Crosscurrents Podcast

Bay Area reporter Rachel Cassandra spent nine months reporting in Fresno, a city with a long history of high rates of intravenous drug use. Rachel met Amanda, who is struggling with both homelessness and heroin addiction. This is her story, as told in the audio documentary, Dependence.

First up, Oaklanders rally around presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Then, a team of dogs finds cremated remains of loved ones lost during the Camp Fire. And, from our series Uncuffed, the unlikely friendship between a black man and a skinhead.

Today, we hear about a question that might be on the 2020 Census. It could cost the Bay Area billions of dollars. Then, meet San Francisco vocalist Kim Nalley on the importance of celebrating jazz history. And, we visit an old-school recording studio where songs are made by cutting (actually cutting) tape (actual tape).

Today, we take a look at turmoil happening in Sudan in a new series called Bay Views. Then, a new show by young people who say they aren’t quite yet adults just yet. And, we’ll hear about a space in Oakland where queer people of color are getting Radically Fit.

Today, we’ll hear voices from the third annual Women’s March in San Francisco. Then, we’ll check in with one of the queens of the San Francisco scene, Peaches Christ, on drag becoming part of mainstream culture. And, from our series Uncuffed: a father and son housed in different prisons form an unbreakable bond.

In a special presentation from KALW News, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re considering race and class relations from an international design perspective with our friends from 99% Invisible. It’s the story of the Ponte City Tower.

You can find more episodes of 99% Invisible, and subscribe to the podcast, at 99pi.org.

•  One African American family, half a century of experience in SF public schools
•  Vietnamese death anniversaries unite young and old

This is part of an ongoing series “Learning while black: The fight for equity in San Francisco schools.”

San Francisco’s African American community has shrunk by half since 1970. Of the families that remain, nearly a fifth live in public housing or get a rental subsidy. Now, a city effort is turning public housing into a key front in the battle to improve educational outcomes for African American kids.

This is part of an ongoing series “Learning while black: The fight for equity in San Francisco schools.”

African American students across the country are much more likely than any other student group to be placed in special education, and that’s true at San Francisco Unified too. The district’s troubled history has plenty to teach us about what is and isn’t working for black students with special needs today.

• East Bay doctor brings opioid addiction treatment to the streets
• Why medication for heroin addiction is still hard to come by
• StoryCorps: Finding one's musical niche

• Jerry Brown leaves big environmental footsteps for Governor Newsom to follow
• Bay Area Beats: Anna Hillburg
• Audiograph: Guitar Kingdom

• Update on The Village in Oakland 
• El Sobrante: The Leftover Town
• Bay Area Beats: Bang Data

• Resilience and hope at Oscar Grant vigil
• Oscar Grant's incarcerated father speaks out
• What's changed for BART police after Oscar Grant's killing

What can help control California’s increasingly problematic wildfires?

Fighting fire with fire.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/meet-famous-japanese-mold-flavors-unexpected-dishes.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/living-larp-life-berkeley-hills.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This is a special Crosscurrents Morning Report on the anniversary of Oscar Grant's death.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/oscar-grant-s-incarcerated-father-speaks-out-ten-years-after-his-son-s-killing.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/bringing-retro-video-games-mission-roof-car.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/inside-san-francisco-s-little-kingdom-guitars.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/chinese-mexican-fusion-food-found-only-border.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/christmas-san-quentin.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

This week, we're sharing morning reports from our archives while we take a break for the holidays.

For photos and more, go to https://www.kalw.org/post/how-photographer-created-sense-community-her-san-francisco-neighborhood.

The Crosscurrents Morning Report airs on KALW 91.7 FM all year round Monday–Thursday at 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m.

New episodes of Crosscurrents will be back on January 7.

The San Francisco Immigration Defense Unit is a team of eight lawyers with the public defender’s office who represent people threatened with deportation. 

• Operation pest patrol: The cherry tree and the pest
• My Mixtape: "If I'm Unworthy," by Blake Mills

• Operation pest patrol: A threat from within
• Comedian Rex Navarrete on finding humor through struggle

• Operation pest patrol: Invaders at the border?
• Raiders fan sews gear in prison

This is the last story in our four-part series “Persistent Poison: Lead’s Toxic Legacy in the Bay Area.”  

In Alameda County, which has some of the highest lead levels in the country, an energetic public health nurse helps families after their child has been lead poisoned. But her work is a stopgap solution. What’s the answer to preventing leading poisoning before it starts?

This is the second story in a four-part award-winning series “Persistent Poison: Lead’s Toxic Legacy in the Bay Area.

This is the second story in a four-part award-winning series “Persistent Poison: Lead’s Toxic Legacy in the Bay Area.

In it, we explore how Alameda county’s lead problem goes hand in and with the region’s high rents. We meet a family who believes their daughter got lead poisoning from their apartment building. They complained to their landlord, and the family claims he evicted them because of it.

This is the first story in our four-part award-winning series “Persistent Poison: Lead’s Toxic Legacy in the Bay Area.

A 2017 Reuters report showed that a few Bay Area neighborhoods have some of the highest rates of childhood lead poisoning in the country.