Podcasts about KALW

A treasured Black arts and culture space, in the Fillmore-Western Addition neighborhood, is closing for a few years. The African American Art & Culture Complex has served the community for 37 years. They're closing so the city can do seismic renovation on the building. But what happens when an important community space has to shut down, even temporarily Ashley Smiley, who goes by her last name, is the program coordinator for the African American Art and Culture Complex. Smiley spoke with KALW's Jenee Darden on the “The Sights + Sounds Show” about the center's longtime impact and what this closure means. 

For more than 25 years, the City of San Francisco has used an approach called “harm reduction” to help people struggling with substance abuse. It's common in California. The key tenet of harm reduction is: meet people where they're at, so that they can manage their substance use and stay alive. That can involve giving people clean supplies to consume drugs.But the harm reduction approach is at the heart of a conflict. On the one side are some San Francisco elected officials, business owners, and residents who associate it with open air drug use and crime. On the other side are nonprofit organizations that say harm reduction services save lives. KALW's Stafford Hemmer has the story. 

The Public Media Journalists Association, or PMJA, just announced their 2026 winners and KALW is proud to have taken three awards, so today we bring the second place winner for Enterprise Journalism, our story about how unhoused community members find shelter and support at SFO.

Revisiting The Gay Life is a new 12-episode series from KALW's Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF's LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.

Ahead of the Jordan-Algeria World Cup match, KALW's Hana Baba headed over to a favorite community store—South Berkeley Meat and Produce. People visit from all over the state to shop for nostalgic items from Algeria. It's got a large butcher counter with all kinds of halal meat cuts, including a staple Algerian sausage called Merguez.

“When We Exhale” is a new anthology collection of poetry, essays, and other writings, where Black women reflect on rest, grief, intimacy, cultural memory and healing. Jenee Darden, is the host of the KALW's Sights and Sounds show recently welcomed the authors behind the anthology to our live event space in downtown SF. It was a night of poetry, fellowship, and connection.In this excerpt from the event, we begin with Jenee's conversation with one of the book's co-editors, Alie Jones. Then, we hear “A recipe for Exhale Cake” by Adrienne Danyelle Oliver. And, writer Ayodele Nzinga brings us an excerpt of her piece “a breath in three movements.” 

With graduation season wrapping up, many teenagers around the Bay Area are celebrating the end of high school and are making plans to begin college. But in Washington DC, policymakers are fighting over college access.In the past year, the Trump Administration has worked quickly to dismantle the Department of Education. And one of the major programs they want to eliminate is called TRIO, a federally-funded initiative that helps low-income students and those who would be the first in their families to go to college. Thousands of those students in the Bay Area get support from TRIO programs to get into college and graduate. KALW reporter Anna Casalme visited two programs in San Francisco to understand what this political fight means for students. 

Over the weekend, San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers announced that their corpse flower, named 'Scarlet,' would be blooming in the next 7 to 14 days. It's an event that usually makes the news because these flowers can take up to ten years to reach their first bloom and they can smell like… death. But they're also endangered. And one of the Conservatory's neighbors, the California Academy of Sciences, has been working with a national effort to preserve this rare plant's DNA. KALW's Wren Farrell took a look at the program in 2024 when the Academy's corpse flower ‘Mirage' had its own bloom. 

If you go out to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on any given Sunday from April to September… and you wander over to the concourse between the California Academy of Sciences and the DeYoung museum of fine arts… you'll hear the Golden Gate Park Band playing at the Spreckels Temple of Music. And, when I say any Sunday, I mean it. Because the band is now in their 144th season. That's since 1882!And though the concerts have been happening for nearly a century and half, the music is very eclectic. They're a blend of all types of music from soul, to Disney songs, to Ukrainian music, and so much more. German Gonzalez is the current music director and conductor of the Band. He recently spoke with KALW's Jenee Darden for the Sights and Sounds Show. In this excerpt from their conversation, German talks about his music journey and what he's looking forward to performing with his band.

KALW's Jeneé Darden who grew up in East Oakland in the ‘80s and ‘90s… and her little kid self would've loved a place like Chapter 510. The youth writing center provides a safe and empowering learning space for young writers. And Chapter 510 centers Black, brown and queer voices… and publishes their works. Their latest book is “When the Stars Bloom in Oakland: An Anthology of Poems by Fourth Graders.” Janet Heller is an Oakland poet and a co-founder of Chapter 510. Anjali Emsellem is a writer and educator who teaches in the program. They spoke to Jenee for KALW's the sights and sounds show. Here's an excerpt from their conversation. 

In April 2023, tech executive Bob Lee was found near San Francisco's Embarcadero with severe stab wounds. He later died from these injuries. Shortly after his death, some of the loudest voices in tech rushed to blame a chaotic, violent City. Out of twelve murders that took place in the city that year, it was the only one to garner international attention, fueling a narrative that Lee was killed because of a general lack of safety/ in a city that had failed to keep law and order. But, it was eventually determined that his killing stemmed from a personal connection. So what really happened? What does Lee's death really signify?That's what Shawn Wen sought to find out. She's the creator and producer of the podcast Foundering. Shawn spoke with Mission Local's Joe Eskenazi at KALW's live event space in downtown San Francisco. In this excerpt from their conversation, Shawn and Joe consider what this case meant to a fractured city. 

Today, we speak with one of the lawyers that exposed a culture of corruption and racism in Oakland's Police department. Then, for the past year, our Audio Academy fellows have been working hard to report sound rich stories from all over the bay area. Today, we pay them a tribute of thanks. 

Every September, KALW welcomes a new cohort of eight fellows to our Audio Academy training program that's now in its thirteenth year. Over a span of 9 months the current cohort has been hard at work learning what it takes to report and produce sound rich audio features. Stories that allowed them to follow their curiosity, go deeper on urgent issues or celebrate the communities holding people together. Tonight we have the bittersweet honor of graduating this year's cohort, so today we're bringing you a special tribute. It's a collection of clips from their best work. ‘Finding faith in the fight against artificial super intelligence' by Arlen Levy 'The show must go on: Tito Soto and SF's iconic Oasis drag club' by Stafford Hemmer ‘In Oakland, the musical legacy of Japanese American incarceration still resonates' by Cara Nguyen ‘Goalball emboldens blind athletes on the court and in their lives' by Rachel Longan ‘Women, non-binary players tackle America's Game' by Jordan Karnes ‘How queer communities are seeing themselves reflected in tide pools' by Anna Casalme ‘Berkeley's Warming Hut offers a safe space' by Viviana Vivas ‘Who put up all those gates in the Sunset?‘ by Rae Kim 

Oakland's Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003, but this year that will be coming to an end. The oversight began after a civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of 119 residents, most of them Black men, who alleged that multiple Oakland police officers had beaten and planted evidence on them. To understand what this moment means, KALW's Sunni Khalid spoke with Darwin BondGraham, the news editor at The Oaklandside. He is also the author, along with Ali Winston, of the book, "The Riders Come Out At Night," an exhaustive look at the scandal that shook the city of Oakland, as well as a history of decades of corruption inside the OPD.

Flor Y Canto, translates to “flower and song.” This weekend San Francisco's Mission District will be home again to the weekend-long literary festival known as Flor Y Canto. The streets of the City's Latino Cultural District will be filled with vibrant events, decorations, and music. All centered around the works by Latine writers, with readings happening all throughout the neighborhood. KALW's Jenee Darden spoke with two organizers of the festival for “The Sights + Sounds Show," poets Lourdes Figueroa and Josiah Luis Alderete, host of KALW's “Bay Poets.” Here's an excerpt of their interview.

In the novel, “The Curse of Hester Gardens” a Black mother lives in a Michigan housing project with her teen sons. She's raising them alone while her husband serves time in prison. Hester Gardens is haunted and cursed.. But not just by ghosts. Injustices like systemic oppression, poverty, and gun violence have also become monsters in the residents' lives. Tamika Thompson is the author of  “The Curse of Hester Gardens.” She is from Detroit and now lives in the East Bay. She talked with KALW's Jeneé Darden, host of the Sights and Sounds show. In this excerpt from their conversations, she reflects on how her personal experience witnessing gun violence growing up in Detroit inspired her book.

If you've made media art in the Bay Area sometime in the last fifty years… you probably know the Bay Area Video Coalition: BAVC. Around 2,500 students and media makers of various ages take classes at BAVC every year. And BAVC artists have received Oscar nominations, and won Emmys!One of their students was KALW's Jeneé Darden, who is now the host of the Sights and Sounds show. To mark their 50th anniversary, she recently spoke to BAVC executive director, Paula Smith Arrigoni, and Caron Creighton, an instructor at BAVC. In this excerpt from their conversation they talk about how quickly the media landscape is changing, and what media training and education look like today, looking to the future.

June is National Immigrant Heritage Month. And that brings us to another legacy Bay Area arts institution was founded by immigrants from west Africa: Diamano Coura West African Dance Company in Oakland. Founded by award winning artistic directors,  Zakarya and Naomi Diouf,  They've been performing and teaching dance from Western and Central Africa since 1975. Over the decades, Diamano Coura dancers have hailed from countries like Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo… Next we'll share one of our favorite stories, from my first years at KALW - about one of their dancers who immigrated from Liberia.Karsumo Massaquoi loved, and lived, to dance. But, he almost didn't survive to do either. 

Send us Fan MailHappy Pride Month! This is a very special episode recorded live at KALW,  a Bay Area public radio station where Erin is a freelance audio journalist. Jeff Hiller was in San Francisco for an event to promote his memoir Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success, and he joins Erin in front of a live audience to dish some behind the scenes stories on his epic Emmy win for Somebody Somewhere, why NPR's Terry Gross punked the cover photo of his book, what happened when he came out to his parents, why improv is revolutionary, and so...much...more!Buy Actress of a Certain Age here!Follow actor Jeff Hiller on IGListen to our past interviews with Jeff HERE and HERE. Support the showThanks for listening and for your support! We couldn't have won Best of the Bay Best Podcast in 2022 , 2023 , and 2024 without you!--Fight fascism. Shop small. Use cash. Fuck ice.--Support Bitch Talk here!Subscribe to our channel on YouTube for behind the scenes footage!Rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts!Visit our website! www.bitchtalkpodcast.comFollow us on Instagram, Threads, and SubstackListen every Monday at 7 am on BFF.FM

In June 2025, San Francisco welcomed its first women's sports bar: Rikki's! In honor of Rikki's first anniversary, here's the story of how it came to be, from the host of Bounce, KALW's Erin Lim. 

Late on a summer night in 1966, a cop put his hands on a customer at a popular gathering space for trans women and drag queens. Coffee was thrown in his face, and a riot erupted right there at Compton's Cafeteria in the Tenderloin. This moment was one of the first documented acts of LGBTQ+ resistance in the country. For the past year, an immersive play called The Compton's Cafeteria Riot has been bringing audiences into the historic event as diners inside the cafeteria. The play is produced by the Tenderloin Museum. One of its co-writers, Donna Persona, is a trans rights activist, and Mary Vice is an actor turned drag queen in the play. They spoke to KALW's Jeneé Darden, host of the Sights and Sounds show. Here's an excerpt from their conversation. 

This is our last episode airing during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so today we bring you a conversation from our friends at the podcast “Worst Quality Crab.” Their show is a conversational version of an Asian American cookbook. It's hosted by Freesia and Samson Lee, and they talk to guests about food that is meaningful to them, family history, and the people that make their shared meals so memorable. Last week, they hosted a live taping of their podcast at KALW's event space in downtown San Francisco. And they invited Bonnie Tsui, the bestselling author of “American Chinatown,” which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Bonnie had a lot to say about growing up with fortune cookies, but we want to start this excerpt from their conversation with her childhood memories of the different Chinatowns that became the inspiration for her book.

Next Tuesday, June 2nd, is California's 2026 primary election. And there's a lot for voters to decide on. In San Francisco, two competing propositions have become a high-stakes referendum on how the city taxes its largest employers: Prop C and Prop D.KALW recently hosted a live conversation between proponents of both Props C and D. It was co-presented with the San Francisco Public Press, and moderated by their Executive Director, Lila LaHood. The YES on C side was represented by David Harrison, director of policy at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. And on the YES on D side was represented by Kim Tabelloni, executive director at the San Francisco Labor Council.In this excerpt we'll hear them explain what they think big business owes to San Francisco, and the people who live here. We start by hearing Kim Tabelloni. 

The Bay Area Book Festival returns to Downtown Berkeley this weekend. There will be many things to learn and experience for book literature lovers of all ages. J.K. Fowler is the executive director of the Festival. He sat down with KALW's Jenee Darden for “The Sights + Sounds Show.” They spoke about why Fowler sees this year's theme of “Writing the Future” to be important for these times.

William Shakespeare is possibly the most widely recognized writer in western literature… but did he actually write every single thing he gets credit for? It's a controversial question that many have explored over the years. Including playwright and Oakland native Ted Lange.His new play “Shakespeare Over My Shoulder” is a production of the San Francisco Based African-American Shakespeare Company. KALW's Jenee Darden spoke with Ted Lange for “The Sights + Sounds Show.” Here's an excerpt of their conversation.

If you've seen some of the ads in the BART stations… or San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's posts on Instagram… you may notice an emphasis on safety and security in the city. But if you go back in time, there's physical evidence that this rhetoric isn't new. You can find it in neighborhoods all over the Bay.Take the Sunset district, on San Francisco's westside, where almost every house has a heavy iron gate. KALW's Rae Kim went right up to the proverbial front door to find out how those gates got there—and what they might be keeping out.

Here's a question. When you talk about an issue you deeply care about, like climate change- what's the reaction from the people around you, in your life? Are they supportive, are they dismissive? Sometimes you're the lone voice at your workplace, or in your family, pushing others to recycle or compost properly… and that can be isolating.That was the topic of discussion at a recent event held here at our KALW event space in downtown San Francisco. We hosted a live recording of the climate-focused podcast Doom and Bloom, hosted by Marc O'Brien. His guest was Dr. Renee Lertzman - a psychologist, researcher, and strategist. In this excerpt, she talks about why some people struggle to act on climate change, despite caring deeply about it-  and how it feels to be that lone voice in the room… 

Getting around the bay has never been… cheap. But if you've stopped to fill up your gas tank recently, you've definitely noticed that the price per gallon, even with a cash discount, is higher than ever.To understand what's influencing that rapid increase in gas prices, Crosscurrents host Hana Baba speaks with KALW's transportation reporter Zain Iqbal, for a segment of what we call “Getting Around the Bay.”

The Oakland-based singer, Miko Marks, first came onto the music scene as a country artist. But Miko's powerful vocal range is wide, and so is her creativity. Now she identifies as an Americana and roots singer. She currently has a residency at Yoshi's in Oakland that's running now throughout the summer. Her next show is Thursday, May 21st. And her special guest is jazz legend Faye Carol. Miko sat down with KALW's Jenee Darden on “The Sights + Sounds Show.” They spoke about Miko's growth as an artist. Here's an excerpt of that interview.

Illegal dumping in Oakland is not an issue you can deny, if you spend enough time in the city you will be met again and again by sprawling, incomprehensible mountains of trash. Last year, municipal crews in the city of Oakland collected over 7 million pounds of illegally dumped waste from city streets.And that's just what they cleared, the trash on the streets keeps piling up. KALW's Arlen Levy went to find out where it's all coming from, and what's being done to clean things up.

In celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month, we're collaborating with our public radio friends at KALW to put on a live recording this Thursday, 5/21 7pm. Joining us for this special event is Bonnie Tsui, journalist and author of On Muscle, Why We Swim, and American Chinatown. Bonnie will share stories of growing up in Long Island, her grandfather working in a fortune cookie factory, and how it led her to write American Chinatown. Plus how it led her to become a consultant on Netflix's “Interior Chinatown.' Come hang out, hear Bonnie's stories, and snack on fortune cookies and other yums with us! Totally free but register (and make a donation to KAWL if you're able to keep public media alive) so we know how many snacks to over order! This live event is the culmination of a week of Bay Made features! You can hear us Monday 5/18 through Thursday 5/21 on KAWL at 11:30am. Hear some really great past episodes with guests Chef Kathy Fang, Jeff Chang, Soleil Ho, and Chef Laurence Louie. Listen live (stream: KALW.org / radio: 91.7 FM in the Bay Area) if for nothing else than the novelty of it!

As part of a feature series with local bay area radio station KALW, Berkeley-based poet Rachel Richardson joins Sarah and Miranda for a LIVE recording of The Mother Of It All podcast. We talk about the state of the cultural conversation around motherhood in general, whether poetry about motherhood counts as serious poetry, and celebrate our 100th episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Hrishikesh Hirway is best known as the host of the hit podcast Song Exploder - where he asks musicians to break down their creative process. Last spring, KALW's Music Director Tshego Letsoalo got the distinct privilege of creating a sort of offshoot to Hirway's podcast with Song Exploder Remix. Each week she stitches together a few episodes from the podcast around a common theme. And the only place you can hear it is on KALW!Now, Hirway has released an album of his own, called In the Last Hour of Light. He'll be performing here in the Bay this coming weekend. Tshego spoke with Hear-way to learn more about his relationship with music. Here's part of their conversation.

Last year, here at KALW, we rebooted our sports podcast, BOUNCE to follow the Valks progress through their first season in the Bay. And BOUNCE will be back following the second Valks season that just started. So recently we hosted a live event celebrating the launch: a tip off party. The event featured a panel discussing Valkyries, and explored the past, present and future of women's basketball in the Bay Area.

Football is the most popular sport in America. But, that love doesn't necessarily extend to athletes who aren't cisgender men. And old, out-dated attitudes about who can (and should) play football, aren't stopping athletes from making their mark on the sport. At Oakland's Laney College, there's a storm brewing… The Golden State Storm to be exact! It's the newest women's tackle football team in the Women's National Football Conference. Kris Grimes is the team's star running back. KALW's Jordan Karnes spoke to Grimes about their move to the Bay Area, and the effort to help the Storm build a competitive team.

Leading up to Mother's Day, KALW's show Bay Made, our series that features local audio storytellers, has been airing episodes of the podcast “The Mother Of It All.” The show dives into the different aspects about being a mother, with candid conversations about everything from pregnancy in the digital age, parenting trans children and even the cult of Dr. Becky. The hosts Sarah Wheeler and Miranda Rake capped off their week-long run of episodes on KALW by hosting a live taping of their podcast at our San Francisco live event space at 220 Montgomery. For their guest, they brought Rachel Richardson, the co-founder of Left Margin Lit, a literary arts community in Berkeley and the author of the poetry book “Smother.” In this excerpt, Richardson describes why she opens her book with a quote from J.D. McClatchy, the former editor of the Yale Review. McClatchy has written that he “automatically rejects any poem with the word mother in it."To wrap up the live taping Richardson read a piece she wrote about a tree-planting she took her kids too after the 2013 Rim Fire, here is her poem “After Fire.” Rachel Richardson will be speaking at the Bay Area Book Festival on May 30th. 

Life is going to get tougher for Oakland's homeless population. Last month, the city council approved a new law on encampment sweeps that gives new powers to conduct sweeps, no longer requiring the city to provide housing for those who are displaced.At the same time, Mayor Barbara Lee has established a new office on homeless affairs, pushing against this policy of removing encampments without offering temporary housing options. Natalie Orenstein is a senior reporter with The Oaklandside, who's been covering the story. She spoke to KALW's news editor Sunni Khalid to explore the tensions with two policies that seem at odds.

Right now, the state of California has a very litigious relationship with the federal government. Currently our state is actively working on 67 separate lawsuits against Trump's administration. The legal disputes range from tariffs, public housing funding, sanctuary city policies, ICE agents wearing masks and even birth right citizenship.And, something notable is that almost a quarter of all the lawsuits are related to protecting our environment. Staying on top of all the litigation is the job of our state's Attorney General Rob Bonta. A few weeks ago he visited our live event space in downtown San Francisco to talk with Ethan Elkind, the host of KALW's show Climate Break.Bonta spoke about one of the most crucial climate lawsuits that is in the court system right now, the fight for our state's Clean Air Act. Nearly half of our carbon emissions come from transportation, but last year the US Senate voted to block California's mandate to phase out gas-powered cars by 2035.  In this excerpt, Bonta gives an update on how the lawsuit to protect the Clean Air Act is progressing…

California is suing the federal government to save our Clean Air Act. Today, a conversation with our Attorney General Rob Bonta. Then, the lead singer of the band Electric Ex explains the process behind their new album Analog Therapy. Plus, authors read from their books about nature, and humanity.

For the past couple of years KALW has had a second home at the Mills Building on Montgomery Street in Downtown San Francisco. Besides making great radio here, and training new journalists, we host lots of live events for listeners… like you!Recently one of those events brought guests deeper into the building… to a curated installation inside the halls of the Mills Building: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. It's a multimedia exhibition featuring Bay Area artists that focus on climate change and elemental forces, and invites viewers to consider climate change as an ongoing condition embedded in everyday life.The evening was hosted by KALW's Ben Trefny in partnership with the Swig company. In this excerpt we hear from the curator of this exhibit, Carey Hurtado, and artists Tanya Geis and Andrew Owen. First, Ben asks Carey - what's the exhibit all about?

Artificial intelligence is not just changing how we get our information, but also in some cases, how we emotionally process a major life event, like death. When loved ones die we find ways to hold on  — through photos, stories, and keepsakes. Now, things like AI memorial platforms and companion chatbots offer digitized connection with the dead. But with these technologies becoming more common, what are the benefits, and costs, of grieving with a chatbot? KALW's Artificial Intelligence reporter NeEddra James brings us the story.  

Nowadays, there is a good chance you have heard - or been in conversations about- all the different ways that artificial intelligence is changing the landscape of work. And it's real.U.S. hospitals have doubled their adoption of AI in two years.Finance companies now execute 70% of equity trades through AI algorithms. And Amazon deployed over 1 million warehouse robots that have boosted productivity per worker by more than 20 times.But journalism is still figuring out what it means. In a recent survey of over 70 countries, nearly 80% of newsrooms had no formal AI policy. KALW is no exception, we are still having very active discussions about the ways AI can or cannot fit into our set of values. To better understand this rapidly changing tool, our live events team put together a panel of people working in different media organizations facing the same question. The panelists were, Katherine Ann Rowlands, who leads Bay City News Foundation, /Ernesto Aguilar of KQED, who oversees content innovation /and Griffin Gaffney, CEO and co-founder of The San Francisco Standard. They were in conversation with KALW's Executive Producer Ben Trefny.In this excerpt, we begin by hearing Gaffney explaining how The Standard is addressing AI in their newsroom. 

Unraveling the Threads of Change: From Photography to Global Environmental AdvocacyAcademy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos returned to the Rising Tide Ocean Podcast for a conversation as wide-ranging and urgent as his films. Host David Helvarg sat down with Psihoyos before a live audience during SF Climate Week at the downtown San Francisco studios of KALW public radio — and the exchange didn't disappoint.Psihoyos traces his unlikely path to ocean advocacy: a kid from Iowa, drawn early to photography and the sea, who eventually landed at National Geographic — beginning, as origin stories often do, at the bottom, sifting through a garbage dig. From there he rose to become one of the most consequential documentary filmmakers working today, a man who doesn't just point a camera at environmental catastrophe but builds covert operations around it.He recounts the making of The Cove, his shattering exposé of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan — a film that required as much tradecraft as filmmaking — and discusses his latest work, Plastic Detox, now streaming on Netflix, which takes a hard look at microplastics and their alarming effects on human fertility.The two also range across a broader landscape: adventures, causes for concern, and — perhaps most valuably in these grinding times — reasons for optimism.It's a talk worth diving into.Additional ResourcesThe Plastic Detox — an eye-opening journey into the hidden dangers of plastic in our homes.When six couples embark on a plastic detox within their homes, it changes their families forever. This eye-opening documentary explains what microplastics and their chemicals are doing to our health and how we can take matters into our own hands.From hormone disruption that's fueling a worldwide fertility crisis, to growing rates of cancer, and early heart attack and stroke, this powerful documentary reveals the shocking science behind plastic's impact on human life.Blue Frontier / Substack — Building the solution-based citizen movement needed to protect our ocean, coasts and communities, both human and wild.Inland Ocean Coalition — Building land-to-sea stewardship - the inland voice for ocean protectionFluid Studios — Thinking radically different about the collective good, our planet, & the future.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit motherofitall.substack.comDid you hear?! We're recording our 100th episode LIVE in San Francisco on May 8th as part of a series with KALW (91.7 FM). Get tickets your here! We will be joined by Berkeley-based poet Rachel Richardson, and KALW will be airing excerpts from our show all week long leading up to the live event.In this episode for our lovely paid subscribers (thank you…

KALW's State of the Bay has been inviting the candidates for California's 11th district to come on their show. And we've been airing segments of those conversations here on Crosscurrents this month.Today, the final candidate in the series: Marie Hurabiell.

This is a big election year for California's District 11. Nancy Pelosi has held the seat in the US House of Representatives since 1987 and her retirement has created the first really competitive race to represent San Francisco in congress for nearly 40 years. KALW's State of the Bay has been inviting the candidates for California's 11th district to come on their show, and help voters get to know what they are running on and for. And we're going to be airing segments of those conversations here on Crosscurrents this month.Today, Saikat Chakrabarti. Chakrabarti started his career in tech here in San Francisco before turning to politics. He worked with Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and later served as campaign manager and chief of staff for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York. He now leads a policy think tank devoted to issues like affordability and a green economy.Chakrabarti spoke to State of the Bay host Grace Won.

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate in proper style Bay Poets has been exploring the Poetry Center at San Francisco State's archives. Josiah Luis Alderete is the host of KALW's series, Bay Poets. And he has dug up audio of four San Francisco poets that have had a deep and lasting impact on the city's literary landscape. We will be presenting them to you throughout the month. Today's poet was is from the East Coast, but helped shape San Francisco's literary scene. Here's KALW News Editor, Sunni Khalid, speaking with Josiah about Q.R. Hand Junior. 

Late last year, the beloved Oakland queer bar Friends and Family announced the news that it was closing. Their community was so upset, devoted customers even threw the bar a funeral. KALW's Jordan Karnes went to find out why these spaces are so important to their communities, and what's the magic formula that queer bars need to survive. 

Last year, the musical “Co-Founders” combined hip hop, art and Bay Area culture in its technologically ground breaking show. “Co-Founders” is the story of two unlikely partners chasing impossible entrepreneurial dreams. And the show went on to sell out of tickets during their run in San Francisco, and now the creators are back — with a real life version of their musical! It's called The “All People Powered Concert & Pitch Competition.” And it's a mix of live music performances and aspiring tech entrepreneurs in a competition of ideas.  And it is happening this Saturday at the Henry J. Kaiser Center in Oakland. KALW's Jeneé Darden, of The Sights and Sounds show, spoke with Ryan and the other creator of the show "Co-Founders," Beau Lewis about their new pitch competition. Here's an excerpt of that interview.

KALW's State of the Bay has been inviting to their show the candidates that want to fill Nancy Pelosi's soon to be vacant Congressional seat. It's an effort to help voters get to know what they are running on and for. And we're going to be airing segments of those conversations here on Crosscurrents this month. Up first, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. Chan is a Chinese immigrant that moved to the Bay Area at the age of 13 with her family. She has held multiple positions in San Francisco city government and now represents San Francisco's District one, which includes much of the city's northwest region, which includes the Richmond District, Lone Mountain, parts of Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park, the University of San Francisco area, Sea Cliff and Presidio Terrace. Here's Supervisor Chan speaking to state of the bay host Grace Won, about why she feels it's the right time for her to move from local to national politics…