The California Report Magazine

You can hear elements of hip-hop, R&B and even jazz in Tokimonsta’s intricate drum loops, synths and bass lines. On her latest album, Eternal Reverie, the Grammy-nominated producer found inspiration in a Brazilian record, and created music tinged with the memories of a close friend. For our series on California composers, Reporter Clare Wiley brings us this profile of Tokimonsta and the devastating setback that almost stole her ability to make music. And we visit Oakland's 100-year-old produce market. Summer is peak season for many of California’s fruits and vegetables, but that produce makes a lot of stops on the way 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. For her series, California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse got up in the middle of the night to meet some of the people who keep the Oakland Produce Market humming.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer is the heart of the baseball season. But recently the country’s oldest professional sport has been going through some changes. It’s not just the moves to speed up the pace of play. These days, along with training in the weight room or the bullpen, players are also spending time with their team’s sports psychologist. KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky goes behind the scenes at the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark to understand how the team keeps an athlete's mind in shape, both on and off the field. And we explore the history of the bacon-wrapped hot dog. Vendors selling the popular street food can be seen outside of most major gathering spots, from baseball games and concerts to tourist attractions like Pier 39. Bay Curious listener Olivia Godfrey wanted to find out the history of these food carts. But as KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman found out…it’s complicated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

88-Year-Old Audio Engineer Sandy Stone Survived Transphobic Backlash and Made History Audio engineer Sandy Stone got her start working alongside Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills & Nash. When she joined the California lesbian music label Olivia Records, some feminists wanted to kick her, and all trans women, out of women’s spaces. But Stone went on to become the first openly transgender woman inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. KQED Arts Editor Nastia Voynovskaya brings us this profile of Stone, who became a world-class academic and paved the way for the field of transgender studies.  Cancer Stole Her Voice. Curse Words, Children’s Books and AI Saved It You can hear AI-generated voices when you call into a customer service line, read news articles online, and watch movies. Now some tech companies are starting to use the technology to help people who’ve lost the ability to speak due to ALS or oral cancer.  KQED’s health correspondent April Dembosky has the story of one woman’s journey to find her natural-sounding voice again. Hidden Gems: The Pirate Ship on Big Bear Lake Set in the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake is a popular tourist destination for Southern California families looking for lakeside recreation in the summer. One of the attractions? A pirate ship called the Time Bandit. In this story from our Hidden Gems archives, reporter Amanda Font set sail on this historic vessel.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In California, music and winemaking seem to go together. Visit any of the state’s countless wineries and you can hear all kinds of music, from jazz and folk, to classical and Americana. But one artist on the Central Coast takes that connection especially seriously: he spent years making an album full of sounds from a vineyard. Reporter Benjamin Purper takes us to San Luis Obispo to learn more about a sonic journey through a Central Coast wine harvest. And we'll meet one of California’s most celebrated cheese-makers, Soyoung Scanlan. But years ago, before she’d ever really eaten cheese, Soyoung had another love. Growing up in South Korea, she trained in classical piano. So every cheese she’s made over the last 25 years has a musical name and connection. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visited the cheesemaker in the hills outside Petaluma. We end today with the story of Ron Peterson, a volunteer guide at the Tijuana River Estuary. After losing his sight, Ron now leads a very unique kind of tour. His story comes to us from KPBS in San Diego, as part of their series about volunteers, people who devote their time in unexpected ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet the Woman Reuniting Eaton Fire Survivors With Lost Treasures The fierce Santa Ana winds that whipped the Palisades and Eaton fires into deadly infernos also spared precious things you’d think would have been the first to burn: old family photos, children’s art work, postcards, even pages of old sheet music. Those things sometimes blew across neighborhoods, and people are still finding them as fire cleanup continues. Reporter Steven Cuevas introduces us to an Altadena resident who has made it her mission to return these fragile paper keepsakes to their owners. Home on the Grange: In Anderson Valley, Hippies, Old-Timers Return to Farming Roots Grange halls have been around for more than 150 years, and today there are more than100 of these meeting places in California alone. The Grange began as a fraternal organization for farmers. Even though farming and Grange membership are down to a fraction of what they were decades ago, many rural towns still rely on Grange halls as community centers. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visits the Anderson Valley Grange, where many residents credit this place for bringing together groups of people that were once divided. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1960s and early 1970s, California was at the forefront of movements for racial justice, LGBTQ and women’s rights, and protests against the Vietnam War. But at the same time an anti-tax revolution began to take shape, led by an unlikely political figure: Howard Jarvis. This week, as we mark the 47th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, we’re featuring a special episode from our friends at the Lever Time podcast. Reporter Ariella Markowitz spent some time digging into the rise of the anti-tax movement, and how Howard Jarvis went on to influence decades of political thought here in California and across the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Ford Factory Changed Milpitas, Then It Bacame a Mall  The Great Mall of Milpitas, in Santa Clara County, wasn't always a mall; it used to be a massive Ford auto factory. The San Jose Assembly Plant opened in 1955, after relocating from Ford's outdated Richmond location. The new factory put Milpitas on the map, transforming a sleepy agricultural town into a thriving city. The factory’s opening also sparked historic social change: the construction of one of the first planned racially integrated neighborhoods in the U.S.. Gabriela Glueck brings us this story from KQED’s Bay Curious podcast.  In Song and Self: How Queer Pinay Duo AstraLogik Finds Belonging Through Music Charito Soriano and Chen Conlu were solo artists before they came together as AstraLogik. The queer Filipina duo creates music about healing and acceptance, something they found  as they created a relationship that went beyond performing together. Reporter I-Yun Chan tells us how they found community and belonging through music, and each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sitars and Symphonies: LA Composer Reena Esmail Fuses Indian Ragas with Western Rhythms We continue our California composers series with Reena Esmail. Her childhood in Los Angeles had two soundtracks: the Western classical music her parents loved, and the old, scratchy Bollywood tapes her paternal grandparents would play over and over. Those multicultural influences shaped what would become the driving question of her work: how do you invite people from different cultures onto the same stage to build a relationship and create music together? Composing is how Esmail has made her mark — by putting Western classical musicians in conversation with Indian artists, building bridges between violinists and sitar players, tabla drummers and western singers. She's an artist in residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, has composed with unhoused singers from Skid Row, and her music has been performed by major orchestras and choirs all over the world. How a UC Berkeley Professor Confronts Division With a Vision for Belonging Professor john a. powell spent much of his early life feeling like he didn’t belong. At just 11 years old, he became estranged from his deeply religious family. After questioning church doctrine and not getting the answers he was looking for, powell — who spells his name in lowercase — left the church, and his father did not speak to him for five years. But that pivotal moment was the beginning of the path that led him to his life’s work. powell is the director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, where he’s also a professor of law, African American studies and ethnic studies. He’s the author of two recent books, “Belonging Without Othering,” and “The Power of Bridging.” powell spoke with host Sasha Khokha as part of our series on Californians and resilience.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Rising Voices of  El Cerrito's Young Poets, a Message About Resilience As our series about Californians and resilience continues, we hear from El Cerrito’s poet laureate, Tess Taylor, and students at Harding Elementary School. They wrote about what resilience means to them for a recently published anthology called “Gardening in the Public Flowerfest.” For One Vietnamese Family in LA, This Broth Is Rich With Memories of Life Before and After War  Last month marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Hong Pham was only 6 years old when his family was separated as they fled Vietnam. When they were reunited in a refugee camp in Thailand, they celebrated with a special dish. For our series on resilience, KQED’s Daisy Nguyen visited Pham at his home in South Pasadena where he shared memories of his family’s journey, and the recipe for the dish that gave them hope. How Poetry Helps Dementia Caregivers Find Shelter from the Storm Frances Kakugawa is a firm believer that the act of caring for another human being can inspire poetry. She knows this from experience, having cared for her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the 1990s. She says poetry was a way to take control of her mom’s disease and transform the challenging and sometimes lonely experience of caregiving into something positive. For some 20 years, she’s been helping other caregivers in Sacramento to find resilience through poetry. Reporter Holly J. McDede brings us this story.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Historic Altadena Church, Lost to the Eaton Fire, Begins the Long Journey to Resurrection  The Eaton Fire reached deep into the sanctuaries of Altadena’s faith community. It lost over a dozen places of worship: Baptist, Episcopalian, Jewish, Methodist, Muslim, and Evangelical Christian. There’s a lot of talk now about how and when people can rebuild their homes in Altadena. But how to rebuild a church, mosque or synagogue?  And how do faith leaders keep their congregations together in the meantime? Reporter Steven Cuevas takes us to one of the largest churches in this community.  On Catalina Island, A Resilient Swimmer Finds Freedom in Open Water Our series on resilience continues with ultra-ironman athlete Suzy Degazon. Watching her compete, it's hard to believe she was once so weak her heart had trouble beating. But Degazon battled an eating disorder for many years. It was so severe, doctors told her family she would likely die from it. But she battled back, and these days, she's a scuba instructor on Catalina Island, a dream job in a dream location. Reporter Lusen Mendel caught up with Degazon as she  took a sunrise swim in the ocean. A Scientist’s Fight to Save Catalina Island’s Plant Biodiversity Catalina Island is known for its scenic hiking trails, campsites, beaches and for being a popular tourist destination for cruise ships. But it’s also known for its biodiversity — the island is home to more than 60 different native plants and animals. As plant manager for the Catalina Island Conservancy, Kevin Alison’s job is to care for all the island’s plants, though he has an affinity for the rare ones that are battling invasive species. He spends much of his time in a lab deep inside Catalina’s interior, where he clones plant tissue and propagates them. Reporter Steven Rascón  spent some time with Allison and followed his quest to save as many native plants as possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices