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
Jonrón! Los Gigantes on the air
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Los Gigantes broadcast booth, Credit: Julie Caine
One of the joys of baseball is listening to games on the radio. There’s the sound of the crowd, the crack of the bat, the 7th inning stretch … all ...

  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 10:08
Sheriff Blotter Prose
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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The Point Reyes Light, a weekly newspaper in West Marin, is known for a lot of things. It won a Pulitzer Prize, it’s done muckraking reporting on a...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 05, 2015
  • Length: 05:17
  • Purchases: 1
Life after the fire
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: The destroyed building, alongside new condos, Credit: Hannah Kingsley-Ma
On January 28th, a fire consumed a mixed-use apartment building on 22nd and Mission. The conflagration destroyed more than 30 local businesses, and...

  • Added: Jun 05, 2015
  • Length: 07:55
Robots: a hands-on approach to STEM education
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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California eighth graders are ranked 45th in the country in math, according to the most recent scores on the National Assessment of Educational Pro...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and Radio Newark


  • Added: Jun 05, 2015
  • Length: 07:05
  • Purchases: 2
Live from the Tenderloin
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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In the heart of the Tenderloin, amid the crowded corners and occupied stoops, there’s an anomaly that’ll catch your eye. It’s a man in a suit and a...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 05, 2015
  • Length: 07:15
  • Purchases: 1
Punjabi-Mexicans in California: A story told through dance
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Duniya Dance and Drum Company practicing using the saap -- a traditional tool used in the Punjabi dance known as Bhangra., Credit: Sandhya Dirks
California has long been a land of possibility. From the Gold Rush to the promise of fertile farmland, people from all over the world have flocked ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 05, 2015
  • Length: 06:52
  • Purchases: 1
You're being watched: Surveillance in Oakland
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: A heat map from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's study of ALPR hotspots in Oakland
Surveillance and privacy issues have been in the news a lot in the past few years. Perhaps the biggest news was made by by Edward Snowden, who leak...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 09:27
  • Purchases: 1
Everybody disagrees on how to solve San Francisco’s affordable housing crisis
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: San Francisco's housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable. Micah Weinberg, of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, says that over the past seven years, "we have built less than half of the housing in this region that the state estimates we need., Credit: flickr user Jeremy Brooks
In one of America's most expensive cities, there's a fringe political party whose name sums up their concerns: The Rent is Too Damn High. That city...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 06:27
  • Purchases: 1
In a warmer world, researchers say climate change is intensifying California's water crisis
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Aerial view of Calaveras Dam Replacement Project, Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_hintsa/
Twice a week, the Heart of the City Farmers Market transforms San Francisco’s gritty United Nations Plaza with dozens of white canopies and trucklo...

  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 06:07
Strapped for housing, San Francisco weighs creative responses to homelessness
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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There are at least 7,000 homeless people in San Francisco each night, and only enough shelter space to house a small fraction of them. This is one ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 06:37
  • Purchases: 1
The tipless restaurant movement
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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Alyssa Arian has worked in San Francisco restaurants for a decade and, like most servers, she got into it for the tips. “Some nights you leave wit...

  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 09:06
How much will it take to change fraternity culture?
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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Here in the Bay Area, fraternities based at UC Berkeley have had their share of problems. According to the University of California Police Departme...

  • Added: Apr 22, 2015
  • Length: 07:10
Green Jobs 2.0: The new green economy
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
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Remember in 2008 when the terms green economy and green collar jobs were big buzz words? You probably know the basic idea: if we’re going to curb t...

  • Added: Apr 22, 2015
  • Length: 06:02
The tangled tale of Haight Street
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Piece image
Many people still think of San Francisco’s most famous intersection -- Haight-Ashbury -- as the epicenter of the hippie movement of the mid-1960s. ...

  • Added: Apr 22, 2015
  • Length: 07:46
A trip to the San Pablo Reservoir
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: San Pablo Reservoir, Credit: Todd Whitney
Turning on your faucet may be easy, but the process of getting you that water is anything but. Water has a long journey to get to your tap, often s...

  • Added: Apr 22, 2015
  • Length: 04:03
Living wage fight explodes in East Oakland
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: The proposed site for the new development
If you want to hire a worker in Oakland, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more these days. At the beginning of the month, Measure FF, overw...

  • Added: Apr 21, 2015
  • Length: 06:30
What's it going to take to get out of the drought?
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: California is entering its fourth year of drought – and it’s really starting to show in some of the state’s most vital water resources. The Central Valley Project, which supplies water for about a third of California’s farmland, recently announced it had , Credit: Under CC license from Flickr user Janet Ciucci
California is entering its fourth year of drought – and it’s really starting to show in some of the state’s most vital water resources. The Central...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Apr 21, 2015
  • Length: 03:57
  • Purchases: 1
Upgrading San Francisco's aging pipes in times of drought
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: San Francisco's Stockton tunnel is shut down due to a water main break in March of 2014., Credit: Flickr user toyzrus8
The Hetch Hetchy Regional Water system, operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC), carries water to 2.6 million customers in ...

  • Added: Apr 21, 2015
  • Length: 04:57
Real talk about race: W. Kamau Bell and the Elmwood Café
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Comedian W. Kamau Bell performing his stand up act, Credit: flickr user Florida International University
In the auditorium of Willard Middle School, about 300 people have gathered, many of them sitting on those rickety school bucket chairs, the ones th...

Bought by WJCT and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 21, 2015
  • Length: 09:31
  • Purchases: 2
Oree Originol: An artist honors black and brown lives
From: KALW
Series: Crosscurrents
Caption: Artist OREE ORIGINOL's artwork on display on the corner of 24th and Byrant in the Mission., Credit: Todd Whitney
If you have walked the streets of the Bay Area recently -- you might have seen posters featuring the names and faces of Oscar Grant, Renisha McBrid...

  • Added: Mar 24, 2015
  • Length: 06:00