Fifth & Mission

The financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has BART on the ropes. But reporter Rachel Swan explains that the election for key board seats may be decided by another issue that has long haunted the agency: Police reform. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Assemblyman David Chiu of San Francisco has a plan to stem the wave of evictions expected to hit California in September, but just over two weeks to get it through the Legislature. He's also deeply concerned about the state's severely backed-up unemployment office, which owes more than 1 million people money. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Developers of two of the most promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates are seeking volunteers in San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Clara County. Health reporter Erin Allday talks about how the studies work, how close we are to a real vaccine, and how some big challenges lie ahead. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Covering your face is good, but new research suggests that how you do it is important. Many help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but some are not as effective as others. Reporter Aidin Vaziri has the details. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com Related episode: Do Face Shields Work? (Aug. 5, 2020) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The former San Francisco DA and California attorney general is in position to make history. Political reporters Tal Kopan and Joe Garofoli break down why Biden wants Harris as his running mate and how her past will factor into the campaign ahead. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A data glitch and a problematic public statement by Gov. Gavin Newsom prompts a changing of the guard in Sacramento, where Dr. Sonia Angell suddenly resigned as the state's top public health officer. Health reporter Erin Allday talks about the fallout. | Full Coronavirus coverage: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the coronavirus pandemic, our ever-worsening screen time obsession has increased. From working, going to school, exercising, socializing and recreational time, nearly everything involves a device. Chronicle reporter Sam Whiting interviewed a Stanford professor who runs a screen use lab about the phenomena and what it’s doing to our brains and social lives. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is entering its worst months for wildfires, and the danger is only exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. What do Bay Area residents need to know about the conditions on the ground, PG&E power outages and socially distant evacuations? Reporter J.D. Morris has the answers. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that their companies are allowing them to work remotely for the duration, tech workers are fleeing high-priced San Francisco. What does that mean for the city's future as an internationally important tech center? Jennifer Stojkovic, executive director of sf.citi, a Chamber of Commerce-style group for tech companies, expects some companies will move their headquarters out of San Francisco — and take crucial tax dollars with them. | Coronavirus coverage: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why can't we defeat the pandemic by allowing the coronavirus to infect the majority of the population? Health reporter Erin Allday breaks down the science behind the idea, how it factors into the outbreaks at San Quentin prison and in Sweden, and how it would perpetuate racial disparities. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just as Bay Area residents got used to wearing masks, a new coronavirus accessory has cropped up: face shields. Reporter Aidin Vaziri explains their pluses and minuses. He also discusses how a data glitch might be causing an undercounting of cases around California. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One in seven Californians can't make their rent, and a freeze on state courts processing evictions during the coronavirus crisis is about to end. Reporter Alexei Koseff describes two different proposals to keep people in their homes during the current economic crisis. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus pandemic is battering restaurants like few other industries. Some are moving outdoors and switching menus, others are laying off staff or closing altogether. Justin Phillips, co-host of the Extra Spicy podcast, wrote about how restaurants are adjusting in The Throughline. He goes inside the industry and its uncertain future. | Get unlimited Chronicle coverage: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Civil rights attorney John Burris' clients have included Rodney King and the family of Oscar Grant. He talks about the George Floyd killing, the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police movements, and his current work on controversial police brutality cases in Oakland and Vallejo. | Get unlimited Chronicle coverage: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five Oakland City Council seats are up for grabs in November, and with them the potential to reshape the city’s political leadership. Reporter Rachel Swan talks about the most closely watched races, and why defunding the police has emerged as a central theme throughout them. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus has killed more than 150,000 Americans — more than World War I or Vietnam. But scientists haven't come to a consensus on how likely it is that anyone infected will die. Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday talks about the complex numbers. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle photographer Gabrielle Lurie and reporter Sarah Ravani talk about the year they spent following Theo, who's been homeless his whole life, and his mom, Naomi, as they navigate the streets, parks and temporary housing sites of Berkeley. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jarvis Masters, a condemned inmate and COVID-19 sufferer speaking from San Quentin death row, talks with reporter Jason Fagone about what he calls the "incompetence" that led the prison to become California's worst coronavirus hot spot. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod See also: Masters' Dear Governor podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated an ongoing loss of arts infrastructure in the Bay Area — studios, galleries, performance spaces, working artists who can afford the cost of living. But, as Samantha Nobles-Block writes in The Throughline, the disruption, along with the energy of the racial justice protest movement, could be offering an opportunity to create accessible spaces, support communities, and make art. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A wedding was quietly held at SS Peter & Paul's Catholic Church in San Francisco, even after church leaders were warned not to break coronavirus rules. Now the bride, the groom and some guests have tested positive. Reporter Matthias Gafni talks about his exclusive story. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid the state's sputtering reopening efforts, child care providers across are confronting a crushing choice: Stay closed and risk financial ruin, or reopen at a reduced capacity and expose children and staff to the coronavirus. Reporter Rachel Swan talks about whether they can survive. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faced with the prospect of having to again stick their kids in front of screens for distance learning, some parents of means are cobbling together an alternative. Education reporter Jill Tucker talks about the implications for everyone. | Full coronavirus coverage: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Giants and A’s are starting their seasons under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic — with a shortened schedule, new rules and empty stadiums. Giants beat writer Henry Schulman, host of the Giants Splash podcast, and A's beat writer Susan Slusser, host of A's Plus, talk about what fans can expect, and about manager Gabe Kapler and two Giants players kneeling for the national anthem. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Janine Paiste-Ponder, a 59-year-old nurse treating COVID-19 patients, died on July 17 after contracting the disease herself. The coronavirus has killed more than 100 health care workers in California. While the public hails them as heroes, reporter Mallory Moench says health care workers say they feel more like sacrificial lambs as they cry out for hospital execs to do more to protect them. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfhcronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As images of Homeland Security agents in camouflage attacking peaceful protesters in Portland go viral, President Trump has threatened to send federal forces to the Bay Area. Political reporter Joe Garofoli talks about the reaction and the election-year politics driving the story. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The idea of putting, say, $1,000 a month in the hands of every American is gaining currency amid the economic shocks of the coronavirus pandemic. Reporter Jason Fagone, who wrote about UBI for The Throughline, talks about his exploration of what it could mean not only to Bay Area residents who've been pinched by inequality, but to the cities where they live. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People are drinking more, which is a boon for California wineries, but the industry's also struggling with shutdown orders as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. Wine critic Esther Mobley talks about the confusion at tasting rooms and the efforts to protect vineyard workers. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pressed by the killing of George Floyd and demonstrations for racial justice, Berkeley is promising big changes designed to reduce bias. But as reporter Brett Simpson and columnist Otis Taylor Jr. explain, the real work begins now. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Tanya Peterson had to feed 2,000 animals with no ticket revenue coming in since March because of the coronavirus shutdown. She's delighted the zoo is open again, and she says she can tell the animals are too. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Under the strange governance system that rules the Peninsula train system, two San Francisco supervisors were able to kill a sales tax measure to save it. Caltrain has lost 95% of its riders during the COVID-19 pandemic and says it may have to shut down without the cash infusion. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Newsom has demanded that a host of activities come to a halt — including nail and hair salons, indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms — as coronavirus cases surge around the state. Health reporter Erin Allday explains why California has taken a U-turn in its reopening plans and what’s likely to come next. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting kids back to school is tops on President Trump's agenda, but California districts are increasingly opting for distance learning. Parents and teachers are anxious and upset about the slow plans for how to make this fall work. Education reporter Jill Tucker talks about the latest in a rapidly changing situation. | Coronavirus coverage: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bicyclists, pedestrians and public transit fans have long dreamed of major changes to the unsafe streets of San Francisco. In The Throughline, the Chronicle's new section about life in the post-coronavirus-pandemic Bay Area, Peter Hartlaub writes about how those dreams could come true. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a bad trend at UC Berkeley and elsewhere: An outbreak of coronavirus cases tied to fraternity parties. The surge is threatening colleges' plans to reopen for the fall. Reporter Ron Kroichick talks about what campuses will look like, and how many students might opt out entirely. | Full coronavirus coverage: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sports columnist Ann Killion says that given the rough start to training camp — with not enough coronavirus tests and slow results — she's skeptical MLB will be able to launch its season in two weeks, or keep it going for 60 games if so. Plus: New activism among athletes, and cuts at Stanford. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco's love-it-or-hate it transit system is in major trouble with few people willing to step aboard during the coronavirus pandemic and revenue plunging. The city will probably lose 40 of its 68 bus lines permanently — and don't expect to ride the cable cars until there's a vaccine. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heklina, one of the city’s best-known drag queens, talks about how bars and nightclubs can eventually reopen safely and why she’s angry bar owners in other parts of the state and country are acting so irresponsibly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will coronavirus worsen homelessness or provide an opportunity to get people housed? Reporter Kevin Fagan and host Demian Bulwa kick off the SF Homeless Project, a weeklong Chronicle special report that digs deep into the crisis in an effort to find solutions. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chronicle's outdoors columnist talks about how he landed his plum job after having an epiphany while covering a Raiders-Packers game in Green Bay. Plus: He tells campfire tales about the wildest adventures in his storied career, including an encounter with a crazed wild cow. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As demonstrations in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd have begun to cool, Sheryl Davis, executive director of San Francisco's Human Rights Commission, has been surveying people of color to ask what they want to see happen next when it comes to police reform and racial justice. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Given great power during the coronavirus pandemic, local public health officers are dealing with great scrutiny — and sometimes intimidation and threats. Some have quit. Staff writer Carolyn Said on what's behind this anger and how the health officers are responding. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rising COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area and around the country are forcing communities to pause, and in some cases backtrack, on reopening plans. Health reporter Erin Allday on what's behind the surge and what you should do to stay safe. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Rogers, CEO of Goodwill San Francisco, describes having to close all of his shops and furlough the majority of his 600 employees after learning his nonprofit was too big to qualify for federal help. Also, donation drop-offs have reopened and have seen a surge in goods from city residents who've spent the spring deep cleaning. | Coronavirus coverage: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Features editor Sarah Feldberg discusses how airlines are responding and what travelers need to know to be safe from coronavirus if they have to board a plane, or if they want to for pleasure travel. Feldberg also talks about her own thorny decision whether to fly across the country to visit family with her baby daughter. | Full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 12,000 residents of the state tested positive for the coronavirus in just two days this week, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to caution Californians to continue being careful or the state's opening could be rolled back. Reporter Peter Fimrite explains. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

State prison officials dealt with a coronavirus outbreak at Chino State Prison by transferring untested inmates to San Quentin, and now the virus is ripping through the Marin County facility. Reporters Megan Cassidy and Jason Fagone detail the scenario and why Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing so little to solve it. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the removal of Christopher Columbus outside Coit Tower to the toppling of Father Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key and Ulysses S. Grant in Golden Gate Park, the city's not-so-progressive statues are sparking controversy. Plus: a listen to TotalSF's tribute to legendary Chronicle science writer David Perlman, who died this week at the age of 101. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle food writers Soleil Ho and Justin Phillips are hosts of The Chronicle's new food and culture podcast, Extra Spicy. They talk with Heather Knight about why they're launching a food podcast in these troubled times, and they give a sneak peak into what listeners can expect. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle Editor in Chief and Fifth & Mission co-host Audrey Cooper says farewell as she heads off for her new job as editor in chief at WNYC in New York. She and co-host Heather Knight welcome Demian Bulwa back to the show. He preceded Heather behind the Fifth & Mission mic, and now he'll succeed Audrey. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reporters Peter Hartlaub and Annie Vainshtein play excerpts from and talk about their project Surviving the Virus, in which they interviewed people who have recovered from COVID-19. Plus: Rafael Arias, the subject of Matthias Gafni's story I Was Ready to Die, reads from his coronavirus diary. | Get full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices