Kcbs In Depth

It’s a part of the passing of wintertime and moving into spring: you open up the windows or you step outside, and you hear them - birds singing. And perhaps you hear the sounds of the male western tanager, a songbird that migrates thousands of miles once the seasons begin to change, heading to the Mountain West for springtime. But maybe you’ve noticed, over the past few years, that spring seems to be arriving earlier than normal - flowers blooming, insects coming to life, sometimes months ahead of time. Birds are noticing these changes and researchers are, too. A recent study has looked at the effects of climate change on the seasons and found that by the time many migrating birds reach their destination, the food sources they search for have already bloomed or flown away. And so the consequences of spring starting sooner - for the western tanager and for many other migrating birds - could be drastic. To help us take a closer look at what we’re seeing in the world of migrating birds and how climate change is

Every place carries a history, from forests and wildlife to the eventuality of roads, buildings, and all the communities of people who lay claim to a space and call it home. For those who have called - and continue to call - Bayview-Hunters Point in southeast San Francisco home, that history comes with a heavy burden. A burden steeped in abandonment, in racial and economic injustice, and in toxicity that is embedded in the ground and moving through the air. A new book looks at that history, but also at the activism for environmental justice that black Bayview-Hunters point residents have been seeking for years.  For more, we're speaking with Lindsey Dillon, assistant professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz and author of 'Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco' which will be released on April 9th.

On this episode of In Depth, we turn to Audacy’s I’m Listening: Talk Away the Dark, a limited series where conversations cover grief, loss, and suicide. Audacy’s David Glover will be speaking about men and mental health with Victor Armstrong, vice president of health equity and engagement for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Steve Sipel, longtime AFSP volunteer and advocate. Then David will talk about mental well-being and the military with Alex Silva, AFSP expert and veteran; Dan Miller, Wounded Warrior project guest and marine corps veteran; and Dr. Aaron Fletcher, Wounded Warrior project clinical expert.

A recent New York Times article did a deep dive into where the shift to electric vehicles is the strongest and it probably comes as no surprise to KCBS listeners that California - and in particular, the Bay Area - is the primary force behind seeing more EVs on the road. Data shows that electric cars, trucks and S.U.V.s made up almost 40 percent of new auto registrations in the San Jose area last year and about 34 percent in San Francisco.  But with a ban on new gas-powered vehicle sales in California happening in 2035, how ready is the state for a full on EV revolution? We’ll start our conversation with James Bushnell, professor in the department of economics at UC Davis. Before joining UC Davis, he spent 15 years as the Research Director of the University of California Energy Institute at Berkeley. He has also advised the California Air Resources Board on emissions trading and other climate policies.   And we'll also turn to Carleen Cullen, founder and executive director of Cool the Earth, as well as Ride an

Over three decades ago, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was created… This act requires institutions that receive federal funding… such as museums and universities… to return human remains, sacred objects, and other items of cultural significance to federally recognized tribes… However… even now, in 2024… the struggle continues when it comes to the return of ancestral remains and revered belongings. This slowness in repatriation can be found across the country… and here in the Bay Area as well… So… why is it taking so long to comply with these rules?  For a broader look at all this, we’re going to start the conversation off with Logan Jaffe, newsletter reporter at Pro Publica… she worked on the news organization’s Repatriation Project And then we turn to Kerri Malloy… assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at San Jose State University… He is an enrolled member of the Yurok tribe and is of Karuk descent…

How much do any of us know about our family’s past? If we dig deep enough, far enough… what might be unearthed? For Randy Quarterman… and for Sarah Eisner… living thousands of miles apart… one in Savannah, Georgia… the other in Silicon Valley… who seemingly had separate existences… what was discovered was an intimate history that binds them together… A history that is both personal… and national… a history of enslavement in the United States… But what would happen if two people took on this painful past… and worked together to make things right in the present? To answer that question and more… I’m joined by Randy Quarterman, fifth generation descendant of Zeike Quarterman… and Sarah Eisner, fifth generation descendant of George Adam Keller… They are the founders of the Quarterman Keller Foundation… and the Reparations Project… They are also both a part of the documentary ‘The Cost of Inheritance’

It’s been a few weeks since the bipartisan $118 billion border and national security bill stalled out in the Senate… Most of the GOP opposed the bill… saying that legislation wasn’t going to do enough to address needs at the U.S Mexico border… there were some Democrats who voted to block the bill as well… With this bill now standing still… the possibility of huge changes to U.S. immigration policy seem to be out of reach… To take a closer look at where things went wrong with this bill… and at the state of immigration reform… we’re speaking with Bill Hing, professor of law and migration studies at the University of San Francisco… and author of Humanizing Immigration: How To Transform Our Racist and Unjust System…  

After almost two years of data gathering, the National Center for Transgender Equality recently released the largest-ever survey on the experiences of those in the trans community… looking at everything from satisfaction and support… to the spaces where discrimination and fear are still being felt… So… what is the state of things for the transgender person in America? And is life any better - or worse - in the Bay Area? We’re going to take a broad view with Mike White… who works with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of the primary funders of the U.S. Transgender Survey 2022... And for a look closer to home, we'll speak with Honey Mahogony… chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, district director for Assemblymember Matt Haney… and co-owner of the Stud bar in San Francisco…  

A recent report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that over 650,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in America in January of 2023, up nearly 50% from 2015… Even if the numbers are staggering, hearing this probably isn’t a huge shock… Here in California, the housing crisis has long been an issue… with rents going higher and higher… and not enough affordable options to go around… there’s even been an exodus of people leaving the state, hoping to find solid ground on which to have a place to call home… So, what’s being done about this crisis? Where do we stand on a state level - and on a local one? We're going to turn first to Chris Martin… policy director for Housing California, a statewide advocacy nonprofit focused on the production and preservation of affordable housing and addressing homelessness… To see how the state works with local governments… and vice versa… we turn to Sarah Karlinsky, Research Director at SPUR… the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Associ

Perhaps you’ve noticed this when you listen to or watch the news, or as you check various sources online but 2024 already feels like a pivotal year for politics… There’s a presidential election looming which, at this point, appears very reminiscent of 2020 with a possible rematch between President Joe Biden… and former president Donald Trump… Here in California, we have the race for the late Dianne Feinstein’s senate seat… where who wins… and who loses… could set the tone for years to come... We’re going to take a look at the political landscape… in the golden state… and beyond… and even into the future... with David McCuan, professor of political science at Sonoma State University…

January 22nd will mark the 51st anniversary of Roe vs Wade… where the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision in favor of "Jane Roe" in 1973... saying that women in the United States had a fundamental right to choose whether to have abortions without excessive government restriction… But all that changed in 2022… with the overturning of Roe vs Wade… declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists… Now, the conversation about reproductive rights is being had on all levels… federally, in every state… and on the political stage as well... 2024 could be a determining year for where the abortion… and anti-abortion… movements will go next… and to help us take a closer look at those possible paths… both legally and politically… we turn to MARY ZIEGLER, Martin Luther King Jr Professor of law at UC Davis… and author of several books on the social movement struggles around reproduction, autonomy, and the law…  

In 2022… a report by the Stanford Lancet Commission stated that “the opioid crisis stands out as one of the most devastating public health disasters of the 21st century in the United States and Canada…” Not much has occurred since then to shift that belief… the opioid crisis, involving fentanyl in particular, continues to dominate our conversations… The end of 2023 saw over 750 drug overdose deaths in San Francisco alone, with fentanyl making up more than 81% of those deaths… So, how did we get here…? How did fentanyl take over the drug market and become so devastating to so many? For a closer look at all this… KCBS's Mary Hughes is joined by Sam Quinones… freelance journalist and author of books about the opioid epidemic… His most recent book is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth…

Being a sports fan and being a woman is not always the easiest road to walk. Although there have been countless teams to pull for, and an endless parade of superstars to be in awe of, for a lot of women that meant watching men, and only men play. Now that doesn't mean that women were not involved in sports. In the world of college basketball, women took to the court for the first intercollegiate women's basketball game, right here in the bay area.  Stanford vs UC Berkeley in 1896, and around that same time in 1895, the British Lady’s Football Club played their first match in London. So the fact is, women have always been in the sports universe, but compared to their male counterparts, they've always been more in the shadows. But there has been progress along the way with more eyes turning to women's pro sports teams, and that turns us to 2023. A year that has shown that the appetite for womens sports is growing, and in particular, growing here in the Bay Area. For more on this, KBS Radio’s Mary Hughes spoke w

This week’s In Depth is a continuation of Audacy’s I’m Listening programming… which is working to inspire more conversations about mental health… This time, the conversation is centered on veterans and mental well-being…  Audacy’s David O’Leary will start things off with Brigadier General Jack Hammond… who is speaking on behalf of the Homebase Program, a national nonprofit focused on healing the trauma that war veterans face… Then he'll be joined by Wounded Warrior’s Dr. Erin Fletcher… and Tonya Oxendine, US Army veteran…

As we near the end of 2023… we find abortion rights at the forefront of the news…  Of course, these aren’t necessarily new conversations being had… the ongoing battle between those in support of abortion and reproductive rights… and those against… have been happening for a long, long time… But with the overturning of Roe versus Wade in 2022… and more recently, challenges to abortion bans in states like Texas and Arizona… the landscape of abortion access is once more in focus… with many questioning what the future will hold… So, is it possible to find answers by looking back? Back to a time when underground forms of healthcare had to step in for legal care… back to a time when community members were the ones turned to for reproductive help… back to a time where a women’s clinic in Oakland became the nexus of health, well-being, and of groundbreaking ‘deep care’... We are going on a bit of a history journey… and speaking with Angela Hume.. author of Deep Care: The Radical Activists Who Provided Abortions, Defie

For the past few years, many of our conversations about transit in the Bay Area have been about how the various agencies are struggling… with funding shortfalls, lower ridership, and the possibility of massive service cuts as fiscal cliffs loom…  Now, it’s no secret that the COVID pandemic played a huge role in pushing transit agencies to the brink… but the aftereffects presented a question to us all – what will it take to ensure that transit in the Bay Area survives? That’s a big question, of course, and a financial lifeline… to the tune of around 747 million dollars… is planned to be split up among several agencies… but the real saving grace will be getting more people on those buses and trains…  So… in these tough times that seem to keep on going… are we seeing any improvement? Is a recovery to pre-pandemic numbers still possible? For the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency… the answer just might be yes… To give us an update on all things SFMTA, we're joined by Jeff Tumlin… director of transporta

There might not be a more important… and sometimes complicated… conversation to be had in the Bay Area then the one about homelessness… It’s a crisis that every county is facing… and many are trying to find a solution that works for everyone…  The city of San Jose recently pushed to speed up the building of 200 tiny homes to be put on a VTA-owned lot… to help provide shelter for those who are unhoused… But in the meantime… the number of people who are homeless seems to continue to grow… and that’s being felt especially in East San Jose… and for a specific group of people – high school students. So… what’s behind this increase in students being homeless in East San Jose… and what’s being done to help them? For a closer look at this… we’re going to start our conversation off with Sergio Diaz-Luna… director of communications with the East Side Union High School District… Next... some of the support that unhoused students in East San Jose receive comes from the East Side Education Foundation… and so we’ll turn to

There are many places and activities that are considered iconic aspects of the Bay Area... wine tastings in Napa and Sonoma counties… the Winchester House in San Jose… driving across the Golden Gate Bridge…  But, for those who call San Francisco home, one building stands out among all the rest... and that's the Ferry Building… It's history is long and large…it's seen millions of people come and go…a stately sentry, standing guard as times changed, as the city itself changed… But the ferry building itself, even over a hundred years later, remains a constant… So, why is that? To help us delve into the story of the Ferry Building, from when it was built in the late 1890s to how it is faring today, we speak with John King -- urban design critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and author of 'Portal: San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities.'

Over the past decade… our conversations about mental health… about how we process trauma, grief, and isolation… have evolved… Now, these are conversations we have more regularly – at home, at our workplaces, among friends… Traditionally, when we think of all of this… we are probably applying it to adults… but trauma – of any kind – can happen to anyone… and the mental health struggles that can occur aren’t just limited to those 20-something and up… So, if you’re a kid… and you need a safe space to grieve, to share, to heal… where do you go? Well, there is a place tailor-made for younger people, a place that can give them support when dealing with loss… and it’s called Comfort Zone Camp… Guests: Lynne Hughes, founder and CEO of Comfort Zone Camp

October is National Children's Health Month and on this episode of In Depth, we'll be hearing conversations with Audacy's David O'Leary, as well as guest speakers from the American Foundation for Suicided Prevention.