SoundOnSight

Right now the job market isn't doing so hot. California ranks among the worst job markets in the country - the unemployment rate hit 5.6% in December. Layoffs across tech, journalism, and the public sector have added to the anxiety even more.  We wanted to see how new entrants to the job market were handling all this, so we came to SF State to ask students about their prospects for after gradu...

Under a new executive order, marijuana will go from a Schedule controlled substance - the strictest category under the Controlled Substances Act - to Schedule III. The new categorization recognizes a drug's medical use and carries lower regulatory burdens. We talked to Sunset Connect founder Ali Jamlian about the potential reclassification and what it means for the future of both his company a...

Thirty-year-old Jhony Silva says his entire life in the United States has been political. Born in Honduras but raised in the Bay Area, he is one of the more than 1.3 million people in the country with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Silva welcomed a court ruling in late December blocking the Trump Administration’s efforts to end TPS for certain countries, but says his state of limbo is still far...

Bay Area activists have been on the corner of 100 Montgomery street almost daily since federal ICE agents began arresting immigrants at their hearings in the SF Immigration Court. They've been critical of Mayor Daniel Lurie for what they see as the city’s refusal to challenge the federal government and more actively defend its residents. Back in October, when President Trump nearly deployed fe...

Activists and labor unions in Oakland are escalating demands for local officials to end the shipment of cargo bound for Israel, saying they are willing to call for a general strike and walk off the job if demands are not met. 

It seems like every event has to have a corporate sponsor in the Bay Area these days…or be backed by the city, or some one-syllable tech firm. It’s tedious. It’s stifling.  For the disaffected, an underground alternative naturally endures. You have internet radio stations like this one, HydeFM, along with an ecosystem of crews setting up events. No Bias is an independent media project, party serie...

The Education Department says MSI programs “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.” However, higher education advocates say that the programs are not discriminatory at all, but rather corrective of lingering racial inequity in education. At Laney College in Oakland, one group that Asian immigrants relied on is being forced to s...

Fluctuating tariffs on every import, along with outdated city ordinances and permitting requirements, threaten the ecosystem of corner stores and family grocers that pin the city together. The Neighborhood Business Alliance and the Arab American Grocers Association are responding by organizing small businesses on multiple fronts. First – reviving the practice of group purchasing imports.

From food to music to fashion – Arabic and Middle Eastern culture is having a moment. Women-founded and led Mother Armenia is one of the groups pushing that wave in the Bay Area, highlighting Southwest Asian/North African arts and culture through parties, exhibitions, and educational events. We talk about what’s driving the culture in this moment, and the role of nostalgia in diaspora communities.

After nearly two years of Israel’s war in Gaza, most of the strip’s two million people are expected to reach the most severe category of famine by September. We hear from experts and aid workers who have been to Gaza to understand what famine really looks like.

We speak with Nevin Kallepalli, a journalist in Shasta County, about his coverage of the New California state movement, the Cottonwood militia, and the consequences of government neglect in rural areas.

Journalist and photographer Manuel Ortiz speaks with ACoM’s Peter Schurmann about his current reporting mission in El Salvador. According to Ortiz, conditions—especially for the nation’s poorest—have grown more dire.

In police sweeps of homeless encampments and the militarized crackdown on immigrants, the rights of already-marginalized groups are being stripped bare.

SoundOnSight’s Pilot Episode: New budget bill affects Medicaid, student loans; student activists for Palestine dig in against repression; real talk on the H-1B with a visa holder; SFJazz puts on local and underground talent ahead of annual fest.