Bay Curious

The Condor Club has been a fixture of San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood for more than 60 years. It's also where Carol Doda first performed topless, ushering in a new era of entertainment in the city's bars. It still features topless dancers today, but this iconic bar may also have some spookier residents. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Spooked: Sea Legs - The Cro...

The Bay Area has long been associated with countercultural movements — whether it was the Beats of the 1950s, the hippies of the 1960s or the Black Panthers of the 1970s. But often overlooked in that long tradition of local subcultures is the emergence of America’s first official satanic church, which was founded right here in San Francisco. From its beginnings in a black Victorian house in the Ri...

The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, requires state and local agencies to consider the environmental impact of public and private projects. Prop 45 on the 2026 California ballot would change CEQA by speeding up environmental reviews for certain projects such as housing, roads, bridges, and broadband centers. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all o...

Proposition 44 on the 2026 California ballot would require private non-profit health clinics serving the lowest income Californians to spend 90% of their revenue on medical services. If they do not, they would pay fees. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 KQED Voter Guide Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your...

Proposition 43 on the 2026 California ballot would increase the vote threshold to pass new local taxes earmarked for special causes. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcas...

Proposition 42 on the 2026 California ballot prohibits new state personal property taxes and certain retroactive state taxes. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This...

Proposition 41 on the 2026 California ballot would require more audits on the programs that are funded by special taxes. Is it good governance? Or red tape meant to make it harder to pass new taxes?  Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts pos...

Proposition 40 would impose a one time 5% tax on Californians whose net worth is over a billion dollars. The resulting revenue would be primarily used to replace cuts to Medi-Cal and food assistance programs passed at the federal level in H.R. 1 or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Political Breakdown Podcas...

Proposition 39 on the 2026 California ballot would require voters to show a valid ID when casting their ballot. Currently, voters have to show ID to register to vote, but not at the ballot box. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You...

Proposition 38 on the 2026 California ballot would authorize the state to borrow money to fund immunology research. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was...

Proposition 37 on the 2026 California ballot authorizes the state to borrow money to create a middle-income homebuyers program. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts Th...

Proposition 5 on the 2026 California ballot would change the rules around recalls of elected officials. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by...

Proposition 4 on the California 2026 ballot would repeal an earlier statewide ban on public financing programs. It would open the door for state and local governments to set up public financing programs for election campaigns. Candidates would have to meet certain eligibility criteria and agree to spending limits. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop F...

Proposition 2 on your 2026 California ballot would make changes to how the state's Rainy Day Fund would work. It would both allow lawmakers to set aside more money during abundant tax years and change the kinds of debt the state can pay off with that fund. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want...

California has what’s known as a “progressive tax system” – basically, the more money you make, the more you pay in income taxes. For years, California voters have approved certain tax rates for high income earners. And now, Prop 3 could make some of those rates permanent.  Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsle...

Proposition 1 on the 2026 California ballot authorizes the state to take out an $11.25 billion bond to fund an array of affordable housing programs, including the construction and preservation of affordable housing and the CalVet program, which helps veterans become homeowners. Additional Resources: Read the transcript for this episode Catch up on all of Prop Fest 2026 Sign up for our newsletter G...

Nancy Pelosi is many things: Trailblazer. Lightning rod. First woman Speaker of the House. Mom of five. To some, she’s an out-of-touch elitist, to others, a champion for democracy. In The Speaker, political reporter Scott Shafer reflects on Pelosi’s historic life and career as she prepares to exit public office. Featuring exclusive interviews with Pelosi herself, along with other prominent figures...

The San Francisco Bay Area isn't as popular of a filming location as Los Angeles or Vancouver, Canada, but there are some very creepy films that use our unique weather and topography as characters. Check out top picks this Halloween season from Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle culture critic, and Carly Severn, Senior Editor of Audience News at KQED. It's a fun conversation about movies, sta...

For much of the 20th century, swaths of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties were home to seas of chrysanthemums, asters and irises. About 200 acres of chrysanthemums — roughly 150 football fields — were grown at the time. The total valuation of the crop amounted to roughly $2 million. And many of the farmers who grew those flowers were Chinese and Japanese immigrants who had to lease land from whit...

Just off San Pablo Point, near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, there's a tiny spec of an island with a beautiful Victorian-era building on it. East Brother Light Station has been there since 1874, its light beaming out to warn boats away from unexpectedly shallow waters. Bay Curious listener Kathleen Taylor noticed the lighthouse on a ferry ride from Vallejo to San Francisco for a baseball game an...

Bay Curious listener Mary Newsom went on a lot of walks during the coronavirus pandemic. While hiking in the Oakland and Berkeley hills, she noticed that wildlife had come back to the golf courses located in East Bay parks. But once shelter-in-place lifted and golfers were back at it, all she saw were golf balls -- everywhere. It made her wonder, why are there so many golf courses in public parks...

Many Bay Area cities from Oakland to San Francisco have contracts with Flock Safety, a surveillance company that offers license plate readers that yield far more data than an average speed camera. Many citizens and privacy activists are concerned that the cameras are collecting so much information it's actually a violation of our fourth amendment rights. But law enforcement agencies and their supp...

In the heart of San Francisco, near the Castro Theater and Corona Heights, there's a rock wall with a striking appearance. Listener Ravi Bhoraskar stumbled on it and wondered why the rock has a shiny, almost wet-looking appearance. And as a new convert to rock climbing, he also wondered if he could climb it. We dig into the history of urban climbs like this one and how they helped put the Bay Area...

San Francisco’s trash cans have problems. From debris littering the streets around them, to the — more often than not — broken recycling compartments, these green garbage receptacles are past their intended life span. Replacing them has been a saga that Bay Curious started following in 2022, but at last the new cans are popping up on city streets. This is a refreshed version of our 2022 episode ab...

Stephanie Rolfs, like many Bay Area residents, has spent a lot of time looking out over the bay, watching as ships come and go. The cargo ships in particular are so big and obvious as they sit out in the middle of the bay, south of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge and north of the San Mateo bridge. She wondered, how do those ships know where to park? Are there invisible parking "spots" they're...