The Bay Area is home to some of the largest Afghan communities in the U.S. And now, as the Taliban have taken over control of Afghanistan, refugee resettlement organizations here like Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay say the pace of people seeking refuge is "like nothing we've seen in recent years."

Guest: Fouzia Azizi, Director of Refugee Services for Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay

You can find opportunities to donate or help JFCS here.

Read the episode transcript here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall election is coming. Ballots have been mailed out and the last day to vote in Sept. 14.

Feeling unprepared? Here’s a primer with nitty-gritty voting details, some context for the campaign, and what you’ll find on your ballot from our friends at Bay Curious.

Transcript here: https://bit.ly/3sdB4I2

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the vast majority of families, this fall means a return to in-person school. But some have opted to stick with remote learning because of concerns over COVID-19. And in many cases — including in Oakland — the rollout of virtual learning this time around has been rocky.

Guest: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED education reporter

Transcript here: https://bit.ly/3sgb8vn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bay Area teachers have been preparing to teach in-person again. There’s so much to get ready for — whether it’s taking steps to keep people safe from COVID-19, or figuring out how to navigate student group projects. But above all, these two Bay Area teachers are excited to return to what was lost: connecting in person with their students.

Guests: Andreanna Yanez-Vierra, 1st grade teacher at Hoover Elementary School in Burlingame; Ralph Bedwell, English teacher at Pinole Valley High 

Transcript here: https://bit.ly/3fRDmHO

Follow The Bay to hear more local Bay Area stories like this one. New episodes are released Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3 a.m. Find The Bay on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, NPR One or via Alexa. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many Bay Area students are starting school this week, and in California, classes will mostly be in-person. At the same time, COVID cases are rising due to the delta variant. But after a year of remote learning, families and students have mixed feelings about going back to school in person.

Guest: Julia McEvoy, KQED senior editor of education and equity. Read the episode transcript here.

Follow The Bay to hear more local Bay Area stories like this one. New episodes are released Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3 a.m. Find The Bay on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, NPR One or via Alexa. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even before the pandemic, public transit did not feel safe to many women and girls. That’s why the #NotOneMoreGirl initiative was launched and spearheaded by Bay Area youth — and they've already helped create changes at BART.

As BART service resumes at near pre-pandemic hours, advocates say keeping vulnerable people safe is more important than ever.

Guests: Haleema Bharoocha, senior advocacy manager at Alliance for Girls and Santana Tapia, with the #NotOneMoreGirl campaign and co-founder of Fluid Coffee and Events

Click here to watch the bystander intervention training video produced by the Not One More Girl Campaign. Read the episode transcript here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just when there was a palpable sense that everything might be OK, the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 came along.

The race to vaccinate more people is now even more urgent; healthcare workers who are seeing more patients say another surge is entirely preventable, if only more people would get vaccinated. 

Guest: Lesley McClurg, KQED science reporter

Read the episode transcript here.

Follow The Bay to hear more local Bay Area stories like this one. New episodes are released Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 3 a.m. Find The Bay on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, NPR One or via Alexa.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COVID-19 cases are on the rise again, fueled by the contagious Delta variant. And over the past few weeks, many Bay Area restaurants and bars have responded by requiring customers to prove they've been fully vaccinated before dining inside.

Today, we visit one San Francisco business that recently made this decision.

Guests: Eduardo Sandoval and Eva Lee of Santería margarita bar in San Francisco

Read the transcript here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the next few weeks, we’re taking a break from making new episodes. It’s a lot of work to bring you 3 shows a week, and we’re going to use this time to rest up and reflect. 

We’re still going to be accessible if you want to hit us up with questions, comments or story ideas. We’re on Twitter @TheBayKQED, and reachable via email at [email protected]. 

Our next episode will be on Monday, August 2. Thank you all so much for listening and for supporting the show, and we’re looking forward to sharing new episodes with you all when we come back.

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3hwPZbA

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our colleagues at KQED and NPR have spent countless hours analyzing the world of police discipline, thanks to a police transparency law that unsealed thousands of files. 

And over the past few weeks, they’ve been sharing that work in the form of On Our Watch, a limited-run podcast that brings you into the rooms where officers are interrogated and witnesses are questioned, to find out who this shadow system of police accountability really serves, and who it protects.

Many episodes of On Our Watch also focus on Bay Area police departments. And today, we wanted to share an episode that focuses on Antioch — and what happened when a veteran detective spent years leaking operational secrets.

Subscribe to On Our Watch here. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices