The Bay

People from the Bay Area or those who live here are a proud bunch. But how do you define this magical place? Do you use geography to draw the boundaries? Maybe it’s about sports teams and their fan bases or where BART goes? The hosts of the Bay Curious podcast at KQED explore the many ways we define the Bay Area. Guest: Jessica Placzek, KQED Bay Curious reporter-producer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Resistance. That's been the call of many, including those in the Bay Area who have led the country in resisting President Trump’s attacks on marginalized people and the state’s liberal ideals. We'll hear from those who turned up at the polls, and others who didn't. Guest: Monica Samayoa and Guy Marzorati, KQED reporters See all election results from KQED News. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

School bond measures almost always pass. More money for schools – and by extension, kids – seems like an obvious yes. But less attention is given to how that bond money gets spent and who is on the receiving end. One powerful lobbying group, nicknamed CASH, helps school districts get bonds passed. But critics say the arrangement is short-changing schools – and taxpayers. Guest: Brian Krans, Bay Area-based freelance investigative reporter Read Brian's full story: Cashing in on Education in the East Bay Express. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About 1,000 Google employees walked out of work Thursday and staged a rally on the company's main Mountain View campus. The impetus was a New York Times report published last week about dozens of sexual misconduct allegations and some very large exit packages for accused executives. At the rally, our reporter captured some of what was shared before being asked to leave. Guest: Sam Harnett, KQED Silicon Valley reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gab.ai is like Twitter without any restrictions. Gab is also where a man named Robert Bowers posted comments before allegedly shooting and killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Today: what Silicon Valley is doing to prevent hate speech online. Guest: Rachael Myrow, KQED reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you embarrassed to share your salary? Yeah, a lot of us are. Software engineer Jackie Luo makes the case that we can’t improve the pay gap (for women or people of color) in industries like tech without being more transparent. So, she asked men in tech to share their salaries via Twitter. And thousands did. Guest: Jackie Luo, software engineer at Square Read Jackie's full story "I Know the Salaries of Thousands of Tech Employees" on Medium. And you can read her Tweet thread asking men to share salaries here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A big construction site of new housing went up in flames early Tuesday morning, and people immediately suspected arson. Some Oaklanders say it's motivated by anger against gentrification. The five-alarm fire in West Oakland isn't the first time new construction has burned lately. Guest: Raquel Maria Dillon, KQED News reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We don't often hear about priests abusing their adult parishioners. As advocates renew calls for accountability for priests accused of abusing children, we hear the story of a woman in Santa Clara who came to her priest for help overcoming sex addiction. She says he abused her and sent her to an exorcist. Guest: Matthias Gafni, Bay Area News Group investigative reporter Read the full story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Twitter fight between two of San Francisco's biggest, and wealthiest, tech leaders says a lot about the city's problem with homelessness. Proposition C calls for taxing the city's most profitable companies to double the $300 million already spent on homelessness. You might be surprised by who supports and opposes it. Guest: Guy Marzorati, KQED politics and government reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Carlos and Tommie Smith both won medals in the same track event at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City. On the medal stand, both raised clenched fists in a salute to Black power. The backlash that followed cost them the rest of their running careers and years of difficulty outside of sports. Fifty years later, the prevailing attitude toward their protest has changed, and the movement lives on with other athlete activists like Colin Kaepernick. Guest: Rachael Myrow, KQED Silicon Valley arts reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Power is important. Both the kind that lets us switch on the lights and the kind that gives people the ability to make decisions for us. Tens of thousands of Northern California residents lost power over the weekend after PG&E cut electricity for safety reasons. That comes one year after fires tore through the Northern California and PG&E was blamed -- in part for NOT cutting power. We discuss what's changed in the last year. Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics and government reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland sure has a lot of vacant properties, despite being in the middle of a housing crisis. In November, voters will decide whether the city should tax owners of those properties to help raise millions of dollars for homeless services. But how Measure W defines what 'vacant' means isn’t exactly clear. Guest: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED race and equity reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New homes are popping up in Santa Rosa one year after the Northern California fires. Some are rebuilding in the exact same spots. Others are worried about losing everything again when the next fire comes, including firefighters who live there. They know more than anyone about these risks, so what would a firefighter who lost their home do? Guest: Lauren Sommer, KQED science reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kayla Swaim's home was destroyed a year ago in the Tubbs Fire. She lost everything, including her sense of safety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you ever wish you had a coupon that would give you a discount on what you pay for your house? Proposition 13 is kind of like that. Now Proposition 5 would give homeowners over the age of 55, and a few others, the ability to take their lower property tax rates with them to a new house. It's effectively an extension of Proposition 13. But who pays for that discount? Californians will vote on the measure this November. We at The Bay along with KQED’s Bay Curious podcast explain Proposition 5. Guest: Scott Shafer, senior editor of KQED's California politics and government desk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people run from a fire. Some journalists go toward it. Two reporters at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, winner of a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the North Bay fires, did just that. The Bay host Devin Katayama interviewed those reporters at the live show The Fire Tapes, a joint event with Snap Judgment. Guest: Julie Johnson and Martin Espinoza, Santa Rosa Press Democrat reporters and Pulitzer Prize winners Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First there was one crack. Then two. Now San Francisco's new $2.2 billion Salesforce Transit Center could be shut down for weeks. In an earlier episode, we covered the opening of the transit center (called by some the Grand Central Station of the West). Today, an update on the damage then the original episode about what people hope the transit hub can be. Guests: Chloe Veltman, KQED News reporter, and Dan Brekke, KQED transportation editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Airbnb, caramel macchiatos and luxury dining. Yosemite is starting to feel more and more like the Bay Area. There are more visitors, more traffic, and now a Starbucks. Today, we'll introduce you to Yosemiteland, a podcast from Capital Public Radio that shows us how the national park serving millions of visitors each year is trying to adapt to a changing world. Guest: Ezra David Romero, host of Yosemiteland Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christine Blasey Ford’s and Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony riveted Americans to their screens on Thursday. People gathered in Oakland, Palo Alto, San Francisco and elsewhere to watch the historic Supreme Court nomination hearing. Some of whom were so compelled by what they heard and saw that they told their own stories of sexual assault at protests and rallies across the Bay Area. Guest: Monica Samayoa, KQED News reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a police killing, it can be hard to get a clear picture of what exactly happened. Like the case of Mario Woods, who was shot and killed by San Francisco police in 2015. Nearly three years later, as the civil case is being prepared for trial, we're getting new information in court filings -- including new testimony from the man Woods stabbed a couple hours before he was shot and a new video of the shooting taken from a different perspective. Guest: Alex Emslie, KQED criminal justice reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you use Uber or Lyft in San Francisco, you're no doubt helping to kill the taxi cab industry. But the city didn't help either when it started charging $250,000 for taxi medallions as the ride service companies were getting started. Here's a story about a man who died waiting for a fare and the family that's still paying off his medallion debt. Guest: Sam Harnett, Silicon Valley reporter at KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parents hate it, for sure. But more than that, the schools selection process has created even more segregated student bodies. The goal was the exact opposite. And now there’s a proposal to get off the so-called "lottery" and try something new. Guest: Katrina Schwartz, reporter for KQED's MindShift education blog and podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First came electric scooters. Then came policies to regulate them. The Oakland City Council passed new rules Monday with an eye on equity, requiring that scooters be made accessible in areas of the city that need more transit options and that people with lower incomes be given a discounted rate. Guest: Ali Tadayon, Bay Area News Group reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Silicon Valley got its start with a man who was regarded as a genius and won a Nobel prize. But William Shockley was also a racist and eugenicist who promoted sterilizations of black Americans. A new monument in Mountain View celebrates Shockley's work, but ignores his racist past. Guest: Sam Harnett, KQED Silicon Valley reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your car says a lot about you. It can tell people how much money you have. It can say, "I care about the environment." And while we know that the adoption of electric cars is key to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, most consumers still aren't buying them yet. But the Bay Area's better than most. Guest: Lauren Sommer, KQED science reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine attending a yoga class and finding yourself in a situation where your instructor has violated your personal space by sexually abusing you. Today, we'll hear about KQED's on-going #MeToo series, where women say they've been sexually abused by their yoga instructors. Advisory: Some accounts of sexual abuse in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable. Guest: Miranda Leitsinger, reporter and KQED engagement producer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Iris Kuo knows what it feels like to forget her wallet and still walk out of a fancy department store with a bag full of merchandise: It feels white. Experts predict that some ethnically Asian and Latino people are going through a sociological process of "whitening." Kuo talks about how this hurts many Asian Americans and how transferring white privilege ignores the core issue itself: the very existence of white supremacy in our value system. Guest: Iris Kuo, author of "The Whitening of Asian Americans" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We can't freakin' believe it! The Bay has produced 100 episodes that represent the moment in time the Bay Area's going through. Today, Devin, Erika and Vinnee (The Bay team) talk about some of their favorite episode moments of the last six months. Guest: Devin Katayama, Erika Aguilar and Vinnee Tong, The Bay producers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fentanyl is partly to blame for a rise in *drug* overdose deaths, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control report. Officials say the synthetic and undetectable opioid Fentanyl is being mixed into all types of drugs from heroin to cocaine and more. A KQED journalist talks about how, aside from policy solutions, the stigma around certain drugs can be the biggest barrier to recovery for addicts. Guest: John Sepulvado, co-host of The California Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump may have been the catalyst for some California women seeking political office, but their campaigns are driven by local issues. The KQED special series The Long Run is about women who are running for office this November. Today, we’ll hear about why some Bay Area candidates decided to get involved and how they’re being treated on the campaign trail. Guest: Katie Orr, KQED politics and government reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know San Francisco cherishes its pristine water source, which comes from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir located in Yosemite. The Bay recently told you about how the city has something in common with more conservative parts of the state over their water rights. Today, KQED's Bay Curious podcast digs further into Hetch Hetchy and brings us on the journey water takes from the reservoir all the way back to the Bay Area. The Bay will be back with all new episodes on Sept. 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A teacher visit at home can be intimating - for everyone. Today on The Bay, we're featuring the latest episode of KQED's education podcast MindShift, which launched its third season this week. The show is tackling the intangible elements of academic success: emotional safety, trust and relationships. Guest: Katrina Schwartz, co-host of KQED's MindShift podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LuPaulette Taylor has worked for decades at McClymonds High School in West Oakland. McClymonds is a school where only around 15 percent of teachers stay on for a third year. So what keeps Taylor around? This week The Bay is taking off to go over listener feedback. Today’s episode is brought to you with help from KQED’s Qed Up podcast and education reporter Vanessa Rancaño. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine fighting the largest wildfire in California history and Verizon says you'd have to upgrade your plan if you want faster internet to get your maps and documents. That's what happened to a couple of Santa Clara County firefighters that were helping battle the Mendocino Complex fire in July. The story is now part of a federal lawsuit on net neutrality regulations. Guest: Jon Brodkin, Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Midriffs, pajamas, and ball caps are all allowed this year at Alameda schools. A group of middle school students worked for three years to change a dress code that they say unfairly targeted girls. Now, decisions on what boys and girls can and cannot wear will be left to students and their parents instead of school staff. Guest: Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle K-12 education reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Green bins, blue bins, black bins. San Francisco is known for being super progressive when it comes to the environment. But some say the city's behind the curve on this one thing: water. This week state water officials discuss a revolutionary new plan to restore water to rivers, which could curtail the primary -- and pristine -- water source used by millions of Bay Area residents. Guest: Lauren Sommer, KQED science reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mansions. A multimillion-dollar wedding. Sexy characters in swank settings. The release of Crazy Rich Asians is a cultural event onscreen and off. More so for Asians and Asian-Americans, who make up about a quarter of the Bay Area's population. What does the success of Crazy Rich Asians means to them? Guest: Ricky Yean, writer of "Asian-Americans Are Cultural Orphans (aka I hope Crazy Rich Asians isn’t a flop)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There aren't that many people riding buses into San Francisco's new $2 billion transbay terminal. At least not when compared to the city's first terminal that opened in 1939. So how will the new transit hub that opened for service this week be different? Guest: Dan Brekke, KQED transportation editor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kelly Johnson’s last days were his final act. He was a Bay Area musician, a dancer, a vaudeville act -- a performer for life. Johnson used the End of Life Option Act that has been legal in California since June 2016. The decision to end one's life has always been controversial. But not for Johnson who choreographed every last little detail to the end. Guest: Arash Malekzadeh, director of "A Dance With Death: The Final Days of Kelly Johnson" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fire drip torches, dozers, and prevailing winds – just some of the tools firefighters are using to battle the blazes engulfing California. With fires that start earlier in the year, spark up overnight, and are more extreme in their size and speed, firefighters have to adjust to the new conditions. We follow a reporter who embeds with a CalFire strike unit working a corner of the Ranch Fire. It's one of the fires that make up the Mendocino Complex, the largest fire in California’s history. Guest: Sukey Lewis, KQED News reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If California voters approve Prop. 10 in November, the debate over rent control will continue. Read more from Guy Marzorati on that debate in the Bay Area. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Waiting at the DMV can be hell, but you gotta go. Over the last year, wait times at Bay Area DMVs increased 48 percent. We take a trip to the DMV (it's more fun than it sounds) and look at what's causing these delays and what's being done to improve them. Bryan Anderson, Sacramento Bee political reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some people in the Bay Area paid hundreds of dollars to see a speech by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the new liberal Democratic star from New York. She stumped in the Mission to raise money for her Congressional campaign, and also to rally what some are calling a movement of Democratic Socialists. Guest: Julian Mark, reporter for Mission Local Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the first black "Peanuts" cartoon character turns 50, marking the first time that Charlie Brown and Franklin met. It all started with a schoolteacher and mother of three who wrote a letter to Charles Schulz. She encouraged him to let black students see themselves in the comic strip. He hesitated at first but then relented. Guest: Cesar Gallegos, former archivist for the Charles M. Schulz Museum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can big tech companies call themselves progressive? One of Silicon Valley's biggest CEOs says he has identified as progressive. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says he felt conflicted once about whether to charge people to use the company's platform. His answer has something to do with Walt Disney, Bob Dylan and Steve Jobs. Guest: Sam Harnett, KQED Silicon Valley reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you work in tech? Have you bought a home recently? Use Uber? Postmates? And you live in San Francisco? Well then, you might be part of the so-called Outer Party, one of the four informal "castes" in San Francisco that a Wired writer believes makes up the City by the Bay. It's similar to Orwell's 1984, but the modern-day techie version. Guest: Antonio García Martínez, author of "Chaos Monkeys" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one knows how to run a protest like Bay Area activists. In fact, faith leaders and Black Lives Matter activists from the Bay brought their strategies to the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego to protest family separation at a detention facility for parents who've had their children taken from them. One recent protest highlighted a surprising tactical twist: how to use white people and their privilege to sway more people to join their resistance. Guest: John Sepulvado, host of KQED's The California Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It cost $1.3 billion for the federal government to clean up after the fires that devastated Northern California last October. Through the process, one worker died, others were injured, and many homeowners still have giant holes where their houses used to be. A KQED investigation shows how contractors were encouraged to move quickly and neglected safety. And now, the government needs to create a new program to refill holes that were over-dug in the process. Guest: Sukey Lewis, KQED criminal justice reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland is having a moment on the big screen. This weekend Blindspotting will be released, the third movie this year featuring the city that is drawing national attention. It follows the releases of Black Panther and Sorry to Bother You earlier in 2018. All can be traced back to the legacy and richness of black culture in The Town. Guest: Sandhya Dirks, KQED race and equity reporter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A journalist at the East Bay Express wrote about Napa’s BottleRock music festival and criticized it for being by and for white people. Then the paper's publisher took down the stories and used the N-word in a meeting. Today, the story of Express reporter Azucena Rasilla and what led publisher Steve Buel to step down. Guest: Sara Hossaini, KQED reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices