Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The California Report Magazine

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

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

Poet Lee Herrick has taught at Fresno City College since the late 1990s, and is now our state’s first Asian American poet laureate. His work has touched on some of the unique experiences Californians share, including our diverse culture and questions of identity. Host Sasha Khokha chats with Herrick as he shares some of his poems as well as his plans to spread the of poetry across the state. And when it comes to instantly recognizable structures, San Francisco suffers no shortage. But if asked to pick their favorite, many people might go for a classic: the Transamerica Pyramid, which opened in 1972. In a story produced by Carly Severn for Bay Curious, we learn about its surprising origins, and why something that is now an architectural icon was once quite controversial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, as we say goodbye to 2022, we share some of our favorite conversations with California authors this year. ‘All My Rage’: A Story of Love, Loss and Forgiveness in the Mojave Desert Author Sabaa Tahir based her new young adult novel “All My Rage” on her experiences growing up in her family's 18-room motel in the Mojave Desert. As the child of Pakistani immigrants, and one of the few South Asians in her rural town, Tahir faced racism, Islamophobia, and taunting from other kids. She's an award-winning young adult author, and her earlier series “An Ember in the Ashes” – which had a woman of color hero – hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Tahir joins host Sasha Khokha to talk about her new book. Jaime Cortez’s World of Humor, Queerness and Tenderness, in a Farmworker Labor Camp “Gordo” is the new book of short stories from visual artist and author Jaime Cortez. It’s set in the Central Coast farmworker camps he grew up in near Watsonville and San Juan Bautista. By the time he was 10, Cortez was a veteran of the annual garlic and potato harvests. The collection, which he says is “semi-autobiographical,” is a journey of queer self-discovery and complex identities that don’t fit the usual stereotypes of Steinbeck country. Jaime Cortez talks to host Sasha Khokha about “Gordo,” and shares some passages from the book. Wajahat Ali on His New Memoir and the Merits of Investing in Joy “Go back to where you came from.” It’s an insult that unfortunately, many of us have heard. For writer Wajahat Ali, it’s also the title of his new book. It traces his childhood in Fremont, CA, his activism as a UC Berkeley student after 9/11, and the challenges he’s faced as a son, a father, and a writer. It chronicles him almost dying from a heart condition, his young daughter getting cancer, and other family tragedies. But the book is funny. Host Sasha Khokha talks to Ali about why he’s decided to actively invest in joy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we say goodbye to 2022 with two of our favorite stories from this year.   The Sizzler: The California Origin Story Behind One of India’s Flashiest Dishes Take any popular dish – pizza, ice cream, hot dogs – and try to trace its origin story. Chances are, you’re going to go on a winding road with conflicting accounts of who actually invented the dish, or whether it was invented by one, single person at all. KQED’s Silicon Valley reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi recently ate a dish so mish-mashed with foods from different countries, that she found herself on a food origin story journey that led her across the world and then back to the Bay Area. Phương Tâm, Sixties Star of Vietnam Surf Rock, Reclaims Her Legacy at 77 In 1960s Saigon, a singer named Phương Tâm rode the wave of edgy modern music inspired by the California surf sound. It was nothing like the French jazz or folk opera that Vietnamese were used to hearing. The major Saigon labels recorded Phương Tâm’s songs, she headlined the nightclub circuit, and she collaborated with famed composers and musicians. But then, she disappeared from the music scene for more than 50 years. Turns out, she became a doctor’s wife, living in suburban San Jose. But at 77 years old, she’s now reclaiming her identity as Vietnam’s first rock ‘n’ roll queen, with a new album of her restored classics called “Magical Nights.” Reporter Christine Nguyen brings us her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're devoting our show to KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero’s series “Sacrifice Zones.” He explores how sea level rise could push contaminants into certain neighborhoods, especially places that are near former military or industrial sites, and that have a history of racism, redlining, and disinvestment. Ezra profiles activists in San Francisco, Oakland and Marin City who are pushing for more data on these contaminants, and calling for reparations to clean up toxic sites, restore consent to community members, and give residents power in climate policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A tiny local election in the Central Valley caught our attention last month. A group of candidates promising change took over control of a big, farmer-run organization that delivers their irrigation water: Westlands Water District. It’s an empire built on imported water and political power. But these newly elected Westlands board members – all farmers themselves – are now saying: We need a new strategy. A recognition that water is scarce, and large-scale farming will have to shrink. Reporter Dan Charles brings us this story as part of a collaboration with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. And we hear from author and disability rights activist Alice Wong, who’s had a tough time trying to figure out how to get the care she needs to survive. Earlier this year, she was finishing the final edits to her memoir, “Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life,” when she suffered several medical crises. She lost her ability to speak and started using a text to speech app, which you’ll hear in her story. Plus, ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, California legislators have been passing bills aimed at providing abortion access for out-of-state patients. And last month, voters overwhelmingly agreed to enshrine the right to an abortion in our state’s constitution. But in some rural communities in California – like Bishop, in the Eastern Sierra – access to abortion remains extremely limited. That’s where Reporter Lauren DeLaunay Miller is from and she started hearing from women in her hometown about how hard it’s been for them to figure out where to get an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy. And finally, California is home to so many immigrant communities who have their eyes glued to The FIFA World Cup in Qatar right now. One of those fans who’s been rooting for his home country is KQED’s Sebastian Miño-Bucheli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deborah Miranda is an award-winning poet, writer, professor, and an enrolled member of the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation of the Greater Monterey Bay Area, with Santa Ynez Chumash ancestry. Miranda researched wax cylinder recordings made almost a century ago of some of the last speakers of indigenous languages in California, along with other primary source materials about the history of California Indians, for her award winning book, “Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir.” It features drawings, poems, newspaper clippings, photos, and prose. Miranda talks with host Sasha Khokha about the book, which has just been released with new material for an updated 10th anniversary edition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

California has always been a place people come to seek refuge. This week, two stories of people seeking the promise of the Golden State, with very different experiences. First, immigrants held in ICE detention centers often hold jobs in those facilities: cleaning, folding laundry, even working as barbers. Those positions often only pay a dollar a day. For the last several months, some of those immigrant detainees in two facilities in and around Bakersfield have gone on strike, demanding better pay and working conditions. KQED’s labor correspondent, Farida Jhabvala Romero, has been talking with immigrants from inside detention who say they’ve been retaliated against for going on strike. Then, a new law declares California a safe state for families who want to come here to get hormones or puberty blockers for transgender kids. The law protects parents who have nonbinary or trans kids and want gender-affirming care for them. This year, 21 states have tried to restrict or ban medical care for trans kids. KQED’s health correspondent Lesley McClurg brings us the story of one family from Texas who just upended their life and moved to California to protect their child. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's show, we're sharing an episode of the KALW podcast Uncuffed, which is made by inmate journalists at Solano State Prison and San Quentin State Prison. A prison might not be the first place you'd think of to celebrate a wedding. But it's where Uncuffed producer Edmond Richardson is marrying the love of his life, Avelina. He talks about his joys and his fears as the day approaches and we learn what it takes to have a ceremony at San Quentin.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We head to Nevada County, where students are mobilizing around an election for school board next week. Some of them are even too young to vote, but they’re working to defeat conservative school board trustees who they say have failed to stop racist and homophobic bullying on school campuses. As KQED’s Julia McEvoy tells us, these students in Grass Valley are trying to help elect candidates they hope will take racist and anti-gay behavior more seriously. Plus, communities across California marked Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, with altars and processions honoring loved ones we’ve lost. In some of those ceremonies you may have seen an Aztec dance (Danza Azteca) troupe performing as an offering to the spirits, and as a celebration of their lives. Reporter Sebastian Miño-Bucheli has spent some time with Aztec dancers in San Francisco, and tells us how they show up for their community not just for Day of the Dead, but all year round. And in honor of Day of the Dead – and Halloween week – we bring you a story about spirits…and some mischievous kids. Storyteller JP Frary, six-time winner of the Moth StorySlam, shares this tale from his childhood in Mendocino County.   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

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Reporter Jessica Kariisa is Ugandan American, and she’s spent years listening to and writing about African pop music. When she moved to the Bay Area, she wasn’t sure what she’d find in terms of an African music scene. Gentrification and the rising cost of living have pushed many Black communities out of cities in the Bay Area and beyond. But, after doing some digging, Jessica discovered an African music scene that's thriving.  And we pay tribute to the first DJ to play rock and roll on the West Coast. Art Laboe cultivated a devoted fan base over his nearly 80 years on the air. He trademarked the term “oldies but goodies,” and claimed to have invented the on-air dedication, where lovers send songs to each other over the airwaves. Laboe died earlier this month at age 97. We reprise host Sasha Khokha’s interview with him from 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we bring you the first episode of the new season of a podcast from LAist Studios called Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff. KPCC correspondent Frank Stoltze explores how a former Sheriff’s lieutenant with almost no leadership experience rose to become the head of the largest law enforcement agency west of the Mississippi, and how he turned out to be a leader with authoritarian tendencies. Alex Villanueva, a longshot maverick candidate, ran for LA County Sheriff as a progressive reformer and won, surprising everyone. After taking office in 2018, he mocked reform, resisted oversight, and launched criminal investigations of his enemies. Now, the people who propelled him to power are looking to boot him from office in this year's election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In East San José, a scrappy strip mall anchored by a bánh mì shop doesn’t look like much. But it's a bustling transportation hub. Every morning by 8 a.m., there’s a steady stream of riders lining up for the daily run of the Xe Đò Hoàng, or “Royal Coach” in Vietnamese. Those in the know call it the “Bánh Mì Bus,” which takes passengers all the way to Orange County and back. Christine Nguyen takes us along for the ride. And we head to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach and travel back in time to the early 1900s. That’s where an amusement park sprung up, drawing loyal visitors for decades. As part of a collaboration with our friends at KQED’s Bay Curious podcast, reporter Christopher Beale takes us on a journey to learn about Playland-at-the-Beach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is it like to be a dad and your first-born son goes off to college? That just happened for Adolfo Guzman-Lopez. He’s covered higher education for years at KPCC in Los Angeles, but when his own son moved into his freshman dorm this month, Adolfo was not prepared for the reaction he’d have. And we meet a mom from East Palo Alto who's spent years trying to help her kids cope with anxiety and trauma. They’re among a rising number of children across California struggling with their emotional and mental health. KQED's Blanca Torres found that just as before the pandemic, most kids who need help don’t get it. But she also discovered what happens when families like Jasmine’s can access care. And we end with writer Caroline Hatano's ode to the Japanese American community that once farmed all over Southern California. Her grandfather farmed flowers on the Palos Verdes peninsula for 70 years. This summer, the city of Palos Verdes terminated the lease, closing the last Japanese American farm in the area. Her story comes to us as part of a collaboration with Civil Eats, a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Monterey Jazz Festival kicks off again this weekend, we go back in time to a chilly evening in 1962. Sixty years ago, a groundbreaking musical premiered at the festival called “The Real Ambassadors.” It featured a glittering array of jazz titans, including Louis Armstrong. This was during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement, and the musical cast artists of different races, challenging racism and social injustice through jazz. “The Real Ambassadors” was written by two Californians influential in moving jazz into the mainstream: Dave and Iola Brubeck. He grew up on a cattle ranch in Ione in Amador County, she in Redding. They met in Stockton at College of the Pacific in 1945, and went on to become a couple and lifelong collaborators. We bring you this story from The Kitchen Sisters and producer Brandi Howell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pioneering Asian American actress Anna May Wong will be one of five American women the U.S. Mint is recognizing this year with an image on the American quarter. Wong was born in Los Angeles in 1905, and she grew up helping out at her father's laundromat. As a kid, she skipped school to visit movie sets and mimicked the actors at home. She would eventually become Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star. Host Sasha Khokha talks with Nancy Wang Yeun, a sociologist and expert on race in Hollywood about Wong's legacy and some of the difficult roles she had to play. Then we ask what is it like to talk about your gender identity in different languages? What happens when the pronouns for “he” and “she” in a particular language are similar, or even identical? We meet Emmett Chen-Ran, who decided during his senior year of high school to tell his parents he is transgender. While he grappled with whether they would accept and understand him, there was another challenge: deciding what language he should use to tell them – English or Chinese? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About 30 minutes off Interstate 5, in the Central Valley, there’s a town that’s a vital part of California's history, and Black history in the U.S. It’s called Allensworth, and it was founded as a kind of Black utopia back in 1908. It was self-governed by Black residents, and had its own school, church, bank, debate society and glee club. And for a while, it was thriving. These days, though, Allensworth is a dusty, tiny, farmworker town that’s struggling to survive. There are few jobs or businesses. The drinking water isn’t safe. And hardly anyone visits – or even knows about – the state park there that was built to commemorate Black history. But preserving Allensworth’s history and legacy has come up in meetings of California’s Reparations Task Force. That’s the nine-member body investigating the lingering effects of slavery. They’re coming up with proposals for how to address historical inequities for Black Californians. Reporters Lakshmi Sarah and Teresa Cotsirilos introduce us to some of today’s Allensworth residents, fighting to preserve the town’s history, and its future. We’ll also hear how water plays a vital role in the town’s survival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

What does it means to be a journalist when the story you’re reporting on also affects you? That’s a question Ericka Cruz Guevarra, host of the KQED podcast The Bay, explored on a recent episode. She shares her story about a camping trip she went on with her best friend during the pandemic. But it’s also a story about the mental health impact of reporting the news when you’re a journalist of color. Plus, we have an update on two stories we’ve brought you about two women of color who’ve had to struggle hard to get recognition in Hollywood. Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather recently received an official apology from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for the abuse endured at the 1973 Oscars, and the impact it had on her career. Actress Juanita Moore appeared in more than 80 films and TV shows, but wasn’t always credited for her work. In 1959, she became the fifth Black actor in movie-making history to be nominated for an Oscar. The pioneering actress will finally be honored with her very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 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

Our lives are full of routines. From the time we get up, to what we eat for breakfast, to the modes of transportation we take from place to place. But do we really know the stories behind the buildings we pass by and the people who live or work in them? One reporter gives us an inside look into four different businesses on one Berkeley block. Then we go to East Oakland to meet 10-year-old Hemer as she starts sixth grade at a new school. The pandemic contributed to increases in depression and anxiety for many young people, and some students are still struggling. In this story, we learn how California is investing new dollars in an effort to address their mental health needs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re heading to the high desert town of Susanville, to sample some of the most gourmet food you can find in Lassen County… in a community college cafeteria. We meet the Palauan chef who’s finding a way to bring a taste of home to a community that in some ways, isn’t so different from his Pacific island homeland. Then we’ll visit the foggy coastal city of Pacifica, to learn about a little-known WW2 incarceration camp for Japanese-Americans. And how one man’s diaries leave us vivid clues about what life was like there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, it’s an unassuming beige building on a busy Berkeley street. But in the 1970s, the Rainbow Sign was a groundbreaking center for Black culture, politics, and art. It hosted dozens of high-profile Black thought leaders and performers, including James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, and Shirley Chisholm. The Rainbow Sign was open to all – as a performance venue, political organizing space, and cafe. It lasted just a few short years, from 1971-1977. But it left profound mark on the young people who attended concerts and performances there, including Vice President Kamala Harris. This episode first aired on January 7, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You’ve probably heard of Bobby Seale and The Black Panthers. Or Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement. But what about Kartar Singh Sarabha and the Ghadar Movement? Or Kala Bagai and the fight against redlining? This week we dive deep into the hidden history of early South Asian activism in our state. How Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other South Asian immigrants and their children laid the groundwork for social movements that still resonate today in California. Host Sasha Khokha teams up with KQED politics correspondent Marisa Lagos, and they meet a couple who created the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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