KVPR News Podcast

Margarita Engle, the celebrated author and poet who calls the Central Valley home, published two new books in 2021. The first, “Your Heart, My Sky,” is a young adult novel written in verse. The second is a children’s picture book titled “A Song of Frutas.” Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with her about how both books were inspired by her Cuban-American heritage.

A University of North Carolina study found that roughly 1,800 newspapers have closed in the United States since 2004, the vast majority of which were weekly publications that served small communities. But here in Central California, the Mariposa Gazette, is still going strong. In fact, it’s the state’s oldest weekly newspaper. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock talked to the paper’s editor and co-owner Greg Little about the book he recently wrote and the future of small-town newspapers.

The Central Valley’s reputation as an affordable place to live has been challenged by skyrocketing housing prices. To learn what is behind the sharp increase in home and rental prices, and what this means for the ongoing affordable housing crisis, Valley Edition host Kathleen Schock spoke with Amber Crowell, associate professor of sociology at Fresno State; Manuela Tobias, housing reporter for CalMatters; Emma De La Rosa, policy advocate with the Leadership Council; and Ian Sharples, housing program manager for the Community Action Partnership of Kern.

The annual San Joaquin Valley Town Hall lecture series returns to Fresno's Saroyan Theatre on Oct. 20 with a talk by historian Jon Meacham. Travel writer Rick Steves, violinist Vijay Gupta and restaurant critic Ruth Reichl are also among the lineup of six speakers for the 2021-22 season. To learn more, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke to the Town Hall’s president, Jonica Bushman.

Dangerous Air, an investigation by NPR's California Newsroom into the rise of western wildfire smoke and the extent it harms health, is based on more than a decade's worth of data. To learn more about its findings, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke to Alison Saldanha, the data journalist who led the investigation.

For the first time in recorded history, wildfires breached the peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains this year - terrain long considered to be well equipped to fend off encroaching fires. To learn more about the significance of this milestone, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke to Crystal Kolden, a pyrogeographer and assistant professor at U.C. Merced.

In the new book “Freedom to Discriminate,” author Gene Slater explores how during the civil rights era, realtors exacerbated segregation and fought against fair housing efforts by redefining freedom. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke to him about this history and its connection to the City of Fresno.

The West Fresno Regional Center is designed to be a one-stop-shop for social services in a community where many are reliant on public transportation. But community activists claim that Fresno County eliminated many of the services once available, forcing people to find rides or take long bus trips to Clovis, where the county consolidated many social services. Fresno County, however, claims it’s actually expanded services in West Fresno. To get a better sense of what’s going on, Valley Edition

A year after the Creek Fire ignited in the Sierra Nevada, Madera County is facing a lawsuit related to injuries sustained by campers who became trapped by the fire in the backcountry. The 11 plaintiffs on the lawsuit suffered burns and other injuries while camping near Mammoth Pool Reservoir when the intense, fast-moving fire began. On Sept. 5, 2020, according to official estimates from the U.S. Forest Service, the fire exploded in size from 600 acres at 10 a.m. to 45,500 acres by 5 p.m. During

The surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has created new risks for children, especially those with special needs. To better understand the risks, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with Dr. David Sine, medical director for the pediatric palliative care program at Valley Children’s Hospital.