The California Report Magazine

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever heard someone calling your name, but then 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 can access 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re reprising an investigation from The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, that recently earned a National 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices