The California Report Magazine

After a momentous election this week, Californians are trying to make sense of what a second Trump presidency could mean for the Golden State. Governor Gavin Newsom and other Democratic Party leaders are fighting to protect the state’s progressive values on immigration, climate change and reproductive rights ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Host Sasha Khokha spoke with KQED’s political correspondent Marisa Lagos to discuss California’s future in a second Trump term. Plus, in times of monumental political change, artists can sometimes help us make sense of the world, express big feelings and connect to one another. Oakland’s Kev Choice’s boundary-breaking work is doing just that. Choice is a classically trained pianist and accomplished hip-hop artist who has worked for decades to bridge the gap between those two distinct worlds. His diverse body of work includes songs about Oakland, racial injustice, activism and politics. KQED Arts and Culture editor Nastia Voynovskaya spent time with Choice to discuss his musical evolution, and his impact on the future of music in Oakland and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Latinos make up the second largest voting group in the upcoming 2024 election, totaling 32 million eligible voters nationwide. But Latinos are not a monolith, and both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been courting Latino voters on the campaign trail. Andrés Cediel is a filmmaker and a journalism professor at UC Berkeley. He’s also a producer of VOCES: Latino Vote 2024, a new PBS documentary project that explores the vast interests and priorities of Latino voters across the country. The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha spoke with Cediel about how California’s Latino voters could tip the balance. And a new documentary film takes a peek behind the curtain of a San Francisco opera about Black and Latina women during the California Gold Rush. In conversation with The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha, the film’s director, John Else shares the true story of a mob-fueled lynching of a Mexican-American woman, and the lessons for our current political moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six-year-old Sumaya Kaur Sidibe beamed with pride when she watched Kamala Harris become Vice President in 2021. She identified with Harris in a big way: she is also mixed race – Indian and Black – and she’s from Oakland. We produced a story about the family preparing for Kamala Harris to take office back in 2021. But four years later, Sumaya has complicated feelings about the vice president’s politics and the way she talks about her own biracial identity. Host Sasha Khokha checks back in with the Sidibe-Singh family about how they are feeling about this upcoming presidential election, and the questions they have for Kamala Harris. And Incarcerated people can’t vote in this upcoming election, but their lives may be directly impacted by the results. Our friends at KALW’s Uncuffed podcast bring you a conversation between currently and formerly incarcerated journalists at San Quentin: Ryan Pagan, Will Harris, Anthony Gomez and Thanh Tran. They discuss statewide ballot measures propositions 6 and 36. If passed, Proposition 6 would end involuntary servitude in prison, and Proposition 36 would increase penalties for certain theft and drug crimes.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California has grand plans to turn a stretch of abandoned railroad tracks into 300 miles of walking and biking trails, connecting the rolling hills of Marin County with the redwood forests near Eureka in Northern Humboldt. If completed, the Great Redwood Trail could become the longest rail-trail in the nation. But some Indigenous communities and other groups are not on board. Reporter Sam Anderson explores how this grand idea has resurfaced the painful and complicated history behind the original railroad tracks that were built more than a century ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moonlight Pulido is a mother and a caretaker for her own mom in Los Angeles. But she couldn’t have more children after a prison doctor gave her an involuntary hysterectomy while she was incarcerated in 2005. She’s one of hundreds of living survivors of state-sponsored sterilization.   Here in California, more than 20,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in state prisons, homes and hospitals under eugenics laws. People classified as “unfit to reproduce” were disproportionately poor women, people of color, and people with disabilities. Even though California’s  eugenics laws were repealed in 1979, people who were incarcerated were still forcibly sterilized as recently as 2013. In 2021, the state passed a historic reparations law to make amends for this shameful chapter in our history. For more than a year, reporter Cayla Mihalovich has been investigating how the law has been implemented. It was intended to compensate survivors for their suffering. But roughly 75% of applicants have been denied reparations. Plus. our friends at KPBS in San Diego have a new series highlighting volunteers who devote their time in unique and unexpected ways. Today, we meet Jillian Shea at the Mesa Rim Climbing Center. She’s an athlete who lost a hand at birth. Now she’s introducing newcomers to the sport of adaptive climbing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices