it was thriving. These days, though, Allensworth is a dusty, tiny, farmworker town that’s struggling to survive. There are few jobs or businesses. The drinking water isn’t safe. And hardly anyone visits – or even knows about – the state park there that was built to commemorate Black history. But preserving Allensworth’s history and legacy has come up in meetings of California’s Reparations Task Force. That’s the nine-member body investigating the lingering effects of slavery. They’re coming up with proposals for how to address historical inequities for Black Californians. Reporters Lakshmi Sarah and Teresa Cotsirilos introduce us to some of today’s Allensworth residents, fighting to preserve the town’s history, and its future. We’ll also hear how water plays a vital role in the town’s survival.

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Encore: Investigating COVID Deaths at Foster Farms Sep 02, 2022

We’re reprising an investigation from The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, that recently earned aNational Murrow award for News Documentary.In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. Hall spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died and at least 20 others were hospitalized. Hall’s investigation shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms – families who are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened. We’ll also include an update on the fact that Foster Farms was recently sold to a private equity firm.

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A Reporter Reflects on Coping When Your Community is the News; Two Actresses of Color Receive Long Awaited Recognition Aug 26, 2022

What does it means to be a journalist when the story you’re reporting on also affects you? That’s a question Ericka Cruz Guevarra, host of the KQED podcast The Bay, explored on a recent episode. She shares her story about a camping trip she went on with her best friend during the pandemic. But it’s also a story about the mental health impact of reporting the news when you’re a journalist of color.

Plus, we have an update on two stories we’ve brought you about two women of color who’ve had to struggle hard to get recognition in Hollywood. Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather recently received an official apology from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for the abuse endured at the 1973 Oscars, and the impact it had on her career. Actress Juanita Moore appeared in more than 80 films and TV shows, but wasn’t always credited for her work. In 1959, she became the fifth Black actor in movie-making history to be nominated for an Oscar. The pioneering actress will finally be honored with her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Getting Off Auto-Pilot and Into the World Aug 19, 2022

Our lives are full of routines. From the time we get up, to what we eat for breakfast, to the modes of transportation we take from place to place. But do we really know the stories behind the buildings we pass by and the people who live or work in them? One reporter gives us an inside look into four different businesses on one Berkeley block. Then we go to East Oakland to meet 10-year-old Hemer as she starts sixth grade at a new school. The pandemic contributed to increases in depression and anxiety for many young people, and some students are still struggling. In this story, we learn how California is investing new dollars in an effort to address their mental health needs.

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A Palauan Chef in Susanville + Pacifica’s Forgotten Prison Camp Aug 12, 2022

This week, we’re heading to the high desert town of Susanville, to sample some of the most gourmet food you can find in Lassen County… in a community college cafeteria. We meet the Palauan chef who’s finding a way to bring a taste of home to a community that in some ways, isn’t so different from his Pacific island homeland. Then we’ll visit the foggy coastal city of Pacifica, to learn about a little-known WW2 incarceration camp for Japanese-Americans. And how one man’s diaries leave us vivid clues about what life was like there.

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Remembering the Rainbow Sign: The Short But Powerful Reign of Berkeley’s 1970s Black Cultural Center Aug 05, 2022

Today, it’s an unassuming beige building on a busy Berkeley street. But in the 1970s, the Rainbow Sign was a groundbreaking center for Black culture, politics, and art. It hosted dozens of high-profile Black thought leaders and performers, including James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, and Shirley Chisholm. The Rainbow Sign was open to all – as a performance venue, political organizing space, and cafe. It lasted just a few short years, from 1971-1977. But it left profound mark on the young people who attended concerts and performances there, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

This episode first aired on January 7, 2022.

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As Protections for Renters Vanish, One California Family Navigates the Eviction Process Jul 29, 2022

In 2021, we brought you a story from reporter Kori Suzuki about Dahbia Benakli. She was a preschool teacher who lived in Walnut Creek, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. She and her two kids were facing eviction from their apartment. That story ended in an uncertain place, with Dahbia waiting to find out whether or not she’d get to keep her apartment. In December, her landlord took them to court for refusing to leave their home. Across California, the number of evictions is rising. As public health restrictions around COVID have lifted, emergency housing protections like a statewide ban on evictions are also disappearing. And without them, more and more people are getting kicked out of their homes. In an update to the story, Kori Suzuki tells us about what happened to Dahbia and her family. This story is about what this moment is like for a lot of renters right now - and the options you might have if you find an eviction notice on your doorstep.

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A Teen Activist On Saving the Future; Reporter Investigates His HS Journalism Teacher; Pirate Ship Sails Big Bear Lake Jul 22, 2022

How to Save the World: Audio Diaries from a High School Climate Activist

Survey after survey shows people who are Gen-Z – born between 1996 and 2012 – consider climate change to be the biggest challenge we’re facing. KCRW’s Caleigh Wells followed one teen climate leader in Los Angeles, Paola Hoffman, for months. She collected audio diaries and captured her speeches at climate strikes, her testimony before the state legislature, and her high school graduation…all while Paola carried the weight of the world on her shoulders.

An Investigative Reporter Digs into His Own High School Journalism Teacher’s Troubling Behavior

We've brought you several stories about high school students across California who've been speaking out against sexual harassment and abuse from their peers as part of the #MeToo movement. But there's also a disturbing pattern of cases emerging in which teachers are being accused of harassing and grooming high school students, especially girls. Host Sasha Khokha talks about this trend with Matt Drange, a Senior Correspondent at Business Insider. For a recent story, he went back to his own high school in Rosemead in the San Gabriel Valley. His article is titled “He Was My High School Journalism Teacher. Then I Investigated His Relationship With Teenage Girls.”

Hidden Gems: The Pirate Ship on Big Bear Lake

Set in the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake is a popular tourist destination for Southern California families looking for snow in the winter, and lakeside recreation in the summer –swimming, fishing, and of course boating. For our Hidden Gems series, reporter Amanda Font set sail on a historic vessel that celebrates pirates and pop culture.

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Oscar Gomez: The Forgotten Revolutionary Jul 15, 2022

This week, we're teaming up with our friends at LAist Studios to share an episode from the new season of their podcast “Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary.”

It's the story of Oscar Gomez, a radio DJ and Chicano student leader during a time of explosive anti-immigrant political rhetoric in the early 90s. Some people thought Gomez was going to be the next Cesar Chavez. But then, he died near the UC Santa Barbara campus, under mysterious circumstances. KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez first started digging into Gomez's story with a story we aired back in 2019, when UC Davis awarded Gomez a posthumous degree. The new podcast investigates Gomez's death, his legacy, and how reflecting on Gomez forced Guzman-Lopez to examine his life, activism, and journalism.

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Ojai’s Famous Pixie Tangerine Struggles; Program Trains Incarcerated Men to Help Fight Fires; Peninsula Boba Shop's Tongan Treat Jul 08, 2022

The Ojai Valley’s climate has been ideal for growing certain tree crops. But climate change is making it windier, drier, and hotter there. As Lisa Morehouse tells us, none of that is good for farming. And neither is Ojai’s rising cost of real estate.

And this summer, incarcerated youth will help fight California's wildfires. These young men are hacking containment lines with hand tools. It's part of a program within the juvenile justice system meant to provide job training. But as KQED's health correspondent Lesley McClurg explains, it's been all but impossible to find firefighting jobs once they're released.

Plus, you can find boba shops all over California. Some stick to the original tea with tapioca balls. Others expand their menus with smoothies, slushes, and coffee. So to start a boba business that stands out takes some creativity. For our series Hidden Gems, Amy Mayer found a surprising specialty at San Bruno's Kiss My Boba.

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Road Trip: Unearthing California's Hidden Gems Jul 01, 2022

California is full of incredible, unique places. Even for those of us who have lived here all our lives, there are unusual, off-the-beaten-path spots we’ve never even heard of. The California Report Magazine has been exploring some of those places as part of our Hidden Gems series.

In 2017, Sasha Khokha hosted this Hidden Gems show from a zipline in Sonoma County, with help from producer Suzie Racho. They soared above the redwoods – with their microphones, headphones and tape recorders. And we're happy to report that all of the places we visited back then, from Nancy's Airport Cafe in Willows to L.A.'s Donut Man, are still around and open to the public.

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How a Young Gay Man Survived One of the Darkest Eras in California Queer History Jun 24, 2022

Today, California is seen as a haven for people across a broad spectrum of human sexuality and gender identity. But fifty years ago, even here, being gay meant living in the shadows. It was essentially a crime. It was also considered a mental illness, so judges were committing people to psychiatric hospitals as well as to prisons. Lee Romney brings us the story of Gene Ampon, who was a teenager when he was sent to a California state mental hospital in Atascadero for two years. Lee's reporting is in collaboration with Jenny Johnson, a former public defender who helped start and run the San Francisco Behavioral Health Court.

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Seeking Asylum in CA from Gender-Based Violence; Is Jack Cheese Really From Monterey? Jun 17, 2022

For Immigrants Fleeing Gender-Based Violence, a Long Road to Asylum in US

California has long tried to be a welcoming place for immigrants. But sometimes our state’s efforts have conflicted with federal policy. Under the Trump administration, the rules changed about just who qualifies for asylum. That has made things rocky for people fleeing persecution based on their gender. KQED’s Immigration Editor Tyche Hendricks has been following a woman who escaped years of abuse in Guatemala, and finally made her way to California.

Move Over Monterey? Pacifica Lays Claim to Iconic Jack Cheese

We’ve brought you a lot of stories of how iconic California foods and drinks got their start…from the Martini to Rocky Road ice cream. This week, we’re diving into the origin story of Monterey Jack Cheese. You might guess with a name like Monterey Jack that it comes from the beachside town of Monterey. But there are rumors that Monterey Jack was actually created in Pacifica, a foggy town just south of San Francisco. In a story from our friends at Bay Curious, reporter Christopher Beale takes us on a journey to find the true origins of Monterey Jack.

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Visiting the Farallon Islands; Experiencing Abortion Before Roe v. Wade; Blues Singer Marina Crouse's New Spanish Album Jun 10, 2022

'Like You’re on a Different Planet': Visiting the Mysterious Farallon Islands

If you look west from San Francisco, when the fog is clear and the light is just right, you might be able to see a cluster of islands jutting out of the ocean like sharp, misshapen teeth. The Farallon Islands sit 27 miles west of San Francisco. They get their name from the Spanish word farallón, which means “sea cliff.” For our series Hidden Gems, The California Report’s Izzy Bloom braved the rough waters to get up close with wildlife a lot of Californians have only ever imagined.

Women Share Their Experience of Getting an Abortion Before Roe Made It Legal

With abortion rights in jeopardy, many women are sharing their personal stories. For those who terminated pregnancies before it was legal in 1973, the memories can be especially painful. KQED health correspondent Lesley McClurg has the story of three women.

Blues Singer Marina Crouse Celebrates a Language She Had to Fight to Learn

Fourth-generation Californian Marina Crouse is well known for her powerful voice singing the blues. Now she's got a new album out in Spanish, and it features songs originally sung by Eydie Gorme. Marina Crouse, who's based in the Bay Area city of El Cerrito, has reimagined and re-interpreted Eydie Gorme’s music with her new album, “Canto de mi Corazon.” Crouse talks to host Sasha Khokha about why she decided to honor Eydie Gorme in this way.

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New Podcast Visits Central Valley Towns, and Celebrates 'The Other California' Jun 03, 2022

To a lot of people outside our state, California is one of two places: L.A. or San Francisco. Hollywood or high tech. The beaches or the redwoods. And frankly, to a lot of Californians who live here, there’s a vast part of our state between L.A. and S.F. that people consider “drive-through” country: the San Joaquin Valley, which stretches from the Sierra Nevada to the Coastal range, from Stockton to Bakersfield. It’s a place that – culturally, politically, and geographically – could almost be its own state. It’s “The Other California.” That’s the name of a new podcast from our friends at KVPR that explores the richness of this region. Each episode takes listeners on a journey to visit a different small town. We’ll hear excerpts from the podcast, and chat with host Alice Daniel and reporter Kathleen Schock.

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Betty Reid Soskin at 100: The Life of the Nation's Oldest Park Ranger, In Her Own Words May 27, 2022

This spring, the nation’s oldest park ranger, Betty Reid Soskin, hung up her hat and retired, at the age of 100. For years, she led tours of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. She played a major role in helping to establish the park and museum, which honors the women who worked in factories during wartime.

You’ve probably heard of Betty Reid Soskin. But what you may not know is that she’s also an activist, author, singer/songwriter, and a poet. Soskin’s life has so many chapters. The documentary duo The Kitchen Sisters bring us this tribute to Betty – a kind of mixtape of stories that drop in on her life of 100 years, gathered and preserved by producers and archivists over the years.

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When You Don’t Learn Your Parent’s Language, What Is Lost? May 20, 2022

What happens when you don’t learn your “heritage language” — the language your parents or grandparents speak? Like many of us who are multiracial, or children of immigrants, our intern Izzy Bloom gets asked all the time why she doesn’t speak her heritage language, Japanese. She usually says she's not as good as she'd like to be because her mother didn't teach her older brother, and because he wasn't taught Japanese, neither was she. It sounds simple enough, but the story is actually much more complicated. We hear about Izzy’s journey to get to the real answer, and find out what she discovers about her family along the way.

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California Dreamers: Psych Ward Nurse Turned Bandleader; Waiting a Lifetime for a Green Card May 13, 2022

Lately we've been trying to bring you more stories about people who are pursuing their passions and finding joy right now. A few months ago, KQED culture reporter Chloe Veltman went out with friends to a restaurant in the Sonoma County town of Guerneville. There was a cover band playing called Suzi’s Last Resort. The group's leader started her showbiz career when she was pushing forty and how, at nearly eighty, she’s still at it.

Plus...Turning 21 is a big deal! But for 200,000 young people, turning 21 catapults them into a bizarre legal limbo. That’s what happened to Eti Sinha, and her twin sister, Eva. The Sinha sisters grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. But as they got older, they discovered their right to stay there was conditional, temporary. That’s because they’ve aged out of their parents’ family immigration application. What do you do when circumstances beyond your control threaten to force you out of the only place you’ve ever called home? KQED’s Rachael Myrow of our Silicon Valley Desk tells us how Eti and Eva not only have managed to stay in the US, but help others do the same.

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Mapping a Radical Legacy of South Asian Activism in California May 06, 2022

You’ve probably heard of Bobby Seale and The Black Panthers. Or Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement. But what about Kartar Singh Sarabha and the Ghadar Movement? Or Kala Bagai and the fight against redlining? This week we dive deep into the hidden history of early South Asian activism in our state.How Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other South Asian immigrants and their children laid the groundwork for social movements that still resonate today in California. Host Sasha Khokha teams up with KQED politics correspondent Marisa Lagos, and they meet a couple who created the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour.

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Delicious Dishes: From a Sizzling Cross-Cultural Concoction to Hmong Home Cooking Apr 29, 2022

One thing that’s helped some of us get through the last pandemic has been finding joy in food. This week, stories about dishes that bring us comfort and make us happy. From a kitchen in the back of a Hmong grocery store in Yuba County, to an Indian sizzler: a dish invented in California that’s a mishmash of ingredients from different countries. Plus, it's our annual Youth Takeover week, when we hand over the mic to high school students. We hear from Clara Chiu, a junior at Woodside High School, who explores what it's like to navigate imposter syndrome.

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Looking for Threads of Hope and Connection Apr 22, 2022

This week we have two stories about Californians determined to look for threads of hope and connection right now.

We’ll hear about a new project to transfer farmland in San Mateo County to the indigenous people whose ancestors lived and thrived there. And we’ll meet a family from Placer County that's on a mission to rescue a young relative in Ukraine.

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Deep Roots: Home and History in the Golden State Apr 15, 2022

This week, we have stories of home and history.

We start with novelist Susan Straight. She's a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside, and also grew up in the city. Her new book, Mecca, is a story of intertwined characters who all have deep roots in the mountains, deserts and canyons near Riverside and Coachella, and who are all in their own ways, looking for a version of the California Dream.

And KQED's Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us to San Jose to explain why the city has had five Chinatowns throughout its history, but doesn’t have one today.

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Revisiting Some of Our Favorite Hidden Gems Apr 08, 2022

Many people have been hitting the road for Spring Break, so we wanted to reprise our Hidden Gems show from September 2021. Every year we go on a road trip highlighting some of our favorite secret spots. Come with us as we visit the prehistoric Fern Canyon, a funky beauty salon/museum in the desert, a San Jose shop making pillowy mochi, the majestic Burney Falls and a food truck featuring homestyle chicken and rice in the Central Valley.

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'There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive.' An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms Apr 01, 2022

In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. 16 people died and at least 20 others were hospitalized.

In this episode that originally aired in October 2021, Hall’s investigation shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees.

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'I Will Always Continue to Be Her Voice.' Families Demand Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Mar 25, 2022

Angela Lynn McConnell grew up in the forested hills of the Hoopa Valley reservation in Humboldt County. She was proud of her heritage. Angela, 26, was a budding journalist, committed to shedding light on important tribal issues. In September 2018, she was murdered. What happened to her is unfortunately too common in Indigenous communities: Indigenous women and girls disappearing or turning up dead. Most of these cases are never solved. But families of the missing and murdered have been coming together to demand justice, and their advocacy has led to a wave of new federal initiatives. Reporter Lee Romney tells us about the roots of this crisis – and how Northern California tribes are taking the lead to come up with solutions.

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California Books: Kids Reflecting on Journeys of Migration Mar 18, 2022

This week, Sasha Khokha talks to Neda Toloui-Semnani, an Emmy Award winning writer and producer about her new book, "They Said They Wanted Revolution, A Memoir of My Parents.” It's pieced together from interviews, diaries and archives, and it dives deep into her family's history, both in the U.S. and Iran.

Plus, KQED's Chloe Veltman tells us about the rise in bilingual children’s books, especially in Spanish and English. The stories don’t just highlight diverse characters, but also have a strong social justice focus.

And we talk to Jessica Martin, the Healdsburg art teacher who helped create PepToc, a hotline featuring encouraging messages from elementary school kids. The project went viral thanks to social media. While Martin thought the line might get 100 calls a month, it's exploded to 11,000 calls an hour.

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They Were Under the Radar, But Two CA Singers Leave Lasting Musical Legacies Mar 12, 2022

This week, we’ve got two stories featuring two very different musical artists. Each of them won a singing contest as a teenager that launched their career. One was a singer in 1960s Saigon, who rode the wave of edgy modern music inspired by the California surf sound. The other was a vocalist who got his start in Los Angeles' Central Avenue jazz scene in the 1940s and had a career that lasted over 70 years,

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Sold Out: A Suburb With an Eviction Problem Mar 05, 2022

During the pandemic, so many Californians have lost their jobs, and struggled to pay rent. People have been forced to make really difficult decisions. Like choosing between buying groceries, or paying the landlord. Federal, state, and local governments did put some eviction protections in place during the pandemic. And Congress handed out nearly 50 billion dollars to help people catch up on missed rent. But people still got evicted. Most of those pandemic protections were temporary. And now, things are getting worse. But evictions don't affect everyone equally. They're more likely to hit some communities harder than others. And that’s the focus of the new season of the podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. We bring you the first episode from KQED housing reporters Erin Baldassari and Molly Solomon.

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The Last Slavery Case in California; YA Author Sabaa Tahir's Gets Personal in 'All My Rage' Feb 26, 2022

This week Sasha Khokha sits down with author Sabaa Tahir to talk about her latest young adult novel, All My Rage. The book is rooted in her own experiences growing up in her family's 18 room motel as the child of Pakistani immigrants and one of the few South Asians in her rural town. She's an award-winning author and her earlier series, Ember in the Ashes, which had a woman of color hero, hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

And even though California joined the union as free state back in 1850, that didn’t mean slavery didn’t exist here. As gold rush prospectors flooded the state, enslaved Black people sometimes came too. And even Black people who entered the state free from bondage didn't always stay free. In fact, the passage of California's Fugitive Slave Act in 1852 allowed slave catchers to take free Black people back to slave states, and the law sanctioned the re-enslavement of Blacks freed by their enslavers. In 2020. reporter Asal Ehsanipour brought us the story about the very last slavery case in California -- a story that starts in what was once rural Sacramento.

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‘Imperfect Paradise’: When Neighbors Shout Down an Apartment Complex for Unhoused People Feb 19, 2022

We’re sharing a new podcast from our friends LAist Studios called ‘Imperfect Paradise.' It tells stories about how California – with its reputation as a sunny haven for artists, dreamers, and progressive politics – doesn’t always live up to that promise. The show's first season launched earlier this month with 'Home is Life,' a series from KPCC reporter Jill Replogle, which looks at a question many cities in California are struggling with: how to get unhoused people into stable housing? She found that the problem isn’t always finding land, or money, to build permanent supportive housing. It’s the neighbors.

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How the 1960 Winter Olympics Came to Tahoe; A Mom's Concern with Selling Girl Scout Cookie Online; Creating Community Through Fortune Cookies Feb 12, 2022

If you’ve been watching the Winter Olympics, you’ve probably caught sight of some of the amazing California athletes. In fact, 29 Team USA athletes call California home. That’s more than any other state. Back in 1960, California hosted the winter games near Lake Tahoe. What happened in Tahoe that year left its mark, and not just on future Olympics.

Plus, it's cookie season! This time of year, sales of Girl Scout cookies top Oreos and Chips Ahoy. And Girl Scouts aren’t just going door to door anymore. They’ve expanded into online sales. The California Report’s former education reporter Ana Tintocalis used to be a scout, and her nine-year-old daughter Gianna recently became one herself. Ana says while she’s trying to be open-minded about the virtual cookie world, she’s got some questions about it.

And, on the outskirts of Oakland’s Chinatown, you can hear the rhythmic pulsing of hot ovens and the steady screech of revolving griddles. Alicia Wong and her mother Jiamin run the Oakland Fortune Factory, where joy and positivity are the not-so-secret-ingredients that have kept their business thriving.

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Wajahat Ali's 'Go Back To Where You Came From'; A Granddaughter's Tribute to Her 'Papi Tomas' Feb 05, 2022

Writer Wajahat Ali's Decision to 'Actively Invest in Joy'

“Go back to where you came from.” It’s an insult that unfortunately, many of us have heard. For writer Wajahat Ali, it’s also the title of his new book. It traces his childhood in Fremont, CA, his activism as a UC Berkeley student after 9/11, and the challenges he’s faced as a son, a father, and a writer. It chronicles him almost dying from a heart condition, his young daughter getting cancer, and other family tragedies. But the book is funny. Host Sasha Khokha talks to Ali about why he’s decided to actively invest in joy.

Taquero, Farmworker, and Beloved Grandfather Lost to COVID: A Family Remembers 'Papi Tomás'

If you’ve tuned in to our show over the last year, you might have heard our series of remembrances of people who’ve died from COVID. And now we’ve hit a grim milestone: more than 80,000 Californians lost to the virus. We hear from the family of a farmworker who lived in Madera, in the San Joaquin Valley. His granddaughter, Madi Bolanos, is a radio reporter with KVPR, the local NPR station in Fresno, and she brings us this tribute.

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'Acts of Great Love': How the Marijuana Minister of the Castro Helped Hundreds of San Francisco AIDS Patients Jan 29, 2022

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, members of Reverend Jim Mitulski'scongregation, many of them healthy young men, were dying from a terrible disease. There was no cure, there still isn’t. Reporter Christopher Beale brings us the true story of how a San Francisco pastor changed the definition of “communion,” and committed felonies to comfort his flock.

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Helping the Magical Monarch Butterfly; How California's Courts Fail to Disarm Abusers Jan 21, 2022

Scientists say that back in the 1980s, millions of monarchs came to California each year. By 2020, that number dropped to fewer than 2,000. Numbers are way up this year, but that doesn't mean they're out of the woods. Reporter Amanda Stupi visited Lake Merritt in Oakland, looking for answers on how to help the butterfly population.

Then, California may have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, but it often struggles to enforce those laws. A new investigation from CalMatters, a nonprofit news outlet covering California policy and politics, finds that the state has failed to take guns away from thousands of domestic abusers. And those failures can have deadly consequences. CalMatters’ Robert Lewis brings us the tragic story of one young mother in the Central Valley.

WARNING : This story has graphic descriptions of violence and could be upsetting.

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A World of Humor, Queerness, and Tenderness in a Farmworker Camp; This 'Jewish Arbor Day’, COVID Makes Connection Difficult for Gold Country Community Jan 15, 2022

Host Sasha Khokha talks to author Jaime Cortez about his new book of short stories, “Gordo.” The collection is set in the Central Coast farmworker camps he grew up in near Watsonville and San Juan Bautista. By the time he was 10, Cortez was a veteran of the annual garlic and potato harvests. The book, which he calls “semi-autobiographical,” is a journey of queer self-discovery and complex identities that don’t fit the usual stereotypes of Steinbeck country.

Plus, this weekend is the Jewish holiday Tu BiShvat, a time to gather around food, and honor trees and the harvest. In February 2020, for her series California Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse joined a Tu BiShvat celebration in Tuolumne County. No one knew then that just weeks later, the COVID pandemic would stop many in-person gatherings like these, and create some tensions so many communities are still navigating.

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Remembering the Rainbow Sign: From Baldwin to Simone, the Short But Powerful Reign of Berkeley’s 1970s Black Cultural Center Jan 08, 2022

Today, it’s an unassuming beige building on a busy Berkeley street. But in the 1970s, the Rainbow Sign was a groundbreaking center for Black culture, politics, and art. It hosted dozens of high-profile Black thought leaders and performers, including James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, and Shirley Chisholm. The Rainbow Sign was open to all – as a performance venue, political organizing space, and cafe. It lasted just a few short years, from 1971-1977. But it left profound mark on the young people who attended concerts and performances there, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

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Ringing In 2022 With Some of Our Favorite California Cocktails Jan 01, 2022

We’re saying goodbye to 2021 and cheers to 2022! To go along with your New Year’s Eve toasts, we’ve got a show about drinks and cocktails that got their start here in California. From the Pisco Sour to Irish Coffee, there are some fascinating California history lessons in these stories.

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Love, Loss and Song: Some of Our Favorite Stories From 2021 Dec 25, 2021

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Stargazing in L.A., Celebrating Las Posadas, and Remembering the King of Mariachi Dec 18, 2021

High above the lights of Los Angeles, there’s a place where you can actually see the stars and planets in the dark winter sky. It’s called the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Peter Gilstrap went to see what happens on Mt. Wilson when the stars come out. Plus, Catholic Latinos across the state commemorate Las Posadas, the journey of Joseph and Mary as they searched for refuge and a safe place for her to give birth to the baby Jesus. Madi Bolaños went to a celebration in Firebaugh. And we hear from Sonoma County songwriter Sean Hayes. He has a new album out called “Be Like Water.” And we mourn the loss of Mexican icon and King of Mariachi, Vicente Fernández, who died December 12th at age 81. Back in 2007, Fernández came to California on his biggest US tour to date. And the California Report’s Senior Editor Victoria Mauleón brought us a story about the impact he had on his fans on this side of the border.

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How The “Gig Economy” Changes Work: One Janitor's Story Dec 11, 2021

These days, It can be a lot harder to find what you might call a “good” job. The kind of job where a person is employed by one company and gets things like health insurance, paid sick days, and at least minimum wage. Today, all kinds of businesses from Uber to janitorial companies argue they’ve come up with something better: “gig work,” in which workers are independent contractors, not employees.

But some workers in California are pushing back against the “gig economy. " After Jerry Vasquez started working as a janitor, with a business that promised he’d be his own boss, he began to question just how independent he really was.

This week we’re talking with Krissy Clark, host of Marketplace’s documentary podcast “The Uncertain Hour." She features Jerry's story in her special series, “This Thing We Used to Call Employment.” She says what happened to him could have a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and our whole economy.

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Holding on to Home Dec 04, 2021

Finding a place to call home is getting increasingly harder here in California.

The pandemic has been particularly hard on renters. There’s been a lot of news about the end of the statewide eviction moratorium this fall. But it’s not just evictions. Some renters are also facing another challenge – harassment from their landlords. A growing number of California cities are moving to ban landlords from using aggressive practices to try to push out tenants. Kori Suzuki tells us about one renter’s experience with her landlord – and what it cost her.

And, If you’re a parent, you know the fear of dying before your child is old enough to care for themself…But what if your child will always need some extra care, even as an adult? What if there aren’t other family members to help? What if other family members can’t, or won’t, step up? Polly Stryker tells us about a group of parents in San Mateo County who are in the process of creating a self-sustaining community for their adult children called Big Wave.

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Ghostly Protectors, Sacred Mountains: In California, These Legends Run Deep Nov 26, 2021

This week, we’ve got a couple of storytelling treats for you: two legends and how they’ve left their mark on our state.

In the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, there’s a massive blue mural painted in shades of blue, depicting figures of women among waves and cascading water. In the foreground, a woman stands to the side, a giant tear falling from her eye. “La Llorona’s Sacred Waters” was painted by Bay Area artist Juana Alicia back in 2004. But there are differing versions of her story – both in Mexico and here in California.

And what do we do when we're presented with something we can't explain? Do we just chalk it up to the supernatural...or superstition? In this story that first aired in 2018, we explore the mystery of a bizarre 60-foot deep hole that once appeared on Mt. Shasta, and why a guy who works at an old school video store might have some answers.

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Our Favorite Stories from California Foodways Nov 19, 2021

We’re sharing some stories about the unexpected ways food plays a role in our lives, and in the history of California. These are some of our favorite stories from the award-winning series California Foodways, which has aired on The California Report Magazine since 2014. Reporter Lisa Morehouse has been reporting food stories from every one of the state's 58 counties.

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Demolition Derby Sends Sparks (and Sparkles) Flying, and Kindling a New Romance During COVID Nov 12, 2021

The crash ‘em, smash ‘em motorsport of demolition derby had its heyday in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. These days, derbies are featured at county fairs and racetracks. But once a year, Irwindale Speedway in Los Angeles County hosts an annual all-women derby. Plus, during the pandemic many people tried to figure out new ways to connect to break through the isolation. KQED’s Silicon Valley reporter, Adhiti Bandlamudi, actually started dating someone new during lockdown... and found true love. Finally, we head to a museum in San Francisco's Chinatown that's preserving the neighborhood's glamourous history from the 1930's to 60s.

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Mixed-Race Californians: "You Have to Find Your Own Way to Define Yourself" Nov 05, 2021

Identity is always complicated, and for multiracial folks who straddle many identities, it can be isolating. It can also be invigorating and rich to belong to multiple communities and celebrate that complexity. The latest census shows it's demographic to pay attention to: 2020 data reflect a 276% increase in people who identify as multiracial compared to 2010.

Sasha Khokha is joined by special guest host Marisa Lagos as they delve into the mixed race experience, grounded in their own backgrounds. They'll talk with pioneering artist Kip Fulbeck, whose hapa project allowed mixed-race folks to answer the question "What Are You?" in their own voices and hear a conversation between two listeners who share a similar Black/Filipina background, but straddle different generations.

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Stories for the Spooky Season: Ghost Hunters, Haunted Lighthouses and Flowers for the Dead Oct 29, 2021

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"There is Anger. He Should Be Alive." An Investigation Into Deadly COVID Outbreaks at Foster Farms Oct 22, 2021

Last year, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. 16 people died and at least 20 others were hospitalized.

Hall’s investigation shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet two families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms, and are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened.

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The Queen of California Returns, and Other Forgotten California History Oct 15, 2021

California was likely named for a character in an early 16th century Spanish novel. Queen Calafia was a mythical Black warrior who ruled an island of Amazon women, and commanded an army of griffins. She is said to have worn armor made of fish bones, and used weapons made of gold. Most Californians don’t know this origin story, but a Bay Area theater company hopes to change that. Plus remembering Eureka's lost Chinatown. And Latin Grammy-nominated composer Gabriela Ortiz has a new concerto for flute and orchestra inspired by El Camino Real...and the California fast food chain Taco Bell.

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California Trailblazes Solutions to Overdose Deaths Oct 08, 2021

We look at an epidemic that has been raging during COVID: In California alone, more than 10,000 people died of a drug overdose just this past year. Some California doctors and caregivers are using two new models of treatment for those struggling with addiction. Health Reporters Lesley McClurg and April Dembosky take you inside hospitals and clinics to meet people struggling with addiction who are getting help in new ways. For the first time, doctors and caregivers are asking: what do you need from us?

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Escape from Mammoth Pool: A Wildfire Rescue that Saved 242 People (and 16 Dogs) Oct 01, 2021

Over Labor Day weekend 2020, the historic, fast-moving Creek Fire tore through remote wilderness in the Sierra Nevada northeast of Fresno, trapping hundreds of campers at a Mammoth Pool Reservoir. A new podcast from KVPR explores what it takes, in the era of climate change, to launch a successful, large-scale rescue from a massive forest fire. "Escape from Mammoth Pool" gives us an intimate look at the people involved in the rescue effort — survivors who helped save strangers, and National Guard members who said this was scarier than war.

We're devoting our whole show this week to sharing parts of the podcast and talking with reporter Kerry Klein. She spent a year interviewing survivors and rescuers, listening to 911 tape, and pouring over government documents and data to piece together what happened.

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Hidden Gems: A Journey Through California’s Best Kept Secrets Sep 24, 2021

Every year we highlight some of our favorite secret spots in California — places tourists and longtime residents alike might not know about. This week, we’re taking you all over the state of California, from a coveted food truck in the Central Valley to remote corners of Humboldt County.

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Rolling Through California; A Family Kept Apart; How 9/11 Changed One Woman's Life Sep 17, 2021

This week on The California Report Magazine, we talk with Oakland-based musician Fantastic Negrito about his new song, "Rolling Through California," that explores the dissonance between the California Dream and the reality of living in the Golden State today. Plus, the story of one father and the family awaiting him in the Central Valley city of Los Banos. He followed the rules and went back to Mexico for the final step to apply for his green card: an interview at the U.S. Consulate. His wife and kids expected him back in a week or two. But it's been more than two years. Plus, 20 years ago, host Sasha Khokha wrote an article about then 17-year-old Fatima Shah, a Pakistani-American who was one of many South Asian students that experienced racist backlash after 9/11. They met again on the steps of Fatima's old high school.

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A California Tribe Turns to Cultural Roots to Heal the Wounds of Domestic Violence Sep 10, 2021

Reporter Lee Romney brings us a documentary about a longtime couple from rural Northern California, near the Oregon border. They’ve each faced a domestic violence charge in state court, and they have a lot to share about their journey to wellness. The key: understanding where generational violence comes from by talking openly about the trauma of things like boarding schools, the Indian Slave Act, and massacres. Colonization intentionally and forcibly severed indigenous people from their land, traditions, and language here in California. That history created patterns of generational trauma and abuse. Now some leaders from tribes like the Yurok are trying to help both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence reconnect with the cultural practices that were taken away.

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Getting 'Good Fire' on the Ground: The Karuk Tribe Pushes to Restore Native Burn Management to Protect Forests Sep 03, 2021

California is in the grip of another round of devastating wildfires, including history-making blazes that have jumped from one side of the Sierra to the other, fueled by overgrown forests thick with dry brush. But it hasn’t always been that way. For thousands of years before contact with Europeans, the Karuk people, like many other indigenous people, tended their land with fire. The Karuk tribe is one of the largest in California, spanning parts of Humboldt and Siskiyou counties along the Klamath River. When the federal government took over managing the forest in the mid-1800s, it stripped the Karuk people of their relationship with fire. Suppressing cultural burning and indigenous fire management techniques has had profound effects, contributing to the mammoth fires burning year after year across the state. In this half-hour documentary, KQED Science reporter Danielle Venton walks through the forest with tribal leaders and witnesses a controlled burn firsthand. She looks at the relationship between the Karuk and cultural burning, and the tribe’s negotiations with the state of California to get that control back

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What Fire Reveals: Capturing What's Lost and Found After a Wildfire Aug 27, 2021

A year ago this August, some 12,000 lightning strikes exploded across Northern California, igniting more than 585 wildfires. In the Santa Cruz Mountains scattered blazes grew into one massive burning organism — The CZU August Lightning Complex Fire — scorching some 86,000 acres, and destroying over 900 homes and Big Basin Redwoods, California’s first state park.

In the aftermath, the storytelling duo The Kitchen Sisters turned their microphones on the region, looking for what was lost and what has been found since lightning struck.

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Mauricio Across the Border, Part 2: No Turning Back Aug 20, 2021

This week, we continue the story of Mauricio Hernández, an undocumented immigrant who had an unexpected brush with television fame in the US. A new opportunity draws him back over the border to Mexico, but it comes at a heavy cost to his life. Reporter Levi Bridges brings us the conclusion of his documentary, Mauricio Across the Border.

A version of this story was first produced by the KCRW podcast UnFictional.

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Mauricio Across the Border, Part 1: Giving Up a Dream After It Came True Aug 13, 2021

Mauricio Hernández grew up in Mexico City dreaming of one day being on TV. As a teen, he crossed the border to California and got a job sweeping the floor of a body shop in LA. And then, something unexpected happened...something that led to moments of surprising fame. Reporter Levi Bridges brings us the first part of his documentary, Mauricio Across the Border.

A version of this story was first produced by the KCRW podcast UnFictional.

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California History You Probably Didn't Learn in School Aug 06, 2021

This week, we feature some of our favorite history stories from The California Report Magazine archive.

The Forgotten Filipino-Americans Who Led the ’65 Delano Grape Strike

Today, grapes in the grocery store don’t seem that controversial. But in 1965, a historic strike in California’s Central Valley set in motion the most significant campaign in modern labor history: the farmworker movement. While the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez are widely known, the contributions of Filipino workers and labor leader Larry Itliong are often overlooked. But without them the UFW wouldn't exist. Reporter Lisa Morehouse brought us this story in 2015.

Breaking the Silence on Angel Island’s Immigration Station

Angel Island State Park is just a short ferry ride away from San Francisco’s wharf. Most visitors make the trip to bike, picnic and catch a stunning glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge. But hidden in plain sight is a remnant of a time when California wasn’t so welcoming to immigrants. It’s a historic landmark that many Bay Area residents and visitors don’t realize exists on the scenic island: one of the oldest immigration detention facilities in the nation. Marisol Medina-Cadena visited Angel Island for this story in 2018.

The Occupation of Catalina Island

And now we’re going to head to another island -- one activists occupied nearly 50 years ago in an effort to reclaim it. In August 1972, a Chicano rights group called the Brown Berets camped out on Catalina Island for three weeks. They were demanding that unused land be turned into housing. Reporter Ariella Markowitz grew up on Catalina, but she only learned about this part of the island’s history when she brought us this story last summer.

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California’s Delta Surge; History of Native Americans in Comedy; Postpartum Drug Offers Hope and Frustration Jul 30, 2021

Remember that moment just about a month ago when there was a palpable sense everything might be OK? The economy was reopening. People were packing back into restaurants. Even exhausted health care workers breathed their first deep sigh of relief — as communities across California experienced the first real lull in the COVID-19 pandemic. Then the Delta variant hit California, and rapidly took hold, particularly in unvaccinated pockets of the state. It now appears to be spreading two to three times faster than the original strain of the virus.

Plus, author Kliph Nesteroff has written about comedy for years. His latest book, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy, takes a look at a community of Hollywood talent that’s been misunderstood, stereotyped, and often thought not to exist at all.

And one out of eight new moms in California experiences postpartum depression. Two years ago, the FDA approved the first and only medication designed to TREAT postpartum depression. It’s called brexanolone and most women who get it start feeling better within days. But the drug is outrageously expensive: $34,000. And according to a new KQED investigation, California’s largest insurer makes it extremely difficult to get.

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Was He "The Priest Who Performs Miracles" - Or a Predator? Jul 23, 2021

Listener advisory: Some accounts of sexual assault in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.

For nearly a decade, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, better known to parishioners as Father Antonio, drew in hundreds of followers from Fresno's Latino community to his charismatic, Spanish-language congregation, earning him the nickname, "el padrecito que hace milagros" (the priest who performs miracles). Now facing up to 23 and a 1/2 years in prison, his accusers – most of them adult men – say he sexually assaulted them during healing rituals he said they needed in order to heal from curses and sexual sins. As he awaits trial, he continues to lead parishioners who swear by his innocence and say Castañeda's alleged victims made up lies to obtain legal status in the United States. TCR's Alex Hall first reported this story in 2020 and she explains where the case stands today.

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These Five People Challenge the Notion of Blindness as a Deficit Jul 16, 2021

A lot of stories about people who are blind are sensational. They focus on the trauma of losing sight or the triumph of overcoming adversity. But what about the rich ways people who are blind experience the world every day? This week we’re going to explore that beauty in an episode from 2019, when we teamed up with the podcast the World According to Sound.

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The Sound of Social Revolution: Inside the Black Panthers' R&B Band Jul 09, 2021

Fifty years ago, an unlikely musical group evolved out of the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party. The band’s mission was to spread the seed of social revolution, and their militant agenda would put them up against the intertwined forces of white supremacy and racist police. Reporter Peter Gilstrap brings us a documentary about the rise and fall of The Lumpen.

More: A Trojan Horse of Funk and Soul: The Story of the Black Panthers House Band

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Latinx Artists Promote Covid Shots, Saying Goodbye to 'Roadrunner', Birds Helping CA Farms Jul 03, 2021

More than 60 percent of Latinos in some Central Valley counties are still not vaccinated. The numbers are even more dramatic for younger folks, especially teens and those in their 20s -- and for indigenous farmworkers. Now former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, along with famed Ranchera singer Carmencristina Moreno and other musical groups, are trying to get the word out through original songs, radio dramas, and poems in Spanish, English, and Mixteco.

Plus, as part of our series remembering Californians who've died from the Coronavirus, we hear from the family of Tony Escobar. Tony, who immigrated to San Francisco from Nicaragua, was 68 years old. For them, it was heartbreaking to see Tony -- a star athlete from Mission High School, salesman and all-around family man -- forced to stop moving.

And did you know there are fewer birds now than there were 50 years ago? For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visits farms in Napa and near Watsonville to learn how farmers can help these birds, and some new research that shows how those birds are helping farmers.

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A History of Queer California Jun 26, 2021

For this Pride month, we reprise our 2019 episode looking back at the early days of the queer rights movement, exploring the impact of that activism on young people today, and hear about a place that’s become a refuge for the LGBTQ+ community in rural California.

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'Our Culture Is Being Taken Away From Us': The Karuk Tribe Pushes to Restore Native Burn Management to Protect Forests Jun 18, 2021

For thousands of years before contact with Europeans, the Karuk people, like many others, tended their land with fire. The Karuk tribe is one of the largest in California, spanning parts of Humboldt and Siskiyou counties along the Klamath River. When the federal government took over managing the forest, it stripped the Karuk people of their relationship with fire, and that has had profound effects. These days, the forest is overgrown, and thick with dry brush. Last fall, the massive Slater Fire decimated cultural sites and homes. KQED Science reporter Danielle Venton looks at the relationship between the Karuk and cultural burning, and their negotiations with the state of California to get that control back.

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Armed Asian Women, Filling The Shoes of a Mom Lost to COVID, Space Force for CA Teens Jun 11, 2021

For some Asian women who were on the fence about buying guns for protection, the racist violence of the past year pushed them over the edge. Reporter Christine Nguyen tells us about two women from Southern California who are learning to shoot guns, and navigating the stigma around gun ownership within their families. Plus, in Oakland, Maribel Villanueva died from COVID-19 at age 46. She was a single mom and left behind a 10-year-old son, David. Now his aunt and his teacher are trying to fill her shoes. And a Southern California school has been selected to become one of the first Space Force JROTC units in the country, and the only one in California.

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Teens Say #MeToo, Good News For Trans Asylum Seeker, Mourning Two Pandemics Jun 04, 2021

When most schools across California shut down last year, teenagers were stuck at home. For some, that meant months alone to reflect on experiences of trauma in high school. But they didn’t all keep that pain to themselves. Instead, hundreds of young people turned to social media to share their stories. Plus, an update on the story of Luna Guzmán, a young transgender woman from Guatemala. She lived through years of brutal abuse and discrimination in her hometown, and dreamed of seeking asylum in California. Now she's finally getting her chance, not in California, but New York. And, we’ve been bringing you tributes to Californians we’ve lost to COVID-19. This week, we hear from Vince Crisostomo, whose father Francisco died from COVID the day before his 87th birthday.

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‘On Our Watch’ Podcast Examines the Shadow World of Police Discipline May 28, 2021

This week we bring you an excerpt from a new investigative reporting podcast produced by KQED and NPR. After a new state law unsealed dozens of internal affairs files, reporters began examining cases of police misconduct and serious use of force. The first case involves Katheryn Jenks, who called 911 for help from her home in the small Northern California town of Rio Vista in 2018. But after the police arrived, she was bitten by a police K-9 and wound up inside a jail cell, facing serious charges. We hear part of Jenks’ story, and a preview of upcoming episodes.

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Quest for a Hollywood Star, Traveling Violinists Bring Joy, & California's 'Top Chef' May 22, 2021

Arnett Moore is launching a one-man campaign: to get his aunt, actress Juanita Moore, a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Juanita receive an Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1959 film, Imitation of Life. As Arnett says, "She's a star without a star." Plus, two violinists fix up a 1971 VW bus and travel the West Coast, bringing music and joy to all they encounter. And host Sasha Khokha heads into the kitchen to watch Nelson German at work. German owns two restaurants in Oakland where he showcases his culinary roots. German is the only California contestant on this season of the reality cooking competition series "Top Chef."

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The Year of Singing Dangerously May 14, 2021

COVID-19 devastated California’s arts and culture world. But the blow to singers across the state has been particularly harsh, and not just financially and socially. After an early super spreader event in Washington State caused more than 50 choir members to contract the virus, singers in California were forced to confront a devastating truth: this beloved everyday activity, which feels so good and is so healthy, had become...a killer. Singing went underground. But it didn’t go away entirely. Throughout this pandemic, KQED's Chloe Veltman has been following what happened to singing across our state. How it went from almost disappearing entirely, to helping us maintain solidarity, social purpose and a sense of humor through these dark, dark times.

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Immediate Jeopardy: Death and Neglect in California Nursing Homes May 07, 2021

Families put their loved ones in nursing homes because they think they’ll receive better care. They assume someone will keep an eye out. But that’s not always true. Conditions were bad in some California nursing homes even before COVID. When the pandemic hit, things got much worse. More than 9,000 nursing home residents in the state have died from COVID-19. Some facilities didn’t even take basic precautions. The missteps, even the deaths, come as no surprise to advocates for nursing home reform. But as KPCC investigative reporters Elly Yu and Aaron Mendelson discovered, the state also knows these nursing homes are failing patients, and lets them stay in business.

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Diary of a Contact Tracer + Youth Takeover Apr 30, 2021

Even though many of us might feel like we’ve got more of a handle on the coronavirus pandemic now, we will all be marked by it forever—especially those who’ve really been in the trenches. Lisa Fagundes is normally a librarian at the San Francisco Public Library. But starting last spring, she and thousands of other city and state workers were redeployed to become contact tracers, calling people who may have been exposed. Our health correspondent April Dembosky asked Lisa to keep an audio diary for us over the last year. Listening through these entries, you can hear – in real time – how the pandemic changes her. How it picks her up, twists her in all directions, and then drops her on the other side. Just like it’s done to all of us.

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Aarti Shahani's 'Art of Power' + Remembering a Mom, ER Worker, and Mentor to Native Youth Apr 23, 2021

So much of what our country is wrestling with right now are questions about power. How do we hold people in power accountable? How can people who haven’t had power claim it? Those questions are at the center of a new podcast from WBEZ called “Art of Power.” Sasha Khokha talks with the podcast's host: author, NPR Silicon Valley Correspondent and California Report alum, Aarti Shahani. Plus another in our series of tributes to members of vulnerable communities and front line workers lost to COVID. This week, Sylvia Morton's daughters remember their mother.

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'I Lost My Brother to COVID in San Quentin' + Trading in Desks for Tree Stumps Apr 16, 2021

We’ve been asking our listeners to tell us about loved ones they’ve lost. This week, we bring you the first in a series of stories to remember them. Eric Warner died of COVID in San Quentin Prison at age 57. He was born and raised in San Francisco, the son of Filipino immigrants. He was a barber, a boxer, and also a beloved brother. Eric’s older brother Hank brings us this tribute. Plus, LA Unified School District is testing out a pilot program to expand outdoor learning. Reporter Deepa Fernandes visited some outdoor classrooms in Southern California to see how they’re trying to make it work. Those stories and more...

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‘A Butterfly With My Wings Cut Off’: A Transgender Asylum Seeker’s Quest to Come to California Apr 09, 2021

This week, we bring you a documentary we first aired in December that generated a lot of response from our listeners, changing life for the person at the center of this story.

When she turned 15, Luna Guzmán, like many girls in Guatemala, celebrated with a quinceañera. But it was a secret party, with a borrowed dress, because her family couldn't fathom her as a transgender girl. So she put her soccer jerseys back on and tried to pass as the boy she knew she wasn’t inside. Even as she dealt with brutal violence, she decided to take a terrible risk and leave everything behind in Guatemala, to try to find a life in California: the one place in the world where she could imagine being safe. Host Sasha Khokha followed Luna Guzmán over the last two years, reporting from a migrant shelter in Tijuana, an ICE detention center in San Diego, and a tiny drag bar in Modesto.

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We Spent a Day Inside a Hospital: Here’s How Things Will Never Be the Same After COVID Apr 02, 2021

It’s one thing to write about COVID from home. It's another to see it, to hear it. KQED health reporters April Dembosky and Lesley McClurg go inside two hospitals near Sacramento: Lesley shadowed doctors in the intensive care unit, and April spent time in the ER. One year into the pandemic, it was clear these clinicians were not celebrating any anniversaries. They’ve seen too much. Too much has changed. For them, there is no post-COVID world. We hear about the little ways, the big ways, and the surprising ways COVID has changed the way doctors do their jobs.

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Help for COVID 'Long-Haulers' and Grappling With Anti-Asian Violence Mar 26, 2021

Harvey Shields has worked with some of the Bay Area’s best professional athletes. But since the pandemic hit, Shields has switched gears, and started helping COVID 'long-haulers' recover from their symptoms. Plus, Katherine Kim runs an oral history workshop at the Koreatown Youth and Community Center. Four of the women killed in the Atlanta-area shootings were Korean. That has sparked an intergenerational dialogue with the high school students in Katherine's workshop about how to navigate life as Korean-American women in a climate where there's already so much uncertainty. She brings us a personal commentary.

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How One Woman's Cycle of Incarceration and Mental Illness Helped Heal a Rural System Mar 19, 2021

Marlene Baker lives in Siskiyou County. It’s vast and remote: 6,000 square miles home to just shy of 44,000 people. Marlene has lived with mental illness for years, and that kept her on the streets for a very long time. She racked up minor arrests, cycling through jail and back onto the streets. A similar crisis plays out across California, but rural areas face specific and profound challenges. In Marlene’s case, though, something big happened: A whole bunch of people teamed up to make sure she could heal right there in the community – without getting shipped off to a state mental hospital hundreds of miles away. And, it turns out, her success has helped bring about some bold changes in the way Siskiyou County is confronting its mental health crisis. Reporter Lee Romney has been following Marlene’s story since 2019. She checked in on her recently, and brings us this excerpt from a podcast-in-production she produced with Jenny Johnson called “November In My Soul.”

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A Lawyer’s Winding Journey to Reunite Families Separated at the US Border Mar 12, 2021

In the spring of 2018, former President Donald Trump's first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, stood near the border wall in San Diego and made an announcement that would have a devastating and lasting impact. The result was thousands of children being taken away from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and isolated from them for months or years. Most have been reunited, but hundreds of children are still separated, their parents deported without them. KQED Immigration reporter Michelle Wiley brings us the story of one woman who has been traveling to rural Central American towns, sometimes on foot, to try and find some of the parents who are still missing their children. Plus, what can the Biden Administration's new task force do to remedy the enduring harm those separations have caused?

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A Push to Reopen California Schools and A Day in the Pandemic Life of a Teacher Mar 06, 2021

The debate rages on about when California schools should bring students back to campuses after nearly a year since schools shut down in-person classes. Distance learning is taking a toll on students and parents. It’s also taking a toll on teachers, especially those with their own kids at home. KQED’s Vanessa Rancaño asked one Oakland teacher to keep an audio diary for a day, documenting her every move. Plus, California public health officials have given the green light for school sports to start up again. Finally, medical experts and politicians have pointed to the Tuskegee study as a reason why Black Americans have reservations about the coronavirus vaccine. But as KQED's April Dembosky found, in most cases, Tuskegee is a scapegoat.

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A Friendship Beyond Prison Walls and a Ferlinghetti Soundscape Feb 26, 2021

Adamu Chan and Edmond Richardson met while they were incarcerated at San Quentin about two years ago, and have been best friends ever since. Adamu was released last fall, and they’ve kept in touch by writing letters to each other. We’ll hear part of an episode Adamu helped produce for the KALW Public Media podcast, “Uncuffed.” Then, we mark the loss of literary giant Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died on February 22nd at the age of 101. Poet, activist, and publisher of many Beat poets of the 1950s and 60s, Ferlinghetti was considered by many to be the soul of San Francisco’s counterculture movement. The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, bring us an audio documentary they produced in honor of Ferlinghetti’s 99th birthday.

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Sharing Memories of Japanese American Incarceration, Across Generations Feb 19, 2021

In recent weeks, racist attacks against Asian-Americans around the state have intensified. We begin the show with the voices of people speaking out against the violence, and calling for solidarity between communities of color. The anti-Asian violence we’re seeing today evokes a painful time in history for Japanese-Americans. February 19th marks the anniversary of President Roosevelt’s executive order that forced some 120,000 people into incarceration camps during World War II. As part of the Yonsei Memory Project's collaboration with StoryCorps, we’re bringing you conversations that reflect on that time and on its legacy across generations.

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From Zydeco to Psychedelic Cumbia: Our Favorite Musical Stories Through the Years Feb 12, 2021

Remember live music? We figure we could all use a little joy right now, so as we continue The California Report’s 25th birthday celebration, we’re sharing some of our favorite music stories from over the years.

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Garment Workers Hanging By a Thread, and Creating a Black Feminist Utopia Feb 05, 2021

Some garment workers in LA spend their days sewing masks and gowns for first responders. But many aren’t getting tested for COVID, much less going to the hospital if they get sick. Plus, we’ve brought you so many stories about struggling with the loss of hope, and how much work there’s left to do to really reckon with America’s racist history. But this week having a conversation with someone who creates art from a deep sense of hope, and whose work also focuses on Black joy. Cauleen Smith is an artist and filmmaker who still believes we all have the means to create utopia in our everyday lives. Her immersive installations are currently on display at SFMOMA and LACMA.

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Partying During COVID, and Why Can't I Get The Shot? Jan 30, 2021

We are almost reaching the year mark when it comes to how long many of us have been stuck inside at home. And if you live with roommates, that space can feel smaller and smaller as time goes on. But what happens when roommates have different ideas about what it means to be safe during COVID? That’s the question KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi has been wrestling with. She usually reports on Silicon Valley, but today she brings us a first-person account of what it’s like being a Millennial with roommates she never imagined she’d be stuck with in a pandemic. Plus, changes to the state's vaccine rollout, and a 9-year-old poet brings us a message of hope.

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'Amazing Grace' and Seeing Myself in Kamala: Inauguration Strikes a Hopeful Note Jan 23, 2021

In his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden called for bringing unity to what we all know is a deeply hurt, deeply divided country. Right after the president spoke, country music star Garth Brooks sang “Amazing Grace.” KQED’s Arts and Culture Reporter Chloe Veltman spoke to a number of California artists with strong ties to the song about its enduring power. Plus, we drop in on a family excitedly watching the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris with their two young daughters who see themselves in her. And we visit a school in Watts — Locke College Preparatory Academy — that has been looking for ways to empower students in the aftermath of the violence in Washington.

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'Kamala is My Fairy Godmother', Bridging a Language Divide, Remembering CA's Food Pioneers Jan 16, 2021

The whole world will be watching next week as Kamala Harris is sworn in as our next Vice President. But there’s one person who will be tuning in who says he owes his life to her. Plus, the pandemic has been making things more challenging for schools that serve some of the newest Californians: Guatemalan immigrants who speak a Mayan language called Mam. And reporter Lisa Morehouse joins us to memorialize three Californians who passed away last year, each with a connection to agriculture.

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After a Week of Chaos, Hanging on to the Promise of Renewal Jan 09, 2021

This week we bring you four stories; about hope, stewardship, compassion, and community.

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The Health Care Workers, Teachers, Firefighters and Activists Who Inspired Us in 2020 Jan 01, 2021

2020 will forever be the year of COVID-19 – and wildfires, police shootings, school over Zoom. So much heartbreak. But all year long, there were people who stepped up, sacrificed so much and kept going. As we ring in a new year, we revisit some of our favorite stories about the people who inspired us in 2020.

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From Jewish Mambo to 'Nimble' the Elf, Our Favorite Holiday Stories Dec 25, 2020

The California Report is celebrating our 25th year on the air, so this holiday weekend, we’re digging into our archives to bring you some of our favorite stories from the season.

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A Fresh Look at the Donner Party Dec 18, 2020

As we officially head into winter – and hopefully snowy weather in the Sierra Nevada – we bring you the tale of the Donner Party; the version you may not have heard before. You might be familiar with the ghoulish CliffsNotes version of this story: about a band of people traveling over the Sierra in covered wagons, trapped in the snow and forced to turn to cannibalism to survive. But behind the Donner Party legend, there’s another story: one about prejudice, injustice and murder. KQED reporter Carly Severn tells us what happened when those 81 people were stuck in the mountains back in 1846, and how this disaster came to represent everything California wanted to forget.

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Home Baked: How Pot Brownies Brought Some Relief During the AIDS Epidemic Dec 12, 2020

We’re all bracing ourselves for a surge in hospitalizations, for more people lost to COVID-19, for more closures and lockdowns. So we’re reprising one of our documentaries about another time we all faced a public health crisis. A time when the federal government was slow to respond, so the community had to step in to take care of each other. Lisa Morehouse brings us the story of a woman who became an unexpected source of comfort to people suffering from AIDS in the early 1980s. Her baking business, Sticky Fingers Brownies, provided gooey marijuana-filled brownies to people dying from the disease in San Francisco. Pot brownies weren’t going to save anyone’s life over the long term, but Meridy Volz says they brought some relief, and there wasn’t a lot of relief in those days.

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‘A Butterfly With My Wings Cut Off’: A Transgender Asylum Seeker’s Quest to Come to California Dec 04, 2020

When she turned 15, Luna Guzmán, like many girls in Guatemala, celebrated with a quinceañera. But it was a secret party, with a borrowed dress, because her family couldn't fathom her as a transgender girl. So she put her soccer jerseys back on and tried to pass as the boy she knew she wasn’t inside. Even as she dealt with brutal violence, she decided to take a terrible risk and leave everything behind in Guatemala, to try to find a life in California: the one place in the world where she could imagine being safe. Being herself. Host Sasha Khokha has followed Luna Guzmán over the last two years, reporting from a migrant shelter in Tijuana, an ICE detention center in San Diego, and a tiny drag bar in Modesto. Her story says a lot about how U.S. immigration policy fails when it comes to recognizing people who live outside the gender binary, how the epic backlog of asylum cases in the U.S. can add to their trauma, and how transgender migrants at the border are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

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In a Year of Isolation, Remembering Thanksgiving Togetherness Nov 28, 2020

This weekend, when so many of us have had to make the difficult choice to spend the holiday away from our loved ones, we’re inviting you to a virtual family gathering, with some of our favorite stories from Thanksgiving 2017.

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Fighting Isolation During COVID, and Capturing the Heart of a Neighborhood in Song Nov 21, 2020

KQED Science reporter Lesley McClurg brings us two stories of populations struggling with isolation during the pandemic. First, the story of two older women successfully navigating this tumultuous time with limited resources. Then, youth therapists are hearing about depression, anxiety and even suicide ideation a lot more than usual among kids who haven’t attended school in person since March. Hear one Oakland family’s story. Plus, a new project called Sounds of California commissioned 10 original songs from local artists about Boyle Heights, a longtime immigrant neighborhood East of Downtown Los Angeles that’s been gentrifying. Host Sasha Khokha talks with musician Quetzal Flores, who’s been helping to curate the project.

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The California Report Turns 25: Our Most Delicious Adventures Nov 14, 2020

The California Report is celebrating 25 years on the air, and this week, we’re digging into our archives to give you a break from political news and share some of our favorite food stories from over the years. It’s a feast for your ears!

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Is California as Progressive as the Rest of the Country Thinks We Are? Nov 07, 2020

The rest of the nation perceives California as a giant blue monolith, a liberal and progressive stronghold. But the reality is many of the statewide measures backed by progressives this year, from rent control to affirmative action, didn’t pass. The California Report Magazine recaps the “mixed bag” of statewide election results.

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When Wildfire Breaks Out, Who’s Responsible for Elderly Evacuees? Oct 30, 2020

September 28, 2020. It’s the middle of the night, at the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Rosa. About 200 senior citizens are outside, sitting on folding chairs or in their wheelchairs. Just waiting. Most of them were in bed just a few hours before, until a massive wildfire came racing toward their retirement community. Many of them had been through this before in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. That fire was a reckoning; with nature, with our state and county leaders, with the companies we pay to take care of our elderly loved ones. And still, three years later, we are leaving hundreds of frail seniors in the literal cold while wildfire threatens their community and the last place in their lives they will call home. The California Report’s health correspondent April Dembosky and science reporter Molly Peterson spent a year investigating long-term care homes around the state to see how they're planning for wildfire, and if it's enough.

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How to Talk About Death and Dying During a Pandemic (Rebroadcast) Oct 23, 2020

Dr. Jessica Zitter works at Highland Hospital, a public hospital in Oakland, where she specializes in critical and palliative care medicine. She says having hard conversations about our end-of-life wishes can transform our fears about death into hope about life.We meet several people she's helped guide through the process of talking about death, including a grocery store worker in LA who got sick with COVID, an Oakland man hospitalized with serious lung disease who struggles to face his own mortality, and a son who had to watch his 92-year-old father die of COVID far away from family, alone in a hospital bed. Dr. Zitter is the author of “Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life.”

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Not Sure How to Vote on Statewide Props? We'll Break a Few Down Oct 16, 2020

Got your ballot? Still making up your mind on those California propositions? We’ve got you covered. This week, The California Report Magazine breaks down some of the statewide ballot measures with a few KQED reporters.

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The California Report Turns 25 Part 1: CA on the Forefront of Progressive Change Oct 09, 2020

October marks the 25th anniversary of The California Report, and this week, we’re kicking off the first in a series of shows celebrating 25 years on the air. In this first installment, we’ll listen back to stories that showcase some of the ways the state has been a trailblazer. From passing first-in-the-nation climate change initiatives, to legalizing medical marijuana, to galvanizing the immigrants-right movement and marrying same-sex couples at San Francisco City Hall back in 2004, our state is often on the frontlines of progressive change. Host Sasha Khokha is joined by Scott Shafer, senior editor for KQED’s Politics and Government Desk and former host of The California Report.

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Here's How California Is Turning Hotels Into Housing for Formerly Homeless People Oct 02, 2020

California is the land of record-breaking home prices and climbing rents. But it’s also a place where on any given night, more than 150,000 people live in tents and cars, RVs and shelters. So many wild extremes. But what can we do about it? That’s the question a new KQED podcast is tackling. It’s called SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America. It explores how the pandemic has complicated housing for so many people, and looks at some possible solutions. This week on The California Report Magazine, we’ll hear the first episode, and learn about the roots of California’s homeless crisis, as well as recent efforts to house people struggling with homelessness in hotels. SOLD OUT is hosted and reported by KQED housing reporters Erin Baldassari and Molly Solomon.

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Artists Transform Lessons from Their own Lives into Art Sep 26, 2020

‘Music Was Our Language’: Grammy-Award Winning Producer Turns Mic on Sister; Dan 'The Can't Stand Up Comedian' Smith; Artists Capture Wildfire’s Destructive Power – and Beauty

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How To Talk About Death and Dying During a Pandemic Sep 18, 2020

Palliative care expert Dr. Jessica Zitter says that tough conversations about end-of-life options can help inform how we want to live our lives.

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From Protesting Police to Becoming a Cop Himself Sep 11, 2020

After touring the world with Snoop Dogg and the Black Eyed Peas, Jinho Ferreira served as an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy for eight years. He said he wanted to fight police violence from the inside.

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Stories of Hope Through Fire and Smoke Sep 04, 2020

From Prison Fire Crew To Pro Firefighter; Volunteer Firefighting Couple Find a Silver Lining; How Wildfire Smoke Intersects with Race and Place; An Ode to Big Basin's Redwoods

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California Women Reflect on a Century of Voting Aug 28, 2020

Featuring:

Lorena Gonzalez, Lawmaker, San Diego
Ellen DuBois, Professor Emirita of History and Gender Studies, UCLA
Rita Barschak, 100-year old voting rights activist, Los Angeles
Maxine Anderson, Voter Education volunteer, San Francisco
Aida Hurtado, Chicano/a Studies Professor, UC Santa Barbara
Kristen Olsen, Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors
Honey Mahogany, transgender activist, San Francisco
Gurleen Kaur Mander, political science major, Fresno
Arianna Nassiri, SF Youth Commission

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California City: Deception, Power, and Money in the Mojave Desert Aug 21, 2020

Deep in the Mojave Desert sits California City: a would-be city of the future; a place where empty desert land is presented as a ticket to the American Dream. For decades running, real estate developers have gotten rich by selling this dream to thousands of people, many of whom are hard-working immigrants looking to build a better future. But the reality is much different. The land investments never paid off and the landowners, many of whom scraped together their life savings to buy a plot of land, were left with next to nothing. We devote the whole show to an excerpt from the first episode of “California City,” new podcast from LAist Studios, hosted and reported by Emily Guerin.

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A Chicano Takeover of Catalina Island + California Love Aug 14, 2020

The Forgotten Occupation of Catalina Island

So much of the activism we’re seeing right now around racial justice has roots in radical movements that erupted in California –– The United Farm Workers, The Black Panther Party, the Asian American Political Alliance, the Native American occupation of Alcatraz. In August 1972, another occupation kind of flew under the radar here in California. A Chicano activist group called the Brown Berets camped out on Catalina Island for three weeks, demanding that undeveloped land be turned into housing. The California Report Magazine’s intern Ariella Markowitz grew up on Catalina, but she only recently learned about this slice of the island’s history, and says it feels more relevant now than ever.

‘California Love’: New Podcast Explores Growing Up Both Black and Brown in LA

LAist Studio's new podcast “California Love” features Walter Thompson-Hernández, a former New York Times writer, as he returns to Los Angeles and reflects on the complexity of his hometown. Part memoir, part love letter to the City of Angels, the podcast revisits the childhood pals he used to tag buildings with, lessons he learned from his immigrant mother, and explores how race and identity have always shaped his life and work. Host Sasha Khokha talks with Thompson-Hernández about their shared hometown in an extended interview and preview of the series, featuring excerpts from several episodes.

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What Nuns, Survivors of Hiroshima, and ER Doctors Can Teach Us About Resilience Aug 07, 2020

Hiroshima Survivor Reflects 75 Years After the Bomb; Nuns On Aging With Grace; COVID Doctors Open Up About Their Mental Health

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In the Shadow of Shuttered Hospitals and the AIDS Crisis Jul 31, 2020

"We Have No Hospital - It's Gone"; HIV Survivors On Living Through Another Pandemic; Contact Tracing Resurfaces Controversy

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Revisiting the Soundtrack of Silence Jul 24, 2020

Matt Hay is a sophomore in college when he finds out he is going to lose his hearing. He coasts through the early years of his diagnosis in denial, but as his hearing aids get bigger and bigger, Matt realizes he wants to capture the sounds that are slipping away: his girlfriend's voice, the click of her heels; and especially, the songs of their invincible youth.

Matt starts listening to music with a new appreciation — truly studying it — as he curates the soundtrack for the rest of his life. Behind each song, there is a coming-of-age story about freedom, tragedy, and falling in love. As The California Report's Health Correspondent April Dembosky reports, When Matt’s hearing eventually fades to nothing, the silent soundtrack in his head takes on a role he never imagines.

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Forced To Breathe the Same Air: A Look Inside CA Prisons During a Pandemic Jul 17, 2020

Letters to Incarcerated Loved Ones; Former San Quentin Inmate Fights for Friends Still Inside; How Doctors' Unconscious Bias Hurts Patients

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The Sound of Social Revolution: Inside the Black Panther’s R&B Band Jul 10, 2020

A documentary about a band with a mission to spark social revolution through the Trojan Horse of funk and soul.

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Buckle Up: A (Virtual) Road Trip to California Hidden Gems Jul 03, 2020

Roller skate in church; Healing Sierra hot springs; Live jazz by the beach; A shrine to pop culture; Places Called What?!

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Was He “The Priest Who Performs Miracles” – Or a Predator? Jun 26, 2020

Father Antonio Castañeda has been charged with 22 counts of battery, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery and attempt to prevent a witness/victim from prosecuting.

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A Tribute to Fathers Jun 19, 2020

Letters to a Father in Prison; Sounds That Remind You of Pop; Remembering a Dad Lost to COVID.

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Dismantling Racism, One Protest and Book Club at a Time Jun 12, 2020

Young Activists in Fresno and S.F. Push for Racial Justice; Latinx Book Club Challenges Anti-Blackness; Why We Need Diverse Contact Tracers; A COVID Doctor Shares His Story

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It Started With Oscar Grant: A Police Shooting in Oakland, and the Making of a Movement Jun 06, 2020

As nationwide protests continue in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, we explore how the death of Oscar Grant – shot by a transit officer while lying face-down, unarmed on a train platform - galvanized a new generation of activists, and helped spark a sustained call for change.

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‘Family Is Not Replaceable’ May 29, 2020

LA Koreatown Family Devastated by COVID, Navajo Nation "Ground Zero" for COVID, A Nurse Finds Joy; Motorcyclists Deliver PPE, The Class of 2020: No Prom, No Graduation

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“No One Is Disposable”: Living With Disability During a Pandemic May 22, 2020

An Activist With Autism Creates a New Routine; A Conversation With Disability Rights Activist Alice Wong; A Teacher With Visually Impaired Students Gets Creative

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Gold Chains: California’s Hidden History May 15, 2020

Great-Grandma Survived, and Forgave; California's Last Known Slave; Taking a Stand at the 1973 Oscars

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How Tiny Sierra Towns are Coping With Pandemic May 08, 2020

A 164 Year-Old Hotel Closed for the First Time; The Fate of Mark Twain's Old Newspaper; Disabled and Broke in Yosemite; Keeping a Cafe Going Along the Pony Express

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Feeding California During a Pandemic May 01, 2020

One Man's Mission To Bring Groceries to Rural Trinity County; 90% of Catalina Unemployed; Transforming a Sacramento Restaurant to a Food Kitchen; Filipinos Feed the Frontlines. Plus: What's Bringing You Joy?

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Art Lives On, Even During a Pandemic Apr 24, 2020

Social distancing haiku; Poet captures life on the brink; Building a GenZ pop empire from home; Show doesn't stop for 83 year old comic

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Life on the Front Lines of a Pandemic Apr 17, 2020

Dispatch from the ER; Kids Can't Hug their Nurse Mom; Comforting the Dying from Afar; A Public Health Officer Gets Sick; In-Home Caregivers Demand Face Masks

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Love and Sex in the Time of Corona Apr 10, 2020

An immunocompromised boyfriend; "Is sex still safe during a pandemic?"; Voicemails about life without sex; A WFH Dominatrix

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Home Baked: One Woman’s Subversive Response to the AIDS Crisis Apr 03, 2020

How a San Francisco woman became an unexpected source of comfort at a time when another pandemic rocked the state.

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Coping Under Quarantine Mar 27, 2020

Everyone's home at my apartment complex; Connecting through Corona Diaries; Gen Z: Masters of virtual connection; Video games for the soul; What brings you joy?

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Unemployed, Uninsured, Uncertain Mar 20, 2020

A bartender, a farmworker, a person on disability and a musician cope with the fallout from COVID-19.

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When COVID-19 Came to California Mar 13, 2020

What CA Did Right (and Wrong); Working Without Sick Leave; Life After Lockdown

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Healing the Divide Mar 07, 2020

Making Dinner Political; The Un-Selfie; Fighting with Grandpa; An Unusual Friendship

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Pupusas for Voters, Love for Activists, and No More Nightly Movies for Catalina Island Feb 29, 2020

A 19-year-old runs for office; Colleges hold voting centers; Activists fall in love; Catalina Island loses its theater.

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California Apologizes But Scars Remain Feb 21, 2020

Scars of Internment at Heart Mountain; Big Band Swing Meets Taiko Drumming; My Mom Has DACA

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Valentine’s Day, California Style Feb 15, 2020

A rideshare romance; a 94-year-old DJ; and teaching how to love.

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Mothers, Mental Illness and the Unthinkable Feb 08, 2020

Sometimes, it’s only after something really terrible has happened that you start to see the signs leading up to it. Years later, Rudy Coronado still refers to what happened as “that day.” He still thinks about what he said to his wife, and, what he didn’t say. He says he doesn’t blame her. But he can’t forgive her, either, for what she did. In this episode of The California Report Magazine, KQED's April Dembosky tells the story of what happened that day in Los Angeles.

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‘Dreaming the Golden State’ With The California Report Magazine (Part Two) Feb 01, 2020

The California Report Magazine listeners and reporters take the stage to share their stories about the 'California Dream' and whether it's still alive.

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‘Dreaming the Golden State’ With the California Report Magazine (Part One) Jan 25, 2020

Excerpts from a live stage version of The California Report Magazine's night of storytelling, 'Dreaming the Golden State,' which explored California dreams found, and lost.

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Taking the Frida Kahlo Corporation to Court, and the Vietnamese Immigrant Who Helped Sriracha Go Mainstream Jan 18, 2020

An artist's legal battle brings up complex questions about who owns images of cultural heroes; a superfan’s obsession with 'Heat' leads to a Hollywood ending; and the Vietnamese immigrant who helped make Sriracha so popular.

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Getting Inside the Political Mind of Jerry Brown Jan 11, 2020

How do you tell the story of Jerry Brown’s political career? You start by sitting down with the former California governor for over 40 hours of interviews.

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The Cave Woman of India: Tracing My Scars as an Immigrant’s Daughter Jan 04, 2020

Most children of immigrant parents know what it's like to walk between two worlds. In this week's episode, Sandhya Dirks takes us back with her to her mother's India.

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Transgender Opera Singers Take Enormous Risks to Live Authentically Dec 28, 2019

Elliot Franks, Lucia Lucas and Breanna Sinclairé are transgender opera singers navigating an industry that has been slow to evolve with the times.

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Barbed Wire at the Border Brings Back Memories of Internment – and the Unexpected Impact of Legalized Marijuana Dec 21, 2019

Memories of Internment; Childcare Saves a Family; The Fight Over Police Use of Deadly Force; Legal Cannabis' Impact on Farming

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Living In and Out of the Box Dec 14, 2019

A Fantasy World Made of Cardboard Boxes; Bringing up Baby in a Tiny House; What Box Do you Check?; Transgender Prisoners

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The Hidden History of Slavery in California Dec 07, 2019

An Afro-Diasporic Remix of The Nutcracker; The Ghost of Mary Ellen Pleasant; A Slave Auction in Los Angeles?; Indigenous Red Market

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How One Woman’s Search for Her Homeless Mother Became a Mission to Help Others Nov 30, 2019

Robin Burton started out trying to find her mom. But the search morphed into something else: a mission to help other people who are homeless and missing too.

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Do You Really Want to Know? One Man’s Search for Family From Jonestown and Beyond Nov 23, 2019

Forty-one years ago this week, more than 900 people died in a mass suicide in Jonestown, a remote settlement in South America. This documentary follows a Bay Area man who unravels the tangled family history that binds him to that tragedy.

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What Is the California Dream, and Is it Still Alive? Nov 16, 2019

Prison-to-College Pipeline, Prop 13’s Impact on the CA Dream, Letter to My CA Dreamer, a Dream Shaped By Water

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Living Through Wildfire and Facing a New Normal Nov 09, 2019

A Mind Scarred by Wildfire, Survivors Struggle to Find Housing, Radio Station Relays Fire Info in Indigenous Languages

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The Thin Place Nov 01, 2019

A paramedic and ER nurse from Northern California may himself be a conduit between the living and the dead.

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A ‘Nest’ for Migrant Kids at the Border – and an Unusual High School Reunion Oct 26, 2019

Tijuana’s First Early Childhood Education Center…Affiliated With a Migrant Shelter, Fictional Podcast ‘Moonface’ Explores Being Korean and Queer, Alums of Iranian Jewish School Reunite 40 Years Later

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Special Ed for California’s Black Students Was Supposed to Be Fixed by This Landmark Case. It Wasn’t Oct 19, 2019

A landmark ruling in 1977 changed special education for black students in California. But many educators, black parents and advocates say plenty remains broken.

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These Five People Challenge the Notion of Blindness as a Deficit Oct 12, 2019

The world of mollusk, a master in tinkering, guitarist Ioana Gandrabur, an architect who listens to buildings and designing how products sound.

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Blind Beekeeper Relies on Sound to Keep Her Hives Happy Oct 04, 2019

It has been almost 30 years since Aerial Gilbert lost her sight. In that time she’s relearned just about everything she used to do before going blind — and she did it through the power of sound.

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How Heat Threatens California’s Most Vulnerable Sep 28, 2019

Climate change is making it hotter everywhere in California. And heat can be a sneaky threat to our health and safety. It’s getting more dangerous, and deadly - even in parts of California you wouldn’t expect.

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Spicing Up Seniors’ Sex Lives – and Getting a Second Chance at the California Dream Sep 21, 2019

Author and Dance Teacher’s Mission to Redefine Aging, Rocky Road Ice Cream’s Bumpy History, Singer Mike Marshall’s Second Chance, Letter to My California Dreamer

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Three Transgender Opera Singers on the Risks They Took to Live Authentically Sep 14, 2019

Elliot Franks, Lucia Lucas and Breanna Sinclairé have taken enormous risks to live their most authentic lives. And they’ve navigated an industry that has been slow to evolve with the times.

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Vallejo in the Spotlight After Fatal Police Shootings Sep 06, 2019

Police shootings of Black and Latino men have sparked protests across California and the nation. The East Bay city of Vallejo is also grappling with officer-involved shootings. Community members there are asking for accountability, and demanding answers.

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An Ode to the Tumbleweeds and Driveway Barbeques of Riverside Aug 30, 2019

Young Central Valley Mariachi Heads to Harvard; Finding Love After Alzheimer’s; Susan Straight’s “In the Country of Women”; Letter to My Dreamer: Lake County Farm

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As Students Struggle With Anxiety, a California School Tries to Help Aug 23, 2019

Some schools are teaching kids how to deal with the physical and mental impacts of anxiety.

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The Cave Woman of India: Tracing My Scars as an Immigrant’s Daughter Aug 16, 2019

In this personal story, KQED's Sandhya Dirks takes us back to her mother's India -- to a tell a story about inherited trauma, mental illness, and South Asian history.

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A Road Trip to Some of California’s Hidden Gems Aug 10, 2019

This summer, forget the tourist traps and come along with us on a sonic journey to explore some of California’s out-of-the-way, cool spots that make this place we call home so unique.

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Missing and Homeless: How a Woman’s Search for Her Mother Became a Mission to Help Others Aug 02, 2019

Robin Burton may never find her mother, but she’s made quite a few friends during her search. That's because she launched a Facebook group called 'Missing & Homeless' that now has more than 63,000 members.

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An Unlikely Suspect: On the Trail of a Northern California Serial Arsonist Jul 26, 2019

It took two years to track down the Capay Valley arsonist. He was convicted of 12 counts of arson, but he's suspected of setting 152 fires over the course of 18 years.

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She Strived to Be the Perfect Mom and Landed in the Psych Ward Jul 19, 2019

Motherhood was going great for Lisa Abramson, until the walls started talking to her. But she said being in the hospital made her feel more crazy.

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Golden State Plate – The Backstory Behind California-Born Food and Drinks Jul 12, 2019

Pricey and Potent Pisco Punch, The Birth of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, The Complex Origin of Fortune Cookies, The Ranch Behind Hidden Valley Ranch

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Challenging Inequality in One of California’s Most Divided Cities Jul 05, 2019

Taking on Big Oil; World’s First LGBTQ Mariachi; Coffee Co-Op; Activist Caregiver

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A History of Queer California Jun 29, 2019

Trans Man Finds Refuge in Small Town Cafe; Selling Flowers Through the AIDS Crisis; Compton Cafeteria: CA’s Stonewall; Why Harvey Milk Still Matters to Young People

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The California Story Behind the Mai Tai and the Damburger Jun 22, 2019

An Island Drink with California Roots, Podcast Connects Filipino Diaspora, The Humble Burger That Fueled the Big Dam, UC Degree For Late Chicano Activist

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A Father’s Day Tribute to California Dads Jun 15, 2019

Letters to My Father in Prison, Sounds of My Father, A Father’s Day Haircut With a Weed-Whacker

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Golden Years in the Golden State: Meet 6 California Seniors Jun 07, 2019

Today we’ll meet six seniors: a student, a volunteer, a farmer, someone looking for a job, a woman about town, and man whose daughter is his caretaker.

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Throwback! Celebrating California’s Analog Age Jun 01, 2019

Video Store Survives Netflix, Last Roller Rink Organist, Typewriter Poet, Fleetwood Macrame, Ferris Bueller Revisited

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‘I’m Trapped’: Who Do You Call for Help When Your Abuser Is a Cop? May 25, 2019

When Your Abuser Is a Cop, He Designs Products With His Ears, Sounds of My Father

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A Beauty Queen Who Fights Mental Health Stigma, and a Dream Shaped by Water May 17, 2019

How Water Shaped the California Dream; This Boom Town Boomed Best When You Boomed With It; An Advice Show for POCs; A Surprising Beauty Queen

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Difficult Choices Around Motherhood May 10, 2019

Faith in Her Child Despite What the Docs Said, Dominatrix Mom, Mothering in the Shadow of Big Oil, A Song for Grandma

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High School Students Take Over the Airwaves May 04, 2019

Pregnant at 15, Pressured to be Polite, Always Tired, Embracing 'Body Positivity', 'My Natural Hair Journey', Living In Two Worlds, Cooking With Kenny

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From the Origin of the Fortune Cookie to Making Community College Applications Mandatory Apr 26, 2019

Fortune Cookie Mystery, Blind in California, Sexual Assault in Yoga, Shooting for a College Degree

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‘It’s So Important to Be Heard:’ Californians Living With Disabilities Apr 20, 2019

Navigating High School as a Deaf 16-Year-Old; My Sister Can’t Speak, But She Makes Herself Heard; What It Means to ‘Edit Out’ a Disability; Ski School for All

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This Is the Coachella Most Californians Don’t See Apr 12, 2019

For many Californians, their only reference point for the Coachella Valley is the annual music festival which kicks off this week. But there are other sides to Coachella — the ones locals see.

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Meth Mania: From Biker Gangs to the Psych Ward, How Speed Came of Age in California Apr 05, 2019

Methamphetamine is back in California. This time around, it's sending more and more people to the hospital, to rehab and to the morgue. Learn about one woman's two-decade battle with meth, from when biker gangs helped the drug take root in California to today’s deadly epidemic.

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Fresno Police Corruption: How a Top Cop Went From Hero to Federal Prison Mar 29, 2019

It’s one of the biggest police corruption scandals in modern California history, and one you probably didn’t hear about if you live outside the Central Valley. And it wasn’t an isolated incident.

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Running for City Council, as a Teen Mom Mar 23, 2019

Persian New Year from Afar; Remembering the King of Surf Guitar; Golden State Plate: Santa Maria BBQ; Letter to my California Dreamer: Palo Alto in the '70s

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From Ferlinghetti to Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Mar 16, 2019

How a Janitor Invented a Bestselling Junk Food; Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 100; Artists Reimagine 'Valley Girl'; A Letter From Charles Schulz, 50 years later

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Migrant Teens: Figuring Out Life in California Mar 09, 2019

Reuniting with Mom (and missing Grandma); High School at age 20?; Kids send Postcards to other Kids in Detention; Conditions for Migrant Kids in Custody; From England’s Green Hills to California’s Deserts

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On The Trail of a Serial Arsonist in California Mar 02, 2019

Most wildfires ignite by accident. But some are set on purpose - and arsonists are very hard to catch. We find out how investigators caught one of them. It took two years and dozens of people to track him down.

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How ‘Okies’ Reshaped the Golden State Feb 23, 2019

When Black Farmworkers Picked California's Crops; Letter to My Dust Bowl Grandparents; When Bakersfield was the Center of the Country Music Universe

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Your California Breakup Playlist Feb 16, 2019

Living With the Ex; Genetically Sensitive to Rejection?; Stories of Last Kisses; Listeners' Favorite Breakup Songs

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Love, California Style Feb 09, 2019

93-Year-Old DJ Still Connects Lovers Over the Airwaves, Cold Water Romance, Love Worth Fighting For

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40 Percent of Kids in This School District Are Homeless Feb 02, 2019

Spike in Homeless Kids on Central Coast; Busting Homeless Myths; A Letter to A Revolutionary Dreamer; What Makes Your Salad Taste Like California?

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From a Gold Rush Cocktail to a Trans Trucker’s Dream Jan 26, 2019

Golden State Plate: The Story of Pisco Punch; Trans Trucker Finds his California Dream; A Mom’s Journey to Accepting Her Transgender Child, At Age 4; California Therapists Volunteer To Help Immigrants Coming out of Detention

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All About the Family Biz Jan 19, 2019

The Evolution of Casa Sanchez, Prather Ranch Cows, Frank Fat's Restaurant, Taxi Medallions Take Toll, Letter to My CA Dreamer

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It Started With Oscar Grant: A Police Shooting in Oakland, and the Making of a Movement Jan 12, 2019

Ten years after an unarmed black man was shot and killed by a white police officer as he lay face-down on a train platform, we explore how Oscar Grant’s death galvanized a new generation of activists, and helped spark a sustained call for change.

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Golden State Plate: Food History Made in California Jan 05, 2019

Hear some of the most appetizing stories from our Golden State Plate series, where we explore the history of some of the iconic food and drink born right here.

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A Ghost, a Songwriter, a Student and a Teacher: Voices of California Dec 29, 2018

A jailhouse songwriter's deep friendship with Johnny Cash. How a crusading heroine became a demon in Victorian San Francisco. LuPaulette Taylor on her nearly five-decade career at a West Oakland school. Two teens from Menlo-Atherton High on their childhood.

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A Musical Journey with California-Grown Artists Forging Their Own Sounds Dec 22, 2018

Female DJs Find Empowerment in Oakland, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore Intertwine Their Musical Roots, New Book Celebrates the Work of Los Lobos, ‘The Soul Chance’ Goes Analog to Capture Retro Reggae Sound.

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40 Years on, How Does Proposition 13 Impact the California Dream? Dec 15, 2018

How has the controversial law - which essentially locks in a homeowner's property tax to the year they bought their home - affected four different Oakland residents? Reporter Vanessa Rancaño invited them over to find out.

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She Strived to Be the Perfect Mom, and Landed in the Psych Ward Dec 08, 2018

Motherhood was going great for Lisa Abramson, until the walls started talking to her. But being in the hospital made her feel more crazy.

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Families Pulling Together to Confront Life’s Obstacles Dec 01, 2018

'Surrogate Family’ Supports Migrant Mom, How Did Raymond Mata in a Mass Grave, Attack of the Nutria, Saying Goodbye to Paradise.

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17andMe Nov 24, 2018

Daley Dunham was a junior at UC Berkeley when he decided to donate sperm. He likened it to donating blood — an opportunity to do something good for a person in need. Except when you donate blood, you don’t get a tidal wave of children crashing into your life 20 years later.

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Do You Really Want to Know? One Man’s Search for Family From Jonestown and Beyond Nov 17, 2018

Forty years ago, preacher Jim Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch. One man unravels the tangled family history that binds him to that tragedy.

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Veterans Day Special: Californians and The Vietnam War Nov 10, 2018

‘The Green Machine’, ‘Ode to a Vietnam Vet’

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Women Finding Their Political Voice Nov 02, 2018

First Time Candidates Reflect on ‘The Long Run’, Millennial and Retiree Candidates Swap Advice, Hotel Workers Push for ‘Panic Buttons’, Golden State Plate: The Martini Story, Straight Up, With a Twist

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Spooky Tales of Ghosts and California History Oct 27, 2018

The Ghost of Mary Pleasant, Haunted Lighthouse, Fishy Origins of Cioppino, An Orphan’s California Dream

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SPECIAL: Her Double Life Oct 19, 2018

A San Jose woman wonders if it's time to tell the truth.

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One Year After Firestorm, Some Scars, Some Hope Oct 12, 2018

Caregivers Save Lives But Lose Everything, KPFZ: Lake County’s Wildfire Lifeline, ‘A Little Broken,’ Fire Baby Turns One

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Ballet Star Moves Past Pain for a New Stage: Science Oct 05, 2018

Miko Fogarty left her dream dance job with a top company after just one year. Two years later, she’s on her way to becoming a doctor - and overcoming alleged sexual abuse at the hands of her former coach.

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First-Time Women Candidates React to Kavanaugh Drama Sep 29, 2018

Aisha’s Wahab’s ‘Long Run,’ Terisa Siagatonu’s Moment on Earth, My Carbon Footprint, A Writer’s CA Dream, Alice Coltrane’s ‘Spiritual Eternal’

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Life Inside Tijuana’s Migrant Center Sep 22, 2018

Reporter’s Notebook from Tijuana, The French Dip’s Roots, Seeking a Seat on the School Board, Cannabis Meds at School, The Forest Transforms Me

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Golden State Plate: Iconic California Recipes Sep 14, 2018

Green Goddess Dressing, Poetry of Climate Change, California’s Original Detention Center, A Granddaughter’s Message to “Ojiichan,” Sign Wars on the Campaign Trail

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#MeToo Unmasks the Open Secret of Sexual Abuse in Yoga Sep 08, 2018

Yoga community struggles to rein in sexual misconduct, abuse in its ranks; How wildfire increases poverty; 92-year old artist says planet Earth is ‘screwed’

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Rethinking Masculinity… At Summer Camp Sep 01, 2018

Sons & Brothers Camp, Betty Valencia’s ‘Long Run’, The (W)hole Story on Mt. Shasta, Lured From Germany By SF ‘Sound’

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Childhood Trauma Can Mean Early Death. This California Mom Wants to Beat the Odds Aug 24, 2018

Science shows childhood trauma leads to poorer health later in life, mentally and physically. But there are ways to intervene that can heal the wounds of the past for a parent, and safeguard a daughter’s future.

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Fleeing Conflict, and Finding Self Aug 11, 2018

Illegal Love in Uganda, The Damaging Effects of ‘White Voice,’ One ‘Lost Boy’s’ Journey Out of Sudan

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Wildfires Spark Fear, Anxiety for Survivors Aug 04, 2018

Mexican Restaurant Feeds Fire Victims, Coping With Fire Trauma In Santa Rosa, Music Giants Talk ‘Downey to Lubbock’, A Separation Still Painful After 76 Years

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Teen Poet to Migrant Kids: I Feel Your Pain Jul 28, 2018

My Dad Spent My Childhood Behind Bars, Summer Camp for Refugee Kids, Asian American Actresses Rewrite the Script, My Mom’s Teenage Dream

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Family Separation Today … and 40 Years Ago Jul 21, 2018

Mom Seeks Refuge at the Border; Healing from Family Separation Four Decades Later; No One Recognizes this Hong Kong Star in Berkeley; Hello to Coachella, Grass Valley and Nevada City!

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Going Back to 1993: Unpacking the Internet, Then and Now Jul 13, 2018

We've come a long way from a 6-foot-tall computer. But the internet hasn't solved everything it promised to. This week we visit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to muse on how the internet has changed our lives.

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SPECIAL: The Leap: Little Girl Lost Jul 06, 2018

A Mother Launches a Painful Search After Her Ex-Husband Abducts Their Daughter

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Young and Homeless … But Dreaming Big Jun 30, 2018

On Her Own at 17, LGBTQ and Homeless, Finding the Gay Mecca, Family Separations Open Old Wounds

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Discovering Some of California’s ‘Hidden Gems’ Jun 22, 2018

Black Chasm Cavern; Foster’s Bighorn; Back Dancing and Dynamite Society; Valley Relics Museum; Forestiere Underground Gardens

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From a Tiny Oaxacan Restaurant in the Central Valley, to High School in a San Francisco Jail Jun 15, 2018

A Taste of Oaxaca in Madera; My Big Brother’s CA Dream; High School Behind Bars; Woodworking for the Blind

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California Stories From 1968 … From RFK to a Classic Dishware Factory Jun 09, 2018

Sirhan Sirhan’s Brother; My Mom’s California Dream is Muted; TEPCO Dishes Out Nostalgia

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Life in California Prisons Jun 01, 2018

Losing Language Behind Bars; Rachel Kushner’s New Novel Based on Friendship with Women Prisoners; Life After a Life Sentence; Letter to My CA Dreamer: A Place Where Dreams are Safe to Grow

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Immigrant Parents and the California Dream May 26, 2018

Parents Deported, Big Sister in Charge; When UC is not the Golden Ticket; Tell Us Your California Dream Story; L.A.'s 'No ICE' Man

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Grappling with the Idea of Home May 19, 2018

Addicted to Heroin and Living in a Motel with a Baby on the Way, Persistent Poison, Calling it Quits on the Golden State, Birthplace of Flamin' Hot Cheetos

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Difficult Choices Around Motherhood May 12, 2018

Faith in Her Child Despite What the Doctors Said, When Mom Doesn’t Approve of Your Job…As a Dominatrix, Moving Towards Motherhood in the Shadow of Big Oil, A Song for Grandma

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The California Report Magazine: Sexual Harassment… in High School May 05, 2018

Fighting Harassment At High School, Seniors Share Advice on 'Lives Well Lived,' Potstickers and Pie at Sacramento's Oldest Chinese Restaurant, Does Rent Control Work?

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The California Report Magazine Taken Over by High Schoolers … For a Week Apr 28, 2018

They explore issues like homelessness, redefining masculinity, and finding identity through art.

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Stories of Californians Reinventing Themselves Apr 21, 2018

Konocti: A Last Resort For People Hit With Disaster, A Second Chance After Two Decades of Anxiety, Finding Self-Esteem…Through Pole Dancing, Poet Re-Examines his Farmworker Past, The Town That Changed Its Name to Happy Camp

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Little-Known Tales of California’s Past Apr 13, 2018

Oakland’s Time-Travelling Map, The Secret World of Inez Burns, Japanese-American 1950s Car Clubs, A Firefighter on Witnessing Too Much Tragedy

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Life and Death Off Point Reyes, Wetlands Get Help From Rice Farmers Apr 06, 2018

A Cemetery of Life Saving Secrets on Point Reyes, How California’s Rice Fields Are Welcoming Back the Birds, Couples Counselors Get Real About Their Own Marriages, The Sodden Story Behind Whiskeytown, CA.

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Counted: An Oakland Story Mar 30, 2018

Throughout 2017, a team of Snap Judgment producers - together with Oakland activists and parents - learned about Oakland’s homicide victims, their families and communities.

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‘We’re All Getting Older’ Mar 23, 2018

College hopefuls leaving California, a taste of home for South Asian seniors, when a job becomes a friendship, A Place Called 'Peanut'

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The California Report Magazine: Chasing the Original California Dream Mar 17, 2018

Modern-day Gold Miner Still Finds Plenty, A Visit to Paradise (CA), How CA Went from Anti-Immigrant to ‘Sanctuary State,’ Birdsong Clues to Climate Change

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My World Was Burning: The Northern California Fires and What Went Wrong Mar 10, 2018

A special half-hour investigation based on 911 tape + interviews with first responders and survivors of the Oct. 2016 Northern CA wildfires. A collaboration with Reveal.

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Stories About Belonging Mar 03, 2018

Taxi Drivers Losing Their Identity, Queer Skateboarders Confront Macho Culture, A Teen Loner Turns into a Celebrated Mapmaker of California's Wilderness

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Synchronized Ice Skaters and A Visit to Timbuctoo Feb 24, 2018

On This Ice Skating Team There Are No Olympians and No One Under 25
Robyn Fernsworth wakes up before the sun rises every Saturday morning so she can ice skate for two hours. But she's not training for the next Winter Olympics, she's practicing with the IceSymmetrics, a masters synchronized skating team based in Oakland. The IceSymmetrics are a group of moms, lawyers, teachers, some professional skaters...and they're heading to Portland this week to compete in nationals. Bianca Taylor caught up with Robyn during practice.
The Lowly Seagrass That Could Save Your Oysters From Climate Change
What do you do when a global problem like climate change lands on your front doorstep? That’s what’s facing oyster farms up and down the West Coast, which are already feeling the impact. But, as KQED Science reporter Lauren Sommer tells us, one Bay Area oyster farm is teaming up with scientists to find a way to use nature to adapt.
Timbuctoo: The Ghost of a Ghost Town
For the next installment in our series "A Place Called What?!", about California places with bizarre or surprising names, we take a trip to Timbuctoo!
Sacramento Finds and Celebrates Itself in New ‘Lady Bird’ Walking Tour
While Hollywood prepares for the Oscars on March 4, a "Lady Bird"-themed walking tour began its inaugural trek in Sacramento. We join the tour and hear from guides and tourists about their personal connection to the semi-autobiographical movie. Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig called her film a “love letter to Sacramento.” What did the film mean for Sactown superfans?
Mean: A Conversation with Myriam Gurba
True crime, memoir and ghost story, "Mean" is the bold and hilarious tale of Myriam Gurba’s coming of age as a queer, mixed-race Chicana.

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Changing Identities, and Taking Back Power Feb 17, 2018

When Italians in California were "enemy aliens," Black Panther: the Movie vs the Movement, The Body is Not an Apology, Life as a Stay-At-Home Dad

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Daytime Boogie Nights for the Senior Set, and Dispatch From a Salvadoran Deportee Feb 10, 2018

No One Under 60 Allowed at This LA Dance Party, Singing Gondoliers, Facing Violence and Isolation as a CA Deportee in El Salvador, Lasting Health Effects of Sexual Harassment, Chinese History in Fiddletown

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Being in DACA Limbo and Seeking Help for Post-Partum Depression Feb 03, 2018

Being in DACA Limbo, A Musician on Love and Loss, Conserving Water With GMO Beer, Seeking Help for Post-Partum Depression, A Town Named For Coal

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The Fight for Medical Cannabis in Public Schools and Worshipping the Art of Smell Jan 27, 2018

Kids and Medical Cannabis, Grammy Nods for Young Composer, Moringa Mania, A Song Springs From Tragedy, Berkeley Perfume Museum

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Fighting Rape on the Night Shift and Johnny Cash’s Friend in Folsom Jan 20, 2018

A Janitor Fights Back, Songwriter In a Cage, White Awake, Brothers Vie For Superbowl Spot

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The Legend of the Lyft Rapper and the Curse of the Gold Rush Town Jan 13, 2018

A Ride with a Rapper, The Curse of Bodie, From Ashes to Ashes, #MeToo Sparks A Former Abuser to Speak Up, A Town Called You Bet

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Coming Together, One Conversation at a Time Jan 06, 2018

As we head into 2018, we feature stories from our 'Start the Conversation' series, about people bridging divides despite their differences.

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Three Refugees, Three Journeys to California Dec 30, 2017

Refugee Café, Viet Nguyen on why Refugees are Threatening. Holocaust Survivor’s Roommate? The Granddaughter of Nazis, Syrian Family Puts Down Roots in Oakland

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Camels, Tamales, and Rainbow Girls Dec 23, 2017

Elaborate Christmas Display by a Non-Christian, Giving Back with a Tamalada, Turning Up the Politics by Turning off the Amps

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San Francisco’s Changing Skyline and the Central Valley’s Frozen Burrito Empire Dec 16, 2017

Public Art You Can’t Avoid Seeing, They Went from Immigrants to 'Burrito Royalty,' #USToo: Assault in the Jehovah’s Witness Church, Tiny Bookstore With Big Appetite for Old Cookbooks.

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The California Report Magazine: Stories from the Classroom Dec 09, 2017

Controversial Discipline Practices, School for Autistic Kids Post-Wildfire, A Teacher’s #MeToo Story, Sphinx Buried in Sand Dunes

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The California Report Magazine: Homeless Housemates and Gold Rush Opera Dec 02, 2017

Helping the Homeless, By Living With them, A Reporter and A Politician Share Loss, Giant Tree Stump Takes the Opera Stage, Bumpass Hell

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The California Report Magazine: It’s All About Family Nov 24, 2017

Unusual Romance Leads to Unlikely Family, Food and Family from 826 Valencia, Bringing Seniors Some Love, the OId-School Way, Gospel Quartet of Brothers Find Praise Outside the Church Walls

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From the King of Opera to the Tiny (Lava-Free) Town of Volcano Nov 18, 2017

A Human Library, 'California Typewriter,' an Ode to Analogue, Placido Domingo’s 50-Year Run in L.A., Winery Faces Life After Fire, A Visit to Volcano, Calif.

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Your State, Your Stories – Welcome to the California Report Magazine Nov 17, 2017

From Aptos, California to ZZYZX (Population 1), it's a weekly California road trip for your ears, and your imagination.
Cattle ranching moms. Homeless college students. Young mariachis. They’re all Californians, and we’ve got their stories. Subscribe now.

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The California Report Magazine Nov 11, 2017

Meet Flipper’s Ted Falconi, Vietnam Vet and Punk Rock Legend
Flipper may not be the best-known band from Oakland, but after more than 40 years, it’s definitely one of punk’s most influential. It has inspired scores of musicians like Kurt Cobain and Moby. A large part of its signature sound comes from guitarist Ted Falconi, a Vietnam vet who brought the noises of war home with him. KQED’s Kevin Jones has this profile.
He Served in the U.S. Military, But That Didn’t Stop His Deportation
Jose Cardenas decided to enlist in the Army because his stepfather was a veteran. Cardenas’ son and grandson have kept up that family tradition of military service, but Cardenas lives in Mexico now and not by choice. He was deported. He's one of tens of thousands of veterans who've served in the U.S. military but aren't U.S. citizens. KQED’s Erika Aguilar met him in Tijuana where hundreds of deported veterans now live.
What Vets Want at the End of Life Is Very Different From What Civilians Want
Many veterans of the Vietnam war are now in their seventies and some are coming to the end of their lives. What soldiers, even former soldiers, want in death may be very different from what civilians want. Honor and respect can be much more important than being comfortable or free of pain. That can make vets harder to treat at the end of life, as KQED’s health reporter April Dembosky explains.
Raised by the River in Forks of Salmon, California
In our continuing series “A Place Called What??” about California places with peculiar names, we visit Forks of Salmon, a very tiny town in Siskyou County where two forks of the Salmon River meet. To find out more about the town, the California Report’s Bianca Taylor called up professional kayaker and filmmaker Rush Sturges, who was born and raised in the place he affectionately calls "Forks."
A North Korean Refugee’s Journey to a Life in Southern California
President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia this week comes at a point of extreme tension between the United States and North Korea. One sticking point has to do with North Korean refugees and Trump's executive order banning them from entering the U.S. The ban worries North Korean refugees already here. Many survived a harrowing journey, leaving friends and family behind. KCRW’s Benjamin Gottlieb tells the story of one man who escaped North Korea and made it to California.

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The California Report Magazine Nov 04, 2017

Sound Guru Bernie Krause’s Beloved ‘Wild Sanctuary’ Destroyed by Fire
Last month's fires in Northern California destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. But we also lost some key cultural landmarks. One of those places was an inspiration to artists, scientists and sound recordists around the world. Yet mostly unknown to its neighbors in Sonoma County's Valley of the Moon. It was home and studio of Kat and Bernie Krause. KQED Science Editor Craig Miller had visited many times before - both as a journalist and friend. After the fire, he returned, to help sort through the rubble - and record this story.
Nearly 2,000 Miles From Home, A Prisoner Gets a Visit From His Mom
More than a decade ago, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in our state's prison system. That meant prison officials could do whatever it took to ease the overcrowding, including shipping thousands of inmates to other states. It was supposed to be a temporary solution. But many years later, many California prisoners are still locked up out of state. KCRW's George Lavender follows one mother on a journey to see her son, who's now two thousand miles away.
Trans Singer Encounters Mother (and Bathroom Laws) on Tour in the South
For more than 40 years, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus has used its music to help create community and inspire activism. The chorus recently went on a tour of five southern states. The idea was to support local LGBTQ communities in the South. KQED Arts Reporter Chloe Veltman caught up with them on the tour bus. She tells us about one of the singers and his mom, who hadn't heard him perform since he was living as a little girl.
Lost Mural with Covert Political Messages Rediscovered in Post Office Basement
You may not have heard of Victor Arnautoff, but he was a Russian artist who painted murals around San Francisco in the 1930s. He started off as an assistant to Diego Rivera and became known for his work on San Francisco's Coit Tower. He also painted three murals inside California post offices, including one in the Bay Area city of Richmond. But as Eli Wirtshafter tells us, that mural disappeared for almost 40 years. Until an amateur sleuth tracked it down.
Welcome to Rough and Ready, the Tiny Town That Used to Be a Republic
Now for another installment of our new series, A Place Called What?!, about California towns with bizarre and surprising names. Last week we took you to Zzyzx, near Death Valley. And we asked our listeners for their ideas for weird place names. Scott Schlacter of San Jose sent us a note asking how the town of "Rough and Ready" near Grass Valley in Nevada County go its name. So KQED's Bianca Taylor called up Jayna Ashcraft, who lives in Rough and Ready. She says her small gold mining town has a big history: in 1850, it seceded from the nation, and temporarily became its own republic.

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The California Report Magazine Oct 28, 2017

The Water Belongs to Everyone, and This Blind Kayaker Will Prove It
We start our show with a man on a mythological mission. His name is Ahmet Ustunel. He lives in San Francisco, and he has a dream. He wants to return to his homeland of Turkey and take a big journey on a tiny kayak across the Bosphorus Strait, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world. Think enormous freighters. And his little human-powered boat. But Ahmet Ustunel faces a unique challenge that will make this much harder for him. The California Report’s Laura Klivans joined him at a lake, where he’s training to make the journey.
You May Have Seen This Man Zipping Around Berkeley, but Did You Know He’s the Godfather of Disability Rights?
“Hale” is a new short film exploring activism around people with disabilities. It tells the story of Hale Zukas, who helped make Berkeley the birthplace of the disability rights movement. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child. He went on to study Russian and math at UC Berkeley in the 1970s and he helped found Berkeley’s groundbreaking Center for Independent Living. Filmmaker Brad Bailey made the documentary as his thesis project at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He just picked up a Student Academy Award for the project.
Oakland Dad Reunites with Family After Lengthy ICE Detention
We introduced you to this family a few months ago, when they found themselves in limbo because of new immigration policies under President Trump. The father, Maguiber -- he's named after the guy in the TV show MacGyver -- is from Guatemala. He's 27, and undocumented. He was arrested by immigration agents in February, and held in a jail in the Bay Area city of Richmond. Meanwhile, his wife has been struggling to care for their three children on her own. Maguiber has no serious or violent criminal history. In the past someone like him probably would have been released within a month or two on bond. But Maguiber spent over half a year in detention, before he got his day court. KQED's Julie Small brings us this update on his story.
A Day of the Dead Tradition Blooms in the Central Valley
In some California communities with roots in Mexico, the last days of October are spent getting ready for Day of the Dead, and that means making altars for loved ones and covering them with marigolds. Those bright orange flowers aren’t always easy to find. The California Report's Vanessa Rancaño met a farmer who’s growing them in the Central Valley for people longing for a piece of home.
Welcome to Zzyzx, California – Population: 1
A lot of us Californians like to hit the open road, explore miles of highway, or venture off into some back roads. Sometimes, we come across towns with some pretty bizarre and surprising names, from Rough and Ready to Bumpass Hell. So today we're launching a new series we’re calling "A Place Called What?!" For our first installment, we head to Zzyzx. If you’re driving on I-15 near Death Valley, you might spot the sign. You won’t find any shops or restaurants or even houses there. But you will find the Desert Studies Center, a research station operated by a consortium of seven California State Universities. Rob Fulton manages the center, and he’s the only permanent resident in Zzyzx.

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The California Report Magazine Oct 21, 2017

Voices From the Fires
The wildfires that roared through Wine Country will rank among the deadliest and most destructive in California history. But many Californians are already jumping in, doing what they can now to support the recovery. We hear from both survivors and volunteers, who are looking ahead to a new future, post-fire.
An Oakland Hills Fire Survivor's Advice to a North Bay Fire Victim
Jill Permutt couldn’t sleep the night the fires broke out near her home in Santa Rosa-- the moon was oddly red, and the winds were whipping fast. That feeling of desperate, surreal, surging panic? Joan Tanzer has felt it too. She lost her house in the Oakland Hills firestorm of 1991. Until last week, the two women were strangers. But then a mutual friend told Joan about Jill, about how her entire neighborhood in Santa Rosa had just burned to the ground. Joan called her right away, and since then they’ve talked several times. Sasha Khokha brings us inside their conversation, to hear the exchange of stories and advice.
How Do You Help Homeless Kids Stay in School?
When families lose their homes, whether from fire, foreclosure or another kind disaster, helping the kids adapt is tough. Now we're going to hear about fifth grader who became homeless after his family was evicted from their home in Oakland. He spends hours just trying to get to school each day. Federal law says school districts are supposed to help students like him, making it as easy as possible for them to get to school, even as they bounce around in search of stability. Reporter Lee Romney spent the day with 10-year-old Naseem Bennett.
Worshipping at Santa Monica’s Church of Type
In Santa Monica, off Pico Boulevard, there’s a shop that feels like it's from another time, from the era before computers, scanners and copiers. Kevin Bradley, the proprietor, is a master of the handset letterpress. After spending two decades building up his business in Tennessee, he came West to carry on the sacred tradition. Reporter Peter Gilstrap takes us to Bradley's storefront studio, the Church of Type.

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The California Report Magazine Oct 14, 2017

Voices from Fire-Ravaged Northern California
In Northern California, the week began with a sudden onslaught of flames whipped up by the wind. Multiple wildfires erupted across wine country. Homes, businesses and entire towns have been burned to the ground. Now, even as firefighters continue to work, many residents are returning to see what is left.
For Santa Rosa’s KZST Radio Station, the News is Personal
Before Sunday night, if you tuned into KZST 100.1FM in Santa Rosa, you’d probably hear a talk show, pop music, or some classic hits. But since fires broke out across Sonoma County, phone and Internet access have been severely limited. So, the station’s staff has transformed it into an essential news source, broadcasting information about the wildfires live, 24/7. The station is surrounded by some of the worst fire damage to date. Ninna Gaensler-Debs takes us there.
My Santa Rosa
KQED Online Arts Editor Gabe Meline lives in Santa Rosa, one of cities worst hit by the wildfires, with his wife and daughter. When they left their house, they grabbed their emotional treasures: their photos, old letters and their cat. The family is fortunate. Their house has survived, but Meline is a third generation Santa Rosan, and the fires have devastated the landscape where he grew up, and the sentimental landmarks that make the city his hometown.
Read Gabe's essay, 'My City Is on Fire'
PHOTO DIARY: Life in the Path of a Wildfire
What Happens When You Have ‘Fish Blood,’ But You Can’t Fish?
For centuries, the Yurok tribe has lived along and fished the Klamath River in California’s far north. But this fall, the number of chinook salmon making their way up the Klamath is the smallest on record. Salmon is essential to the Yurok. It doesn't just represent food or livelihood; salmon is life. For the series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse went north to Yurok country.

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The California Report Magazine Oct 07, 2017

A Week After a Massacre, Life Goes on in Vegas
More than half the victims of this week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas were from California. Many Southern Californians, especially, have a deep connection to Las Vegas, but in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, there's not a lot of obvious acknowledgment of what happened, with casinos and hotel marquees still ablaze with intensity. What's changed? And what hasn't?
Just Like My Mother: How We Inherit Our Parents’ Traits and Tragedies
For many of us, our worst fear is ending up just like our mom or dad. It’s easy for our parents’ traits and habits to get passed down to us, and the same is true for the tragedies they experienced. Many Vietnamese refugees who fled the war and its aftermath don't like to talk about the circumstances of their escape, the traumas they faced live on in their children.
Years After Tragedy, Fresno’s Hmong Seek Cultural Understanding for Next Generation
About 20 years ago, eight Hmong teenagers in Fresno committed suicide. Their parents were refugees from Laos, and they knew the teen deaths were connected to their past. Second generation Hmong are reclaiming their parents’ history.
Editor of Prison Newspaper Leaves Legacy Behind
California’s journalistic community buried one of its own this week. Arnulfo Garcia was editor-in-chief of the San Quentin News, a newspaper produced, written and edited by inmates. He formed the first and only chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists inside a prison. Just two months after his release from prison, at 65 years old, Garcia died in a car crash near Gilroy. He's remembered for accomplishments reached far beyond the prison newsroom.

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The California Report Magazine Sep 30, 2017

On this special edition of The California Report Magazine, we go back in time to look at the Vietnam War and how it shaped the lives of some Californians. This week we’re in San Diego, home to the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton.
The Teen and Marine Who United to Resist the Vietnam War and Racism in the Military
Not all the battles were fought in Vietnam -- enlisted men were also fighting a war against racism within the ranks. We’ll hear how that revolt took hold at Camp Pendleton, and sparked an unlikely friendship. He was a young marine. She was the daughter of a farmworker. They met at a coffeehouse called ‘The Green Machine.’ It was one of many around the country where active duty GIs could get free coffee, listen to music, read underground newspapers and talk with peace activists. These coffeehouses were key in building the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam.
Remember When Camp Pendleton Was a Refugee Camp? These Vietnamese Sisters Do
In the Spring of 1975, the North Vietnamese took control of Saigon and the United States began frantically evacuating tens of thousands of South Vietnamese. Seemingly overnight, Camp Pendleton transformed into a makeshift refugee camp. That first wave included two teenage sisters, Evelyn and Jessica Kheo. They came from a well-to-do family in Saigon. At the camp they shared a tent with two other families, and used scratchy army blankets to keep warm. They hadn’t been back to Pendleton in 42 years -- and they let us tour the base with them.

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The California Report Magazine Sep 22, 2017

Bridging the Political Divide, One Dinner at a Time
Many of us are taught not to talk politics at the dinner table -- especially if your guests fall on different sides of the political spectrum. But as Bianca Taylor tells us, a new movement called ‘Make America Dinner Again’ breaks this rule, in a big way. It's the latest installment in our series "Start the Conversation.”
2 Years After Destructive Valley Fire, Lake County Rebuilds and Readjusts
Between earthquakes, fires and hurricanes, a lot of us have been thinking about what's important to us, what we'd fight to keep if we faced a natural disaster. Those questions aren't theoretical to people in Lake County who survived a massive wildfire two years ago. When the smoke cleared, the fire had burned up 70,000 acres, destroyed 1,280 homes and killed four people. KQED reporter Sukey Lewis grew up in Lake County, and she went back to check in on how some of her friends are recovering.
War Is Not a Game: An 'Air Force Brat' On Growing Up with the Consequences of Vietnam
We've been bringing you stories of Californians whose lives have been impacted by the Vietnam War. We reached out to you, our listeners, and many of you responded with your memories. We hear from Sacramento resident Angela Shortt, whose father served in the U.S. Air Force during the war. She was eight years old when her family was sent to live on a military base in the Philippines in 1966.
A Surfer Reflects on Life’s Waves
So, what does an 83-year-old woman who surfs the cold waters of San Francisco's Ocean Beach have in common with a Buddhist monk hiking through the Himalayas? They're both people author Jaimal Yogis encounters as he scours the planet looking for the secrets to internal happiness, in his new book "All Our Waves Are Water." Yogis is a Bay Area surfer, journalist and meditation teacher. He joins us to talk about his book, which chronicles his quest for the perfect wave, and for an internal life that can weather storms, lulls, and thrilling rides.
Meet the Heartbeat of the Oakland A’s
At every home game, some of the Oakland A's most diehard baseball fans bang out beats -- different ones for each player, and each action on the field. You can find this informal drum corps in Section 149 in the bleachers of the Oakland Coliseum. They got their start nearly two decades ago, and they’re likely to remain a fixture at A’s home games. The team just announced its intention to build a downtown ballpark and remain rooted in Oakland. Tena Rubio spent a home game with some long-time drummers: Bryanne Aler-Nigas, Will MacNeil, Andy Cho, and The California Report’s own Nina Thorsen, who drums for the A’s when she’s not making radio.

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The California Report Magazine Sep 15, 2017

For Isolated Trinity County Residents, One Man Is Their Food Lifeline
Trinity County is one of those places that doesn’t get in the news too often, unless it’s wildfire season like it is now. It’s a remote, rural part of northern California that can be breathtakingly beautiful. And it’s also one of the state’s most food insecure places, where many people don’t know where their next meal will come from. For the series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse brings us this profile of one man who helps feed them.
Photographic Portraits Bring You Face to Face With the Vietnam War
It’s been more than 40 years since the end of the Vietnam War. And a lot of the people who fought, died and escaped from that conflict are coming to the end of their years. As KQED’s Rachael Myrow tells us, a Bay Area photographer is striving to give them the dignity and honor they’ve earned and a chance to feel remembered.
Monterey Jazz Festival, at 60, Honors Past and Celebrates New Talent
This weekend, the Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates its Diamond Anniversary. It’s Sixty! The California Report’s Suzie Racho and our jazz critic Andrew Gilbert give us a preview.
Latino Artists Tap Into Science Fiction to Imagine ‘Alternate Worlds’
‘Mundos Alternos,’ a massive new exhibit at UC Riverside’s Culver Center for the Arts, features more than 30 artists from across the Spanish speaking world taking on immigration, trade, colonialism and other cross-border issues through the lens of science fiction. The California Report’s Steven Cuevas went to check it out.

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The California Report Magazine Sep 08, 2017

Oakland Residents Say Tent Encampments Threatening Neighborhoods
In many California cities, homelessness has reached a boiling point. There's not enough housing or space. And tent encampments are cropping up in neighborhoods where they’re not always welcome. That's happening big time in Oakland, where complaints about homelessness have increased more than 700 percent over the last six years. KQED’s Devin Katayama has been spending time with neighbors who have totally different perspectives on the issue.
Gentrification and Climate Change Meet at ‘The North Pole’
Can you make gentrification and climate change funny? Those two very serious topics come together in the comedy web series, "The North Pole." The show revolves around a homegrown trio of best friends: Nina, Marcus and Benny, who find themselves an endangered species in a rapidly gentrifying city. The California Report's Sasha Khokha talks to Josh Healey, writer and producer of The North Pole, which premieres online September 12.
'Playing With Fire' Retrospective Pays Tribute to Artist Carlos Almaraz
Some call Mexican-born painter and muralist Carlos Almaraz the John Coltrane of Chicano art. Like Coltrane, his life was cut short before he was able to reach his full potential. He died when he was 48. Now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is showcasing the first comprehensive retrospective of his work in decades. But as Steven Cuevas tells us, Almaraz’s story begins worlds away from the galleries of major museums, in the streets of L.A.’s barrios.
An Undocumented Immigration Attorney Reacts to End of DACA
California is home to more DACA recipients than any other state, and they're still absorbing news this week that President Trump plans to phase out the program that’s given them temporary protection from deportation. We wanted to check back in with a "dreamer" we introduced you to last year, when she became the first undocumented PhD to graduate from UC Merced. She came here as a child from Mexico and worked her way through school picking watermelons, cleaning hotels, and selling produce at flea markets. We talked to her from Chicago, where she’s doing post-doctoral research. Dulce Garcia is an immigration attorney in San Diego and like many of her clients, her future is also uncertain because of her immigration status. In an interview with KPBS’s Marissa Cabrera, she says DACA changed her life and that she’s not going back in the shadows.

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The California Report Magazine Aug 26, 2017

At the California Museum’s New ‘Unity Center,’ Conversations Trump Confrontations
This week the California Museum in Sacramento is celebrating a new exhibit called the Unity Center, and it’s opening the same weekend far-right rallies in Northern California are expected to draw white nationalists. That’s an eerie coincidence, because the idea for the center began nearly 20 years ago when Sacramento was reeling from a string of hate crimes linked to white supremacists. Host Sasha Khokha checked out the exhibit.
Abandoned Bikes Get New Life After Burning Man Festival
It’s that time of year again: Burning Man. The festival began in the ‘80s on a beach in San Francisco. But now, people gather in a desert outside Reno, Nevada. Thousands of “burners” will travel there from all over the world, and many will be bringing along bicycles. After it’s over, most of the festival’s structures and artworks will be ritually burned or packed up and taken away. But that’s not always true of the bikes. Kerry Klein at Valley Public Radio has this story about how some Burning Man bikes end up almost 400 miles away, at a Central Valley middle school.
Family Ties Bind New Albums from Douyé and The Sons of the Soul Revivers
Each month, The California Report's Suzie Racho and our jazz critic Andrew Gilbert get together to talk new releases. They’re here on this week’s show with a couple of albums with strong family ties: Los Angeles singer Douyé’s ‘Daddy Said So’ and ‘Live at Rancho Nicasio’ from The Sons of The Soul Revivers.
The Family Biz: San Jose’s Kitazawa Seed Company
This week we continue our occasional series, Family Biz, about small, family-owned companies in California. The Kitazawa Seed company was founded 100 years ago in San Jose by a Japanese immigrant who sold vegetable seeds to other Japanese Americans hungry for the tastes of home. The business almost went under several times. During World War II, the Kitazawas were locked up in an internment camp. Decades later, the company was saved yet again -- by a different Japanese-American family. But the two families never really talked about what this company represents. That’s what drove Maya Shiroyama, a 61-year-old from Oakland, to finally visit Tom Kitazawa, the last surviving son of the company’s founder. Reporter Alyssa Jeong Perry was there for that meeting, and brings us this story about a historic company that defied the odds.
Pinning Down One Man’s Button Obsession
We’re going to end our show with a treasure hunt. It’s not gold we’re looking for, but rather a button. The kind that say stuff like “Vote for Kennedy” or “I Love California.” While most people don’t give these things a second thought, The California Report’s Ryan Levi introduces us to a man who’s spent the last 50 years seeking out this treasure.

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