The California Report Magazine

Need a Gorgeous Diwali Outfit? Nimisha Aunty Will Take Care of You On a recent weekend, a Morgan Hill home’s two-car garage was transformed into something dazzling. Shoppers tried on embroidered Indian outfits and excitedly chatted in Hindi and Gujarati. This is Nivy’s Nook, the homegrown boutique Nimisha Jadav runs out of her garage. As part of our series about about people spreading joy and building connection in their communities, The California Report’s intern Srishti Prabha found that while people may come here looking for saris, chaniya cholis and salwar kameez, they leave with so much more. ⁠After Nearly 2 Years of War in Gaza, More LA Rabbis Push Back⁠ This week marked the second anniversary of the October 7th attacks. And news of an initial cease fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is offering some hope of ending the war in Gaza. Even before this preliminary agreement was announced, Reporter Benjamin Gottlieb had been talking with Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, who’ve been taking a very public stance against the war – and the actions of the Israeli Government – for the first time in two years. The West Coast’s First Naval Base Is Now A Whiskey Distillery Californians have made whiskey since the Gold Rush, but craft bourbon has taken off in the last couple decades, with as many as 150 distilleries here in the state. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visited a distillery in Solano County that’s producing whiskey at a location where the Navy once built ships and submarines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On October 6, 1995, The California Report’s first weekly show went on the air. Today we’re celebrating our birthday with a look back at that first show, which explored issues we’re still grappling with today, and featured a soundscape that created a roadmap for covering this huge, diverse state.  How a Chinese Laundryman Shaped US Civil Rights From San Francisco The increased number of violent ICE raids and arrests have escalated concerns about the equal protection and due process rights of migrants. Non-citizens won these rights more than a century ago, when two Chinese laundrymen brought their fight against discrimination all the way to the US Supreme Court. Yick Wo vs. Hopkins is just one way early Chinese immigrants helped shape constitutional principles that remain foundational to American democracy. And as KQED’s  Cecilia Lei reports, that case still resonates today. A Day in the Life of San José’s Rapid Response Network, Built to Resist ICE Fear The Trump administration's aggressive tactics around immigration enforcement have spread fear in immigrant communities. But volunteers across California are staffing hotlines around the clock, and joining rapid response networks to help inform immigrants about their rights. KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli spent a day with the Rapid Response Network in Santa Clara County. Need Community Support? Dial 'MYSTERY' to Reach San Francisco’s Creative Mutual Aid Hotline When you think of mutual aid, you might think of people raising money online to help others in their community with financial emergencies like covering rent or a big debt. Or maybe it’s neighbors sharing food or used furniture with each other. Some volunteers in the Bay Area are putting a more creative spin on what mutual aid can look like. KQED’s Hussain Khan has more as part of our new series all about the little things people are doing for each other these days, that can mean a lot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re bringing you an excerpt from the first episode of a new podcast called A Tiny Plot, from our friends at KQED’s Snap Studios. About one third of our nation’s homeless population is here in California – with close to 6,000 people on the streets each night in Oakland alone. Producer Shaina Shealy spent more than a year following a group of unhoused people at Union Point Park in Oakland as they fought for a radical idea: their own encampment where they could set their own rules. If their idea worked, the people of Union Point believed they could create a model that would help other homeless people across the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Located near Hayward in Alameda County, Russell City was once home to mostly Black, Latino and poor white families boxed out of other Bay Area neighborhoods by redlining and the cost of living. But in the 1960s, after the county refused to extend water and sewer service to Russell City, it declared it a “blight,” and used eminent domain laws to bulldoze the community and displace more than 1,000 residents.  A few years ago, the City of Hayward made a formal apology to former residents, acknowledging that the destruction of Russell City was part of a nationwide pattern of displacing communities of color.  And this year, lawmakers are considering a program that would give people in similar situations a chance to apply for money or land as compensation. It’s called Assembly Bill 62, and it’s part of California’s wider reparations proposal. It would be the first of its kind in the United States, but it builds on the legacy of reparations efforts around the world, including Germany’s decades-long programs for Holocaust survivors.  KQED’s Annelise Finney explains how the German model might guide reparations efforts in California. And for the podcast Bay Curious, KQED’s Spencer Whitney visits with former residents and other people with deep ties to Russell City to learn about the lasting pain of losing the place they called home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, our series on Californians and resilience continues with Oakland comedian Jackie Keliiaa. She’s a stand-up, writer, actor, and producer whose work not only reflects on her everyday life, but also her Native heritage. She’s been featured on Comedy Central, Team Coco, Netflix and IllumiNative's list of 25 Native American Comedians to Follow, and she organizes the all-Native comedy show, Good Medicine. Host Sasha Khokha sat down with Keliiaa for a conversation about comedy, identity, and how laughter can help keep us going during hard times.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re bringing you an excerpt of the KQED podcast Close All Tabs, which features stories about how digital culture shapes our lives. Their new occasional series, OGs of Tech, looks beyond the billionaires to spotlight the often-overlooked innovators who helped build the digital world we live in today. One of these OGs is Felidoro Cueva, who grew up in a rural village in the Andes mountains of Peru, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1964, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. He went on to become one of the first Latino engineers in Silicon Valley. His daughter – and Close All Tabs producer Maya Cueva – takes us through Feli’s journey: from counterculture experimentation to the discrimination he faced in a startup world where Latino representation was nearly nonexistent.  And we make another stop on our road trip series, Hidden Gems, which takes you to out-of-the-way spots across the state that aren’t your typical tourist destinations. Today we dig into our archives and visit Volcano, in Amador County, and head 100 feet underground into the Black Chasm Cavern with KQED’s Bianca Taylor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Labor Day weekend, we’re bringing you some of our favorite stories from the California Report Magazine archive. You may have seen these viral stories on your social media feeds: a frightened shelter dog bonding with their foster; a good samaritan helping a street vendor by buying all their merchandise; an artist drawing a portrait of a stranger and listening to their life story. These acts strike a nerve, and it turns out we humans are actually wired for this kind of kindness, connection and empathy. That’s what Dr. Jamil Zaki has discovered in the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He’s a professor of psychology and the author of Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness. He sat down with host Sasha Khokha in January and shared some data-driven reasons why we shouldn’t be cynical, even in really hard times.  And we got to Oakland, where the Freedom Community Clinic is providing free herbal remedies, massage services and healing workshops at their two apothecaries. And last fall, they launched the Ancestral Healing Farm, where people of color are encouraged to learn about ancestral practices and reconnect with the land. The goal of founder Dr. Bernie Lim is to reach people who might mistrust the mainstream medical system because of racism or cultural incompetency. KQED Arts & Culture Editor Nastia Voynovskaya brought us this profile in January. And we end today in Half Moon Bay, where just a few steps from the ocean sits a 60-year-old music venue with an unusual name, an amazing history and some of the best live jazz music you could ever hope to find. We’re digging into our Hidden Gems archives to bring you a story from Reporter Ryan Levi, who visited the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society back in 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Independent Journalist Covering Immigration Raids In Her Own Community  Earlier this summer, 17-year-old Kevin Robles was in his friend's car driving through their neighborhood in Oceanside when he noticed vehicles with tinted windows and nearby, masked men taking someone out of a red car. He started live streaming on Instagram and it went viral. But then a little over a week later agents with Homeland Security Investigations showed up at his family’s home, smashing windows and tossing flash grenades, taking both of his parents into custody. Aisha Wallace Palomares was one of the first journalists to talk to Kevin Robles about what happened.  She is an independent reporter who's covering ICE Raids in her hometown of Escondido, as well as other places around San Diego. She spoke with host Sasha Khokha about covering these raids in her community as an independent journalist.  ⁠⁠Journalists Fleeing Authoritarian Regimes Now at Risk, as Trump Ends Parole Program⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ President Trump is ending a Biden-era humanitarian program that let people from unstable or authoritarian countries come to the United States legally. One of them is a journalist who fled Nicaragua and ended up in the Bay Area. KQED’s Immigration Editor Tyche Hendricks brings us her story. ⁠Legal Immigrants Face Deportation After Decades In the US⁠ A federal program called Temporary Protected Status allows the US to offer residency to immigrants whose home countries have been devastated by natural disasters or war. But for tens of thousands of immigrants, “temporary” has lasted for decades. Now, the Trump administration is moving to end much of the program and that could uproot as many as one million people. Reporter Benjamin Gottlieb spoke to several people in Los Angeles who now find themselves in this immigration limbo.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How a Pasadena Church is Helping One Senior Through Wildfire Recovery It’s been more than seven months since the Eaton Fire tore across Altadena, just east of Los Angeles. Rebuilding homes and neighborhoods could take years – a daunting timeline, especially for seniors. Local advocates worry that many elders within Altadena’s historic Black community won’t be able to rebuild. Afro LA’s Corinne Ruff has this story of how members of a church in Pasadena are coming together to support an elder congregant as she works to rebuild her home, and her life.  Fix a Zipper and Save the Planet at San Francisco’s Free Clothing Repair Clinics Usually public libraries are quiet spaces, but on a recent evening in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood, the building was buzzing with the sound of sewing machines. Once a month, libraries around the city transform into pop-up clothing repair clinics. On the face of it, it’s a chance to patch that hole in your go-to jacket or finally fix that broken zipper on your skirt, but the goal of the program is to help residents reuse items, and keep them out of the landfill. KQED’s Bianca Taylor takes us inside. Repairing a 1957 Vintage Radio Rekindled a Daughter’s Bond With Her Dad For reporter Rachael Myrow, radio has long been a fixture in her life – not just through her career in public broadcasting, but also through a connection to her father. Fred Myrow was an LA composer who wrote soundtracks to films like Soylent Green and Phantasm. She tells us how the discovery of her father’s beloved old radio has strengthened their bond many years after his death.  The Truth Behind One of the State’s Most Ubiquitous Bumper Stickers We’ve all seen them before: those bright yellow bumper stickers that read “Mystery Spot” in black lettering. But what, actually, happens at the Mystery Spot? In 2021, reporter Amanda Font  followed the story to the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains for our Hidden Gems series.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at fundamentally changing how the country addresses homelessness. The order promises to crack down on street homelessness across the country, in part by institutionalizing people with mental illness. Here in California, Governor Gavin Newsom has criticized Trump’s recent order, while at the same time encouraging a more punitive approach to getting people off the streets. There’s so much debate around the issue, but we rarely hear from the unhoused people at the center of this controversy. Vanessa Rancaño introduces us to Armando Herrera Vargas. He once had a family, a house and a job, but he has been living on the streets of San Francisco for the past decade.  And our series of conversations about resilience continues with Dr. Shanice Robinson. She's a visiting assistant professor at San Francisco State. Resilience is central to her scholarly work, which focuses on the school-to-prison pipeline, and to her advocacy work with incarcerated people. It's also core to her personal experience as a self-described “prison wife” whose husband is serving multiple life sentences in prison.   Plus we visit Fresno where this summer, a group of teens got a chance to study a musical genre they have a deep cultural connection to. And they got to put their own spin on it. Reporter Esther Quintanilla with the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative and KVPR takes us to a rehearsal of Mariachi Unidos.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been nearly seven months since the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, killing 30 people and hollowing out a once vibrant community. For many survivors, the fire has impacted their mental health, as many try to navigate rebuilding their homes and their lives. Reporter Steven Cuevas lives in Altadena, and he’s been talking to therapists who are finding ways to support their community at the same time they’re grappling with their own losses.  Later, we dive into the troubling history of a California wine dynasty. Wine aficionados may now look down on white zinfandel, but in the 1980s and ‘90s, it was the most popular wine in the US. The rise in demand for this sweet, pink wine is the backdrop of a wild story covered in a new podcast called Blood Vines. It’s about the largest grape fraud in US history, the powerful family at the center of it, and how betrayal and murder triggered the fall of a California dynasty. The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha talks to investigative journalist Chris Walker – who wrote and produced the podcast – about the scandal, and how it changed the course of winemaking across the country.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Luis Rodriguez credits reading and writing for keeping him resilient his whole life. He’s best known for his 1993 memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., which chronicles how he joined a gang at age 11, found himself homeless and using heroin, and wound up in the juvenile justice system. He went on to write 17 books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, and he served as poet laureate of Los Angeles from 2014 to 2017. As part of our series on resilience, host Sasha Khokha sits down with Luis Rodriguez to talk about his life and work, and what advice he has for getting through tumultuous times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In May, the Golden State Valkyries kicked off their inaugural season. Even though they just started playing games in front of Bay Area fans, the team is said to be valued at $500 million dollars, the most of any franchise in the WNBA. And the team just had their first player named to the All-Star team: Forward Kayla Thornton was named as a reserve. These days the WNBA is on fire with record viewership and attendance. And more sold out games than ever. But that growth has taken nearly 28 years since the league launched in 1997. And while Caitlin Clark has become a household name, we rarely hear about the early players who fought for professional women’s basketball to get respect. Judy Mosley McAfee was one of them. She was the sixth woman drafted into the WNBA. Her daughter, reporter Audy McAfee, brings us this tribute. And we go to San Francisco’s Castro District to visit Maitri Compassionate Care Center. In addition to providing hospice care for people living with AIDS, for the last several years, it’s provided affordable care for those preparing for or recovering from gender affirmation surgery. At a moment when the Trump administration is issuing executive orders to dismantle protections for transgender people, Maitri remains committed to their work. KQED’s Kyana Moghadam takes us inside the center to learn about its legacy, and what it means to provide care in the heart of San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can hear elements of hip-hop, R&B and even jazz in Tokimonsta’s intricate drum loops, synths and bass lines. On her latest album, Eternal Reverie, the Grammy-nominated producer found inspiration in a Brazilian record, and created music tinged with the memories of a close friend. For our series on California composers, Reporter Clare Wiley brings us this profile of Tokimonsta and the devastating setback that almost stole her ability to make music. And we visit Oakland's 100-year-old produce market. Summer is peak season for many of California’s fruits and vegetables, but that produce makes a lot of stops on the way to your table. One of those places is the Oakland Produce Market, which supplies small markets, restaurants and other food providers with the freshest foods. You don’t have to work for a grocery store or run a restaurant to shop here, as long as you buy in bulk. For her series, California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse got up in the middle of the night to meet some of the people who keep the Oakland Produce Market humming.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer is the heart of the baseball season. But recently the country’s oldest professional sport has been going through some changes. It’s not just the moves to speed up the pace of play. These days, along with training in the weight room or the bullpen, players are also spending time with their team’s sports psychologist. KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky goes behind the scenes at the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark to understand how the team keeps an athlete's mind in shape, both on and off the field. And we explore the history of the bacon-wrapped hot dog. Vendors selling the popular street food can be seen outside of most major gathering spots, from baseball games and concerts to tourist attractions like Pier 39. Bay Curious listener Olivia Godfrey wanted to find out the history of these food carts. But as KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman found out…it’s complicated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

88-Year-Old Audio Engineer Sandy Stone Survived Transphobic Backlash and Made History Audio engineer Sandy Stone got her start working alongside Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills & Nash. When she joined the California lesbian music label Olivia Records, some feminists wanted to kick her, and all trans women, out of women’s spaces. But Stone went on to become the first openly transgender woman inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. KQED Arts Editor Nastia Voynovskaya brings us this profile of Stone, who became a world-class academic and paved the way for the field of transgender studies.  Cancer Stole Her Voice. Curse Words, Children’s Books and AI Saved It You can hear AI-generated voices when you call into a customer service line, read news articles online, and watch movies. Now some tech companies are starting to use the technology to help people who’ve lost the ability to speak due to ALS or oral cancer.  KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky has the story of one woman’s journey to find her natural-sounding voice again. Hidden Gems: The Pirate Ship on Big Bear Lake Set in the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake is a popular tourist destination for Southern California families looking for lakeside recreation in the summer. One of the attractions? A pirate ship called the Time Bandit. In this story from our Hidden Gems archives, reporter Amanda Font set sail on this historic vessel.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In California, music and winemaking seem to go together. Visit any of the state’s countless wineries and you can hear all kinds of music, from jazz and folk, to classical and Americana. But one artist on the Central Coast takes that connection especially seriously: he spent years making an album full of sounds from a vineyard. Reporter Benjamin Purper takes us to San Luis Obispo to learn more about a sonic journey through a Central Coast wine harvest. And we'll meet one of California’s most celebrated cheese-makers, Soyoung Scanlan. But years ago, before she’d ever really eaten cheese, Soyoung had another love. Growing up in South Korea, she trained in classical piano. So every cheese she’s made over the last 25 years has a musical name and connection. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visited the cheesemaker in the hills outside Petaluma. We end today with the story of Ron Peterson, a volunteer guide at the Tijuana River Estuary. After losing his sight, Ron now leads a very unique kind of tour. His story comes to us from KPBS in San Diego, as part of their series about volunteers, people who devote their time in unexpected ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet the Woman Reuniting Eaton Fire Survivors With Lost Treasures The fierce Santa Ana winds that whipped the Palisades and Eaton fires into deadly infernos also spared precious things you’d think would have been the first to burn: old family photos, children’s art work, postcards, even pages of old sheet music. Those things sometimes blew across neighborhoods, and people are still finding them as fire cleanup continues. Reporter Steven Cuevas introduces us to an Altadena resident who has made it her mission to return these fragile paper keepsakes to their owners. Home on the Grange: In Anderson Valley, Hippies, Old-Timers Return to Farming Roots Grange halls have been around for more than 150 years, and today there are more than100 of these meeting places in California alone. The Grange began as a fraternal organization for farmers. Even though farming and Grange membership are down to a fraction of what they were decades ago, many rural towns still rely on Grange halls as community centers. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visits the Anderson Valley Grange, where many residents credit this place for bringing together groups of people that were once divided. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1960s and early 1970s, California was at the forefront of movements for racial justice, LGBTQ and women’s rights, and protests against the Vietnam War. But at the same time an anti-tax revolution began to take shape, led by an unlikely political figure: Howard Jarvis. This week, as we mark the 47th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, we’re featuring a special episode from our friends at the Lever Time podcast. Reporter Ariella Markowitz spent some time digging into the rise of the anti-tax movement, and how Howard Jarvis went on to influence decades of political thought here in California and across the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Ford Factory Changed Milpitas, Then It Bacame a Mall  The Great Mall of Milpitas, in Santa Clara County, wasn't always a mall; it used to be a massive Ford auto factory. The San Jose Assembly Plant opened in 1955, after relocating from Ford's outdated Richmond location. The new factory put Milpitas on the map, transforming a sleepy agricultural town into a thriving city. The factory’s opening also sparked historic social change: the construction of one of the first planned racially integrated neighborhoods in the U.S.. Gabriela Glueck brings us this story from KQED’s Bay Curious podcast.  In Song and Self: How Queer Pinay Duo AstraLogik Finds Belonging Through Music Charito Soriano and Chen Conlu were solo artists before they came together as AstraLogik. The queer Filipina duo creates music about healing and acceptance, something they found  as they created a relationship that went beyond performing together. Reporter I-Yun Chan tells us how they found community and belonging through music, and each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices