KCBS Radio In Depth

In many ways it has gotten genuinely easier to talk about mental health struggles in recent years: The message is out there now that it’s ok to not feel ok. It’s normal to struggle, and it’s also normal to need a little (or perhaps even a lot) of help from time to time. 

But easier does not mean easy, and on this edition of KCBS In Depth, we'll be pushing on the bounds of that comfort zone to ask one of the most difficult questions of all: Why it is that many people struggle with an urge to end their own life.  

Helping us explore that challenging question is someone who knows its contours all too well: Clancy Martin, a philosophy professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He just wrote a new book in which he gives a vivid account of his own lifelong struggle with suicide, which has included multiple attempts. It's called, “How Not To Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind.”

Special note: If you or someone you know is having a tough time, you can find support by calling or texting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Host: Keith Menconi

When it comes to solving the homelessness crisis, should we focus most on long term fixes or the immediate crisis on our streets? It’s a question that is riling up cities throughout California, including San Jose, which is right now facing a funding dilemma over whether to spend scarce resources on affordable housing or new shelter space.

Admittedly, it is a somewhat wonky policy debate, but at the same time, it touches on the central question of the homelessness crisis: that is, how we can help people get out of homelessness, and stay out for good. On this edition of KCBS In Depth, we look for answers. 

Guests: 

• Jennifer Loving, CEO, Destination: Home
• Andrea Urton, CEO, HomeFirst
• Matt Mahan, mayor, San Jose

Host: Keith Menconi

A picture is worth a thousand words, unless of course that picture happens to be a deepfake generated out of thin air by AI. On this week’s KCBS In Depth program, we consider the far reaching impact of this emerging technology and its potential for abuse. 

Guests: 

• Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor with a joint appointment in electrical engineering & computer sciences and the School of Information; he studies deepfakes and how to detect them
• Corynne McSherry, who is the legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Host: Keith Menconi 

We’re more than three years out now from the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s fair to say that we have made some progress in taming this disease: A combination of vaccines, treatments and natural immunity have combined together to drive down the daily death rate to a fraction of what it was during the Omicron surge. 

But when it comes to long Covid, answers have been much harder to find. On this edition of KCBS In Depth, we check in with experts and advocates about what support is out there, and why they're growing frustrated with the pace of research into this bewildering ailment. 

Guests: 

• Jim Jackson, neuropsychologist, Vanderbilt University | author, "Clearing the Fog: From Surviving to Thriving with Long Covid?A Practical Guide"
• Charlie McCone, a patient advocate who has been living with long Covid since March of 2020

Host: Keith Menconi

Earlier this month, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a warning about a new epidemic facing Americans, an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. 

So if loneliness is an epidemic, what’s the cure? On this edition of KCBS In Depth we hear advice from one author that is simple but not necessarily easy to follow: hang out more.  

Guests: 

• Sheila Liming, professor who teaches writing and literature, Champlain College | author, “Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time”
• Jamie Snedden, cofounder, Groundfloor

Host: Keith Menconi 

Nearly 50 years ago a Korean American immigrant named Chol Soo Lee was convicted of a murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown that he did not commit. Lee spent ten years in prison after that arrest, and very possibly might have spent his whole life there if it were not for the dogged advocacy of Asian American activists who saw in his case a grave injustice born of racism and indifference.

By the time of Lee's death in 2014, this movement had largely been forgotten, but a new documentary film is reviving the memories. On this edition of KCBS In Depth, we revisit a seminal moment in the history of Asian American identity with the directors behind the film, "Free Chol Soo Lee." 

Guests: 

• Julie Ha, co-director, "Free Chol Soo Lee"
• Eugene Yi, co-director, "Free Chol Soo Lee"  
• Gail Whang, former member, Bay Area Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee 

Host: Keith Menconi 

Special note: The film is available to stream on the PBS YouTube channel until May 23rd and the PBS App until July 22nd.

Earlier this past week, California began the deployment of CHP officers to San Francisco in an effort to help clamp down on drug trafficking. The hope is that with more boots on the ground -- and additional assistance from California National Guard members as well -- San Francisco will begin to get a handle on the open air drug markets that have overrun portions of the city. 

But the move is also drawing fierce push back from those who say a law enforcement crackdown is no way to address what is fundamentally a public health crisis. So on this edition of KCBS In Depth, we’ll hear from both sides as San Francisco and the entire state search for answers in the face of this spiraling epidemic of drug addiction.

Guests:

Sophia Bollag, California politics reporter, San Francisco Chronicle 

Brooke Jenkins, district attorney, San Francisco

Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, professor of addiction medicine, UC San Francisco

Host: Keith Menconi 

Fans of the Oakland A’s are still trying to make sense of the bombshell announcement earlier this month that the team has entered an agreement to purchase land for a new ballpark in Las Vegas.

So why can’t Oakland seem to keep its sports teams? Well, it turns out that there is a long tangled history to that question going back decades, but luckily two Bay Area sports insiders have just written a book laying it all out. That book is “Goodbye, Oakland: Winning, Wanderlust and a Sports Town’s Fight For Survival.”

On this edition of KCBS In Depth we discuss the past, present and future of sports in Oakland with one of the book’s co-authors, Andy Dolich, a sports business consultant who worked in the A’s front office for over a decade and then went on to serve in executive roles for the Warriors and the 49ers. 

Hosts: Keith Menconi, Holly Quan

So just what happens if people don’t come back to downtown? It’s a question that’s been asked with increasing urgency in recent weeks, especially in San Francisco, where the term “doom loop” has now been added to everyone’s vocabulary list.

On this edition of KCBS In Depth, we check in with local urban planning advocates and economists to get some perspective on how the Bay Area’s civic centers could be reshaped by the work-from-home revolution.  

Guests: 

• Jeff Bellisario, executive director, Bay Area Council Economic Institute
• Alicia John-Baptiste, CEO, SPUR
• Ted Egan, chief economist, San Francisco

Host: Keith Menconi 

On this edition of KCBS In Depth, we take on the case for the four-day workweek, that is the idea that not only workers, but also many employers would be better off if we all got an extra day to ourselves: a day to recharge our batteries, tend to the trouble spots in our lives and return to work that much more energized and productive. But there’s also plenty of skeptics who say that while the four-day workweek may work for some, it’s just not a practical way to run an economy. 

Guests: 

• Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, global programs and research manager, 4 Day Week Global | author, "Shorter: Work Better, Smarter and Less – Here’s How"
• Matthew Bidwell, professor of management, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania 

Host: Keith Menconi