Jon Kalish

Mandolin orchestras were everywhere during the early 20th Century. It turns out that the Bay Area is the birthplace of a mandolin super-group founded by a man who doesn't even play the instrument. He wanted to honor the memory of a Jewish mandolin ensemble whose members perished in the Holocaust.

San Francisco's Mission district is home to Otherlab. Engineers there are working on projects from floating wind turbines to solar powered scooters. And one of it’s biggest focuses is new start ups. You can find Otherlab spin offs around the Bay Area, manufacturing products to fight climate change.

Lloyd Kahn is a legend in the Do-It-Yourself home building scene. His 1973 book Shelter is considered one of the seminal works in the genre. His work is now on exhibit at the Bolinas Museum.

There’s a sprawling industrial park on the waterfront in Alameda that once was a Navy air base. What had been the base's air traffic control tower was…