How a Group of Surfers Helped Save Malibu from Wildfire; Redwoods Struggling

Arnett Moore is launching a one-man campaign: to get his aunt, actress Juanita Moore, a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Juanita receive an Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1959 film, Imitation of Life. As Arnett says, "She's a star without a star." Plus, two violinists fix up a 1971 VW bus and travel the West Coast, bringing music and joy to all they encounter. And host Sasha Khokha heads into the kitchen to watch Nelson German at work. German owns two restaurants in Oakland where he showcases his culinary roots. German is the only California contestant on this season of the reality cooking competition series "Top Chef." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Mai 202129min

COVID-19 devastated California’s arts and culture world. But the blow to singers across the state has been particularly harsh, and not just financially and socially. After an early super spreader event in Washington State caused more than 50 choir members to contract the virus, singers in California were forced to confront a devastating truth: this beloved everyday activity, which feels so good and is so healthy, had become...a killer. Singing went underground. But it didn’t go away entirely. Throughout this pandemic, KQED's Chloe Veltman has been following what happened to singing across our state. How it went from almost disappearing entirely, to helping us maintain solidarity, social purpose and a sense of humor through these dark, dark times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Mai 202129min

Families put their loved ones in nursing homes because they think they’ll receive better care. They assume someone will keep an eye out. But that’s not always true. Conditions were bad in some California nursing homes even before COVID. When the pandemic hit, things got much worse. More than 9,000 nursing home residents in the state have died from COVID-19. Some facilities didn’t even take basic precautions. The missteps, even the deaths, come as no surprise to advocates for nursing home reform. But as KPCC investigative reporters Elly Yu and Aaron Mendelson discovered, the state also knows these nursing homes are failing patients, and lets them stay in business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Mai 202129min

Even though many of us might feel like we’ve got more of a handle on the coronavirus pandemic now, we will all be marked by it forever—especially those who’ve really been in the trenches. Lisa Fagundes is normally a librarian at the San Francisco Public Library. But starting last spring, she and thousands of other city and state workers were redeployed to become contact tracers, calling people who may have been exposed. Our health correspondent April Dembosky asked Lisa to keep an audio diary for us over the last year. Listening through these entries, you can hear – in real time – how the pandemic changes her. How it picks her up, twists her in all directions, and then drops her on the other side. Just like it’s done to all of us.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 Apr 202129min

So much of what our country is wrestling with right now are questions about power. How do we hold people in power accountable? How can people who haven’t had power claim it? Those questions are at the center of a new podcast from WBEZ called “Art of Power.” Sasha Khokha talks with the podcast's host: author, NPR Silicon Valley Correspondent and California Report alum, Aarti Shahani. Plus another in our series of tributes to members of vulnerable communities and front line workers lost to COVID. This week, Sylvia Morton's daughters remember their mother. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Apr 202129min

We’ve been asking our listeners to tell us about loved ones they’ve lost. This week, we bring you the first in a series of stories to remember them. Eric Warner died of COVID in San Quentin Prison at age 57. He was born and raised in San Francisco, the son of Filipino immigrants. He was a barber, a boxer, and also a beloved brother. Eric’s older brother Hank brings us this tribute. Plus, LA Unified School District is testing out a pilot program to expand outdoor learning. Reporter Deepa Fernandes visited some outdoor classrooms in Southern California to see how they’re trying to make it work. Those stories and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Apr 202129min

This week, we bring you a documentary we first aired in December that generated a lot of response from our listeners, changing life for the person at the center of this story. When she turned 15, Luna Guzmán, like many girls in Guatemala, celebrated with a quinceañera. But it was a secret party, with a borrowed dress, because her family couldn't fathom her as a transgender girl. So she put her soccer jerseys back on and tried to pass as the boy she knew she wasn’t inside. Even as she dealt with brutal violence, she decided to take a terrible risk and leave everything behind in Guatemala, to try to find a life in California: the one place in the world where she could imagine being safe. Host Sasha Khokha followed Luna Guzmán over the last two years, reporting from a migrant shelter in Tijuana, an ICE detention center in San Diego, and a tiny drag bar in Modesto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Apr 202143min

It’s one thing to write about COVID from home. It's another to see it, to hear it. KQED health reporters April Dembosky and Lesley McClurg go inside two hospitals near Sacramento: Lesley shadowed doctors in the intensive care unit, and April spent time in the ER. One year into the pandemic, it was clear these clinicians were not celebrating any anniversaries. They’ve seen too much. Too much has changed. For them, there is no post-COVID world. We hear about the little ways, the big ways, and the surprising ways COVID has changed the way doctors do their jobs.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Apr 202129min