In 2010, aspiring criminal defense attorney and longtime volunteer at Bay Area social justice non-profit Silicon Valley De-Bug Albert Cobarrubias was gunned down by a local gang member Michael Frausto in a tragic case of mistaken identity.

To honor Albert's legacy, De-Bug launched the Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project, dedicated to following his work in reducing incarceration rates among communities of color by helping defendants and their families better navigate the complexities of the legal system.

By 2014, "participatory defense" as it had come to be known, knocked nearly 2,000 years worth of prison time off for hundreds of offenders, many of whom were convicted of low-level offenses and were victims of oversentencing. And that number has only gone up from there.

I recently sat down with Benee Vejar, a volunteer at De-Bug and spokesperson for the project, to talk about how participatory defense works, and the kind of impact it's been having as of late.

It's been a strange year for American politics. The Trump administration has turned reality completely on its head, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan are mainstreaming their beliefs into the body politic at speeds we haven't seen since the twenties, and Juggalos – the sworn devotees of underground horrorcore rap group Insane Clown Posse, or ICP – now stand among the ranks of poster children for political resistance.

After being classified as a gang by the FBI in 2011, ICP and the juggalo community finally decided to take a stand against the ruling in September of last year, staging the first Juggalo March on Washington. As fate would have it, their protest was scheduled on the same day as a highly publicized pro-Trump rally, setting the two against each other in a competition for mindshare that was easily dominated by the Juggalos' propensity for outrageousness.

In the buildup to the march, a number of politically-minded Juggalo groups began to take shape across the country, like the Struggalo Circus, located here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I recently sat down with one of their early members, a young man by the name Dimension, to talk about how groups Struggalo Circus are continuing to take root across the nation, despite the juggalo community's healthy distrust of both the law and the hands that guide it.

Our world has lived under the threat of nuclear war for so long that for some time now, it's been easy to pretend that the threat didn't exist. But with the resumption of hostilities between the United States and North Korea under Donald Trump's presidency, that threat seems very real again.

In the hope of hosting a joint summit in next month to bring about an end to hostilities, both the US and North Korea have recently been on good behavior, starting with February's "Olympic Truce" during the Winter Games in Pyongyang. This courtesy also extends to South Korea, with whom the North's relationship has improved considerably as of late.

To find out more about what's happening behind the scenes in the buildup to the US/North Korea summit, I spoke with Dr. Sharat Lin, a research fellow and past president of San Jose's Peace and Justice Center, who also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Initiative for Equality.

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, click here.

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!

"Travel is the death of prejudice" it's often been said, usually to those who could benefit from a healthy dose of the remedy. But the saying holds no less true for those whom travel has been an integral part of their life experience: America's nearly fifty million immigrant peoples, many of whom crossed multiple countries to arrive here.

Nehal Abuelata is the singer and keyboardist for the band Sweet HayaH, and one of those fifty million immigrants for whom the United States is home only in name. Born in Egypt and raised in France, Nehal moved to the US in high school, as her parents sought better life opportunities for the family. A lifelong, albeit tenuous relationship with the piano provided her a gateway to community here where none had previously existed, and she's been working it to the hilt ever since.

I recently sat down with Nehal to talk about her globe-trotted upbringing, how it has influenced her life and music, and what it means to be American when the definition is never said the same way twice.

The phrase "all politics is local" stands as one of the most tired, overused clichés in politics today. Sadly, that doesn't make it any less true.

Peter Allen, a current member of San Jose's Planning Commission and former city council candidate, knows this better than most. One of many Democratic candidates in last year's council race, he ran on a platform of local bipartisan engagement and encouraging the citizenry to get more involved in the decisions affecting their city.

Peter and I sat down not long ago to talk about his experience running for San Jose's District Six council seat, dealing with the agony of defeat, and what it really takes to run for public office.

MUSIC:Blonde Toledo – Monterrey Usurper Vong – Peeping TomKat No Flow – Lucky Day Periscope – Control Image

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, click here.

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!

The phrase "all politics is local" stands as one of the most tired, overused clichés in politics today. Sadly, that doesn't make it any less true.

Peter Allen, a current member of San Jose's Planning Commission and former city council candidate, knows this better than most. One of many Democratic candidates in last year's council race, he ran on a platform of local bipartisan engagement and encouraging the citizenry to get more involved in the decisions affecting their city.

Peter and I sat down not long ago to talk about his experience running for San Jose's District Six council seat, dealing with the agony of defeat, and what it really takes to run for public office.

MUSIC:Blonde Toledo – Monterrey Usurper Vong – Peeping TomKat No Flow – Lucky Day Periscope – Control Image

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, click here.

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!

Growing up in the shadow of great American catastrophes like the Iraq War and the 2008 Financial Crisis, it's no surprise that Patrick Kaufmann - front man for San Jose punk rock band The Roughies – would develop a penchant for the absurd that would prove instrumental in making their band what they are today.

Patty and I got together for a bit of a jam session here at the studio a few weeks ago, and after many hours and many more cocktails, we sat down to talk about his transition from yet another sick, sad emo kid lost on the San Jose circuit to one of the most sardonic cultural critics in today's punk rock scene.

MUSIC:The Roughies – Something Useful To Do The Roughies – Banker's Song The Roughies – What's Your Plan For The Wasteland?

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, click here.

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!

Recently, there's been a conversation rippling through the scientific community that threatens to destroy mankind's self-perception as a higher order species once and for all: a debate over where and how to mark the official beginning of our species' influence upon the planet.

It might seem obvious at this point that we've been an incredibly potent and dynamic force here for quite some time now, but marking exactly where that influence began is what will best allow us to determine when and if it will ever end, and if so, how.

Dr. David Grinspoon, a senior researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Washington, DC and the author of Earth In Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet's Future is one of the leading experts in this debate, and he joined me recently to explain what's currently happening as the scientific community goes over the particulars of the Age of Man. But from here, perhaps we should call it by its proper name: the Anthropocene.

MUSIC:Michael Helmer – Sunrise Screw Jack – A Certain Kind Of Strange ZED – The Mountain House Band Of The Universe – Trip To The Sun

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, click here.

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!

Life Choices Treatment Center, a drug rehab clinic in San Jose, California, never did have what you would call a "sterling" reputation. But after the clinic was shut down in 2014, a trove of Department of Health Care Services records surfaced reveal Life Choices to be one of the worst failures of California's drug rehabilitation network in decades.

In a recent report for San Jose Inside titled "Rehab Gone Rogue," SJI news editor Jennifer Wadsworth describes what she calls "shocking dysfunction" at Life Choices, a place where authorities investigated hundreds of accusations of "exploitation, sexual harassment, stolen medication and rampant drug use," while in operation.

For years, Life Choices founder Richard Franko funneled numerous addicts in his recovery program to work as laborers, security, and even as bartenders at a nightclub called the Outcast Bar and Resort in Copperopolis, California, many of them undergoing court-ordered treatment and at risk of violating their parole while doing so. And that's only the beginning.

I spoke with Jennifer about her report, and how such incredible abuses could be allowed happen in seemingly broad daylight. As a collective failure of numerous agencies across city, county, and state agencies, Life Choices has a great deal to answer for, especially now that Richard Franko and company have been allowed to open a brand new facility less than three years later: Red Road Recovery.

Music:

Screw Jack – AfterthoughtBook On VHS – Cheese Beast Verse – So Hard Juanita Harris – Autumn Leaves

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, drop me an e-mail at [email protected].

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!

On this episode, I talk with my good friend Bruce Sturgell, the country's preeminent men's plus-size fashion guru and founder of the website Chubstr.com, who's new web series "Sized Up" just debuted with a big splash in September 2017.

"Sized Up" features Bruce touring the plus-size fashion scene in cities all across the country, meeting with private designers, fashion boutiques, and even major retailers who feature prominent plus-size collections, many of whom owe Bruce a debt of thanks for much of their success.

MUSIC:

Sweet HayaH – Better

Usurper Vong – The Hunt Is On (Ooh La La)

KTSB – Wavelength

No Flow – Here To Stay

Doctor Striker – Be A Man, Go The Gym

If you're an independent musician or band and you'd like to have your music featured on the program, drop me an e-mail at [email protected].

Pink Elephants is produced by Randle Aubrey with with additional support from Echoplex Media. Subscribe to the show on Stitcher Radio, iTunes, or Google Play by clicking the buttons below.

Help support Pink Elephants by becoming a Patron at patreon.com/pinkelephants, or do it the old-fashioned way by making a donation to our PayPal account, and thank you!