Since Donald Trump broke into the political scene in 2015, the United States has seen a surge in white supremacist hate groups. Investigative journalist Eric Lichtblau uses the 2018 murder of a gay, Jewish college student by a neo-Nazi in Orange County to explore the rise of white, Christian nationalism there – digging into how Trump’s attacks on immigrants, pardons of the January 6th rioters and use of racism memes have fueled and emboldened right wing extremism in California and across the country. We talk to him about his new book “American Reich.”

Guests:

Eric Lichtblau, investigative reporter; author, "American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate"

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Amid a ballooning rental housing market across the Bay Area, Oakland rents are mostly staying flat. Today, the median San Francisco rent for a one-bedroom home is about 70% higher than in Oakland. While Oakland often trails the city’s rental market, the gap is now far larger than in recent history. We’ll discuss whether Oakland has cracked the code on making housing more affordable, or whether other factors may be driving people away.

Guests:

J.K. Dineen, Bay Area housing reporter, San Francisco Chronicle

Chris Salviati, senior housing economist, Apartment List

Tim Thomas, director, Eviction Research Network at UC Berkeley

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Prenuptial agreements are no longer just for the wealthy. They’re being pitched as smart financial planning for ordinary couples, and now more than 40% of married and engaged Millennials and Gen Z-ers say they’ve signed one. Younger generations are using prenups to negotiate everything from intellectual property rights, social media handles and who gets the sneaker collection. We’ll talk about what’s behind the shift and what it reveals about our modern anxieties about marriage and relationships. 

Guests:

Jennifer Wilson, staff writer, New Yorker. Her most recent piece is "Her recent article is "Why Millennials Love Prenups""

Juliana Yanez, law partner, Hanson Crawford Crum Family Law Group

Kaiponanea Matsumura , law professor, Loyola Law School. Matsumura is an expert on the regulation of families.

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The shortcomings and inequities of the American criminal justice system are painfully clear to those who have worked in it. Former public defender and legal activist Emily Galvin-Almanza will walk us through the many  points in our system where justice fails. We talk to her  about what reform should like and her new book, “The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender’s Search for Justice in America.”

Guests:

Emily Galvin-Almanza, author of “The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender’s Search for Justice in America. Co-founder and executive director of Partners for Justice, which aims to support and empower public defenders.

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Chocolate is changing — and not just in flavor. As the planet warms, cacao is becoming harder to grow, reshaping how chocolate is made and who gets to make it. From commodity price volatility to farmers’ livelihoods to the price tag of your favorite bar, we’ll talk about what’s at stake for this decadent treat. We’ll speak with chocolate makers, sustainability experts and a cacao farmer about how they plan to adapt and innovate for years to come.

Guests:

Greg D'Alesandre, co-founder and cacao sourcer, Dandelion Chocolate

Minni Forman, sustainability manager, Peet's Coffee; former cacao farmer

John Kehoe, director of sustainability, Guittard Chocolate Company

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One week ahead of his much-anticipated Super Bowl performance, Bad Bunny made history when he won the first Grammy for album of the year for a Spanish-language record. He used his acceptance remarks to admonish cruel immigration enforcement, uplift immigrants and shout out his native Puerto Rico. As scholars Vanessa Díaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau, point out in their new book, “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,” the reggaetonero has never shied away from infusing politics into his musical career. Díaz and Rivera-Rideau, also creators of the “Bad Bunny Syllabus,” join us to break down Bad Bunny’s music and activism.

Guests:

Vanessa Díaz, associate professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, Loyola Marymount University; co-founder, Bad Bunny Syllabus; co-author, "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance"

Petra Rivera-Rideau, associate professor and chair of the American Studies Department, Wellesley College; co-founder, Bad Bunny Syllabus; co-author, "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance"

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Bob Wachter was one of the nation’s trusted voices, helping us better understand the disease that upended our world and healthcare system. Now he’s focused on what he sees as the next great disruption in medicine: Generative AI. Though we need to address its flaws and limitations, Dr. Wachter says AI is essential to a healthcare system buckling under the weight of clinician burnout, staff shortages and astronomical costs. We talk with Dr. Wachter about his new book, “A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future.”

Guests:

Dr. Robert "Bob" Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

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Against a backdrop of threats made by President Trump to attack Iran with “speed and violence,” talks between the two nations are set to resume this Friday. Since late December, Iran has been roiled by massive nationwide protests that have been met by a brutal response from the regime, resulting in the deaths of over 6,800 protestors with another 11,000 deaths under investigation  according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Will the U.S. use this moment to try to force regime change? We talk to a panel of experts.

Guests:

Jason Rezaian, director of Press Freedoms Initiatives, The Washington Post; author, "Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison – Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out"

Nate Swanson, director, Iran Strategy Project, Atlantic Council

Sahar Razavi, associate professor, Department of Political Science and director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center, California State University, Sacramento

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As protests against federal immigration agents’ use of deadly force in Minneapolis spread nationwide, privacy experts are raising alarms. Immigration agencies are using facial-recognition and other tools to identify immigrants – and to track American citizens who observe or protest ICE operations. The surveillance technology allows agents to scan people’s faces and link them to government databases. It’s a practice that those targeted say amounts to intimidation and retaliation. We talk about how the technologies work and what they mean for enforcement and civil liberties.

Guests:

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice

Sheera Frenkel, technology reporter, The New York Times; co-author, "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination"

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Over the weekend, San Francisco’s public school teachers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The dispute is centered on pay, health benefits, and support for special education, all at a time when the district has been facing financial headwinds so dire that the state has contemplated stepping in to run the district. We get the latest on the labor negotiations and talk about what a potential strike, which could begin as early as February 9, means for teachers, the district, students and their families.

Guests:

Maria Su, superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District

Cassondra Curiel, president, United Educators of San Francisco

Jill Tucker, K-12 education reporter, San Francisco Chronicle

Katie DeBenedetti, reporter, KQED

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