California History You Probably Didn't Learn in School

David 'Mas' Masumoto says he farms with ghosts. On his family's organic peach, nectarine and grape farm south of Fresno, California, Mas says the labor and lessons of his ancestors are in the soil and he's passing these on to the next generations. Mas is an author, too, who has delved into the stories of his farm and family in more than 10 books. In his latest, Secret Harvests, Mas writes about the shock of a newly uncovered family secret.  Reporter Lisa Morehouse has visited the Masumoto farm for years, picking luscious peaches and nectarines in summer. For her series California Foodways, she returned to hear what Mas learned about this hidden story, and how he rediscovered just how resilient his farming family is. Plus, Christopher Beale tells us about the flight over San Francisco's iconic Castro Theatre. Historically a movie palace, the building’s new managers want to remove seats to renovate the space for other live events like concerts. But the plans have raised tensions, with some pointing to the theater’s historical significance in San Francisco’s gay community as a reason to restore the space rather than renovate it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Touko 202329min

W. Kamau Bell has centered conversations about race in much of his work as a comedian, author and TV host. But when Kamau, who's black, and his wife Melissa, who's white, had kids, they knew their experiences around race would be much different than their daughters. So The Bells set out to make a film that centers the lives of other mixed-race kids like them. In a conversation with hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos, the Bells open up about how about they talk about race in their own family and the conversations they hope this film sparks in living rooms across the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 Huhti 202329min

Parenting is already a challenge, but it can be even more complicated when you’re raising a kid with a different racial identity than yours or your partner’s. Mixed!: Stories from Mixed Race Californians continues as co-hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos talk to Dr. Jenn Noble, a clinical psychologist who often works with multiracial families and Rahul Yates, a high school senior and host of the podcast Mixed by Gen Z, who's spent a lot of time thinking about his identity and creating ways for young people to find community and connection. They share about what parents can do to support their mixed race kids, the importance of talking about race early, and how the conversation about being mixed is changing with a younger generation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

21 Huhti 202329min

Half-and-half. Cream and coffee. Almost every mixed-race family develops their own, sometimes bizarre, metaphors to explain their kids to the outside world. Chicana feminist, playwright, poet and author Cherríe Moraga prefers the term “mixed blood.” Her recent memoir, Native Country of the Heart, is a tribute to her powerful and complicated Mexican mother, Elvira Moraga. It’s a more seasoned reflection on the concepts she first explored when she co-edited the groundbreaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color in 1981. Her essay “La Güera” focuses on straddling identities as a mixed-race queer woman who’s light-skinned — or güera in Spanish. Moraga says people sometimes perceive her as white, despite her deep ties to her Mexican culture and heritage. In the essay, she explores the privilege she experiences in the world because of her phenotype, but also her vulnerability as a working-class woman and as a lesbian. California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha and KQED correspondent Marisa Lagos spoke to her at her home for the series “Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Huhti 202329min

Bay Area Teacher on Growing Up 'Multiracial Japanese American' — and Why Ethnic Studies Matters “Woman. Daughter. Adoptee. AIDS Orphan. Hapa. Japanese-American. Asian. Asian-American. Queer Musician. Writer. Martial Artist. Alive.” Those are the words a 21-year-old Joemy Ito-Gates wrote below a photograph of her taken by artist Kip Fulbeck. Some 20 years later, she’s also now a mother, an ethnic studies teacher and an advocate against cultural appropriation in fashion. And she’s changed the words she uses to describe her racial background to “multiracial Japanese American.” Our series “Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians,” continues with hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos in conversation with Ito-Gates about growing up as a multiracial adoptee, the loss of her parents to AIDS, and the ways she’s reclaiming Japanese heritage garments.  Thrifting and Bio-Art: Two Different Approaches to the Fast-Fashion Problem You might not realize it when trying on a new pair of jeans, but some estimates put the greenhouse gas emissions from clothing and shoe manufacturing at eight-percent of the global total. And thousands of tons of textiles end up in landfills each year. While fast fashion has many Americans buying more and more new cheap clothes, others are wondering what they can do to help. From KCBX in San Luis Obispo, Gabriela Fernandez profiles two California women who are championing more sustainable ways to shop. 'Stud Country': Queer Line Dancing Finds Home in Los Angeles  We’re heading to a night of boot scootin’ boogie in Los Angeles, at a spot that’s a little more than your usual honky tonk. Stud Country is a weekly dance party, a safe space for folks of all genders, sexualities and dancing abilities. KCRW’s Danielle Chiriguayo recently hit the dance floor.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Huhti 202329min

Our series MIXED!: Stories of Mixed Race Californians, continues with a wide ranging conversation with the late UCSB professor Reginald Daniel. He passed away suddenly in November 2022, just a few weeks after speaking with co-hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos. Before his death Professor Daniel taught the longest running college course on multiracial identity in the nation.  Daniel's family identified as Black, but he had big questions about his family's ancestry. Questions that his family never wanted to address. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 Maalis 202330min

Olympic figure skater Tai Babilonia and her skating partner Randy Gardner rapidly ascended figure skating’s ranks to become World Champions in 1979. They were favorites at the 1980 Olympics, but an injury ended their dream of a medal. For our series Mixed! Stories of Mixed Race Californians, co-hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Babilonia about growing up in a mixed race family in the 1960s and the racism and exotification she faced as an athlete and public figure. And we have an update on a family we've been following. In 2019, José Luis Ruiz Arévalos left his wife and kids in the Central Valley to apply for his green card in Mexico, but he ended up separated from them for almost four years. He got caught up in changes the Trump administration made to the questions consulate officials ask people trying to become legal residents. Last month, José was finally able to return home, but as Edsource Reporter Zaidee Stavely tells us, his forced absence changed the course of his children’s lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 Maalis 202330min

Even if he’s not always recognized as part of the Asian-American community, Oakland-born rapper Guap is fiercely proud of his Filipino roots. On the last track of his 2021 album, 1176, he tells an origin story spanning decades and continents. His grandfather, a Black merchant marine, stationed in Subic Bay in the Philippines, found himself with a rip in the pocket of his uniform. He found a young Filipina seamstress to repair the pocket and fell in love. When his time in Subic Bay came to an end, the two married and moved to a one-story house in West Oakland, where they would eventually raise their grandchild Guap, the first born child of their youngest daughter. 1176, created in collaboration with Filipino-American producer !llmind, is Guap’s most personal work to date. It’s the culmination of a circuitous path into the music industry, from first getting recognition as a scam rapper to being featured on a Marvel movie soundtrack. For the series Mixed: Stories of Mixed Race Californians, hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Guap about growing up Black and Filipino, the cultural impact his Lola had on him, and how his mixed identity shows up in his music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Maalis 202330min