KCBS Radio In Depth

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 Association, a nonprofit public policy organization…

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 with Rita Liberti, Professor of sport history  in the department of kinesthesiology at  Cal State East Bay.

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…