From Financial Freefall to Stability. How One Man Found a Way to Stay in the Bay

The cost of living in California has only increased in the last year. And between housing, food, utilities and gas, many of us have been forced to get creative with our budgets in order to continue living here. Vanessa Rancaño has this profile of a man in the Bay Area whose decision to stay in California –despite his financial hardships– is also a matter of safety.  

Small Ring, Big Dreams: The Central Valley’s Backyard Wrestling Underdogs

If you turn off Highway 99 just north of Stockton, you’ll find the 209 Dragon’s Den. The venue is wedged between a private home, a plant nursery and a barn, offering one of the humbler places to tangle in the independent wrestling scene. Since it launched about a year ago, it’s been drawing wrestlers from around the state. But the 209 Dragon’s Den isn’t just a place to bring the community together– it also helps wrestlers better understand themselves and their sport. Reporter Hannah Weaver takes us ringside. 

A Black-Owned Ranch in Southern San Diego Fosters Community and Ancestral Connection 

On a dusty road north of the Tijuana border is S&S Friendly Ranch. Founded in 1980 by siblings Sim Wallace and Sarah Buncom, the ranch started as a place to board their horses. But as KPBS’ Audy McAfee reports, the 10-acre ranch is now a community gathering place and a hub for education and innovation, thanks to their descendants.  

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This San Francisco Post Office Is the Only Address Some Residents Have

In San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, there’s a unique post office. It’s the U.S. Postal Service General Delivery Unit — a mail service where people who don’t have a permanent address can pick up mail. For the past decade, it’s been a lifeline in a district that’s home to 2,000 unhoused residents, allowing them to receive items like ID cards and Social Security checks. We spend an afternoon at General Delivery with reporter Erin Bump. 

Erika Oba On Weaving Asian American History Into Her Music 

In the 1970s, Asian American jazz artists found inspiration in Black musicians who used music as a tool for social change. They experimented with different styles alongside those musicians. They introduced instruments from their cultures to the genre, like taiko drums and the koto. The result was a new kind of sound, and a reflection of Asian America’s emerging political power. Today, the legacy continues. And as KALW’s Cara Nguyen discovered, there’s a new generation of Asian American jazz musicians like pianist Erika Oba, who are asking what it means to make music that honors this rich history, and speaks to the moment. 

A Queer Climate Movement Takes Root Along the Russian River

Sonoma County’s Russian River has been a destination for queer folks for more than a century. But these days, as a new generation is seeing the impact of climate change on the area, they’re doing more than vacationing. KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero introduces us to a couple getting their hands dirty and creating a refuge for other LGBTQ folks. 

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The Eaton Fire Ravaged Black Altadena. A Journalist Documents Its Resilience

After the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena in 2025, reporter James Farr went live on radio station KBLA in Los Angeles. His weekly call-in show, Conversations Live: Altadena Rising, highlights the voices of fire survivors, focusing on the people from Altadena’s historic Black neighborhoods, which the fire disproportionately ravaged. He’s given voice to the community as they have moved from processing the shock and destruction of the fire, to navigating displacement, and deciding whether to rebuild. Reporter Steven Cuevas brings us this profile of radio host James Farr, and a few of the people whose stories he’s been following over the last year.  

AfroLA: Covering Altadena’s Black Community With a Long View

It’s been more than 14 months since the deadly Eaton Fire ravaged Altadena, particularly its Black neighborhoods that were home to elders and multigenerational families. While many news outlets have pivoted away from Altadena, the nonprofit solutions journalism outlet AfroLA, whose tag line is “Unapologetic. Black. Los Angeles” has remained committed to uplifting wildfire survivors’ stories throughout the slow process of recovery. The California Report Magazine’s host Sasha Khokha talks with AfroLA reporters Corrinne Ruff and William Jenkins about what sets this kind of community-focused Black journalism apart – and Ruff and Jenkins share the stories of some of the residents they’ve been following, including Black architects committed to rebuilding their neighborhood.

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The Eaton Fire Destroyed Altadena’s Lush Greenery. These Volunteers Are Growing It Back

The Eaton Fire was merciless when it came to  Altadena’s celebrated green spaces, destroying or damaging most of the leafy trees that lined the streets in many neighborhoods. Reporter Steven Cuevas tells us how local advocates are scrambling to restore what was lost and save what’s still standing.  

A Post-War Program is Influencing Home Rebuilds in the Pacific Palisades

A year after the Palisades Fire, rebuilding has been slow. But some local architects have been thinking about ways to move things along, taking inspiration from a 1940s post-war project. One of the goals of the Case Study House program was to build homes quickly, using inexpensive materials. The idea ended up revolutionizing architecture and forever linking Los Angeles with the mid-century modern home. KCRW’s Brandon Reynolds tells us how a new version of that program could help fire survivors get back into homes faster, and maybe even start another architectural renaissance.

How a Bay Area Program Helps Unhoused Residents Become Protectors of Their Environment

Researchers estimate 10% of California’s unhoused population lives along waterways. In the absence of enough affordable housing and shelter, it feels like the best of bad options for many. But trash and other hazardous materials can bring detrimental effects to these waterways. So a Bay Area pilot program is teaching unhoused residents ecological literacy and creek restoration. It’s a novel approach to address the environmental harms brought on by the growing number of unhoused people setting up camp along creeks and canals in California. 

Music Creates Connections for Bay Area Residents and Families Confronting Memory Loss

Studies have found that music can actually help with diseases associated with cognitive decline like Alzheimer’s or dementia. At Sutter Health’s Ray Dolby Brain Center in San Francisco, a monthly singing circle is offering respite and joy for people with memory loss and their caregivers. As part of our Community Connections series, The California Report Magazine’s intern Srishti Prabha introduces us to a couple who help lead the group in song.

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This week marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s a somber anniversary that many Ukrainians here in California are commemorating. In fact, Silicon Valley is home to a large Ukrainian diaspora – many immigrants from Ukraine have come to work in the tech industry as engineers. Some of them have been using their tech skills to bolster the effort to defend Ukraine, and this army of engineers, coders, hackers, and tinkerers has become a vital part of the country’s resistance against Russian aggression. It’s a story that Bay Area investigative journalist Erica Hellerstein stumbled upon when she took a trip to Kyiv to work on a project about her own family’s Ukrainian roots. As she discovered, some believe Ukraine’s tech sector and its connection to Silicon Valley is part of the reason Ukraine is still standing today. This week, we’re sharing an excerpt of an episode Hellerstein reported for the KQED podcast Close All Tabs.

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When Cherish Burtson was sent to prison, she says one of the main things that helped her get through her time was reading. She devoured memoirs and books on mindfulness, which helped her manage the challenges she experienced behind bars. After she was released, she began to volunteer with Books Thru Bars San Diego, a group that provides reading materials to people who are  incarcerated. But lately she’s noticed that more titles are being rejected by prison officials. This week, we bring you an excerpt of the KPBS podcast The Finest. It explores prison book bans, which some critics are calling censorship.

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When most of us head to the airport, it’s to fly out and leave. But some people go to the airport to stay, sometimes for months on end. People experiencing homelessness have had a presence at the airport since at least 2018, but airport officials say their number has grown. The San Francisco Police Department says it encounters about 35 unhoused people at the airport every day. But helping them find other places to live is complicated. Reporter Erin Bump introduces us to some people at SFO who help them with shelter, food and medical care, and are sometimes just there to listen . 

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Three years ago this week, Oakland bakery owner Jen Angel lost her life when a “smash and grab” robbery went horribly wrong. Ishmael Jenkins Burch, then 19, was driving the getaway car and was initially charged with murder. We bring you an excerpt from an episode of the Snap Judgment podcast, which explores  what happens when Angel’s community pushes for restorative justice instead of retribution, something they say Angel would have wanted for the accused.

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This weekend marks one year since the deadly Eaton Fire was contained. From the moment the fire first broke out, reporter Steven Cuevas began talking to his neighbors, to business owners, and other people who make up the fabric of this vibrant community, and we’ve featured those stories on our show ever since. Host Sasha Khokha joins Steven  as they  revisit some of those neighbors, including a 94-year-old therapist whose home was saved by her sons, a renter who lost her home of 15 years, and an artist who is working on a community art project as she waits for the right time to rebuild. Despite the devastation, for some people, the fire brought about a stronger sense of connection to the place they call home.

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This week we're featuring two stories from our friends at the Bay Curious podcast. 

San Francisco’s Historic ‘Relief Cottages,’ Built After the 1906 Earthquake, Are Hidden in Plain Sight

After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire leveled 80% of San Francisco, more than a quarter of a million residents were temporarily displaced. People who had the means left the city, but many low income San Franciscans didn’t have that option. City leaders commissioned union carpenters to build small cottages to house the refugees – many of whom the city relied upon to help rebuild the city.These “earthquake shacks” gave many people their first shot at homeownership and helped the city recover. Bay Curious’s Katrina Schwartz says you can still find a few of them dotted around the city if you know what to look for.

Invasion of the Grub Snatchers: How One Rich Guy’s Russian Boars Colonized California 

Originally imported to Monterey County for sport by a wealthy landowner in the 1920s, wild boars now number in the hundreds of thousands, and they are destroying sensitive habitats and suburban lawns all over the state. Experts say the problem has gotten worse in recent years all across the state, especially after a series of wet winters has left moist soil teeming with grubs — a pig’s favorite food. KQED’s Rachael Myrow takes us on a trip to see some of the destruction, learn how the boars got here in the first place, and gather some ideas on how to get rid of them.  

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San Francisco Airport’s Fear of Flying Clinic Welcomes Nervous Passengers Aboard

If your stomach drops at the thought of getting on an airplane, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans share a fear of flying. Some psychologists say the way through it is to rewire the brain, by gradually facing the very thing that feels dangerous. But you can’t just hop on a plane whenever you want to practice. That’s where a Bay Area program hosted at San Francisco International Airport can help. For nearly 50 years, they’ve been helping uneasy travelers get back in the air. Reporter Evan Roberts brings us the story from five miles up.

San José’s Batman, Fighting for the Unhoused, Is the Real Life Superhero ‘We Need’

If you happen to be in downtown San José at night, you might spot a man in a mask, wearing a black and purple cape and toting a cart full of supplies.. This is the Batman of San José — a volunteer who has spent nearly eight years walking the city at night to help unhoused residents. He’s a far cry from the vigilantes of comic books. He isn’t swooping from rooftops, seeking revenge or delivering justice through fists. His superpower is noticing people who feel ignored, and offering them food, first aid supplies, and sometimes, being someone they can confide in. KQED’s Srishti Prabha brings us his story.

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