Many senior care homes in the Bay Area are in fire risk areas, according to a KQED investigation. These facilities are supposed to have emergency plans for disasters like wildfires in order to evacuate the mostly older people with medical conditions who live in them. But with dangerous fire season months approaching, and a pandemic in full swing, some worry that many assisted living homes aren’t prepared. 

Guest: Molly Peterson, KQED Science reporter

Click here to see KQED's Older and Overlooked project, which also includes a guide to help you protect your loved ones in care facilities.

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Almost all Bay Area schools are required to start the school year remotely to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 this fall. In response, many families are starting their own small, in-person "learning pods" instead. But not everyone has access to one. Some parents are paying extra just so their child can get access. And there are also fears that these pods will exacerbate inequities that have already existed in the education system.

Guest: Sara Hossaini, KQED reporter

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A secret clique of Vallejo police officers commemorate killings by bending the tips of their star-shaped badges — and the city’s top leaders did nothing about it.

That's according to Open Vallejo, a recently launched non-profit news organization. For many locals, the story only confirmed their mistrust of a department they feel continues to act with impunity. Last week, police Chief Shawny Williams announced he would launch a third party investigation into the allegations after two VPD employees came forward about the practice. But in a city where local officials have been reluctant to discipline its police department, what is the path forward?

Guest: Geoff King, founder of Open Vallejo and civil liberties lawyer

See Geoff’s article and subscribe to the Open Vallejo podcast here. 

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Last week, Congress questioned leaders of four of the largest tech companies in the world - Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple - about just how much power they’ve gained over the years. Today, we're revisiting an episode from December about how Amazon's race to be the biggest and fastest is hurting the employees doing the work.

Will Evans, reporter with The Center for Investigative Reporting

You can read Will's full Behind the Smiles investigation here. And to share your Amazon injury records with him click here.

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Some doulas are seeing an uptick in business during the pandemic. Hospitals are limiting the number of people who can be present at births, and many families are looking for options outside of traditional healthcare facilities.

We'll hear from Sumayyah Monét Franklin who is a birth rights activist, doula and owner of Sumi's Touch. She talks about working during a pandemic and why she is especially concerned about Black mothers and children.

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From November of 2019 to January of 2020, two Black mothers occupied a vacant West Oakland property without permission from the company that owned the house, Southern California-based Wedgewood Properties.

Since then — after a lot of public pressure — Wedgewood agreed to let them stay. The Oakland Community Land Trust will purchase the home and least it back to the moms.

Today, we're revisiting the moral argument behind Moms 4 Housing's activism: that housing is a human right.

This episode originally aired on January 3, 2020.

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On October 14 of last year, Native people from across the West Coast gathered in San Francisco for a ceremonial canoe journey to Alcatraz Island. Each canoe represented a territory, tribe, community or family. They paddled to celebrate culture and values on Indigenous Peoples' Day, and to commemorate the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz. This episode originally published in October 2019.

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Ashanti Branch started Ever Forward Club because he wanted the young men in his classroom to have what he didn't have as a student: a safe place to be themselves. After Ashanti gave them that, he saw them start to succeed. Mindshift, from KQED, focuses on stories about the future of learning. Today we're sharing the first episode of Season 5.

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Jason Mai didn’t know why his father was taken to jail when he was 12 years old. As a kid growing up in the Bay Area, he was told by his Chinese family to avoid má fan, which meant burdening or inconveniencing others by sharing the family secret. Only as an adult did Jason start to process his childhood trauma by learning about the intersections between incarceration and Asian American culture. To help him process it, he created a zine. This episode originally aired in November 2019.

Guest: Jason Mai, creator of Yes, Asians Go To Jail Too

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We've produced more than 300 stories about the Bay Area. Today, we're taking a break from the headlines to revisit a show from March (before shelter in place orders) where we traveled to three of our favorite spots around the Bay Area.

Guests: Alan Montecillo, Ericka Cruz Guevarra and Devin Katayama

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