The California Report Magazine

California has grand plans to turn a stretch of abandoned railroad tracks into 300 miles of walking and biking trails, connecting the rolling hills of Marin County with the redwood forests near Eureka in Northern Humboldt. If completed, the Great Redwood Trail could become the longest rail-trail in the nation. But some Indigenous communities and other groups are not on board. Reporter Sam Anderson explores how this grand idea has resurfaced the painful and complicated history behind the original railroad tracks that were built more than a century ago. This episode originally aired on October 18, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been a few months since wildfires devastated Los Angeles, and some people are just now starting the long process of repairing and rebuilding their homes. But mixed into the soot and ash can be some hidden dangers, including lead, asbestos, arsenic and lithium. These toxic materials were used to build those homes and got blown across LA. Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have been investigating this invisible danger, testing more than 50 homes for these contaminants. And one of those homes belongs to the lead scientist behind the study. Reporter Caroline Champlin has more.  And our series on Californians and resilience continues with twenty-five-year-old Brittianna Robinson. She experienced sexual abuse and trafficking as a child. Robinson credits her faith in God and support from mentors and her church for helping her find a path forward. Today, she uses her lived experience to help other commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) as an advocate on the Los Angeles County Youth Commission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than 80 years, the Zorthian Ranch – nestled among the oak trees and steep canyons of Altadena – has been a home for artists, musicians and creatives seeking a different way of life. At this working ranch, people also tend animals and live close to the land, often growing their own food and generating their own energy. But it was almost completely destroyed by the Eaton Fire, and more than twenty people were displaced. Recent resident and audio reporter Sam Anderson interviewed members of this community, who explain the unique history of the ranch, and share in their own words and sounds what it means to them. Artists are often the people in our communities who bring people together in ways that are creative, spontaneous, and surprising. That's true in the East Bay neighborhood of Point Richmond, where a local artist has created dozens of miniature fairy houses brimming with the personality of their imaginary inhabitants. In this story from the Bay Curious podcast, KQED's Pauline Bartolone set out to explore these hidden treasures, and meet the person who created them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This weekend, Muslims around California will celebrate Eid al Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan. People observing the holy month have been fasting from dawn to dusk. And although fasting is a big part of Ramadan, so is the food people eat to break the fast each night. Small shops like Besan's International Market in San Bruno are key to observing Ramadan. Not only do they supply the ingredients for the holiday, they also connect people from all ethnicities who follow Islam. Lisa Morehouse and Leenah Bassouni spent time reporting at Besan's Market for the series California Foodways.   Then reporter Steven Cuevas takes us to Altadena. Tens of thousands of people evacuated the city during the Eaton Fire. But some people took a huge risk and never left, and tried to protect their homes and neighborhoods. They lived a totally different experience of the fire and its aftermath. Steven brings us this profile of two residents from opposite ends of Altadena, who made that choice to stay behind.   And finally we go to southeast San Diego, where for decades, a dusty grey wall sat at the top of Division Street. Right where it curves upwards, away from the freeway, and down into the mostly residential neighborhood of Paradise Hills. Three high school friends painted a mural here 30 years ago, and as KPBS's Kori Suzuki explains, they've reunited to bring it back to life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month marks the anniversary of the resolution of a landmark student strike at San Francisco State, on March 21, 1969. Patrick Salaver helped organize the protests, demanding the university better reflect and support students of color and admit more non-white students. The protests also led to the creation of the nation's first-ever college of ethnic studies – a template for colleges and universities across the country. Salaver's niece Nicole didn't didn't know about her uncle's activism until she went to San Francisco State in the early 2000s. She was shocked to see his name in one of her textbooks, and now, she wants the world to know his story. Today's show is an excerpt from Inheriting, a podcast from our friends at LAist Studios and the NPR Network. The show, hosted by Emily Kwong, is centered on the stories of Asian American and Pacific Islander families. It explores how one event in history can ripple through generations.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking a long train ride on the California Zephyr. The Amtrak line winds through Emeryville, Sacramento, Truckee and then heads east toward Chicago. Parts of the trip are spectacularly beautiful, with scenes of the Rocky Mountains, Donner Lake and the Truckee River. This route also holds so much rich California history – a portion of it is close to the first transcontinental railroad. Starting in the late 1800s, the railroad developed in parallel with the state's agriculture business, food industries, and dining traditions. It also exploited land and workers, spurring civil rights activism. For her series CA Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse explores some of the little-known history of the connection between the railroad and food in our state.  This episode was produced with support from the Food and Environment Reporting Network, and California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of National Endowment for the Humanities. Big thanks also go to the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, the library and archives at the California State Railroad Museum, and Rachel Reinhard. This episode orgiinally aired on December 20, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many Californians, winter means snow. But alongside the skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers awaiting the latest weather forecasts, there's another group of snow obsessives in our state: snow scientists. They measure California's snowpack every day in order to better predict our statewide water supply for the coming year. Some of the most cutting-edge work in this field is being done by a tiny lab hidden in a rustic cabin in the Tahoe National Forest, and it's a place that also houses a big secret. KQED's Carly Severn headed up there to see it for herself. And we meet the San Diego band Al Akhbar. The band combines instrumentation and rhythms of the Middle East with western jazz. And they're not only preserving their Middle Eastern musical traditions, but also reinventing them. As The California Report Magazine's intern Hussain Khan explains, they're bringing audiences from diverse backgrounds together with their unique sound.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of the homes lost in the Eaton Fire included fireplaces with distinctive hearths made of handmade tiles. These Arts and Crafts-era tiles were created by local artist Ernest Batchelder a century ago. For many Altadenans, these tiles are all that is left of their homes. Now a group of volunteers is working quickly to save as many of these tiles as possible before bulldozers clear the lots. They hope they can preserve history and provide their neighbors with a piece of the homes they've lost. And as part of our new series about resilience, we're asking Californians who've been through difficult times about what resilience means to them. This week, host Sasha Khokha talks to author and poet Alicia Partnoy, Professor Emerita of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola Marymount University, and former vice chair of Amnesty International. In the 1970s, she became one of Argentina's “disappeared” for being a youth activist. She was held and tortured by the military for five months, and later jailed for over two years without being charged for a crime. She's spent her career writing about exile and loss, as well as survival and courage.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘Buzzkill' Examines the Crisis of Disappearing Honeybees and Other Pollinators  The Central Valley's almond industry is hosting what some beekeepers call the Super Bowl. Commercial beekeepers from across the country take an estimated 90% of the nation's honeybees and load them into trucks in time to make a narrow pollination window for those Central Valley almond trees. But it's gotten harder and harder to keep those bees alive. All over the world, bees, butterflies, moths and flies are disappearing. Sasha Khokha sat down with Teresa Cotsirilos, host of Buzzkill, a new podcast that investigates the pollinator crisis. California Composers: Meet Lulu, Ambient Bird Composers Lulu and Wendy Reid make music in collaboration with the natural world. They don't speak the same language, but composing and performing music together is how they connect. For our series on California Composers, reporter Julia Haney went to one of the duo's performances in in Berkeley.  The Amateur Photographers Documenting Life In the Imperial Valley Juan Rodelo has spent decades as firefighter and turned to photography to help deal with stress and exhaustion. He appreciated the beautiful landscapes of the Imperial Valley but felt like there he didn't see those images enough. So in 2024, he started a Facebook group called Imperial Valley Photography to find others documenting the area. The group gained 15,000 followers in less than a year. As part of KPBS's ongoing series on volunteers, reporter Kori Suzuki caught up with Juan on an evening visit to the Salton Sea.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

February 19 is the Day of Remembrance, the anniversary of when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Some survivors of those prison camps are feeling like the rhetoric about immigrants and mass deportations today is hitting too close to home. In response, some survivors are mobilizing to protect vulnerable immigrants. Reporter Cecilia Lei spoke to a group of them in the Bay Area about how they're fighting to keep history from repeating itself.  One of the members of that Japanese American survivors group is author and Satsuki Ina. Nine months into her parents' marriage, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their life was totally upended when, along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans, they were sent to incarceration camps. After unsuccessfully fighting for their civil rights to be restored, they renounced their American citizenship. That meant the US government branded them as “enemy aliens.” Ina was born in a prison camp at Tule Lake, but didn't know much about that difficult chapter in her parents' life. Then she discovered a trove of letters that they sent to each other while they were separated in different camps. Now, at close to 80 years old, Ina – who spent most of her career as a trauma therapist — has published a memoir about how her parents' relationship survived prison camps, resistance and separation. The Poet and the Silk Girl is a rare first-person account of a generation-altering period in Japanese American history. Sasha Khokha sat down with Satsuki Ina to learn more about her parents' story and how it shaped the course of Ina's own life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following the Eaton Fire, tens of thousands of people are suspended in a state of shock and grief, even as they have to make life-changing decisions about where to live now, and whether to rebuild. KQED's Rachael Myrow shares the story of one mother and daughter navigating this new normal. Plus we visit the Santa Cruz studio of Kishi Bashi. The musician and composer defies genre, and it's hard even for his fans to describe his work – yet they feel deeply connected to his music. For our series on California Composers, we sent reporter Lusen Mendel to one of his recent shows to see if they could figure it out. And we take a trip to the Central Coast to hear the band Loz Rayoz de Guadalupe. The group is part of a growing and thriving norteño music scene there. The band's frontman, Chencho Perez, is just 19 years old. Reporter Benjamin Purper says Perez is part of a new generation of norteño musicians embracing and evolving this traditional Mexican sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's show, we visit the Freedom Community Clinic which provides free herbal remedies, massage services and healing workshops at their two apothecaries in Oakland. And just outside the city, they recently launched the Ancestral Healing Farm, where people of color are encouraged to learn about ancestral practices and reconnect with the land. The goal of founder Dr. Bernie Lim is to reach people who might mistrust the mainstream medical system because of racism or cultural incompetency. KQED Arts & Culture Editor Nastia Voynovskaya brings us this profile. Plus a new documentary profiles Sally Gearhart, a radical lesbian feminist whose fight for equality and change sparked movements that still continue today. But unlike her friend and contemporary, Harvey Milk, there are no airport terminals or schools named after her.  Instead, she has been largely erased from history. Deborah Craig, a filmmaker and professor at San Francisco State University, wanted to change that. Craig spoke about her film, Sally!, with The California Report Magazine's Bianca Taylor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People affected by the wildfires in Los Angeles are only just starting to get a handle on what it's going to mean to rebuild their lives and mend their broken communities. And it's going to take a long time. We spend time with neighbors in Altadena and Pasadena who are coming together and relying on each other. One of those neighbors is Steven Cuevas. He's The California Report's former LA Bureau Chief, and he lives in Altadena. Thankfully his house survived, but he's been talking to folks in his community every day since the fire broke out about healing, helping and moving forward.   And one of the first executive orders Donald Trump signed this week could radically transform who gets to be a U.S. citizen. It would deny birthright citizenship to anyone who doesn't have at least one parent who is a citizen or a lawful permanent resident. But California is fighting back. State Attorney General Rob Bonta filed our state's first lawsuit against the new administration to challenge that order. And on Thursday, a federal judge in Washington State temporarily froze that executive order. But that's only short-term, and the legal battle between the states and the federal government will continue. The government recognizing that all babies born in the U.S. are U.S. citizens runs deep in our history. One hundred and twenty-nine years ago, a Chinese American man who was born in San Francisco took the U.S. government to court after officials denied him entry into his own country. His name was Wong Kim Ark, and as KQED's Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí explains, his victory back in 1898 might make it much harder for Trump to win this legal battle.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It will take months to clean up all the debris from the Palisades and Eaton fires. Some community members in Pasadena decided to start the work immediately, led by a group of day laborers who saw a need and rushed to fill it. KCRW's Megan Jamerson reports. And even as as restaurants burned down and Los Angeles residents fled the Palisades and Eaton fires, LA's food community was stepping up to feed people in need. Those efforts continue, as KCRW's “Good Food” producer Elina Shatkin explains. Scores of people in Los Angeles have turned out to volunteer to help people in their communities. And it turns out, science shows we humans are actually wired for kindness, connection and empathy. Dr. Jamil Zaki runs the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, and has studied the need for this kind of connection. He's a professor of psychology and the author of “Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness.” As a part of a new series we're launching on resilience, Dr. Zaki sat down with host Sasha Khokha to explain the data-driven reasons why we shouldn't be cynical,  even in really hard times.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are not enough words to describe the impact of the wildfires in Los Angeles – one of the most destructive and costly firestorms in our state's history. Whether we've lost our homes, are fleeing for safety, or desperately worried about people we love, so many people in California are grieving. Tens of thousands of residents have evacuated, leaving everything behind. We bring you some voices of people who are living this nightmare right now. Plus, we talk with the California Report's Saul Gonzalez about Pacific Palisades, and journalist Steven Cuevas about the videos he's been making to document the destruction in his own neighborhood in Altadena. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We start in Los Angeles with emerging composter Derrick Skye, whose fascination with the cosmos is woven into his music. When Skye began composing “Prism, Cycles and Leaps,” he watched YouTube videos about Jupiter and was captivated by the way the planet moved at different speeds. As a mixed race person, he resonates with musical traditions from across the globe and blends genres and forms. Music from India, the Balkans and West Africa form the building blocks of Sky's music today. Reporter Clare Wiley tells us about Skye's musical process and what he hopes people will take away from his work. Then, we're traveling up to the Bay Area to meet another California composer. Destiny Muhammad was nine years old when she first saw Harpo Marx playing the harp in an episode of “I Love Lucy.” She immediately knew she wanted to play the mesmerizing instrument. It took over two decades for the Oakland-based artist to start learning how to play the harp, but it set her on a path to pursue her unique “Celtic to Coltrane” genre, as she calls it. Today, Muhammad works as a composer, teacher and performer in the Bay Area, and writes original scores for her group, The Destiny Muhammad Trio. KQED's Bianca Taylor brings us Muhammad's story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elsie Saldaña still gets nervous on stage, almost six decades after she first started performing as a drag king in the Central Valley. She's the country's oldest drag king, and her first performance was in 1965 at Red Robin, a gay bar in her hometown. She performed Ritchie Valens' “La Bamba” and was instantly hooked. Right then and there, El Daña, her stage name, was born. Saldaña still graces the stage occasionally, but doesn't perform as much as she used to. But she still feels like the stage is where she belongs. This week we're re-airing a profile of El Daña from reporter Celeste Hamilton Dennis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're taking a long train ride on the California Zephyr. The Amtrak line winds through Emeryville, Sacramento, Truckee and then heads east toward Chicago. Parts of the trip are spectacularly beautiful, with scenes of the Rocky Mountains, Donner Lake and the Truckee River. This route also holds so much rich California history – a portion of it is close to the first transcontinental railroad. Starting in the late 1800s, the railroad developed in parallel with the state's agriculture business, food industries, and dining traditions. It also exploited land and workers, spurring civil rights activism. For her series CA Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse explores some of the little-known history of the connection between the railroad and food in our state.  This week's episode was produced with support from the Food and Environment Reporting Network, and California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of National Endowment for the Humanities. Big thanks also go to the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, the library and archives at the California State Railroad Museum, and Rachel Reinhard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amika Mota felt like she lost everything the day she was sentenced to prison for nearly a decade. But as her world burned down, she learned how to fight fire from inside Central California Women's Facility (CCWF), one of the largest women's prisons in the world. Mota and her team of incarcerated firefighters responded to calls from inside the prison and out in the community, including the homes of their correctional officers. Anna Sussman tells Mota's story in "Fire Escape" a new podcast series from Snap Studios at KQED and Wondery.  The California Report Magazine's Sasha Khokha spoke with Sussman about Mota's story, the experiences of incarcerated firefighters in California, and what she hopes people will learn from the series.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

KQED's Alex Hall has spent years reporting on the criminal case of Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, formerly known as Father Antonio to his Central Valley parish. For a decade, Castañeda drew in hundreds of followers from Fresno's Latino Community to his Spanish-language congregation, earning him the nickname, “el padrecito que hace milagros (the priest who performs miracles). But parishioners started coming forward, mostly adult men, accusing the priest of sexually assaulting them during healing rituals. When he was arrested in 2019, Castañeda was looking at the possibility of serving 23 1/2 years in prison. Since this story first aired in 2020, Castañeda pleaded no contest to nine counts of sexual battery and one count of attempt to dissuade a witness. The rest of the charges were dropped. In June, he was sentenced to 365 days in the Fresno County Jail and five years of probation. With credit for time served, he is expected to be released in late December after serving a total of six months. We'll hear Hall's audio documentary that first aired in 2020, an update on Castañeda's case and how the survivors feel about his recent sentencing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you're still munching on your Thanksgiving leftovers. Or maybe you're too stuffed to even think about eating. But before you push away from the table, we're bringing you two of our favorite stories from over the years about…food! We start in East San José, at a scrappy strip mall anchored by a Vietnamese sandwich, or “bánh mì” shop doesn't look like much. But the corner of Burdette Dr. and S. King Rd is actually a California transportation hub. Every morning by 8 AM, there's a steady stream of riders lining up by a spotless white tour coach with no visible markings. They're here for the daily run of the Xe Đò Hoàng, which means “Royal Coach” in Vietnamese. But those in the know call it the “Bánh Mì Bus.” Hop on, enjoy your delicious sandwich, and listen to this story from Reporter Christine Nguyen that we first brought you in October 2022 about food, community…and murder for hire!  Then, we jet up north to the town of Susanville in Lassen County–mostly known for its two state prisons. But the town is also home to a chef cooking up gourmet meals, inspired by his childhood in the Pacific Island nation of Palau. Rice and short-ribs, poke, and toasted angel food cake are just some of the culinary treats Brennan Temol whips up in the community college cafeteria. In August 2022, for her series California Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse took us on a food tour with Temol. She learned how the Palauan chef used his skills to elevate cafeteria food and found a way to bring a taste of home to a high desert community that in some ways, isn't so different from his homeland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This winter marks six years since Jennifer Porter and her family survived the deadly Camp Fire, a disaster that claimed 85 lives and burned over 150,000 acres. While Porter was lucky enough to drive through the flames that day, the fire set her on a new, harrowing path: building a new life for herself while healing from trauma. KQED's Pauline Bartolone checked in with Porter along various stages of her recovery –a journey that continues every day.  Then, we head south to the Still Life Cafe, a French kitchen with North African roots in the Eastern Sierra. The cafe's many five-star reviews warn customers in a rush: come for a leisurely lunch, or hit the gas station across the street. As part of her series California Foodways, reporter Lisa Morehouse traveled to the town of Independence, to break bread with Malika Adjaouad Patron, the cafe's owner and chef. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While homelessness in the Golden State may feel like an intractable crisis, some unhoused people are able to get back on their feet–and find solutions that last. KQED's health correspondent Lesley McClurg profiled two women in the Bay Area who spent years on the streets, and turned their lives around when it felt like there was no way out. Chantel Hernandez-Coleman overcame decades of addiction, and is now saving lives. Vera Salido has finally found safety and peace after a catastrophic event forever altered her world.  Then, KQED's MindShift brings us the story of the Monarch School, in San Diego County, which has transformed unhoused families' lives, and offers hope to vulnerable students. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a momentous election this week, Californians are trying to make sense of what a second Trump presidency could mean for the Golden State. Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic Party leaders are fighting to protect the state's progressive values on immigration, climate change and reproductive rights ahead of Trump's inauguration. Host Sasha Khokha spoke with KQED's political correspondent Marisa Lagos to discuss California's future in a second Trump term. Plus, in times of monumental political change, artists can sometimes help us make sense of the world, express big feelings and connect to one another. Oakland's Kev Choice's boundary-breaking work is doing just that. Choice is a classically trained pianist and accomplished hip-hop artist who has worked for decades to bridge the gap between those two distinct worlds. His diverse body of work includes songs about Oakland, racial injustice, activism and politics. KQED Arts and Culture editor Nastia Voynovskaya spent time with Choice to discuss his musical evolution, and his impact on the future of music in Oakland and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Film Explores the Power of Latino Voters in California — and Battleground States Latinos make up the second largest voting group in the upcoming 2024 election, totaling 32 million eligible voters nationwide. But Latinos are not a monolith, and both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been courting Latino voters on the campaign trail. Andrés Cediel is a filmmaker and a journalism professor at UC Berkeley. He's also a producer of VOCES: Latino Vote 2024, a new PBS documentary project that explores the vast interests and priorities of Latino voters across the country. The California Report Magazine's Sasha Khokha spoke with Cediel about how California's Latino voters could tip the balance.   New ‘Land of Gold' Film Digs Deep Into California's Troubled Gold Rush Origins Who were the real people who inspired the opera “Girls of the Golden West?” A new documentary film takes a peek behind the curtain of a San Francisco performance about Black and Latina women during the California Gold Rush. In conversation with The California Report Magazine's Sasha Khokha, the film's director, John Else shares the true story of a mob-fueled lynching of a Mexican-American woman, and the lessons that can be learned from it today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six-year-old Sumaya Kaur Sidibe beamed with pride when she watched Kamala Harris become Vice President in 2021. She identified with Harris in a big way: she is also mixed race – Indian and Black – and she's from Oakland. We produced a story about the family preparing for Kamala Harris to take office back in 2021. But four years later, Sumaya has complicated feelings about the vice president's politics and the way she talks about her own biracial identity. Host Sasha Khokha checks back in with the Sidibe-Singh family about how they are feeling about this upcoming presidential election, and the questions they have for Kamala Harris. And Incarcerated people can't vote in this upcoming election, but their lives may be directly impacted by the results. Our friends at KALW's Uncuffed podcast bring you a conversation between currently and formerly incarcerated journalists at San Quentin: Ryan Pagan, Will Harris, Anthony Gomez and Thanh Tran. They discuss statewide ballot measures propositions 6 and 36. If passed, Proposition 6 would end involuntary servitude in prison, and Proposition 36 would increase penalties for certain theft and drug crimes.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California has grand plans to turn a stretch of abandoned railroad tracks into 300 miles of walking and biking trails, connecting the rolling hills of Marin County with the redwood forests near Eureka in Northern Humboldt. If completed, the Great Redwood Trail could become the longest rail-trail in the nation. But some Indigenous communities and other groups are not on board. Reporter Sam Anderson explores how this grand idea has resurfaced the painful and complicated history behind the original railroad tracks that were built more than a century ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moonlight Pulido is a mother and a caretaker for her own mom in Los Angeles. But she couldn't have more children after a prison doctor gave her an involuntary hysterectomy while she was incarcerated in 2005. She's one of hundreds of living survivors of state-sponsored sterilization.   Here in California, more than 20,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in state prisons, homes and hospitals under eugenics laws. People classified as “unfit to reproduce” were disproportionately poor women, people of color, and people with disabilities. Even though California's  eugenics laws were repealed in 1979, people who were incarcerated were still forcibly sterilized as recently as 2013. In 2021, the state passed a historic reparations law to make amends for this shameful chapter in our history. For more than a year, reporter Cayla Mihalovich has been investigating how the law has been implemented. It was intended to compensate survivors for their suffering. But roughly 75% of applicants have been denied reparations. Plus. our friends at KPBS in San Diego have a new series highlighting volunteers who devote their time in unique and unexpected ways. Today, we meet Jillian Shea at the Mesa Rim Climbing Center. She's an athlete who lost a hand at birth. Now she's introducing newcomers to the sport of adaptive climbing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might think of Palm Springs as a wealthy town filled with luxury hotels and swimming pools. But it's also a place shaped by brutal racism. People who lived in Section 13, a once a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood, were pushed off their land. Their homes were bulldozed and burned down. Now, The California Report's Madi Bolanos. talked to some of the former residents who are now fighting for reparations. And we continue our Hidden Gems series with a visit to Mineral King. It's located in the southern part of Sequoia National Park. Mineral King's remote location means it gets fewer visitors than other parts of the park. But the campers and backpackers that make the trek are rewarded with a spectacular mountain range with rushing waterfalls. There are only a handful of buildings here, including some historic wooden cabins that belong to a few families who've been here long before this was a national park. One of those cabins belongs to Laile Di Silvestro's family. Her connection to Mineral King goes back to the 1870s. Today, she's an archeologist, and she's looking for the stories she didn't hear growing up. The California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha hiked Mineral King with Di Silvestro to learn about some surprising trail blazers in the California gold rush. And the discrimination some people faced during those boom times. 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. Although it only existed for a few years, seeing these performances and speakers left a profound impression on one young member of the Rainbow Sign community: Kamala Harris. As Harris takes center stage as a presidential candidate, and tries to tell the nation her story, we revisit our story from January 2022 about the Rainbow Sign and its influence on her as a child growing up in Berkeley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In California, music and winemaking seem to go together. Visit any of the state's countless wineries and you can hear all kinds of music, from jazz and folk, to classical and Americana. But one artist on the Central Coast takes that connection especially seriously: he spent years making an album full of sounds from a vineyard. Reporter Benjamin Purper takes us to San Luis Obispo to learn more about a sonic journey through a Central Coast wine harvest. And we'll meet one of California's most celebrated cheese-makers, Soyoung Scanlan. But years ago, before she'd ever really eaten cheese, Soyoung had another love. Growing up in South Korea, she trained in classical piano. So every cheese she's made over the last 25 years has a musical name and connection. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visited the cheesemaker in the hills outside Petaluma. We end today with a story that comes to us from KPBS in San Diego. They recently launched a new series, sharing stories of volunteers. We'll be bringing you some of those profiles, starting with Ron Peterson, a guide at the Tijuana River Estuary. After losing his sight, Ron now leads a very unique kind of tour.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this election year, the issue of immigration has become especially contentious. As one of the four states that share a border with Mexico, California has often tried to lead compassionately, especially when it comes to supporting immigrant children who come here alone. So far this year, nearly 10,000 immigrant youth have made new homes in California. Hundreds of them have benefitted from a unique program that provides legal help and guides them as they adjust to life in a new country. Reporter Lauren DeLaunay Miller brings us the story of one high school student whose life was transformed by the program, and tells us why he believes this program needs to stick around for good. Plus, we visit San Francisco's Buena Vista Horace Mann school. By day, it's a Spanish immersion school for students from kindergarten to 8th grade. But by night, it transforms into something completely unique in the city: a homeless shelter for families with children enrolled in the school district. The shelter provides a hot meal, shower and a place to sleep in the gym or auditorium. To boost their morale, parents at the shelter are able to cook a meal together twice a month. KQED's Daisy Nguyen takes us into the kitchen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, as wildfires continue to burn across our state, we're re-airing a story from Erin Baldassari, KQED's Senior Editor for Housing Affordability. Erin's reporting took her back to Nevada County, where she grew up.  She wanted to learn how people there are adapting to the rising risk of wildfires due to climate change. And she started by asking folks there the same question she's been asking herself: What do you do if climate change makes the place you love an increasingly dangerous place to live?  Erin's story comes to us from the KQED podcast, Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How the Black Panthers Helped Shape U.S. Schools Back in the 1960s, people were challenging the status quo in a lot of ways, including how schools should be run. At the same time, the Black Power movement was gaining traction, when the Black Panther Party formed in Oakland in 1966. The FBI considered them dangerous becuase of their belief in  Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense against police brutality. But the Black Panthers also changed schools in ways we can still see today. This week, we're bringing you an episode from our friends at KQED's Mindshift podcast about how one high school in Oakland is still continuing the legacy of community schools.   Taiko is Helping Keep Japanese American Culture Alive in the Central Valley The Central Valley town of Ballico sits in the middle of acres of almond orchards. It's the kind of place you might miss as you're driving past. But it's got a rich history: some of the first farmers who settled here came from Japan. And these days, while the folks who live here come from many backgrounds, if you visit the local school, you can still hear the influence of Japanese American culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oakland Composer and Harpist Destiny Muhammad Has Always Charted Her Own Path Sitting on stage with her harp resting in her lap, Destiny Muhammad repeats this mantra: “Excellence, Beauty, and Success.” It's part mic-check and part pump-up. When she first started learning to play the harp, the Oakland-based composer and musician used to suffer from stage fright. Now, more than 30 years later, she commands the stage with a presence fit for a woman who calls herself the “sound sculptress.” As part of our series on California composers, KQED's Bianca Taylor brings us her story. The Pesky (But Lovable) Pine Native to the Northern CA Coast California is home to a lot of iconic trees, including giant sequoias, windswept Monterey cypresses, and Joshua trees. The bishop pine doesn't have that kind of celebrity status. But if you live on the Point Reyes Peninsula in west Marin County you're all too familiar with it. These indigenous trees are so well-suited to growing here, that to locals they're notorious pests, not because of how easily they grow, but because of how they die. The California Report's intern Lusen Mendel takes us to Tomales Bay State Park to meet someone who's made it his mission to deal with the pesky and strangely loveable, pines. Meeting Monarch the Grizzly Bear If you spend much time in the Sierra, you've probably been warned to look out for black bears. But there's another kind of bear that once roamed our state, one that's got a much bigger – and fiercer – reputation: the California grizzly. It's been 100 years since the extinction of the grizzly, but you can see one of the last of its kind, a bear named Monarch, up close at a new exhibit at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. Host Sasha Khokha paid a visit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nine months into Satsuki Ina's parents' marriage, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their life was totally upended when, along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans, they were sent to incarceration camps. After unsuccessfully fighting for their civil rights to be restored, they renounced their American citizenship. That meant the US government branded them as “enemy aliens.” Ina was born in a prison camp at Tule Lake, but didn't know much about that difficult chapter in her parents' life. Then she discovered a trove of letters that they sent to each other while they were separated in different camps. Now, at close to 80 years old, Ina – who spent most of her career as a trauma therapist — is publishing a memoir about how her parents' relationship survived prison camps, resistance and separation. Using letters, diary entries, haikus written by her father, and photographs, The Poet and the Silk Girl is a rare first-person account of a generation-altering period in Japanese American history. Sasha Khokha sat down with Satsuki Ina to learn more about her parents' story and how it shaped the course of Ina's own life. This episode first aired in March 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a recent afternoon, a group of mechanics gathered at a lowrider show. This isn't Los Angeles – a city where lowrider culture has deep roots – it's more than a 1,000 miles away in Mexico City. For decades, Mexican immigrants have headed north and shaped the culture of California's cities. But now, a growing number of their children and grandchildren are leaving California and moving to Mexico. Reporter Levi Bridges met up with some of them in Mexico City to learn why they made the move. Plus, in the Central Valley, you often see signs from the California Farm Water Coalition that say “Food grows where water flows." The system of canals and reservoirs that feeds farmland there is one of the biggest in the world. But irrigation canals are also places where people dump unwanted objects, like toilets, furniture or shopping carts. It's Big Valley Divers job to clean and maintain the canals and the dams that feeds farmland, For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse spent a day in Colusa County with Big Valley Divers  to learn all about the unusual job that keeps the water flowing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some composers picture colors or abstract shapes when they're working on a new piece. Derrick Skye thinks about space. His fascination with the cosmos is threaded throughout his compositions, including the latest in his series "Prisms, Cycles, Leaps." For our series on California composers. reporter Clare Wiley sat down with the Los Angeles-based Skye to hear how he brings his otherworldly ideas to life and how living in multicultural LA has influenced him.   Plus, we go to the oldest 100-mile ultramarathon in the world: The Western States Endurance Run. This grueling race starts near Lake Tahoe and winds along old mining trails in the Sierra, drops into the canyons of the American River, and finishes outside Sacramento. Thousands of people are on the waitlist to attempt it, but just a fraction make it to the starting line. The runners who do compete are overwhelmingly white, even though the race is trying to include more BIPOC athletes. KQED's Mark Nieto got to watch this year's race at the end of June and he followed one competitor who's inspiring other runners of color.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the presidential race now in uncharted territory, Kamala Harris' candidacy is putting her under a microscope. Not just her political career but everything about her background, including her mixed race heritage.  Last year, we brought you a series inspired in part by Kamala Harris's visibility as a mixed race person when she became Vice President. Mixed! Stories of Mixed Race Californians explored both the complexity, and the joy of growing up multiracial. And California is the place to tell these stories from because the state is home to one of the largest multi-racial populations in the U.S,  This week, we're bringing back the first episode from that series, which features the voices and stories of listeners from across the state.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caregivers don't get a lot of recognition despite doing hard and essential work. This week, stories about caregiving at all phases of life and how hard it can be for some families to provide that care themselves or even find professional help. Systemic Neglect: How Staffing Shortages In Nursing Homes Leave Patients Trapped in Hospitals When taking care of a loved one becomes too hard, families often look to nursing homes for help. But finding long term care in California s not easy right now. The industry took a big hit during the pandemic and many facilities are still recovering from staffing shortages. Some patients with complex diagnoses are waiting weeks, months and even years for a bed. KQED health correspondent Lesley McClurg has the story of one man in the Bay Area who has tried everything to find care for his wife. A Caregiving Son and a Mom with Alzheimer's Find a Musical Connection What happens when the parent-child role is reversed? In caregiving, this kind of role reversal is common. And it's what happened to Rob Fordyce. After his 85-year-old mom, Susan, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease two years ago, Rob moved back into his childhood home to take care of her. And despite Susan's advancing disease, Rob found a surprising way for the two of them to connect, through music. Cayla Mihalovich has their story. How An LA Child Care Influencer Became A Resource For Providers Across The Country Child care happens in a lot of different settings: a school, or a center, or a church. What you may not know is that more than a quarter of California's child care facilities are actually in private homes. And for those providers, it can be a real challenge to juggle caregiving with running a small business. Tonya Mohammad knows this firsthand and understands the myriad of issues that child care providers face. So she's built a following via social media by sharing her three decades of experience taking care of infants and toddlers in Los Angeles. LAist's Mariana Dale brings us her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's show: For the past 13 years, DJ Ramzi has been sharing his deep knowledge and passion for Arabic music with listeners all over the world through his radio show and podcast, “Arabology.” But Ramzi Salti is not just a deejay, he's also an advanced lecturer in the Arabic program at Stanford University. His goal is to expose people to the wide variety of Arabic music, and along the way, push back against the stereotypes and demonization of Arabs and Arab-Americans. KQED's culture reporter Ariana Proehl visited him at Stanford and brings us this story. And we meet musician Hana Vu. She just released her second album and started a North American tour that will end in her hometown of Los Angeles in August. Critics have called her an “an indie-pop prodigy” who's “old beyond her years.” That's because the prolific musician, who started recording and playing shows in her teens, is just 24. Guest host Bianca Taylor talked with Hana Vu about her new album “Romanticism,” and why she chose touring over music school. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This holiday weekend, we're replaying stories from our Hidden Gems series about out-of-the-way secret spots in California - places you might want to visit on a road trip! How This Oakland Business Gives Mannequins New Life (Almost) You might not notice them, but mannequins can be found everywhere from the tiniest boutiques to Target. But what happens to these non-biodegradable figures when stores go out of business or styles change? In California, many of them end up at Mannequin Madness, an Oakland warehouse run by a woman whose mission is to keep mannequins out of the landfill. This Stretch of the Mojave Desert Plays the ‘Lone Ranger' Theme There's a road in the western Mojave Desert that's supposed to sound like the "William Tell Overture" by Rossini. Honda built the road back in 2008 as part of a TV commercial for the Civic. But it's seen better days. Reporter Clare Wiley headed out to Lancaster to make some music with her tires. Fort Bragg's Larry Spring Museum Preserves Creativity in California The tiny Larry Spring Museum is dedicated to a Mendocino County TV repairman who lived in Fort Bragg most of his life. He was an amateur physicist, a keen observer of nature and the items he left behind reveal his deep curiosity about the world. KQED's Katrina Schwartz takes us to this whimsical museum to learn more about the man behind it. This episode originally aired in February 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices