The California Report Magazine

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

How to Save the World: Audio Diaries from a High School Climate Activist Survey after survey shows people who are Gen-Z – born between 1996 and 2012 – consider climate change to be the biggest challenge we’re facing. KCRW’s Caleigh Wells followed one teen climate leader in Los Angeles, Paola Hoffman, for months. She collected audio diaries and captured her speeches at climate strikes, her testimony before the state legislature, and her high school graduation…all while Paola carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. An Investigative Reporter Digs into His Own High School Journalism Teacher’s Troubling Behavior We've brought you several stories about high school students across California who've been speaking out against sexual harassment and abuse from their peers as part of the #MeToo movement. But there's also a disturbing pattern of cases emerging in which teachers are being accused of harassing and grooming high school students, especially girls. Host Sasha Khokha talks about this trend with Matt Drange, a Senior Correspondent at Business Insider. For a recent story, he went back to his own high school in Rosemead in the San Gabriel Valley. His article is titled “He Was My High School Journalism Teacher. Then I Investigated His Relationship With Teenage Girls.” Hidden Gems: The Pirate Ship on Big Bear Lake Set in the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake is a popular tourist destination for Southern California families looking for snow in the winter, and lakeside recreation in the summer –swimming, fishing, and of course boating. For our Hidden Gems series, reporter Amanda Font set sail on a historic vessel that celebrates pirates and pop culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're teaming up with our friends at LAist Studios to share an episode from the new season of their podcast “Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary.” It's the story of Oscar Gomez, a radio DJ and Chicano student leader during a time of explosive anti-immigrant political rhetoric in the early 90s. Some people thought Gomez was going to be the next Cesar Chavez. But then, he died near the UC Santa Barbara campus, under mysterious circumstances. KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez first started digging into Gomez's story with a story we aired back in 2019, when UC Davis awarded Gomez a posthumous degree. The new podcast investigates Gomez's death, his legacy, and how reflecting on Gomez forced Guzman-Lopez to examine his life, activism, and journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ojai Valley’s climate has been ideal for growing certain tree crops. But climate change is making it windier, drier, and hotter there. As Lisa Morehouse tells us, none of that is good for farming. And neither is Ojai’s rising cost of real estate. And this summer, incarcerated youth will help fight California's wildfires. These young men are hacking containment lines with hand tools. It's part of a program within the juvenile justice system meant to provide job training. But as KQED's health correspondent Lesley McClurg explains, it's been all but impossible to find firefighting jobs once they're released. Plus, you can find boba shops all over California. Some stick to the original tea with tapioca balls. Others expand their menus with smoothies, slushes, and coffee. So to start a boba business that stands out takes some creativity. For our series Hidden Gems, Amy Mayer found a surprising specialty at San Bruno's Kiss My Boba. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is full of incredible, unique places. Even for those of us who have lived here all our lives, there are unusual, off-the-beaten-path spots we’ve never even heard of. The California Report Magazine has been exploring some of those places as part of our Hidden Gems series. In 2017, Sasha Khokha hosted this Hidden Gems show from a zipline in Sonoma County, with help from producer Suzie Racho. They soared above the redwoods – with their microphones, headphones and tape recorders. And we're happy to report that all of the places we visited back then, from Nancy's Airport Cafe in Willows to L.A.'s Donut Man, are still around and open to the public. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

For Immigrants Fleeing Gender-Based Violence, a Long Road to Asylum in US California has long tried to be a welcoming place for immigrants. But sometimes our state’s efforts have conflicted with federal policy. Under the Trump administration, the rules changed about just who qualifies for asylum. That has made things rocky for people fleeing persecution based on their gender. KQED’s Immigration Editor Tyche Hendricks has been following a woman who escaped years of abuse in Guatemala, and finally made her way to California. Move Over Monterey? Pacifica Lays Claim to Iconic Jack Cheese We’ve brought you a lot of stories of how iconic California foods and drinks got their start…from the Martini to Rocky Road ice cream. This week, we’re diving into the origin story of Monterey Jack Cheese. You might guess with a name like Monterey Jack that it comes from the beachside town of Monterey. But there are rumors that Monterey Jack was actually created in Pacifica, a foggy town just south of San Francisco. In a story from our friends at Bay Curious, reporter Christopher Beale takes us on a journey to find the true origins of Monterey Jack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'Like You’re on a Different Planet': Visiting the Mysterious Farallon Islands If you look west from San Francisco, when the fog is clear and the light is just right, you might be able to see a cluster of islands jutting out of the ocean like sharp, misshapen teeth. The Farallon Islands sit 27 miles west of San Francisco. They get their name from the Spanish word farallón, which means “sea cliff.” For our series Hidden Gems, The California Report’s Izzy Bloom braved the rough waters to get up close with wildlife a lot of Californians have only ever imagined. Women Share Their Experience of Getting an Abortion Before Roe Made It Legal With abortion rights in jeopardy, many women are sharing their personal stories. For those who terminated pregnancies before it was legal in 1973, the memories can be especially painful. KQED health correspondent Lesley McClurg has the story of three women. Blues Singer Marina Crouse Celebrates a Language She Had to Fight to Learn Fourth-generation Californian Marina Crouse is well known for her powerful voice singing the blues. Now she's got a new album out in Spanish, and it features songs originally sung by Eydie Gorme. Marina Crouse, who's based in the Bay Area city of El Cerrito, has reimagined and re-interpreted Eydie Gorme’s music with her new album, “Canto de mi Corazon.” Crouse talks to host Sasha Khokha about why she decided to honor Eydie Gorme in this way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This spring, the nation’s oldest park ranger, Betty Reid Soskin, hung up her hat and retired, at the age of 100. For years, she led tours of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. She played a major role in helping to establish the park and museum, which honors the women who worked in factories during wartime. You’ve probably heard of Betty Reid Soskin. But what you may not know is that she’s also an activist, author, singer/songwriter, and a poet. Soskin’s life has so many chapters. The documentary duo The Kitchen Sisters bring us this tribute to Betty – a kind of mixtape of stories that drop in on her life of 100 years, gathered and preserved by producers and archivists over the years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Lately we've been trying to bring you more stories about people who are pursuing their passions and finding joy right now. A few months ago, KQED culture reporter Chloe Veltman went out with friends to a restaurant in the Sonoma County town of Guerneville. There was a cover band playing called Suzi’s Last Resort. The group's leader started her showbiz career when she was pushing forty and how, at nearly eighty, she’s still at it. Plus...Turning 21 is a big deal! But for 200,000 young people, turning 21 catapults them into a bizarre legal limbo. That’s what happened to Eti Sinha, and her twin sister, Eva. The Sinha sisters grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. But as they got older, they discovered their right to stay there was conditional, temporary. That’s because they’ve aged out of their parents’ family immigration application. What do you do when circumstances beyond your control threaten to force you out of the only place you’ve ever called home? KQED’s Rachael Myrow of our Silicon Valley Desk tells us how Eti and Eva not only have managed to stay in the US, but help others do the same. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

This week we have two stories about Californians determined to look for threads of hope and connection right now. We’ll hear about a new project to transfer farmland in San Mateo County to the indigenous people whose ancestors lived and thrived there. And we’ll meet a family from Placer County that's on a mission to rescue a young relative in Ukraine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we have stories of home and history. We start with novelist Susan Straight. She's a professor of creative writing at UC Riverside, and also grew up in the city. Her new book, Mecca, is a story of intertwined characters who all have deep roots in the mountains, deserts and canyons near Riverside and Coachella, and who are all in their own ways, looking for a version of the California Dream. And KQED's Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us to San Jose to explain why the city has had five Chinatowns throughout its history, but doesn’t have one today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. 16 people died and at least 20 others were hospitalized. In this episode that originally aired in October 2021, Hall’s investigation shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

This week, Sasha Khokha talks to Neda Toloui-Semnani, an Emmy Award winning writer and producer about her new book, "They Said They Wanted Revolution, A Memoir of My Parents.” It's pieced together from interviews, diaries and archives, and it dives deep into her family's history, both in the U.S. and Iran. Plus, KQED's Chloe Veltman tells us about the rise in bilingual children’s books, especially in Spanish and English. The stories don’t just highlight diverse characters, but also have a strong social justice focus. And we talk to Jessica Martin, the Healdsburg art teacher who helped create PepToc, a hotline featuring encouraging messages from elementary school kids. The project went viral thanks to social media. While Martin thought the line might get 100 calls a month, it's exploded to 11,000 calls an hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

This week Sasha Khokha sits down with author Sabaa Tahir to talk about her latest young adult novel, All My Rage. The book is rooted in her own experiences growing up in her family's 18 room motel as the child of Pakistani immigrants and one of the few South Asians in her rural town. She's an award-winning author and her earlier series, Ember in the Ashes, which had a woman of color hero, hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list. And even though California joined the union as free state back in 1850, that didn’t mean slavery didn’t exist here. As gold rush prospectors flooded the state, enslaved Black people sometimes came too. And even Black people who entered the state free from bondage didn't always stay free. In fact, the passage of California's Fugitive Slave Act in 1852 allowed slave catchers to take free Black people back to slave states, and the law sanctioned the re-enslavement of Blacks freed by their enslavers. In 2020. reporter Asal Ehsanipour brought us the story about the very last slavery case in California -- a story that starts in what was once rural Sacramento. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

If you’ve been watching the Winter Olympics, you’ve probably caught sight of some of the amazing California athletes. In fact, 29 Team USA athletes call California home. That’s more than any other state. Back in 1960, California hosted the winter games near Lake Tahoe. What happened in Tahoe that year left its mark, and not just on future Olympics. Plus, it's cookie season! This time of year, sales of Girl Scout cookies top Oreos and Chips Ahoy. And Girl Scouts aren’t just going door to door anymore. They’ve expanded into online sales. The California Report’s former education reporter Ana Tintocalis used to be a scout, and her nine-year-old daughter Gianna recently became one herself. Ana says while she’s trying to be open-minded about the virtual cookie world, she’s got some questions about it. And, on the outskirts of Oakland’s Chinatown, you can hear the rhythmic pulsing of hot ovens and the steady screech of revolving griddles. Alicia Wong and her mother Jiamin run the Oakland Fortune Factory, where joy and positivity are the not-so-secret-ingredients that have kept their business thriving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer Wajahat Ali's Decision to 'Actively Invest in Joy' “Go back to where you came from.” It’s an insult that unfortunately, many of us have heard. For writer Wajahat Ali, it’s also the title of his new book. It traces his childhood in Fremont, CA, his activism as a UC Berkeley student after 9/11, and the challenges he’s faced as a son, a father, and a writer. It chronicles him almost dying from a heart condition, his young daughter getting cancer, and other family tragedies. But the book is funny. Host Sasha Khokha talks to Ali about why he’s decided to actively invest in joy. Taquero, Farmworker, and Beloved Grandfather Lost to COVID: A Family Remembers 'Papi Tomás' If you’ve tuned in to our show over the last year, you might have heard our series of remembrances of people who’ve died from COVID. And now we’ve hit a grim milestone: more than 80,000 Californians lost to the virus. We hear from the family of a farmworker who lived in Madera, in the San Joaquin Valley. His granddaughter, Madi Bolanos, is a radio reporter with KVPR, the local NPR station in Fresno, and she brings us this tribute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Scientists say that back in the 1980s, millions of monarchs came to California each year. By 2020, that number dropped to fewer than 2,000. Numbers are way up this year, but that doesn't mean they're out of the woods. Reporter Amanda Stupi visited Lake Merritt in Oakland, looking for answers on how to help the butterfly population. Then, California may have some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, but it often struggles to enforce those laws. A new investigation from CalMatters, a nonprofit news outlet covering California policy and politics, finds that the state has failed to take guns away from thousands of domestic abusers. And those failures can have deadly consequences. CalMatters’ Robert Lewis brings us the tragic story of one young mother in the Central Valley. WARNING : This story has graphic descriptions of violence and could be upsetting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Sasha Khokha talks to author Jaime Cortez about his new book of short stories, “Gordo.” The collection is set in the Central Coast farmworker camps he grew up in near Watsonville and San Juan Bautista. By the time he was 10, Cortez was a veteran of the annual garlic and potato harvests. The book, which he calls “semi-autobiographical,” is a journey of queer self-discovery and complex identities that don’t fit the usual stereotypes of Steinbeck country. Plus, this weekend is the Jewish holiday Tu BiShvat, a time to gather around food, and honor trees and the harvest. In February 2020, for her series California Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse joined a Tu BiShvat celebration in Tuolumne County. No one knew then that just weeks later, the COVID pandemic would stop many in-person gatherings like these, and create some tensions so many communities are still navigating. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

These days, It can be a lot harder to find what you might call a “good” job. The kind of job where a person is employed by one company and gets things like health insurance, paid sick days, and at least minimum wage. Today, all kinds of businesses from Uber to janitorial companies argue they’ve come up with something better: “gig work,” in which workers are independent contractors, not employees. But some workers in California are pushing back against the “gig economy. " After Jerry Vasquez started working as a janitor, with a business that promised he’d be his own boss, he began to question just how independent he really was. This week we’re talking with Krissy Clark, host of Marketplace’s documentary podcast “The Uncertain Hour." She features Jerry's story in her special series, “This Thing We Used to Call Employment.” She says what happened to him could have a huge impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and our whole economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding a place to call home is getting increasingly harder here in California. The pandemic has been particularly hard on renters. There’s been a lot of news about the end of the statewide eviction moratorium this fall. But it’s not just evictions. Some renters are also facing another challenge – harassment from their landlords. A growing number of California cities are moving to ban landlords from using aggressive practices to try to push out tenants. Kori Suzuki tells us about one renter’s experience with her landlord – and what it cost her. And, If you’re a parent, you know the fear of dying before your child is old enough to care for themself…But what if your child will always need some extra care, even as an adult? What if there aren’t other family members to help? What if other family members can’t, or won’t, step up? Polly Stryker tells us about a group of parents in San Mateo County who are in the process of creating a self-sustaining community for their adult children called Big Wave. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’ve got a couple of storytelling treats for you: two legends and how they’ve left their mark on our state. In the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, there’s a massive blue mural painted in shades of blue, depicting figures of women among waves and cascading water. In the foreground, a woman stands to the side, a giant tear falling from her eye. “La Llorona’s Sacred Waters” was painted by Bay Area artist Juana Alicia back in 2004. But there are differing versions of her story – both in Mexico and here in California. And what do we do when we're presented with something we can't explain? Do we just chalk it up to the supernatural...or superstition? In this story that first aired in 2018, we explore the mystery of a bizarre 60-foot deep hole that once appeared on Mt. Shasta, and why a guy who works at an old school video store might have some answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

The crash ‘em, smash ‘em motorsport of demolition derby had its heyday in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. These days, derbies are featured at county fairs and racetracks. But once a year, Irwindale Speedway in Los Angeles County hosts an annual all-women derby. Plus, during the pandemic many people tried to figure out new ways to connect to break through the isolation. KQED’s Silicon Valley reporter, Adhiti Bandlamudi, actually started dating someone new during lockdown... and found true love. Finally, we head to a museum in San Francisco's Chinatown that's preserving the neighborhood's glamourous history from the 1930's to 60s. 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. They'll talk with pioneering artist Kip Fulbeck, whose hapa project allowed mixed-race folks to answer the question "What Are You?" in their own voices and hear a conversation between two listeners who share a similar Black/Filipina background, but straddle different generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Last year, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. 16 people died and at least 20 others were hospitalized. Hall’s investigation shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet two families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms, and are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

Over Labor Day weekend 2020, the historic, fast-moving Creek Fire tore through remote wilderness in the Sierra Nevada northeast of Fresno, trapping hundreds of campers at a Mammoth Pool Reservoir. A new podcast from KVPR explores what it takes, in the era of climate change, to launch a successful, large-scale rescue from a massive forest fire. "Escape from Mammoth Pool" gives us an intimate look at the people involved in the rescue effort — survivors who helped save strangers, and National Guard members who said this was scarier than war. We're devoting our whole show this week to sharing parts of the podcast and talking with reporter Kerry Klein. She spent a year interviewing survivors and rescuers, listening to 911 tape, and pouring over government documents and data to piece together what happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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

A year ago this August, some 12,000 lightning strikes exploded across Northern California, igniting more than 585 wildfires. In the Santa Cruz Mountains scattered blazes grew into one massive burning organism — The CZU August Lightning Complex Fire — scorching some 86,000 acres, and destroying over 900 homes and Big Basin Redwoods, California’s first state park. In the aftermath, the storytelling duo The Kitchen Sisters turned their microphones on the region, looking for what was lost and what has been found since lightning struck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we continue the story of Mauricio Hernández, an undocumented immigrant who had an unexpected brush with television fame in the US. A new opportunity draws him back over the border to Mexico, but it comes at a heavy cost to his life. Reporter Levi Bridges brings us the conclusion of his documentary, Mauricio Across the Border. A version of this story was first produced by the KCRW podcast UnFictional. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices