Mark Twain's novel features an enslaved man Jim who teams up with young Huck rafting down the Mississippi to freedom. But Jim has become one of the more controversial characters in American Literature. This book sheds new light on one of Mark Twain's most endearing albeit misunderstood characters.

San Francisco's venerable Ferry Building opened in 1898 but by 1938 with the opening of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, the need for commuter ferries vanished overnight. And with that, the grand transit hub fell on uncertain times. But through luck and civic activism the iconic former transportation hub has reinvented itself yet again, and is the centerpiece of a revived Embarcadero.

Veteran San Francisco Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan wrote a 5 part series on homelessness in 2003 called "Shame of the City". Some of the characters profiled in that series became lifelong friends and were profiled in The Lost and The Found. Kevin had a 32 year career at The Chronicle.

Canada has a new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, and faces a General Election on April 28, 2025. The key - some would say existential - issues facing Canadian voters are the Economy and managing the US relationship with the Trump Administration. Marci Surkes served as advisor to Justin Trudeau, the former Prime Minister and witnessed historic policy debates and decisions.

Technology has reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites .

Populist agendas of the Left and Right threaten to undermine fundamental principles that underpin liberal democracies. What can we do to reverse the trend ? Is it too late ?

San Francisco has over 4500 reports of child abuse annually. Safe and Sound for over 50 years has been working with at risk families to deal with the problem and prevent recurrences.

As an example of American True Crime stories, the Zodiac killings in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and 1970s, continue to fascinate. In today's episode, we discuss the 2007 movie, Zodiac and the 2024 Netflix docuseries, This is the Zodiac speaking.

Paranormal phenomena are all around us: UFOs, Telepathy, alien abductions. But what is the psychology behind such beliefs ? Anomalistic Psychology seeks to explain the psychological bases of these beliefs.

The Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco is an independent biomedical research institution that empowers world class scientists to find new pathways to cure disease.