The California Report Magazine

Outside Sacramento, California's Largest Urban Bat Colony Takes Flight Thousands of drivers cross a bridge to Sacramento every day, with no idea what lurks beneath them: a quarter-million Mexican free-tailed bats. Each summer at sunset, they burst out in swirling formation, drawing crowds to guided tours. As part of KQED's Hidden Gems series, reporter Srishti Prabha visits the Yolo Causeway to find out what makes these misunderstood creatures worth a closer look. From Mono Lake to the Coast: Why These Seagulls Stay in the Bay Whether they're stealing hamburgers or swiping ice cream cones, seagulls have earned a bad reputation. In the San Francisco Bay Area, their presence appears to be growing, as California Gulls have become year-round residents. For the Bay Curious podcast, KQED’s Pauline Bartolone found out why tens of thousands of birds ditched breeding grounds in the Eastern Sierra and have permanently relocated to the Bay. Welcome to Nancy's Airport Cafe, Where Regulars Fly in for Pie Along Highway 5 in Glenn County, Nancy's Airport Cafe has spent decades serving pie and hospitality to rice farmers, truckers, and pilots who fly in just for the food. As part of the California Foodways series, reporter Lisa Morehouse visited the restaurant in 2017, when walls were covered in photos of regulars, and waitresses always remembered their orders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're featuring two of our favorite stories from the past year. Meet the Duduk Whisperer: A Bay Area Armenian Folk Musician Revives Centuries of Soul San Francisco Bay Area-based Khatchadour Khatchadourian is pushing the boundaries of traditional Armenian music. The vocalist and musician plays the duduk, an ancient double reed wind instrument carved from apricot wood, which has cultural ties to the country. Last October, KQED’s Elize Manoukian brought us this profile about how Khatchadourian is preserving culture through sound. Small Ring, Big Dreams: The Central Valley’s Backyard Wrestling Underdogs If you turn off Highway 99 just north of Stockton, you’ll find the 209 Dragon’s Den. The venue is wedged between a private home, a plant nursery and a barn, offering one of the humbler places to tangle in the independent wrestling scene. Since it launched about a year ago, it’s been drawing wrestlers from around the state. But the 209 Dragon’s Den isn’t just a place to bring the community together– it also helps wrestlers better understand themselves and their sport. In March, reporter Hannah Weaver took us ringside. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vinyl Album Found in San Francisco Contains Echoes of a Filipino American Love Story Jess Garcia loves perusing San Francisco thrift stores for treasures. One day, she came across a vinyl record titled "In Baghdad By the Bay: Cora and Santos Beloy," which piqued her curiosity. She rushed home to listen and was amazed at the sweet nostalgic quality of the voices she heard. When she looked for more information on the couple she couldn't find much, but had this feeling there must be more to their story. It turns out this Filipino American couple were "San Francisco famous" in the 1970s, playing a celebrated set in the Fairmount Hotel's Tonga Room among many other gigs. In this story from KQED’s Bay Curious podcast, reporter Asal Ehsanipour found out they were also larger than life figures in their local community. Hmong Cooking Class Gives Central Valley Youth a ‘Taste of Tradition’  Fresno is home to the second largest Hmong community in the United States, with over 80,000 residents in the Central Valley. In 1992, Kristy Xiong immigrated here from Thailand as a child and says she held on to her culture through traditional foods. Today she's teaching a monthly class that is helping young Hmong students cook these dishes to reconnect to their heritage. From the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative and KVPR, Esther Quintanilla takes us into the kitchen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The California Report Magazine: What Skid Row Taught Acclaimed Violinist Vijay Gupta About Music When violinist Vijay Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at just 19 years old, he was the youngest to ever take a chair in a major orchestra in the U.S. But despite that shining achievement, he was desperately unhappy. Now in his late 30s, Gupta has a new memoir out called Restrung. It explores how, after years of struggling to live up to other people’s expectations, he found his true voice working with homeless people on the streets of Skid Row. Reporter Steven Cuevas has this profile.   ⁠Life Lessons from a Game of Chess⁠ Visits with loved ones are a special time for people who are incarcerated in California. Families come from all over the state to see their loved ones for a short while, and it's one of the only opportunities incarcerated parents can connect with their kids. In this essay from the podcast Uncuffed, producer Fonuamana Fuahala recounts connecting with his son — who he hadn’t seen in years — over a game of chess.   When Chinese Flower Growers Helped the Bay Area Bloom Santa Clara County stretches from San Jose up through Palo Alto and into the surrounding foothills. Today, it’s an area known for sprawling tech campuses and suburban neighborhoods, but for a large part of the 20th century, this landscape looked very different. Some would say it was blooming. KQED’s Gabriela Glueck brings us this story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘Podcasting Democracy’ Helps Constitution Come to Life for Teens As America gets ready to celebrate its 250th birthday, a new project called Podcasting Democracy is helping high school and middle school students engage with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Participants created a series of audio commentaries connecting how those founding documents still affect their lives today, and how they can use constitutional principles to create positive change in their own communities.The curriculum is free and available to teachers nationwide. It was written by KQED Education’s Rachel Roberson, who along with 17-year-old student Eumari King Perez sat down with host Sasha Khokha to talk about the project. Time-Traveling Rock Opera Celebrates Pasadena A new time traveling rock opera called Pasadena Right Here, Right Now imagines the city’s distant past, its far-off future and its fire-scarred present. Composer Russell Mark spent a year talking to dozens of locals from Pasadena and Altadena, who helped inspire the opera’s storyline. It begins in the Pasadena of the future. In the year 2125, a professor at Caltech develops a time machine to travel back to 2025 Pasadena. As reporter Steven Cuevas tells us, the multi-part song cycle blends rock instrumentation with chamber music, to create a love letter to the region. Long Beach Man Faces Deportation to a Country He’s Never Seen⁠ Since President Trump took office, his Administration has talked about deporting criminals, even as they’ve mostly detained immigrants with no criminal background. But exactly who are those immigrants President Trump is calling the “worst of the worst?” KCRW’s Andrew Lopez met one Long Beach man who, despite spending the last 10 years turning his life around, is now facing a future in a new country— a place he’s never been. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How a Pacifica Bar Became a Flashpoint for Queer Civil Rights The San Francisco Bay Area is known as one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly areas in the country but it wasn’t always this way. Back in 1956, the beachside city of Pacifica was the scene of a police raid at a local bar, known to be friendly to the queer community. Hazel’s Inn’s owner, Hazel Nikola had her liquor license revoked and was arrested along with 90 of her patrons. As Ana De Almeida Amaral reports for the podcast Bay Curious, the raid would be a blueprint for law enforcement over the next 15 years. ‘Like an Angel’: Meet the Helpers Working at Bay Area Immigration Court For decades, San Francisco was home to was Northern California’s principal immigration court. Over time, advocates built around it one of the most extensive immigrant-defense networks in the U.S. a web of nonprofit legal organizations, volunteer court companions, rapid-response groups and pro bono attorneys who help immigrants find their way through a system where they’re not guaranteed legal representation. But the Trump Administration has closed the court and by the end of this year, thousands of cases are expected to be transferred to Concord, about 30 miles to the northeast, where the immigration court is only a couple of years old and the support infrastructure around it is still developing. Sergio Jaime Lopez knows the importance of building up that network. He once stood in front of an immigration judge himself and is now one of many local advocates who are helping immigrants navigate the changing U.S. immigration system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Connecting With My Father, and My Heritage, in Mandarin Many children of immigrants grow up hearing a language at home that they never fully learn to speak. For second generation kids in the US, the top three heritage languages are Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog. Mandarin Chinese is the native language of reporter Anna Zou. But up until a few months ago, she could barely speak it. Central Valley Father and Daughter Train Together For National Boxing Championship In the rural Central Valley of Avenal, Shavana Trejo is getting national attention for her amateur boxing. It’s a sport she learned from her father, a single dad of eight children, who’s also her coach. As Alice Daniel reports, boxing has helped both father and daughter navigate tough times outside the ring. Dancing With My Daughter at the Prison Parenting Prom Derrell “Sadiq” Davis doesn’t get to see his daughter that often. He’s incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center,where visits and phone calls are monitored and brief. But last year, the prison held a prom for fathers and their daughters, and Sadiq got to spend a day with his daughter, Anaya. As part of the podcast Uncuffed, made by radio producers who are incarcerated, Sadiq wrote a letter to Anaya reflecting on that special day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent Graduates Reflect on How AI Is Reshaping Their Future Over the past few weeks, several college commencement speakers who praised artificial intelligence were booed by graduates. As these graduates enter an uncertain job market, they’re grappling not only with an unpredictable economy but also with the feeling that artificial intelligence is unstoppable. AI can impact whether or not you get your resume in front of a hiring manager or what career you decide to pursue. We hear from some recent California graduates and other students who talk about not whether AI will impact them, but how. As California’s Wine Industry Struggles, Some Lodi Grape Growers Pivot to New Crops California produces 80% of all American wines. But most wine grapes aren’t grown in places like Napa or Paso Robles. Most of them actually come from vineyards around one small city in San Joaquin County, Lodi. No matter where you are in Lodi, you’re always less than a 10-minute drive from a vineyard, but it’s no longer just the land of grapes. Orchards full of pistachios, almonds and olives are popping up all over the outskirts of Lodi. As Hannah Weaver reports, that’s because new challenges in the wine industry are pushing grape growers to try other crops. For This Quartet of Fresno State Musicians, a Chance to Play in South Korea Every summer, a prestigious international music festival highlights an instrument that may not always take center stage: the clarinet. Students from universities around the world are invited to perform at Clarinetfest, and this summer, for the first time ever, some of those students will be coming from Fresno State. KVPR’s Samantha Rangel tells us how they came together to play, and what it means to represent the Central Valley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June is Pride Month, and for this week’s show we’re featuring excerpts from our Love You for You series, which recently won a regional Murrow award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Gender-expansive youth are often talked about in the news but we rarely hear from them, in their own words, especially about how they can thrive with loving support from their families and communities. So we’re featuring three conversations between these youth and the people in their lives who love, support, and mentor them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uncovering Women Miners’ Forgotten Legacy in the ‘Swiss Alps’ of Sequoia National Park Mineral King is located in the southern part of Sequoia National Park but its remote location means it gets fewer visitors than other parts of the park. So the campers and backpackers that make the trek are rewarded with a spectacular mountain range with rushing waterfalls. There are only a handful of buildings here, including some historic wooden cabins that belong to a few families who’ve been here long before this was a national park. One of those cabins belongs to Laile Di Silvestro’s family. Her connection to Mineral King goes back to the 1870s. Today, she’s an archeologist, and she’s looking for the stories she didn’t hear growing up. In 2024, as part of our Hidden Gems series, host Sasha Khokha hiked Mineral King with Di Silvestro to learn about some surprising trail blazers in the California Gold Rush, and the discrimination some people faced during those boom times. The World’s Largest Bishop Pine Forest Is in Point Reyes California is home to a lot of iconic trees, including giant sequoias, windswept Monterey cypresses, and Joshua trees. The bishop pine doesn’t have that kind of celebrity status. But if you live on the Point Reyes Peninsula in west Marin County you’re all too familiar with it. These indigenous trees are so well-suited to growing here, that to locals they’re notorious pests, not because of how easily they grow, but because of how they die. In 2024, reporter Lusen Mendel took us to Tomales Bay State Park to meet someone who’s made it his mission to deal with the pesky and strangely loveable pines. Welcome to Rough and Ready, the Tiny Town That Used to Be a Republic We head to the Nevada County town of Rough and Ready, about 5 miles west of Grass Valley. In 1850, it seceded from the nation and temporarily became its own republic. In 2017, KQED’s Bianca Taylor spoke to a proud resident of Rough and Ready to learn more about the town’s history, and how it got its name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Going for a Hike in a California Park? Don’t Forget Your Sewing Supplies Hiking clubs are nothing new. But a group in Los Angeles is now trying to stretch their creative muscles while making new community. Los Angeles’ Hike and Sew members gather every other week in Los Angeles to get into nature with their needle and thread. Reporter Clare Wiley joined the group as part of our Community Connections series, highlighting Californians who are bringing joy to their neighbors in big and small ways. Motorized Wheelchairs Making Back Country Hiking More Accessible California is home to more than 18,000 miles of hiking trails. But many of them are out of reach for people with physical disabilities. In Southern California, the city of Burbank is trying to change that. A new program lets people borrow motorized, off-road wheelchairs to explore rugged trails that were once inaccessible. Susan Valot reports that advocates are hoping to open up this option to thousands more people in the state. How to Explore Muir Woods After Dark Marin County is home to Muir Woods – known for its historic redwood trees. It’s one of the most visited national parks sites in the country, even though you can’t camp there. But as KQED’s outdoors reporter Sarah Wright tells us, once a month, park-goers who nab a ticket can experience the wonders of the park at night. How an Altadena Monster Sparked Community Tensions After the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena a year and half ago, an unusual sight reappeared amid the ashes and debris: a giant werewolf wearing a t-shirt with a big rainbow-colored heart that said “I Love Altadena”. The mysterious lycanthrope became a source of inspiration and resilience as the community continued to recover and rebuild. And then, as with any good werewolf story, the full moon appeared, a transformation happened and the pitchforks came out. But in the end, peace prevailed. Reporter Steven Cuevas has the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Story Behind the Bear on the California Flag is Bigger Than One Legend The grizzly bear on California’s state flag makes it distinctive and recognizable. Many people believe the bear is Monarch, one of the last California grizzlies. Captured in the mountains in 1889, he was held in captivity and displayed to the public for the last 22 years of his life. The KQED podcast Bay Curious wanted to find out if it really was Monarch on the flag, and to sort through some of the other legends around the bear. They sent reporter Katherine Monahan to find out. At Three Sisters Gardens, the Community Creates a New Food System In West Sacramento, Three Sisters Gardens is a place where neighbors grow food and community. Founded by Alfred Melbourne, the garden is rooted in Indigenous growing practices and the idea that people, plants, and land thrive through cooperation. Local youth play a central role, learning how to plant, harvest, and distribute food while working alongside adults and elders. In a city long shaped by food deserts, the space has become both a source of fresh produce and a place for hands-on learning and mentorship. The California Report's intern Srishti Prabha takes us there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California's Governor’s Race Remains Wide Open. Here’s What to Know Before the Primary From controversies to campaign promises, California’s governor’s race is national news. And with ballots landing in mailboxes already, the race is still a toss-up — with eight candidates vying for the state’s top job. We sit down with KQED political correspondents Guy Marzorati and Marisa Lagos to hear more about the candidates and what we should look for in the final weeks before Election Day. In Northern California’s Maternity Desert, a Humboldt Midwife Offers Intimate Births Despite being the nation’s most populous state, there’s increasingly fewer places to give birth. In rural areas, giving birth can be difficult and dangerous as local hospitals shut down maternity wards. In Humboldt County, some women now travel hours in labor to reach the nearest delivery room. One small birth center in Eureka is trying to fill that gap with a different approach to care. There, midwives spend more time with patients and offer a calmer, more personal setting for births. It’s a model that could help address the state’s growing maternity care crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠In East Oakland, a Store Where 1 Item Is Always Free⁠ If you find yourself wandering around Oakland’s Dimond District, you might come across a rather unusual store. The space looks like a hoarder’s attic. It’s crowded with mismatched objects: glassware, old electronics, knitted hats, typewriters and rotary phones. But you don't need money to shop here, you can actually take one item home for free. Free Oakland UP is both an art installation and mutual aid model, offering commentary on waste and reuse. KQED’s Srishti Prabha brings us the story of this space, and what it means to community members. ⁠A Basketball Trailblazer: My Mother, the WNBA Star You’ve Never Heard Of⁠ On May 8th, the WNBA will celebrate the start of its 30th season. Along with a surge in viewership and attention in recent years, players are also celebrating a new collective bargaining agreement. Athletes will receive 20% of gross league and team revenue, resulting in a big bump in salaries. This progress comes after decades of advocacy by early players who worked to carve out space for the women’s professional game. Judy Mosley McAfee was one of them. She was the sixth woman drafted into the WNBA. Last July, her daughter, reporter Audy McAfee looked back at her mom’s career. In California, Women’s Hockey Is Growing In February, the U.S. women’s hockey team took home Olympic gold. The win has inspired a new wave of players, including adults. Recently, USA Hockey announced that the number of women and girls who’ve signed up to play the sport has surpassed 100,000 for the first time. In California, women’s college hockey is growing too. Much of that momentum comes from grassroots efforts by women who don’t want to hang up their skates. Reporter Susan Valot hit the ice to bring us this story from Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For people living with serious mental illness, there’s more to recovery than clinical treatment. Los Angeles County’s Hollywood 2.0 pilot program puts that idea into practice. Inspired by an Italian city’s holistic and successful approach — centered on friendship and purpose — officials brought the model stateside. For people like Mignon Poon, who spent years unhoused, the opportunity for community has proved pivotal. Reporter Lee Romney takes us inside a program that offers a new model for mental health care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re revisiting two stories from Lisa Morehouse's series, California Foodways. California’s fruits and vegetables make a lot of stops on the way from the fields to your table. One of those places is the Oakland Produce Market, which supplies small markets, restaurants and other food providers with the freshest foods. You don’t have to work for a grocery store or run a restaurant to shop here, as long as you buy in bulk. Lisa got up in the middle of the night to meet some of the people who keep the Oakland Produce Market humming. Then we head to farm country, where you often see signs that say “Food Grows Where Water Flows.” The system of canals and reservoirs that feeds farmland in the Central Valley is one of the biggest in the world. But irrigation canals are also places where people dump unwanted objects, like toilets, furniture or shopping carts. It’s Big Valley Divers’ job to clean and maintain the canals and the dams that send water to farms. Lisa spent a day in Colusa County to learn all about the unusual job that keeps the water flowing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're revisiting a conversation from September 2025 about resilience with Oakland comedian Jackie Keliiaa. She’s a stand-up, writer, actor, and producer whose work not only reflects on her everyday life, but also her Native heritage. She’s been featured on Comedy Central, Team Coco, Netflix and IllumiNative's list of 25 Native American Comedians to Follow, and she organizes the all-Native comedy show, Good Medicine. Host Sasha Khokha sat down with Keliiaa for a conversation about comedy, identity, and how laughter can help keep us going during hard times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Northern California Tribe is Reclaiming Mendocino Forest For Future Generations The Potter Valley band of the Pomo people is the first tribe in California to use a Forest Service grant to create a community forest near Fort Bragg, in Mendocino County. It will soon be a place where the tribe can offer youth camps and community events all year round. KQED’s Outdoors reporter Sarah Wright attended a mushroom foraging event on this ancestral land, which will now remain a forest for generations to come. New Film Follows Indigenous Teens Kayaking the Klamath River After Dam Removal A new documentary from Oregon Public Broadcasting follows a group of Indigenous teenagers as they kayak more than 300 miles down the Klamath River. They’re the first to paddle the entire length of the Klamath after four dams were taken down in 2024 — the largest dam removal in US history. First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath was filmed over the course of the monthlong paddle last summer, following the teens as they traversed waters that were allowed to flow freely again for the first time in 100 years. Host Vanessa Rancano speaks with the film’s producer, Jessie Sears, and one of the paddlers featured in the film, 16-year-old Tasia Linwood. In the 1970s, Bay Area Lesbians Created Their Own Economy San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood is known all around the world as a gay mecca. But the city was also once home to a thriving, self-sustaining lesbian community in the city’s Mission District. KQED Arts editor Nastia Voynovskaya takes us to a new historical exhibit. It tells the story of the lesbian-owned restaurants, printing presses and bookstores that offered a safe haven in the face of discrimination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Financial Freefall to Stability. How One Man Found a Way to Stay in the Bay The cost of living in California has only increased in the last year. And between housing, food, utilities and gas, many of us have been forced to get creative with our budgets in order to continue living here. Vanessa Rancaño has this profile of a man in the Bay Area whose decision to stay in California –despite his financial hardships– is also a matter of safety. Small Ring, Big Dreams: The Central Valley’s Backyard Wrestling Underdogs If you turn off Highway 99 just north of Stockton, you’ll find the 209 Dragon’s Den. The venue is wedged between a private home, a plant nursery and a barn, offering one of the humbler places to tangle in the independent wrestling scene. Since it launched about a year ago, it’s been drawing wrestlers from around the state. But the 209 Dragon’s Den isn’t just a place to bring the community together– it also helps wrestlers better understand themselves and their sport. Reporter Hannah Weaver takes us ringside. A Black-Owned Ranch in Southern San Diego Fosters Community and Ancestral Connection On a dusty road north of the Tijuana border is S&S Friendly Ranch. Founded in 1980 by siblings Sim Wallace and Sarah Buncom, the ranch started as a place to board their horses. But as KPBS’ Audy McAfee reports, the 10-acre ranch is now a community gathering place and a hub for education and innovation, thanks to their descendants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This San Francisco Post Office Is the Only Address Some Residents Have In San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, there’s a unique post office. It’s the U.S. Postal Service General Delivery Unit — a mail service where people who don’t have a permanent address can pick up mail. For the past decade, it’s been a lifeline in a district that’s home to 2,000 unhoused residents, allowing them to receive items like ID cards and Social Security checks. We spend an afternoon at General Delivery with reporter Erin Bump. Erika Oba On Weaving Asian American History Into Her Music In the 1970s, Asian American jazz artists found inspiration in Black musicians who used music as a tool for social change. They experimented with different styles alongside those musicians. They introduced instruments from their cultures to the genre, like taiko drums and the koto. The result was a new kind of sound, and a reflection of Asian America’s emerging political power. Today, the legacy continues. And as KALW’s Cara Nguyen discovered, there’s a new generation of Asian American jazz musicians like pianist Erika Oba, who are asking what it means to make music that honors this rich history, and speaks to the moment. A Queer Climate Movement Takes Root Along the Russian River Sonoma County’s Russian River has been a destination for queer folks for more than a century. But these days, as a new generation is seeing the impact of climate change on the area, they’re doing more than vacationing. KQED climate reporter Ezra David Romero introduces us to a couple getting their hands dirty and creating a refuge for other LGBTQ folks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices