Crosscurrents

We hear why SF Mayor Lurie may get everything he is pushing for this election season. Then, writer Isabel Allende reflects on decades of storytelling.

We pull back the curtain on the money shaping San Francisco politics.

Writer Isabel Allende reflects on decades of storytelling.

We hear how Oakland students reignited an environmental equity debate, and we meet a Stanford public health doctor, turned journalist, turned stand up comedian.

Caltrans is studying whether to lift a decades-old truck ban on I-580. Residents on both sides agree: shifting the pollution isn't enough.

We meet a Stanford public health doctor, turned journalist, turned stand up comedian.

How teens can avoid falling for social media content that's harmful. Then, we meet an Oakland artist turned farmer. 

How teens can avoid falling for social media content that's harmful. 

We meet the Oakland artist who put down his guitar, and picked up a shovel.

Elections are approaching quickly and there is a lot to unpack. Plus, we are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

Get the lowdown on your San Francisco ballot for the November 3rd election. 

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and hearing how one mariachi ensemble is reframing tradition.

Valkyries All-Star Gabby Williams was born in Nevada, but the Bay has become her new home and she's not sitting courtside.

Privacy concerns are growing in The Bay Area and around the nation, surrounding Flock cameras. Today, the debates and questions about how this technology is being used. Then, we get lost and find our way on San Francisco's Crosstown trail.

We get lost and find our way on San Francisco's Crosstown trail.

Privacy concerns are growing in The Bay Area and around the nation, surrounding Flock cameras. We hear the debates and questions about how this technology is being used. 

Cities around the world are passing or considering laws that restrict social media. We'll hear what teenagers think and how they are choosing to get involved. Plus, we hand the mic to the Inaugural Alameda County Youth Poet Laureate.

We hear about the new women's tackle football team that's touched down in Oakland. Plus, the latest from the world of women's professional sports. 

On today's episode of Uncuffed, we hear how Producers at San Quentin, Solano and the California Institution for Women, find family in unexpected places. 

Public transportation is on the minds of teenagers as potential BART cuts loom and a campaign works to address harassment on transit. 

BART currently faces a three hundred million dollar deficit. Tbh producer Lukas Smith talked with Bay Area teens to see how potential cuts would affect them.

 A campaign in the South Bay works to address rider harassment on public transportation.

In Oakland, two musicians are inspired by the urban ecology of the Town. Then, we go to Mill Valley, where a play uses humor to discuss alcoholism.

In Oakland, the borders between the natural and human worlds offer a new way of making music.

A play that uses comedy and compassion to address alcoholism is coming to the Marin Theater.

The Federal Government is now forcing universities to limit the rights of their international students. Today, we hear a conversation about how this affects UC Berkeley. Then, love is in the air at the A.C.T. Strand Theater in San Francisco. Plus we hear the latest from the world of women's professional sports with BOUNCE!

Bay Area college students have been back in school for less than a month now. At UC Berkeley, immigration is coming up as part of the back to school experience for many.Last month Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a memo to the university that impacted thousands of their students here on visas. ICE sent a warning to the school letting it know that it risked losing government approval to take foreign students, if it did not close a temporary work authorization program called Course Credit Curricular Practical Training, or CPT.This program allowed foreign students to gain experience working for hi-tech businesses related to their field of study. Now UC Berkeley has indefinitely paused applications for the CPT work permit. Ayah Alshiekhah is news editor for The Daily Californian. She helped break the story, and spoke to KALW's news editor Sunni Khalid to explain how this is impacting students. 

The stage show “Crushing” is all about love- and it's returning to San Francisco at the A.C.T. Strand Theater. In the show, 10 artists step up to the mic and share their stories of love- not just the beautiful, but also the complicated, and sometimes messy experiences. Its executive producer is Rosario Dawson. KALW's Jenee Darden spoke to the creatives behind “Crushing”- Carly Steyer is the writer and director, and Megan Calfas is the playwright. Here's an excerpt from their conversation.

For the past few weeks, we've been bringing you episodes of BOUNCE, KALW's sports podcast that's following the rise of women's professional sports in the Bay. The Golden State Valkyries are on their way to the WNBA playoffs, but right now, some of them are in Berlin. Taking part in the FIBA World Cup - the international women's Basketball tournament. So today, we thought to go worldwide, with a global women's sports update from the host of Bounce, Erin Lim. 

Humans have an innate attraction to water... But why? Today, we hear from Bay Area author, Bonnie Tsui, about 'Why We Swim.' Then, how free swim lessons are connecting kids with water. It's a special episode, hosted by KALW's water-loving Molly Blair Salyer, all about water and what draws us to it.

tbh is KALW's podcast that's made by, for, and about teenagers and it's back! In the first episode of the newest season we're going underground to meet the people pushing a new counterculture through rap music.

The WNBA has a reputation for embracing LGBTQ+ players and fans… but that wasn't always the case. Today, the history behind the WNBA's “glass closet era.” But first, we hear a theory on why the Golden State Valkyries have had such a successful second season.

Companies are using your browsing history, and other information about you, to customize the prices you see online. Today, how companies use your data to decide what you pay… and what can be done about it. Then, we go inside the oldest suicide prevention hotline in the country. 

If you've ever wondered why the same flight, hotel room, or grocery item seems to cost a different amount depending on who's buying it, you're not imagining things. Companies are using the data we expose online, including our location, our browsing habits, even assumptions about our income, to decide what prices to charge us. It's called surveillance pricing, and it's becoming more common across the retail world – from airlines to grocery chains right here in the Bay Area.KALW's personal finance reporter Francesca Fenzi found out just how personal, and hard to escape, this practice really is.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. In San Francisco, at an undisclosed location, in a non-descript building, people have been saving lives with compassionate listening for years. This place, is the home of the oldest suicide hotline in the country. KALW's Hana Baba takes us on a tour in this piece produced by reporters Kristal Raheem and Demetrius Johnson.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a powerful organizing force in the Bay Area, and it all got its start more than 90 years ago. Today, the little known history of San Francisco's “Bloody Thursday.” Then, we peer through the lens of more than a century of Muni photography.

Over the years, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, or ILWU, has thrown their weight behind many causes. Like in 2020, they shut down the ports entirely, to support the Black Lives Matter movement and protest the police murder of George Floyd.The ILWU is a powerful organizing force in the Bay Area. And the union actually got its start with a massive general strike and a deadly run-in with police over 90 years ago, right here in San Francisco.And just in time for Labor Day, we're bringing you this latest episode of The Public Works series. Reporter Sheryl Kaskowitz dives into the history of the ILWU and a radical labor leader who isn't a household name today.

San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency, or SFMTA, is 100% unionized. The 6,000 public servants who work with the agency are represented by 18 different unions. SFMTA itself is just 27 years old — It was established by voter mandate in 1999 — but there are decades of transportation history behind its formation. And right now, that history is on display at San Francisco City Hall. The exhibit is called “Moving San Francisco.” It features images from over a century of the Municipal Railway, better known as MUNI. Our transportation reporter Zain Iqbal has this story on why seeing the history of Muni through photography feels important right now.

The Berkeley Rose Garden is a beautiful place, but did you know it was built during FDR's “New Deal” in the ‘30s? The New Deal is still all around us today — if you know where to look. Plus, we get an update on the upcoming trial around Oakland's corruption scandal.

The federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her former live-in partner, and a prominent local father-son team of businessmen, appears set to begin in October. A recent trove of court documents has shed new light on the case prosecutors plan to present. Nathan Gartrell is a reporter for the East Bay Times, who reports on the courts and local law enforcement. He spoke recently with KALW's news editor Sunni Khalid.

The current administration has made it their  goal to shrink the federal government. But many of the impacted agencies were actually created from a belief in a more expansive role for the federal government — an idea that can be traced back to the 1930s, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's “New Deal” programs. The focus back then was to help the country recover from the Great Depression, but the New Deal is still all around us today. To bring that back to light, KALW has created a series called ‘The Public Works.' It's all about understanding where the New Deal came from and why it still matters here in the Bay Area.  So far, the series has covered Public art, public space, and preserving folk music. In this one, reporter Sheryl Kaskowitz learns about the secret messages that the New Deal has left behind.

Today, we're rolling it way back to meet the first professional women's basketball players in the Bay. It's Bay Area women's basketball history with the living legends of the San Francisco Pioneers.