The Bay

Earlier this month, leaders at Mills College announced that the school, which has been in the Bay Area for 169 years, will no longer be awarding degrees starting in 2023. This news came as a shock to many students, faculty, and alumni, who know Mills as a unique place for women and LGBTQ people who care about the arts and about social justice. Today, we’ll learn about the history and legacy of Mil...

Throughout this pandemic, disabled people and seniors have been at risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19. And all this time, advocates and community organizers have been pushing to make sure that people in power listen to their concerns. Their activism has pushed the state to shift its policies several times — including this latest eligibility phase, which doesn't force people with disabili...

Oakland and Marin County are the latest California jurisdictions to announce plans to launch guaranteed income pilot programs. The idea is to give money to hundreds of low-income residents of color, every month, with no strings attached. The two projects have their similarities and differences. But in general, supporters that the results will build a bigger case for even bigger guaranteed income p...

The killing of 8 people in Georgia, 6 of whom were women of Asian descent, has led to marches and rallies in the Bay Area in support of the AAPI community. It’s also prompted many people to share experiences they’ve had with racism and sexism. But as organizer and advocate Hyejin Shim says, it’s also important to be specific about who was targeted in the Atlanta shooting. Because when we do that,...

This past year, a group of organizations have been keeping count of reports of anti-Asian hate incidents across the country. Nearly 3,800 reports have been submitted since the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center was launched, and nearly 45 percent of those were reported in California. The attack on Asian businesses in Atlanta that killed eight, including six Asian women, is just the latest chapter of...

Over the last year there has been a lot of heartbreak caused by the pandemic. There have also been moments of joy and communities coming together to help each other out. KQED’s Bay Curious podcast honors how lives have changed here in the Bay Area with its one-year anniversary show. Subscribe to Bay Curious here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

School boards in California have historically had a lot of power over decisions at the local level, but the choice to reopen for in-person learning has put that power to the test like never before. More than a thousand California school districts are deciding whether to take advantage of financial incentives and reopen classrooms for the youngest and most vulnerable students. Many are facing inten...

The single-family neighborhood has been foundational to American housing policy for decades. It’s also been a tool to keep Black and brown people out of homeownership, and is one reason why there isn’t nearly enough housing overall. This policy has deep roots in the Bay Area. But now, a handful of cities are rethinking it, and allowing developers to build ‘fourplexes’ in these areas. A change like...

Organizers behind the attempt to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom believe they will collect enough verified signatures to trigger a special election later this year. It’s going to take a lot to actually unseat Gov. Newsom in a recall election and replace him with a Republican. But this campaign is already a lot bigger than any other effort to recall a California governor since 2003. So, why has it gained...

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for fully vaccinated people. New, confirmed cases of COVID-19 are down in California. We have three vaccines in the U.S. This is all good news. But the virus and its variants are still among us, and a vast segment of the population is still waiting their turn for the vaccine. So how should we navigate this in-between...

Angelo Quinto was having a mental health crisis when his family called 911 for help. After Antioch Police arrived at Quinto’s home, his family says an officer kneeled on his back near the neck before his body went limp. Quinto, a 30 year-old Filipino American, died days later in the hospital. His death has drawn national attention, especially among Filipino Americans across the country, and spotli...

On Thursday, the California state legislature approved a $6.6 billion plan to encourage school districts to resume in-person learning for the youngest public school students in the state. Meanwhile, some students have noticed their perspectives missing from the conversation about re-opening schools. Today, we hear from some. Guests: Joy Cheng, senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco; Melina...

Mill Valley in Marin County is one of the 10 most segregated cities in the Bay Area. During the rise of protests following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last year, Mill Valley Mayor Sashi McEntee claimed the Black Lives Matter movement was “not of immediate local importance.” That summer, community activists held protests and sit-ins demanding a public apology from the mayor and plans for la...

The ZIP codes in and near East San Jose have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 in the Bay Area. They’re predominantly immigrant neighborhoods with thousands of essential workers, many of whom work for the Silicon Valley tech giants located nearby. Many say the pandemic has simply exposed generations of disinvestment in this corner of Santa Clara County. So how are community members in these neighbo...

Last fall, KQED launched a new, five-part podcast about possible solutions to the housing crisis. It’s called SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America, hosted by housing reporters Erin Baldassari and Molly Solomon. Since then, Erin and Molly have also received lots of questions and comments from listeners who are curious about what’s happened on the housing front since the podcast dropped.  Today,...

An oil spill from Chevron’s Richmond refinery earlier this month and the toxic fumes released last November are part of a long trend of dangerous spills into the Bay Area’s water and air. So why’s it so hard to keep the fossil fuel industry from releasing harmful stuff into our environment over and over again? Guest: Ted Goldberg, KQED senior editor Episode transcript here: http://bit.ly/3upixsZ L...

Several surveys show that Black Americans are, on average, more hesitant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine compared with white people. And when it comes to Black communities showing less trust in the health care system overall, many journalists, politicians and experts point to one specific historical incident: the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. But many people, including KQED reporter April Dembosky,...

After the pandemic forced strip clubs in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood to close and protests against police violence erupted in the summer, many dancers were laid off and started to work virtually instead. This created an unexpected opportunity to push for more worker power among strippers, and fight back against issues like sexual harassment, racism, and a culture of fear around speaki...

Sakhone Lasaphangthong spends his work day in Oakland's Chinatown helping people get the resources they need. He walks the streets and connects with merchants, elders, and people who don't have housing. Over the last few weeks, violence against Asian elders in the community received national media attention and sparked a lot of debate about race, policing, and community safety. Today, we speak wit...

Traditional Chinese Medicine has a complicated history in the Bay. In the 70s, a Chinese immigrant in Palo Alto named Miriam Lee was arrested and put on trial for practicing acupuncture — even though she learned it from a master in her hometown in China. Today, Traditional Chinese Medicine is still often exoticized or dismissed. But now, some Asian Americans in the Bay Area are reconnecting with t...

After months of debate on whether to reopen public schools in the Bay Area's largest districts, some families have finally had enough of distance learning. But parents are divided on whether it’s safe — and worth the risk — to send their kids back to school while the pandemic rages on. And even if everyone did agree on what to do, the path to reopening is sure to be a long one. Guest: Vanessa Ranc...

There’s a long history of Black women in the Bay Area leading social justice work — including the hundreds of women who led the Black Panther Party. One West Oakland resident believes a celebration of these women and their contributions is long overdue. That’s why, after last summer’s protests against police violence, she decided to memorialize their legacy with a permanent mural on the home she's...

The climate crisis isn't just about big tropical storms and deadlier wildfires. Rising sea levels — as a result of climate change — are forcing contaminated groundwater to the surface in parts of the Bay Area. And the neighborhoods in most danger are places where there was once heavy industry, including areas that were once redlined. Guest: Laura Klivans, KQED science reporter and host of Deep Loo...

California’s vaccine rollout has been…confusing. Many people have been writing into KQED with basic questions about eligibility or where they go to get vaccinated. Our engagement editor has been fielding those questions. But she’s not the only one trying to fill the vaccination information void. Guest: Carly Severn, KQED senior engagement editor Carly answered the top five questions our audience w...

It’s easy to think that California’s eviction moratorium means people can expect to remain in their homes during the economic crisis and global pandemic. But a KQED investigation found that hundreds of evictions are still taking place across the Bay Area, to mostly Black and brown renters. So why hasn’t the state’s eviction moratorium stopped evictions from happening? And why is it worse in some c...