Podcasts about KALW

Here's a question for you- if you have something around your house that needs fixing- an appliance, a device… What do you do? Fix it or ditch it? If you do want to get something fixed, but you're not a do-it-yourselfer or you're just too intimidated to try fixing things yourself – then what?Well, reporter Mary Catherine O'Connor looked for answers - at a Fixit Clinic at a library in San Mateo. And if you have a much loved item that's in need of some TLC, you're in luck! KALW is hosting a fix it clinic tonight! It's happening at our live event space at 220 Montgomery in San Francisco. 

This October, the trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her boyfriend, Andre Jones, and prominent local businessmen David and Andy Duong is set to begin.Last week, the federal prosecutors filed a trove of documents alleging Thao and others made bribes for political gain. And the FBI announced that they have identified a key informant- Fruitvale entrepreneur Mario Juarez, who has already given a guilty plea to one count of bribery.Natalie Orenstein is a reporter for the Oaklandside, who has been covering recent events in the Thao case. She spoke with KALW's news editor Sunni Khalid.

New Arrivals is KALW's pocket sized book tour of Bay Area Authors. Mike Huguenor lives in San Jose. His book, "Elvis is Dead, I'm Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records," came out on May 19th, 2026. It's about the first 30 years of one of the most important record labels to come out of the south Bay.

Recently BART held their first ever… prom! More than twelve hundred people attended (and danced at!) the sold-out Under the sea/'80s-themed party under the Rockridge Station tracks. And the party of course included the traditional crowning of a Prom King and Queen.  We're so proud of KALW Immigration reporter Wendy Reyes and “Sights + Sounds” Producer Porfirio Rangel… BART's first Prom queen and king!BART prom is just one example of how the transit system is hosting fun events to increase ridership. Alicia Trost is BART Chief Communications Officer. She and 2026 BART King Porfirio sat down with KALW's Jenee Darden for “The Sights + Sounds Show.” 

On May first, the Trump administration closed its main immigration court in San Francisco's Financial District. That follows months of clashes outside the building between ICE and local activists opposing the crackdown on immigrants. Those cases have now been moved to another Bay Area court in Concord. The move has resulted in "mega" immigration dockets, with dozens — and sometimes more than a hundred — cases to be decided per day. But that's only one of the problems that have resulted from the move. Clara-Sophia Daly is an immigration reporter with Mission Local. She's recently reported on the situation in Concord. She spoke with KALW's news editor Sunni Khalid about what she's found. 

It's a brand new season of BOUNCE! Today, KALW's Anna Casalme is taking us out to the ball game, where every kid on the field is a girl. Plus, an update on how the Golden State Valkyries are playing in their second season. 

On today's show, a throwback to our first "Sights + Sounds After Dark" live event featuring love stories and poems by Nazelah Jamison, Norma Smith and Sumiko Saulson. Singer B. DeVeaux graced the stage with beautiful music. Then the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Electric Ex, KALW's Tarik Ansari, talks about how his past relationships inspire his music.

Online scams have proliferated and are even trickier to detect now… thanks to the use of new AI tools. These scams have become so widespread that this month, San Francisco became the first city in the country to launch a coordinated response to AI-enhanced scams. This action includes multilingual scam alerts, and financial counseling for people who've been defrauded as a result. KALW's NeEddra James reports on AI and while she's seen an acceleration of these scams, she's here to offer some helpful tips for how to protect yourself. 

We hear from the artists that transformed KALW's live event space into a living gallery.

A legendary venue in Oakland reopens after two decades of closure. Then we go into KALW's live event venue to hear from the artists that transformed it into a living gallery.

Music legend Melissa Etheridge recently released her first new album in seven years. Her album “Rise” is inspired by some of the challenges she's had to rise above in her life, including evacuating her home during last year's Southern California wildfires, and her son passing away from opioid addiction in 2020. She's on tour now with another music icon: Wynonna Judd. Their tour is called “The Raised on Radio Tour.” And they'll be making a stop at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga tomorrow night.KALW's Jenee Darden caught up with Melissa Etheridge for “The Sights + Sounds Show.” 

Gracie Abrams. Nia Archives. Steve Lacy. On a release day full of catchy earworms, host Stephen Thompson chats with Tshego Letsoalo of KALW in San Francisco about their favorite albums out Friday, July 17. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.The Starting 5(00:58) Album No. 1- Gracie Abrams, 'Daughter from Hell'(08:13) Album No. 2- Steve Lacy, 'Oh Yeah?'(16:38) Album No. 3- Nia Archives, 'Emotional Junglist'(22:27) Album No. 4- Lido Pimienta, 'Caribenya'(28:04) Album No. 5- Swapmeet, 'Mount Zero'(33:13) The Lightning Round- Catherine Moan, 'CM Ultra'- Helado Tropical, 'Helado Tropical'- Orquesta Akokán, 'América!'- Nao Yoshioka, 'Self'- Quicksand, 'Bring On The Psychics'Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist and see our Long List of notable releases on NPR.orgCredits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Tshego Letsoalo, KALWAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Elle Mannion, Otis HartExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSpecial thanks to Felix Contreras, Lars Gotrich and Ann PowersSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Homelessness ends with a home... Technically. But there's much more to it, and the path to live indoors is most always complicated. For many unhoused people, access to services is only half the battle. The other half is trust. Like the disappointment of overpromised services that don't deliver, inadequate shelter conditions, and just the accumulated trauma of life on the street. All that can leave people deeply skeptical of the outreach workers and programs meant to help them. So what does it actually take to build trust across that divide? One Oakland organization may have found a starting point: pets. KALW's Homelessness reporter Alastair Boone went to learn more. 

It's been 45 years since AIDS was first named. The disease has killed roughly 40 million people worldwide, including 700 thousand Americans. And while much progress has been made, the fight is not over. More than eleven thousand San Franciscan's are still living with HIV. And just earlier this year one of the largest and oldest HIV non-profits in the country, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation was fighting to prevent over a million dollars of annual city funding from being cut, right after the Trump administration cancelled a million dollars in federal funding. The good news is that funding cuts from the city have been partially averted after non-profits, residents and survivors fought and argued for the organization's significance. And this AIDS Activism has a long history in SF, from the days of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. That's when activists, caregivers, survivors, and community members started the long fight to build queer solidarity. KALW's Travis Raburn wanted to know what we can learn from those elder pioneers today. So he recently invited three of them to join him in conversation at KALW's live event space in Downtown SF. Paul Aguilar, who we heard earlier, a long-term survivor community liaison at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Patrick Batt, the owner of AutoErotica in the Castro, and Reverend Jim Mitulski, former pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church.In this excerpt from their conversation, the three of them reflect on what it was like to live through the AIDS Crisis during their young adulthoods.

A new documentary follows the 2023 sweeps of the homeless encampment in West Oakland known as ‘Wood Street,' and the struggle leading up to it. It's been selling out theaters at Bay Area film festivals. And it's called “Wood Street.” Prominently featured in the film is John Janosko, one of the key organizers of the encampment's residents. He lived at Wood Street for 10 years. The film's creator is documentarian and award winning journalist, Caron Creighton. They both spoke with KALW's Jenee Darden on “The Sights + Sounds Show.” You can see “Wood Street” at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland this Wednesday, July 15th. 

Have you ever had a relative that you enjoyed sitting by during family functions because they always had good stories to tell? Ben Tucker is that kind of guy. He's known for his storytelling performances as part of the Oakland based Stagebridge, where he tells stories about his ‘storied' life. His family was part of the Great Migration of African-Americans to the West- he grew up in SF's Bayview neighborhood.  He was an All-American track star back in the 1960s when he ran for San Jose State. And Ben has been a preschool teacher in Berkeley, a social worker in Harlem and a track coach in Nigeria.He immerses readers in all these life adventures in his new memoir, “A Good Run.” KALW's Jenee Darden spoke with Ben on the Sights and Sounds show. 

For many immigrants, crossing the border is the first step on an often complicated, exhausting path of figuring out life in America. Author Reyna Grande experienced that first hand.As a child she migrated to the US with her parents, and has spent her writing career capturing the raw reality of life across borders. Her newest memoir is “Migrant Heart.” It interrogates how living between two nations, two languages, and two identities has shaped the person she's become. Recently, Reyna spoke to KALW's Angie Coiro as part of Litquake, at our live event space in Downtown San Francisco. In this excerpt from their conversation, Reyna explains how her struggles to straddle two languages is linked to her relationship with her parents, children, and her own identity. 

For parents with children who are disabled, there can be a haunting question - “Who is going to take care of my child when I die?” In the award-winning film “Paper Bag Plan” a father faces that possibility when he learns he's diagnosed with colon cancer. His 25-year-old son lives with Cerebral Palsy. And he attempts to make his son more independent by training him to be a bagger at a grocery store.  This movie is the latest feature by Oakland filmmaker Anthony Lucero. It's inspired by his mother and disabled brother, and it's now out on streaming platforms. The host of KALW's Sights and Sounds Show Jenee Darden, spoke with Lucero about his new movie. 

Last year, San Francisco established new parking restrictions. They were aimed at curbing the city's growing number of people living out of their vehicles, mostly RVs. The stated goal was to take RVs off city streets, and get those who lived in the vehicles into more permanent housing. But while city efforts to reduce the number of RVs appears to be succeeding, the crackdown has left hundreds of former RV tenants without any shelter. Yesica Prado is an investigative reporter with El Tecolote. She also lives in an RV in the East Bay and has reported extensively about on vehicular homelessness. She spoke recently with KALW's news editor Sunni Khalid about her most recent reporting.

The day after Christmas, some stage performers, cabaretists, and dancers got some really good news. The beloved San Francisco nightclub Oasis was slated to close on January 1, 2026. But it was rescued by a major donation from a Bay Area philanthropic group.This was welcome news to everyone in the Oasis family, but especially Tito Soto, the club's event producer and a headline performer.  KALW's Stafford Hemmer went out to the club to meet the man who's brought Oasis to life every Saturday night for the last six years. And who continues to invest much of his life into the club.With the news that Oasis is going to reopen on July 17th, Stafford brought D'Arcy and Tito to KALW's live event space in Downtown San Francisco. They talked about why Bay Area drag is different from the rest of the world, and how today's artists navigate the line between performance and protest. Oasis has been closed for renovations for the past several months… but it's about to reopen on July 17th! Find the details for their Grand Reopening here!

We're approaching the Fourth of July weekend. A time when people are reflecting on what it means to be American. And  with that reflection comes a complicated mix of emotions. Some celebrate the 4th of July, some protest it, other people are just indifferent.Whatever your feelings are, one thing is for sure: we'll be hearing a LOT of the national anthem in the coming days. Especially as the country marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  So - how do you relate to the Star Spangled Banner?Well that's a question Jeff Chang asked on his new KALW show, Notes From The Edge. His show explores the possibilities and perils of America as our country moves through increasingly uncertain times. In one episode, Jeff invited musicians to reimagine America's Anthem. In this clip, we'll hear from Julian Brave NoiseCat, the Oscar-winning director of the documentary Sugar Cane, and the author of the memoir “We Survived the Night.” 

We share our personal information all the time: at the pharmacy, at school, at the insurance agency. Many of us assume someone there knows how to keep our data safe. But, rapidly evolving AI systems are raising new cybersecurity questions. KALW's tech reporter, NeEddra James has been reporting on how local governments are responding to AI.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of “Star Trek.” Filmmaker and actor Adam Nimoy not only watched the show, but he went on set when he was a kid. That's because his father, Leonard Nimoy, played Spock. The half-human, half-alien science officer came from a culture that put logic above emotion. Leonard Nimoy once said he was so immersed in the character that sometimes he couldn't turn it off at home. This led to friction in Mr. Nimoy's and his son Adam's relationship. Adam Nimoy reflects on this in his new memoir, “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy.” He spoke with KALW's Jenee Darden on “The Sights + Sounds Show.” Here's an excerpt from their conversation. 

It's the last day of June, so today we are going to send off this year's Pride Month by imagining what the future of Queer spaces could be. In this segment we hear from two of KALW's recent Audio Academy graduates: Jordan Karnes and Anna Casalme. They recently hosted a night of clips and conversations at our live event space in Downtown San Francisco. It was called 'Creating Queer Third Spaces: Envisioning Places to Connect & Belong.' 

We are approaching the July 4th weekend, and now more than ever people are reflecting on what it means to be American with a complicated mix of emotions. Some celebrate the 4th of July, some protest it, other people are just indifferent. Whatever your feelings are, one thing is for sure: we'll be hearing A LOT of the national anthem, especially as the country marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So, how do you relate to the Star Spangled Banner?Well that's a question Jeff Chang asked on his new KALW show, Notes From The Edge. His show explores the possibilities and perils of America / as our country moves through increasingly uncertain times. In one episode, Jeff invited musicians to reimagine America's Anthem. In this clip, we'll hear from one of them. Here's La Doña.

Making your voice heard, and creating change, are fundamental to our democracy. But sometimes, when we see that democracy being threatened, it can make us ponder how we feel about this country as a whole.Saturday is the 4th of July. And every time it comes around, folks consider their relationship with the day. Some celebrate it, some protest it, other people are just indifferent… Whatever your feelings, one thing is for sure- we'll be hearing A LOT of the national anthem, especially as the country marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So—how do you relate to the Star Spangled Banner?That's a question Jeff Chang asked on his new KALW show, Notes From The Edge.His show explores the possibilities and perils of America as our country moves through increasingly uncertain times. In this segment, Jeff invited musicians to reimagine America's Anthem. We bring you one of those musicians- here's Leyla McCalla 

Today, the KALW high school summer podcasting institute is kicking off! Each cohort of students produces a show called tbh, short for to be honest. In honor of the program launch, and the wrapping up of Pride month, we're bringing you one of our favorite tbh episodes from a previous cohort. This one is about the role schools play in supporting students, and shaping attitudes around the LGBTQ PLUS community. tbh reporter Amaya Dorman McKenzie graduated from Berkeley High School in 2024. She has two moms. And in this story, she shares her experience. 

The 4th of July holiday is this weekend. For some Bay Area nerds, their weekend will include not only fireworks and hot dogs… but space ships, and magic too! The sci-fi/fantasy convention BayCon is returning to the South Bay for its 42nd year this holiday weekend. And this year will feature a new AfroFuturism Lounge.The lounge includes screenings, interactive sessions, and panel discussions about the genre. Audrey T. Williams is a writer, and a co-curator of the AfroFuturism Lounge. She spoke to KALW's Jenee Darden for “The Sights + Sounds Show,” about what guests will find when they step in.Here's an excerpt of their conversation.

A long time Bay Area sci-fi convention is adding AfroFuturism to its programming. Then, we hear how the way schools embrace the LGBTQ+ community impacts how kids shape their attitudes and actions. It's an episode of TBH, our series made by, about, and for teenagers. Plus, KALW's Notes from the Edge listens to artists about how they would reimagine our National Anthem. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

“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.” 

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.

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. 

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 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.