Crosscurrents

Series produced by KALW

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Context, culture and connection from around the Bay Area.

KALW's Crosscurrents is the Bay Area's public radio news magazine. Winner of three awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and voted "Best Local News Program" by SF Weekly, Crosscurrents brings you context, culture and connection from around the Bay Area.


356 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Can a class teach San Francisco police officers to defuse a crisis?
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Sergeant Kelly Kruger surrounded by files of cases, Credit: Holly J. McDede
Street protests and town hall meetings swiftly followed the shooting death by police last week of 26-year-old Mario Woods in San Francisco’s Bayvi...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio, KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, and WABE


  • Added: Jan 15, 2016
  • Length: 09:34
  • Purchases: 3
A San Francisco high school’s LGBTQ studies class makes history
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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This year, teens at San Francisco Unified School District’s School of the Arts walked into a brand-new kind of class: the district’s first-ever LGB...

Bought by WABE and WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Jan 15, 2016
  • Length: 07:06
  • Purchases: 2
Periods are a monthly crisis for homeless women
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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Being homeless means it's a daily challenge to get your basic needs met: eating, bathing and using the bathroom. For many women, one extra challeng...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 06:29
  • Purchases: 1
Neon soapbox: The politics of Oakland's Grand Lake Theater marquee
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Following the Supreme Court decision to stop the vote count in Florida, during the 2000 presidential election, theater owner, Allen Michaan, began posting messages on the marquee.
Just northeast of Lake Merritt, across the 580 freeway, you really can’t miss it. It's big, it's public, it often contains inflammatory messages, a...

Bought by WABE


  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 04:36
  • Purchases: 1
The poetic wonder of the horoscope
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Jessica Lanyadoo is known for her laid back fortune teller vibes
Chances are that at some point in your life you’ve been asked, “What’s your sign?” That phrase is both a terrible pickup line and proof that astro...

  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 07:29
Butter the popcorn, park the car, and head back in time at the buzzing Concord drive-in
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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Nowadays, all young lovebirds need to get the romance flowing is a Netflix account and a bag of Microwave popcorn. Back in the 1950's and 60's, dat...

  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 07:47
Making sense of California’s family leave policies
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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California’s Family Leave Act is a step ahead of the U.S. as a whole, in giving all parents the right to some time off, but it’s complicated. What ...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 11:05
  • Purchases: 1
Competitive South Bay real estate market pits international Chinese buyers against locals
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Lin-Lin Tsou-Otani, a real estate agent at DeLeon Realty., Credit: Liz Mak
Many wealthy Chinese people have found a safe investment for their money actually lies in the U.S. – specifically, in American real estate. Accordi...

  • Added: Nov 02, 2015
  • Length: 06:35
The Tenderloin’s sanctuary of song
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Piece image
Rebecca Roudman and Jason Eckl, members of the band Dirty Cello, are doing a sound check in the middle of the day, in an unconventional location: t...

  • Added: Oct 05, 2015
  • Length: 05:46
If the Warriors build it, will the fans, the victories, and the passion come too?
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Golden State Warriors fans paraded through Oakland following victory, Credit: AMIR AZIZ FROM FLIKR CREATIVE COMMONS
When the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship back in June, fans across the Bay Area exploded with pure, rapturous joy. For Oakland resid...

  • Added: Oct 05, 2015
  • Length: 07:22
Not your mother's Moby Dick: How one bookstore is putting an unexpected twist on the classics
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: The assembled writers and creators behind Shipwreck, Credit: ALAN LEGGITT
When I first started working at The Booksmith, the local independent bookstore a couple blocks from my apartment, it was a lot like what I expected...

  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 07:20
How a tiny shipping container community is causing a big fuss in Oakland
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Luke Iseman puts together raised bed garden containers, Credit: Chris Hambrick
Here in the Bay Area, rents are rising, and housing inventory is shrinking. It’s forcing many here to decide -- either you have to leave the area c...

Bought by WABE


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 07:42
  • Purchases: 1
The fight to bring back Geography education
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Geography Bee at Mission Hills Middle School, Credit: HANA BABA
Americans are often stereotyped as not knowing much about the rest of the world. But, according to the numbers, it’s more than a mere stereotype. ...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 09:00
  • Purchases: 2
The truth about pit bulls
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Tanner, a pit bull rescued from a dogfighting operation, is now rehabilitated and has found a home, Credit: LOUISE CODD
Pit bulls are the most bred dog in America. They are the most common in shelters, and they are the most euthanized as well. There are organizations...

  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 07:29
The contested sainthood of Junípero Serra
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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It’s not every day that a local person becomes a saint, but on September 23rd, more than two hundred years after he died, Junípero Serra will be ca...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 05:49
  • Purchases: 1
Teens putting down phones and picking up dice
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Piece image
Eli Mcamis is 14 years old. He and five other young teens sit around a table, each rolling dice and flipping through game manuals — thick binders, ...

  • Added: Sep 18, 2015
  • Length: 09:03
The hidden afterlife of a sperm whale skeleton
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: A dead sperm whale in Pacifica's Mori Point, Credit: Hannah Kingsley-Ma
Back in April, a 48 foot-long sperm whale was found on a beach in Pacifica called Mori Point. A lot of people had gathered around the whale to bear...

Bought by KVSC


  • Added: Sep 18, 2015
  • Length: 08:29
  • Purchases: 1
How to stake your place in line for California’s precious water
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Water trough at Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, California, near the California Delta., Credit: Audrey Dilling
In the summer of 1901, San Francisco’s mayor, James D. Phelan, hiked up to an oak tree near the north bank of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite’s Hetc...

  • Added: Sep 18, 2015
  • Length: 14:02
What the health of whales and porpoises can tell us about the health of our bay and ocean
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Jon Stern out on his boat underneath the Golden Gate Bridge
Marine biologist Jon Stern studies cetaceans: porpoises, dolphins and whales. Stern is a professor at San Francisco State and also leads field stud...

  • Added: Sep 18, 2015
  • Length: 08:14
The real history behind Mary Ellen Pleasant, San Francisco's Voodoo Queen
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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In the mid 1800’s, boomtown-San Francisco was a city of men, only about 15 percent women. Slavery was illegal in the West but still-- white men wer...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Sep 18, 2015
  • Length: 10:30
  • Purchases: 1