Fifth & Mission

The Colorado Fire, which is burning through parts of Big Sur this week, is a rare winter coastal fire. As the state enters its third year of a historic drought, scientists warn that the window for wildfires has grown and California’s fire season is now longer than it was. Chronicle reporter Kurtis Alexander joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss what Big Sur’s winter wildfire means for the rest of this year’s fire season. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who are the people at the center of the Bay Area's epidemic of drug addiction and fatal overdoses? Columnist Heather Knight discusses her three years following a man named Jeffrey Choate through the ups and downs of painful addiction and hopeful recovery, from his teenage years getting hooked on painkillers to his time as a prison firefighter to his worst days on the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin. Knight tells host Demian Bulwa that Jeffrey's story ended tragically but carries lessons about how we should respond to the crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The debut episode of It's All Political on Fifth and Mission features a conversation between senior political writer Joe Garofoli and Sen. Alex Padilla. The first Latino U.S. senator from California reflects on his first year in the Senate, including the battle over voting rights, progressive policies, and what it's like working in a polarized Senate. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Castro Theatre, San Francisco’s beloved movie palace and an internationally known symbol of the Bay Area LGBTQ community, is getting a major makeover. Will renovations and an expanded slate of programming under new management change this cultural landmark? Host Cecilia Lei discusses the legacy of the theater with Chronicle Arts & Culture reporter Tony Bravo. Plus: How is the community reacting to the news? Events producer Marc Heustis and drag performer Peaches Christ share concerns and hopes for the theater’s future. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Voters will determine the fate of three San Francisco Board of Education commissioners on Feb. 15, and make their picks for the city’s assessor-recorder and in a primary for its newest Assembly member. Education reporter Jill Tucker joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the intense debate over the school board recall, and City Hall reporter Mallory Moench explains how the state Assembly race is highlighting the city's top issues. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know now that fully vaccinated people can avoid serious illness or death from COVID-19, but not a lot is known about whether vaccines prevent long COVID, a condition whose symptoms can range from shortness of breath to psychosis. But as reporter Nanette Asimov tells host Cecilia Lei, researchers are starting to learn how the shot can help prevent and lessen the disease. Plus: A fully vaccinated woman who's had long COVID for months talks about her often-frightening situation. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A bill to change the controversial Ellis Act is making its way through Sacramento. But for some tenants, it's already too late. Reporter Lauren Hepler joins host Dominic Fracassa to discuss what the new bill would do, where it would apply and who could still be left behind. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To honor the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Fifth & Mission offers this encore presentation of the June 18, 2021, episode. Part of an exclusive series of conversations with Black Bay Area leaders, Betty Reid Soskin, Harry Edwards, Rev. Amos Brown and Barbara Rodgers share stories of the past and offer visions for future generations. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod See the project online, with full interviews and videos: sfchronicle.com/voice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last October, the Oakland Unified School District became one of the first in the state to require students ages 12 and older to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Chronicle education reporter Jill Tucker joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss how the mandate is going, and what the stakes are for the district, as well as families who are choosing to not vaccinate their kids. | Unlimited Chronicle access:sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last month, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a police crackdown in the Tenderloin to combat rampant drug use and crime. Chronicle reporter Megan Cassidy checked in with the mayor to see how it's going. She joins host Cecilia Lei to share what's next for the neighborhood. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The omicron variant is breaking daily COVID-19 case records in the Bay Area — and prompting us to reevaluate how we live with the virus. Reporter Catherine Ho joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss why new antiviral pills could be a game changer for the pandemic. Plus: Reporter Erin Allday discusses Sonoma County's new shelter-in-place recommendation and why it isn't a return to the early days of the pandemic. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California's governor unveils his budget proposal, kicking off a months-long process of deciding how the state will spend its money — including a $46 billion surplus. Chronicle reporter Dustin Gardiner and senior political writer Joe Garofoli join host Cecilia Lei to chat about what Newsom's priorities are, and what they say about his leadership as he wraps up his first term this year. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UCSF's Dr. Bob Wachter joins host Cecilia Lei and Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday to offer clarity during this record-breaking omicron surge, including isolation guidelines, advice for parents of kids under 5 and when the pandemic might become endemic. This conversation was recorded live on Twitter Spaces on Jan. 7. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pandemic tension is exploding again in schools — including in San Francisco, where public campuses were down nearly 900 teachers and aides on Thursday. As Chronicle reporter Jill Tucker tells host Demian Bulwa, some of the teachers were sick with COVID-19 while others were agitating for tests, masks and other protections against the surge. Similar fights are being waged in Chicago and other cities, frustrating parents who are worried both about the virus and the growing cost of children missing school. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One year after the Capitol was invaded by angry Trump supporters, America is still assessing the damage. Chronicle reporters Tal Kopan, Joe Garofoli and Matthias Gafni join host Cecilia Lei to discuss how prosecutions are going, what Bay Area lawmakers and California Republicans are feeling, and the growing threat to American democracy. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new law requires the state to dramatically expand its composting abilities and shrink the amount of waste sent to landfills by 2025. Chronicle reporter Chase DiFeliciantonio joins host Cecilia Lei to explain why this is a climate change fight. Plus: Reporter Dustin Gardiner discusses major infrastructure problems in the state’s recycling program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The highly infectious variant is already surpassing the case numbers of last winter. Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about how widespread COVID-19 infections are in the Bay Area, and why there may be a silver lining. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rain and snow storms helped usher in a new year in California, but are they drought busters? Chronicle reporter Kurtis Alexander joins host Cecilia Lei to give updates on the Sierra snowpack, water reservoir levels and what water restrictions may look like in the months ahead. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For our last episode of 2021, hosts Cecilia Lei and Demian Bulwa ask Chronicle journalists and other notable Bay Area figures to answer the question: "What issue or story are you most curious about or interested in following in 2022?" Listen to answers from KQED's Alexis Madrigal, activist Cat Brooks, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff and others. Ending soon! Unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Fifth & Mission will return with new daily episodes on Jan. 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland has seen a bigger jump in its unhoused population than any other Bay Area city. In a Chronicle Live virtual event in November, reporter Kevin Fagan speaks with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and housing advocates Tomiquia Moss and Chelsea Andrews about what can be done to address the city's crisis. The episode is followed by an aftershow about housing presented by Fifth & Mission sponsor the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Immunocompromised" and "immunosuppressed" are familiar terms now, but they are also umbrellas for many different health situations. The CDC estimates that 7 million U.S. adults are moderately to severely immunocompromised. As the U.S. death toll surpasses 800,000 and the omicron variant rises, the most vulnerable in our communities remind us that good health is never a guarantee. Producer Téa Francesca Price shares the pandemic experiences of those with compromised immune systems. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The governor is co-opting the Lone Star State's end run around the courts on abortion to target illegal homemade firearms. As reporter Dustin Gardiner tells host Demian Bulwa, Newsom sees his gambit as an attempt to use a bad tactic for something good. But the ploy faces the same problem the cops know all too well: Ghost guns are all but impossible to trace. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mayor London Breed unveiled a strategy that would significantly boost police presence in S.F.'s Tenderloin district in order to manage increased gun violence and open air drug dealing. Despite promoting alternatives to policing recently, Breed's latest plan indicates an abrupt change in tone. Chronicle reporter Trisha Thadani joins host Cecilia Lei to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UCSF's Dr. Bob Wachter and Dr. Monica Gandhi have turned into Twitter celebrities during the coronavirus pandemic. In this Twitter Spaces conversation with host Cecilia Lei and health reporter Erin Allday, they offer their advice on the omicron variant, mask mandates and how to gather safely during the holidays. They also chat about their differing perspectives on what constitutes safe behavior. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's the question Bay Area communities are answering as money is distributed from the bipartisan infrastructure bill and possibly President Biden's Build Back Better bill. Political correspondent Tal Kopan joins host Demian Bulwa to talk about the big local projects that stand to benefit, from improving train lines and the Golden Gate Bridge to fighting drought and wildfires. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a holiday tradition that brings the flavor of Victorian London to the Cow Palace. But some participants are boycotting over what they say is the parent company's failure to make the fair safe and inclusive for all. LaToya Tooles and Arielle Kesweder join host Cecilia Lei to talk about the problems haunting the event. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What you need to know about the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in Northern California. Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday talks to host Demian Bulwa about how contagious and dangerous it is, and how well vaccinations and boosters protect against it. Allday also discusses the rising number of cases in the Bay Area heading into the holidays, and explains the link between the world's vaccine effort and the fight to better treat HIV. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The small and mighty East Bay city is on track to exceed its regional housing development goals, unlike other cities in the Bay Area. Emeryville has long had a reputation of welcoming development of all kinds, including affordable housing. Chronicle reporter J.K. Dineen joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss why the city is uniquely positioned to do so, and what other cities can learn from its approach. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They've been a lifeline to restaurants, who were thrilled when the city made them permanent. But a slew of new rules might mean many will have to go. Zack Schwab, who owns the Pacific Heights bar the Snug, and Chronicle food reporter Janelle Bitker join Cecilia Lei to talk about it. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fifth & Mission Host Demian Bulwa speaks with columnist Heather Knight and photographer Gabrielle Lurie about their story following a mother's desperate search to find her daughter in San Francisco, and get her clean from fentanyl. Laurie Steves quit her job, left her home in a Seattle suburb and moved to San Francisco with the desperate hope that she would not lose another child to drug addiction, but she had no idea how challenging that process would be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Covid-19 pandemic, worker shortages and even global warming are all factors that have contributed to what is known as 'the supply chain crisis'. Chronicle food reporter Janelle Bitker joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss how local Bay Area restaurants are impacted, and business reporter Carolyn Said explains why supply chain issues might stick around for awhile. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A resident becomes the first case of the latest COVID-19 variant in the United States. Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about what the detection means for the Bay Area, how vaccines hold up against the variant and whether we should change our behavior now that omicron is here. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cities across the Bay Area have been jolted by a spree of retail thefts. On Monday, struggling Oakland cannabis merchants made a plea to city and state leaders for more protection — and a tax break. Chronicle reporter Rachel Swan joins host Cecilia Lei to explain their demands and how conversations about retail crime are becoming increasingly politicized. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the latest coronavirus variant spreads across the globe, Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss why it's worrying health experts and why we should feel hopeful. Plus: Reporter Kellie Hwang shares what five local experts say about staying safe for the rest of the holiday season. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transportation reporter Ricardo Cano joins guest host Heather Knight to answer questions from listeners and readers submitted via the Bay Area Transportation Project Roadmap. As the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency prepares to make limited service restorations in 2022, tune in to hear all about transit, safe streets, car-free JFK Drive and more. You can send more questions to sfchronicle.com/transitFAQ. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since last spring, the city has moved thousands of unhoused residents into hotel rooms as emergency shelter during the pandemic. The program, Project RoomKey, is federally funded and the Biden Administration has extended that funding through April 1. But San Francisco has been closing the shelter-in-place hotels for months, despite protests from homeless advocates. Producer Caron Creighton reports on the city's tactics and the objections activists have to them. Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday joins host Demian Bulwa to talk COVID-19 boosters: Who should be getting them and why is California being aggressive with them? She talks about whether the push for boosters has merit and whether we’re going to need shots every six months — or every year — for life. And what about the fear of a winter surge? What are the latest predictions on what we’ll see in the pandemic in the Bay Area over the next couple of months? Get unlimited Chronicle access for 26 weeks for 99 cents: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle investigative reporters Alexandria Bordas and Cynthia Dizikes lay out their new investigation finding years of problems in a civic and charitable organization that helped launch the careers of numerous politicians. They include Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater and former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli, who has denied more than a dozen women's allegations of sexual assault. The group, Active 20-30, raises money for children, but current and former members describe a culture celebrating binge drinking and enabling sexual violence, in which many people missed or ignored Foppoli's alleged behavior. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mayor London Breed is hoping to acquire a building San Francisco can use to open a site where people can use drugs under medical supervision as early as spring 2022. One roadblock: It's against state and federal law. Reporter Trisha Thadani joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about the plan. Plus: Data reporter Yoohyun Jung talks about The Chronicle's new Overdose Tracker. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the It's All Political podcast, Rep. Jackie Speier talks with The Chronicle's Joe Garofoli, Tal Kopan and Kevin Fagan shortly after announcing that she won't run for reelection in 2022. Speier, who first ran for office after she was wounded in the Jonestown massacre in 1978, has represented San Mateo County and part of San Francisco for decades and has been in Congress since 2008. She reflects on her decision, her career, and what she plans to do next. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mayor Libby Schaaf is announcing a program Tuesday that will give 200 struggling households about $700 a month with no strings attached. The privately funded subsidy comes as Oakland continues to grapple with a sharp increase in unhoused residents during the pandemic. Chronicle reporter Sarah Ravani joins host Cecilia Lei to explain how it may help the city's homelessness crisis. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1968 Fair Housing Act outlawed discriminatory housing covenants, but remnants of redlining provisions linger on housing deeds today. Chronicle reporter Lauren Hepler joins host Cecilia Lei to explain how one affluent Peninsula community, Ladera, started a grassroots campaign to amend them, and the conversations that effort has stirred about present-day housing segregation. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reporter Alexei Koseff joins host Dominic Fracassa to talk about his investigation showing that some state lobbying firms improperly received pandemic-relief loans they weren't eligible for. It’s yet another example of the slapdash rollout of PPP loans during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco was the first large city to implement a vaccine mandate for city employees. Reporter Rachel Swan joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about how the requirement is working with the SFPD. Then, education reporter Jill Tucker discusses school staff vaccination rates in California, and why Gov. Newsom has been uneven in requiring COVID-19 vaccines. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle staff writer Aidin Vaziri joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss why the Bay Area is seeing a jump in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, and engagement reporter Gwendolyn Wu explains why people with mental health illnesses are now eligible for vaccine booster shots. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Supervisor Matt Haney has said he'll introduce a resolution Tuesday apologizing to the Chinese community for the city's history of racism against early immigrants. Reporter Shwanika Narayan joins host Cecilia Lei to explain the history, and community advocates Dennis Wu and Drew Min — who suggested the resolution to Haney — share what it symbolizes. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors say they're pro-housing, but they end up voting down a lot of new construction. Heather Knight and Joe Garofoli join Cecilia Lei to talk about the latest gut check over how the city addresses housing issues, and the implications the controversy is creating in races for statewide office. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle reporter Susie Neilson cuts through an intense San Francisco debate by breaking down exclusive figures showing how the district attorney is charging people for crimes including murder, rape, theft and drug dealing. She tells host Demian Bulwa why rape prosecutions are up and theft cases are down as Boudin seeks to fight off a recall attempt. Then: Reporter Rachel Swan discusses a bike theft in the city that raises questions about how the criminal justice system and residents should respond. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Dave Chapelle is opening his latest tour at San Francisco’s Chase Center, despite receiving fierce criticism for his recent comments about the transgender community. Many say his views are transphobic and harmful at a time of record-breaking anti-trans legislation. Chronicle culture critic Tony Bravo and Aria Sai’d, the executive director of San Francisco’s Transgender District, join host Cecilia Lei to discuss the controversy and whether Chapelle can redeem himself in the eyes of the LGBTQ community. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They grew up there. They owned homes. And they lost everything. The Chronicle spent five months shadowing four longtime Oakland residents to understand how people with deep roots in the community wound up among the city's unhoused. Host Cecilia Lei welcomes reporters Kevin Fagan and Sarah Ravani and photographer Gabrielle Lurie, who share the story of 70-year-old Delbra Taylor, one of the unhoused residents highlighted in this year's Chronicle Homeless Project. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod How to help the homeless: sfchronicle.com/how-to-help Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices