Martina Castro

A year ago, KALW’s Ali Budner met Sharena Thomas and her friend Lesley Phillips, two women from East Oakland who say the 911 emergency response system in their neighborhood is broken.

In trying to find a possible solution, they co-founded group called The People’s Community Medics. Its goal is to train citizens in basic first aid so they can help people as they wait for emergency responders.

Jaimal Yogis was 29 years old when he went through his first big heartbreak. At the time, he was living in a dark studio to save money and Jaimal was feeling pretty sorry for himself.

His girlfriend Sara was his first real love. When they met in their early 20s, Jaimal was instantly drawn to her silly sense of humor and green-blue eyes. After a short time, they fell for eachother. Hard.

The chemistry between people on a dance floor and the DJ mixing for them is not something to take lightly. The DJ is like a combination of artist, entertainer, and performer – taking the crowd on a musical journey.

In February 2013, Radio Ambulante put on a live show in New York City. We presented some of our best stories from our pilot season in English and Spanish, but we kicked off the evening with a conversation between novelists Junot Díaz and Francisco Goldman and Radio Ambulante's Executive Producer Daniel Alarcón.

This conversation is about the art of translation, on what it's like to write stories about Latinos in English, and about the relationship each author has with Latin America.

Note: this conversation contains explicit language.

This Thursday, members of the esteemed San Francisco Writers’ Grotto will stand up and read their worst writing, in front of an audience. It’s part of the annual Litquake Festival, and it’s called "Regreturature." KALW’s Martina Castro went to last year’s show and did some thinking about her own creative process.