The Bay

For years, Black and brown parents of Oakland Unified students have been pushing the district to do more to support kids in low-income communities of color.

Then the pandemic hit, prompting fears of even more disparities in learning. So a group called The Oakland REACH decided to take matters into their own hands, and use the pandemic as an opportunity to continue reimagining their kids’ education.

Guest: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED education reporter

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3oSiQu0

Subscribe to our newsletter here.

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

South Hayward has one of the highest rates of per capita deaths in Alameda County. It also has one of the lowest vaccination rates. Some aren’t sure whether they want the vaccine, but there are also many other barriers related to language, work, and access.

For volunteers, county officials and community clinics, addressing these barriers is central to a monthslong, on the ground effort to get more people vaccinated in a neighborhood with many immigrants and low-wage workers.

Guest: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED immigration reporter

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

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

Starting Friday, May 21, 130 artists in San Francisco will receive $1,000 a month for the next 6 months through the city’s Guaranteed Income Pilot Program, which was announced in March to help artists from marginalized communities who have struggled during the pandemic.

Most artists agree a guaranteed income would help. But as the program officially rolls out, some arts groups are concerned that the process of launching the experiment was inequitable from the beginning.

Guest: Chloe Veltman, KQED arts and culture reporter

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3wsj39E. Subscribe to our newsletter 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

It’s almost been a year since Vallejo police officer Jarrett Tonn shot and killed Sean Monterrosa on June 2, as protests against police violence were happening nationwide.

Last week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced his office would review the investigation. Monterrosa’s family — and those who have been fighting for more police reform in Vallejo — hope this is a turning point in police accountability in the city, and even across the state.

Guest: Brian Krans, freelance reporter 

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3hyLX3Y

Subscribe to our newsletter here.

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

On International Boulevard in East Oakland, just 5% of businesses received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from April to August of 2020. Meanwhile, in the nearby, mostly white neighborhood of Montclair, 49% of businesses received a PPP loan. Advocates and small business owners point to factors like language barriers, a complicated application process, and a legacy of banks not serving communities of color.

This kind of disparity exists all over the Bay Area, and as the region reopens, this unequal distribution of loans will have lasting impacts.

Guest: Adhiti Bandlamudi, KQED Silicon Valley reporter

This story was reported in partnership with Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3ogBs6N. Subscribe to our newsletter 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

Just four months ago, a pro-Trump mob violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in support of the former president's conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. And even after that, most of California’s Republican elected officials stuck with Trump by voting to overturn the certification of the results.

Trump may be out of office now, but many of those same Republicans — including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy from Bakersfield — are still enabling his lies, most recently when House Republicans voted to remove Wyoming’s Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership role, for speaking out against Trump and his role in the Capitol insurrection.

This episode first aired on Jan. 8, 2021.

Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics correspondent and co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown podcast

Support The Bay by making a pledge here!

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3w45ldc. Subscribe to our newsletter 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

The vast majority of the nearly 70,000 fire survivors are waiting for the compensation they're owed as a result of PG&E's bankruptcy settlement — while the trust responsible for managing the money racked up over $51 million in operating costs in 2020. 

Many families who have been displaced by fires caused by PG&E’s equipment are living in precarious situations. Some live unhoused or with relatives, and many have been forced to dip into savings while also experiencing the trauma of living with fear of fires.

So why are so many survivors still waiting?

Guest: Lily Jamali, Co-host and correspondent at KQED's The California Report

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

Support The Bay by making a pledge here!

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

When people see attacks on Asians — including a recent near-fatal stabbing on San Francisco’s Market Street — many refer to them as hate crimes, in order to call out anti-Asian racism and violence.

But the legal use of a hate crime charge is much trickier. And it raises some hard questions about whether the state should add harsher penalties for racially motivated attacks, or focus on rehabilitation and restorative justice.

Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics correspondent and co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown podcast

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3uF35sC

Support The Bay by making a pledge here!

Subscribe to our newsletter 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

In the 1920s and 1930s, Stockton’s Little Manila grew into the largest Filipino community outside of Manila itself. Thousands of Filipinos worked as farm laborers in the San Joaquin Valley, and over the years they opened businesses, restaurants, hotels and organized labor unions.

Over time Stockton’s urban renewal policies led to the destruction of Little Manila. But today, Filipinx organizers in Stockton are working to preserve that centurylong history, organize the community and educate the next generation.

Guest: Shaylyn Martos, The Bay production assistant

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/3uuqX1W

Make your pledge of support to The Bay here!

Subscribe to our newsletter here.

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

Indians and Indian Americans in the Bay Area are facing a dual reality when it comes to COVID-19: while businesses start to reopen here, COVID-19 cases and deaths are exploding in India — and many are worried for the safety of friends and family thousands of miles away.

The Indian diaspora is also turning that worry into action, raising money for oxygen tanks and setting up virtual doctor's visits.

Guest: Lakshmi Sarah, KQED reporter

Episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/2QWM7Ht

Read more of Lakshmi's reporting on Bay Area efforts to help stop COVID-19 in India:

Make your pledge of support to The Bay here!

Subscribe to our newsletter here.

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