Best KQED Science Podcasts (2025)

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California Cuts Tax for Legal Weed, Youth Groups Cry Foul

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1d ago

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State lawmakers say lowering the state cannabis tax is the only way to save the legal market, but youth groups funded by the tax call it a betrayal.By April Dembosky

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California Is Considering Returning Stolen Land. Here's How It Played Out In Germany. 30:02

6d ago30:02

30:02

Located near Hayward in Alameda County, Russell City was once home to mostly Black, Latino and poor white families boxed out of other Bay Area neighborhoods by redlining and the cost of living. But in the 1960s, after the county refused to extend water and sewer service to Russell City, it declared it a “blight,” and used eminent domain laws to bul…

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Oakland Comedian Jackie Keliiaa on Pain, Punchlines, and Her ‘Good Medicine’ 30:02

13d ago30:02

30:02

This week, our series on Californians and resilience continues 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 Follo…

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A New Musical Revisits the Bay Area’s Apocalyptic Orange Sky Day

15d ago

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A new musical, running this month at Z Space in San Francisco, uses hip hop, R&B and soul to ease us back to a day we’d like to forget.By Laura Klivans

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Meet One of the OGs of Tech; The National Landmark 100 Feet Underground 30:05

20d ago30:05

30:05

This week, we’re bringing you an excerpt of the KQED podcast Close All Tabs, which features stories about how digital culture shapes our lives. Their new occasional series, OGs of Tech, looks beyond the billionaires to spotlight the often-overlooked innovators who helped build the digital world we live in today. One of these OGs is Felidoro Cueva, …

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Encore-"Wired For Connection': The Science of Kindness 30:13

27d ago30:13

30:13

This Labor Day weekend, we’re bringing you some of our favorite stories from the California Report Magazine archive. You may have seen these viral stories on your social media feeds: a frightened shelter dog bonding with their foster; a good samaritan helping a street vendor by buying all their merchandise; an artist drawing a portrait of a strange…

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A New Sonoma Facility Wants to Recycle Plastics. Residents Are Pushing Back

29d ago

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Rohnert Park residents worry the new Resynergi plastic recycling facility will degrade air quality and pose safety concerns.By Dana Cronin

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Breathing Poison: You Can’t Outrun Wildfire Smoke

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Five years ago, Alana Semuels fled California for New York, hoping to avoid another toxic wildfire season, but then haze from Canadian fires followed her there.By Lesley McClurg

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A Teenager, a Journalist and a Construction Worker Caught Up in Trump Immigration Crackdown 30:12

1M ago30:12

30:12

The Independent Journalist Covering Immigration Raids In Her Own Community Earlier this summer, 17-year-old Kevin Robles was in his friend's car driving through their neighborhood in Oceanside when he noticed vehicles with tinted windows and nearby, masked men taking someone out of a red car. He started live streaming on Instagram and it went viral…

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Rebuilding a Lost Home, a Beloved Garment, and a Treasured Radio 27:58

1M ago27:58

27:58

How a Pasadena Church is Helping One Senior Through Wildfire Recovery It’s been more than seven months since the Eaton Fire tore across Altadena, just east of Los Angeles. Rebuilding homes and neighborhoods could take years – a daunting timeline, especially for seniors. Local advocates worry that many elders within Altadena’s historic Black communi…

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As Vaccine Hesitancy Rises, UCSF’s Teddy Bear Clinic Takes the Sting Out of Shots

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Doctors empowered kids for a day to act as miniature medics and treat their stuffies at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco — showing shots and check-ups don’t have to be scary.By Lesley McClurg

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How An Unhoused Person Navigates San Francisco Streets; Life With a Partner in Prison 27:57

2M ago27:57

27:57

Recently, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at fundamentally changing how the country addresses homelessness. The order promises to crack down on street homelessness across the country, in part by institutionalizing people with mental illness. Here in California, Governor Gavin Newsom has criticized Trump’s recent order, while at the …

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Therapists Confront Wildfire Trauma; Deadly Scandal in California Wine Country 30:15

2M ago30:15

30:15

It’s been nearly seven months since the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, killing 30 people and hollowing out a once vibrant community. For many survivors, the fire has impacted their mental health, as many try to navigate rebuilding their homes and their lives. Reporter Steven Cuevas lives in Altadena, and he’s been talking to therapists who are f…

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Wildfire Evacuation From Berkeley Hills Could Take Over 4 Hours, Study Finds

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The study highlights the need for residents to have an evacuation plan and to leave early in case of emergency.By Dana Cronin

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From the Barrio to the Bookstore: LA’s Former Poet Laureate on Survival and Storytelling 30:15

2M ago30:15

30:15

Luis Rodriguez credits reading and writing for keeping him resilient his whole life. He’s best known for his 1993 memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., which chronicles how he joined a gang at age 11, found himself homeless and using heroin, and wound up in the juvenile justice system. He went on to write 17 books of poetry, ficti…

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The Legacy of a WNBA Trailblazer; Community Care in the Castro 30:15

2M ago30:15

30:15

In May, the Golden State Valkyries kicked off their inaugural season. Even though they just started playing games in front of Bay Area fans, the team is said to be valued at $500 million dollars, the most of any franchise in the WNBA. And the team just had their first player named to the All-Star team: Forward Kayla Thornton was named as a reserve.…

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"The Network" from NPR's Embedded 42:06

2M ago42:06

42:06

New from NPR's Embedded: Hosts Victoria Estrada and Marta Martinez travel across Latin America and within the U.S. to understand how women in Brazil discovered one of the medications that's used for self-managed abortions, the spread of this method across the world, and how this approach is shaping the future of abortion in the U.S. Learn more abou…

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Tokimonsta’s ‘Eternal Reverie’; Oakland's 100-Year-Old Produce Market 32:43

3M ago32:43

32:43

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 bring…

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Keeping Baseball Players' Minds In Shape; Battle Over Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs 30:07

3M ago30:07

30:07

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 corresponde…

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She Survived Transphobic Backlash and Made History; How AI Saved One Woman's Voice 30:07

3M ago30:07

30:07

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. …

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Encore: How These Wine and Cheesemakers Fold Music Into Their Recipes 30:07

3M ago30:07

30:07

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 Pur…

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Altadena's Lost Treasures Returned; Gathering at the Grange 30:06

3M ago30:06

30:06

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 n…

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How the Impact of Proposition 13 Lives On Nearly 50 Years After It Passed 30:07

4M ago30:07

30:07

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 1…

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How a Ford Plant Changed Milpitas; AstraLogik's Music For Healing 30:08

4M ago30:08

30:08

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 to…

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Composer Reena Esmail's Multicultural Music; The Professor Confronting Division With a Vision for Belonging 30:07

4M ago30:07

30:07

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 multic…

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The Poetry of Resilience 30:05

4M ago30:05

30:05

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 Flowerf…

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An Altadena Church Fights to Rebuild; Stories From Catalina Island 30:09

5M ago30:09

30:09

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 rebu…

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Uncuffed: Where Were You in '92? 30:23

5M ago30:23

30:23

This week marks 33 years since four police officers were acquitted in the brutal beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. That verdict exploded into days of rioting and unrest across the city. It also ignited a national conversation about police brutality, as well as race and inequality in the criminal justice system. This week we're featuring an epi…

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The Activist History of Japanese American Care Homes; Singing Corridos in Compton; SF Hosts Trans Self-Defense Class 30:22

5M ago30:22

30:22

J-Sei Home Closes After 30 Years, Leaving Bay Area Japanese Seniors in Need The 1960s and 70s were a pivotal time for community activism – with the civil rights and anti-war movements, the Black Panther Party, and student protests that established ethnic studies programs on college campuses. That activism led to a decades-old critical lifeline for …