The California Report Magazine

Roughly a quarter of California’s carbon emissions come from our buildings and the energy that powers them. And we need to cut those emissions down to next to nothing to avoid the scary effects of climate change. Making a home green is pretty easy if you start from scratch. But it gets a whole lot harder when it comes to converting the millions of homes in California that already exist. The ones where most of us live. Climate reporter Laura Klivans takes us to East Oakland, where one city block is taking a revolutionary approach to reducing their emissions: by electrifying together, all at once. This story comes to us from KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In America. And it's been just over a year since the mass shooting at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay killed seven farmworkers, all of whom were immigrants from China and Mexico. One nonprofit has been providing survivors and the farmworker community with mental health support including a music therapy class. KQED’s Blanca Torres brings us this story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3 Feb 202430min

On the northern end of Stockton, you'll find Angel Cruz Park. Most weekends it's lined with food vendors, many of them Hmong and Cambodian immigrants. For more than 30 years, this has been a destination for made-to-order dishes, where locals argue over who has the best beef sticks or papaya salad. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse spent a day at the park, learning about the people behind the food. Next we got to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The area is known for farming, boating and fishing. And it’s got some new migrants: Artists from cities. Reporter Jon Kalish wondered how these urban newcomers are fitting into life in the rural Delta and what an influx of creatives has meant for the community. He talked to transplants who were challenged when they became part of the community.   And finally, more than half of people in the US choose to be cremated when they die, in part because of the high cost and the environmental toll of conventional burials. In the next few years, Californians will have another option when it comes to a loved one's remains: human composting, which turns the bodies of people who've died into fertilizer for forests and home gardens. KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky brings us the story of one man from San Francisco who didn’t want to wait for the law in California to change.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Jan 202430min

California’s oldest prison, San Quentin, has a new name. It's now the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. It was already known for its college classes and arts programs. But Governor Newsom is hoping a major overhaul of the prison and new programs for everything from therapy to education and job training will be a model for prisons across the state. This week, Uncuffed, a podcast produced by incarcerated journalists at San Quentin, shares a moment when the wall between correctional officers and incarcerated men broke down just a little bit over something new...a game of Pickleball. And KQED's Lesley McClurg brings us the story of Dr. Alfredo Quiñones Hinojosa or "Dr. Q" as he's better known. The 56-year-old attended UC Berkeley and Harvard and is a leading neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic. But he started out as Freddy, a fifteen-year-old migrant worker from Mexico who picked tomatoes in the San Joaquin Valley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Jan 202430min

Whether it’s severe heat, cold, fires, or floods, people experiencing homelessness are on the bleeding edge of the climate emergency. Reporting for the KQED podcast, Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In America, Vanessa Rancaño follows the story of one woman who is trying to keep herself and her adult son alive on the streets of Fresno, California. She talks to advocates pushing lawmakers to find solutions, and creating their own in the meantime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Jan 202430min

This week we're featuring stories from our ongoing series Flavor Profile, featuring folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic. Gas Station Filipino Dessert Shop Is Among NorCal’s Most Delicious Secrets Inside a nondescript National gas station off the 205 in Tracy, is Ellis Creamery. Marie Rabut and her husband Khristian got the idea to open the shop in 2020 as a way to supplement their income after Khristian lost his tech job in San Jose. Tired of long commutes for work, they wanted to stay local and saw the shop as an opportunity to bring Filipino flavors to their community. KQED's Katrina Schwartz went to find out how they're adding their own unique spin to traditional Filipino desserts.  How SF's Rize Up Sourdough Puts Black Bakers on the Map Like many others, San Francisco's Azikiwee Anderson took up making sourdough during the pandemic. Once he mastered the basics, he started experimenting with ingredients no one had ever put into sourdough: gojuchang, paella and ube. Those flavors transformed his hobby into a successful business that wholesales to bakeries and restaurants across the Bay Area. All this success has made Azikiwee rethink how the food industry brings equity into the workplace, and how to elevate cultural appreciation, not appropriation, through ingredients. KQED's Adhiti Bandlamudi tells us how Anderson wants to give a chance to more Black and Brown bakers, because of his own experience feeling like an outsider as a Black man interested in commercial baking. This Spicy, Crunchy Chili Topping Is the Essence of Balinese Flavors  Celene and Tara Cerrara had successful careers, one a doula and the other a make-up artist, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then, they both lost their jobs and moved home where they rediscovered a passion for cooking their native Balinese food. They started a successful pop up, Bungkus Bagus, and are now transitioning towards packaged products. Clare Wiley brings us their story from Glendale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Jan 202430min

This week we're revisiting a story from our series Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians. It originally aired in March 2023. 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, ripped the pocket of his uniform. He knew he'd be in big trouble if he didn't fix it, so 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. 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

30 Dec 202330min

This week we’re sharing a story from August 2023. It’s the little known history of Japanese Americans who were living in Japan during World War II. Reporter Kori Suzuki found out that his own grandmother, who he’d always thought was born in Japan, is a Kibei Nisei, a second generation American who returned after living through World War II in Japan. He explores his grandmother’s memories and discovers new aspects of himself along the way. This story was originally produced by our friends at Code Switch.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Dec 202330min

‘I’m Pro-Humanity’: One Palestinian’s Call for Peace in the Face of Tragedy Like a lot of people, journalist Asal Ehsanipour has been in a state of despair since the latest war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7. One of the only times she’s found comfort was at a San Francisco Jewish Community Center event with Israeli and Palestinian speakers who’ve lost a loved one to the ongoing conflict. One of the speakers was a man who’d moved from Gaza and now lives in the Bay Area. Coming to California opened up his thinking about embracing our shared humanity – even during times of war.  'It is Possible to Love People and Disagree': For These Two Friends, Hard Conversations Are Key Right Now As the war continues, Californians are coming together and having tough interfaith conversations in groups like the Jewish-Muslim organization the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom. It tries to build relationships between Muslim and Jewish women of all ages. The Palo Alto chapter is where Doctor Lama Rimawi and Rabbi Amy Eilberg met. KQED’s Brian Watt spoke with both of them recently about how they’ve stayed good friends in light of the ongoing conflict. This California Facility is Fully Devoted to the Search for Alien Life Many people like to speculate about the existence of extraterrestrial life, but does it really exist? For our Hidden Gems series, KQED’s Katherine Monahan headed to the Hat Creek Radio Observatory to meet some very serious scientists dedicated to finding out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Dec 202330min