KCBS Radio In Depth

Governor Gavin Newsom rocked California's criminal justice world this week with an executive order that puts a halt to executions in the state. In effect, the order means that as long as Newsom remains in office, the lives of the 737 Californians awaiting execution will be spared.

In this episode, we bring listeners and exclusive interview with Governor Newsom about his decision, and also hear from supporters of the death penalty who are pushing back.

Hosts: KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi and KCBS Radio political reporter Doug Sovern. 

Guests: 
Gavin Newsom, California Governor
Kent Scheidegger, the Legal Director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a group that advocates for the victims of crimes

Here in California when it rains, it pours. But how much good is all this water really doing us?

In this edition of In Depth we take on two water topics. First, there’s growing concern that a lot of the rainwater we've been getting is just going down the drain and out to sea. We plumb the depths of California's water system to find out where it's coming up short and what can be done to fix it.  

Then, new research suggests that the historical link between wet winters and less severe fire seasons has broken down. We discuss why even in the rainiest of years, we still can't count out damaging wildfires.

Host: KCBS Radio Reporter Keith Menconi

Guests: 

Heather Cooley, director of research at the Pacific Institute, a water think tank with offices in Oakland

Jennifer Pierre, the general manager for the State Water Contractors, an association of 27 public water agencies

Alan Taylor, professor of geography at Penn State University and an author of a study examining the relationship between wet winters and fire suppression

From assembly lines, to highways, to surgery rooms, automation and artificial intelligence are  taking over our modern world. But are the robots really ready to run the show? 

In this edition of In Depth, we take on new research that examines the future of both automated driving as well as automated translation to get a better on handle on where these new technologies are leading us. In both cases our guests tell us, there's some pitfalls we're going to want to work out along the way. 

Host: KCBS Radio Reporter Keith Menconi 

Guests: 

• Adam Millard-Ball, an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research suggests that when self-driving cars arrive, they could turn our public streets into gridlocked nightmares. 
• Dr. Elaine Khoong, a primary care research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. She tells us about her recent study on the surprising effectiveness of Google Translate as a tool to communicate medical advice.

It’s been just over a week now since Valentine's Day, a day that of course puts the challenges of love and dating front and center in the minds of many. And it looks like here in the Bay Area -- at least among the daters KCBS Radio spoke with while putting together this program -- those challenges are getting to be overwhelming.

Now that we've gotten some emotional distance between us and Valentine's Day, we're going to take this opportunity to do something constructive about the Bay Area's dismal dating dumps: In this edition of In Depth, we're going to speak with local dating experts and aficionados to get to the bottom of all this dating angst and, more importantly, figure out how we can make dating in the region a little bit better. 

Programming note: This edition of In Depth is an abridged version of an episode of KCBS Radio's newest podcast, How to Bay Area, the show that explains how to get stuff done in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Hosts: KCBS Radio Reporters Keith Menconi and Megan Goldsby 

Guests: 

• David Rodwin, who is currently performing in "F*ck Tinder: a love story" in San Francisco; a one-man show telling the story of Rodwin's path to love that wound through dates with 120 people in two years 
• Mikka Minx, event producer and writer who blogs about dating 
• Dawoon Kang, co-founder and Co-CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel
• Sasha Silberberg, a dating coach who runs the matchmaking service OkSasha 

It's that time again. With just about a week to go until the 91st Academy Awards, KCBS entertainment reporter Jan Wahl and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown -- who is quite the film buff himself -- come on In Depth once again to talk all things Oscars. Listen in to hear their top pics for this year's awards along with a discussion of some of Mayor Brown's own red carpet memories.