The California Report Magazine KQED
-
- News
-
Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.
-
The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Japanese-American Story of Love, Imprisonment and Protest
Nine months into Satsuki Ina’s parents’ marriage, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Their life was totally upended when, along with 125,000 other Japanese-Americans, they were sent to incarceration camps. After unsuccessfully fighting for their civil rights to be restored, they renounced their American citizenship. That meant the US government branded them as “enemy aliens.” Ina was born in a prison camp at Tule Lake, but didn’t know much about that difficult chapter in her parents’ life. Then she discovered a trove of letters that they sent to each other while they were separated in different camps. Now, at close to 80 years old, Ina – who spent most of her career as a trauma therapist — is publishing a memoir about how her parents’ relationship survived prison camps, resistance and separation. Using letters, diary entries, haikus written by her father, and photographs, The Poet and the Silk Girl is a rare first-person account of a generation-altering period in Japanese-American history. Sasha Khokha sat down with Satsuki Ina to learn more about her parents’ story and how it shaped the course of Ina’s own life.
-
Oscar-Nominated Shorts Tell Joyful California Stories
When Oscar season rolls around, everyone’s trying to catch up on the blockbuster films. But there’s rarely buzz about the short films, especially the short documentary category. This year, two joyful California films made the nominee list. Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó is a love letter from Fremont-raised filmmaker Sean Wang to his two grandmothers, 94 year old Nǎi Nai and 83 year old Wài Pó. They are in-laws turned best friends who spend their days together, even sharing a bed. The Last Repair Shop tells the remarkable stories of the people behind the scenes who fix instruments for students learning music in LA Unified School district. Sasha Khokha talks to Sean Wang as well as Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot, the co-directors behind The Last Repair Shop, about their films.
-
On Our Watch: A Whistleblower at California’s Most Violent Prison
When correctional officer Valentino Rodriguez first stepped behind prison walls, he wasn’t just starting a job, he was joining a brotherhood. What he didn’t know was that he was now bound by an unwritten code that would ultimately test his loyalty to his oath and his fellow officers. Valentino’s sudden death on October 21, 2020 would raise questions from the FBI, his family and his mentor in the elite investigative unit where they both worked. For more than two years, our colleagues with KQED’s investigative podcast On Our Watch have been looking into what happened to Valentino Rodriguez, because his story is part of something much bigger. He was a correctional officer at New Folsom prison, near Sacramento, where the reporting team has found use of force that’s off the charts, and a pattern of suspicious beatings. This week we bring you an excerpt from the first episode of the series.
-
How the Freeway System Shaped California
In many California cities, freeways and sprawl are just a fact of life. They’re baked into the design of much of the state. But how did we get here? Just how did freeways come to be such a big part of California life?
This week, we’re featuring a story from our friends at the KPBS podcast Freeway Exit. Host and producer Andrew Bowen looks at how our relationship with the freeway has changed over time, and how it will have to change in the future.
-
Could 'Urban Villages' Help Fix San Jose's Suburban Sprawl?
How The Bay Area’s Biggest City Wants to Overcome Its Sprawl
The cars and trucks we drive account for nearly half of California’s total carbon emissions. And bringing those emissions down is going to require more than just swapping out gas guzzling cars for electric ones. It’s going to mean redesigning our cities around people, not cars. KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us to San Jose where local leaders are trying to rethink how residents live and how they get around. This story comes to us from KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.
LA’s Bé Ù Puts a New Spin on Vietnamese Takeout, and Workers’ Rights
Many chefs will tell you their cooking reflects the food they grew up eating. Food shared on holidays or at family parties. For our series Flavor Profile, The California Report’s Keith Mizuguchi introduces us to a chef cooking up Vietnamese comfort food inspired by her family’s recipes. She’s also a former union organizer trying to build a business where workers are paid a fair wage. -
From Mannequins to Musical Roads: More of California's Hidden Gems
This week, we feature stories from our Hidden Gems series about out-of-the-way secret spots in California - places you might want to visit on a road trip!
How This Oakland Business Gives Mannequins New Life (Almost)
You might not notice them, but mannequins can be found everywhere from the tiniest boutiques to Target. But what happens to these non-biodegradable figures when stores go out of business or styles change? In California, many of them end up at Mannequin Madness, an Oakland warehouse run by a woman whose mission is to keep mannequins out of the landfill.
This Stretch of the Mojave Desert Plays the ‘Lone Ranger’ Theme
There’s a road in the western Mojave Desert that’s supposed to sound like the "William Tell Overture" by Rossini. Honda built the road back in 2008 as part of a TV commercial for the Civic. But it's seen better days. Reporter Clare Wiley headed out to Lancaster to make some music with her tires.
Fort Bragg’s Larry Spring Museum Preserves Creativity in California
The tiny Larry Spring Museum is dedicated to a Mendocino County TV repairman who lived in Fort Bragg most of his life. He was an amateur physicist, a keen observer of nature and the items he left behind reveal his deep curiosity about the world. KQED’s Katrina Schwartz takes us to this whimsical museum to learn more about the man behind it.
Customer Reviews
Loved the Mixed! Series
Wonderful and beautiful job done on the Mixed race series. I loved every episode and am so glad how y’all approached this topic :)
Love learning about CA but reporters intentionally willfully ignorant
I love learning about California since I live here, but it’s very frustrating to listen to these reporters with purported “in depth” reporting purposely neglect certain aspects of episodes. I just listened to a show on how the native peoples land was stolen and they’re slowly buying it back. The very next episode played on how black Americans settled Allensworth. In neither episode did they mention that even these black Americans were on stolen land. Why purposely ignore this fact? One needs to bring it up. If you’re stating that these African-Americans were wrongfully treated/removed, you need to bring up that the land was all original native land. This is the same issue with Bakers beach. Everyone ignores the fact that before the Baker family owned it, it was native peoples land. it’s like NPR doesn’t want to touch the subject, and it needs to be addressed. I want to know how people reconcile this fact. Like ask the people they are interviewing what do they think about being on stolen land? Every time NPR reports on land, they should state historically what tribe was on that land. There’s other issues like when talking about the homeless, they always neglect to ask where these homeless people originally arose from. Some people come out to California for a dream and yes they have housing when they get here, but they lose their housing. Ask them where they graduated high school and how long ago was it. They may have only been here a few months, and only come with money that’s in their pocket & easily become homeless because they weren’t prepared. Or about Japanese internment camps left empty housing and the African migration south took that opportunity to move in those homes & take those jobs that were left open by the removal of the Japanese. No one talked about or asked anyone what they thought about that aspect. It’s like the reporters want to remain willfully ignorant or maybe they just lack the critical thinking skills needed to figure out these questions need to be asked. These stories are not “in depth” like the show summary states.
Mixed race episode was spot on
I’m a new listener and thoroughly enjoyed the discussion with Kip Fulbeck on mixed race identity. Being mixed race myself, I identified with the discussion of the hosts and guests. I look forward to the next episodes teased and hope one of them includes a spotlight on UCSB’s class mentioned in this episode. I took the class in the 90s and it was phenomenal. Great podcast and I enjoyed the content and pace from the hosts in this 11/5/21 episode.