Shows / Crosscurrents
Crosscurrents
Crosscurrents is KALW Public Radio's award-winning news magazine, broadcasting in the Bay Area Mondays through Thursdays on 91.7 FM. We make joyful, informative stories that engage people across the economic, social, and cultural divides in our community.
Episodes
- Crosscurrents
MUSIC NOTES from the Edge of America's 250th: Leyla McCalla
Making your voice heard, and creating change, are fundamental to our democracy. But sometimes, when we see that democracy being threatened, it can make us…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Weathering Change in Harm Reduction Policy
San Francisco’s Mayor Daniel Lurie has made changes to the city’s harm reduction policy. And not everyone supports them. Today, how the new policy is impacting…
- Crosscurrents
Harm reduction in a season of change
For more than 25 years, the City of San Francisco has used an approach called “harm reduction” to help people struggling with substance abuse. It’s common in…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: Black Family Reunion 2026 in San Francisco
A treasured Black arts and culture space, in the Fillmore-Western Addition neighborhood, is closing for a few years. The African American Art & Culture Complex…
- Crosscurrents
Bay Poets: "Xochipilli" by poet Flavia Elisa Mora
Now for some poetry that celebrates queer brown love. Here is San Francisco poet Flavia Elisa Mora reading her piece “Xochipilli.”
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Sleeping at SFO
The Public Media Journalists Association, or PMJA, just announced their 2026 winners and KALW is proud to have taken three awards, so today we bring the second…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Rewriting The Story
Today, a tenant who is about to be evicted commemorates their apartment that hosted 35 years of performance. Then, a classic Dracula story gets revamped. Plus…
- Crosscurrents
The Sights And Sounds Show: 'Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really'
It’s been nearly 130 years since Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” was published. Over time, artists have reimagined the blood-thirsty monster in many ways. Now…
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Bay Area Choreographer Dances Through Eviction
A dancer is evicted from a San Francisco home with deep roots in their experimental dance community.
- Crosscurrents
Queer Power Hour: Introducing 'Revisiting The Gay Life'
Revisiting The Gay Life is a new 12-episode series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Rooting for Your Home Team!
It’s World Cup fever! So today, we go on a little Bay Area tour of how Jordanian and Algerian fans are getting hyped for their big match.
- Crosscurrents
Bay Area Jordanian community celebrates Jordan's first time at the World Cup
The Jordanian national soccer team is playing in the World Cup for the first time in history. The Bay Area Jordanian American community is a tightly knit…
- Crosscurrents
Mazra serves the Jordanian flavors of home
"Nashama" is the nickname of the Jordanian national soccer team. It's a word for a group of people who are chivalrous and brave...but it also relates to being…
- Crosscurrents
The Berkeley shop that brings Algeria to the Bay
Ahead of the Jordan-Algeria World Cup match, KALW's Hana Baba headed over to a favorite community store—South Berkeley Meat and Produce. People visit from all…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Preserving Musical Heritage in Times of War and Unrest
How far would you go to get your hands on a cassette tape? Today, we meet two music archivers from Oakland. First an Afghan man’s odyssey to preserve his…
- Crosscurrents
“It’s resistance" — The Afghan Cassette Archive and ephemera under threat
The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, after the hasty conclusion to a 20 year U.S. occupation. Since then, music has been officially banned in the…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Reflections and Recipes
Today, how the political fight over college access is impacting Bay Area students. Then, we bring you readings on grief, intimacy and rest from Black Women…
- Crosscurrents
Political fight over federal college access programs has big local impact
With graduation season wrapping up, many teenagers around the Bay Area are celebrating the end of high school and are making plans to begin college. But in…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: 'When We Exhale: An Anthology of Black Women Rooted in Ancestral Medicine'
“When We Exhale” is a new anthology collection of poetry, essays, and other writings, where Black women reflect on rest, grief, intimacy, cultural memory and…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: It’s Summertime in the City!
One San Francisco band has been going strong for 144 seasons. Today, we’re hitting the high notes with the Golden Gate Park Band’s music director. Then, the…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: Golden Gate Park Band's Summer Season
If you go out to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on any given Sunday from April to September… and you wander over to the concourse between the California…
- Crosscurrents
When a San Francisco corpse flower blooms — what happens next?
Over the weekend, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers announced that their corpse flower, named 'Scarlet,' would be blooming in the next 7 to 14 days. It’s…
- Crosscurrents
Dragon boat racing in the Bay Area
As the Bay Area summer heats up, more people are spending time by the water, and sometimes you might catch the rhythmic and competitive sounds of Dragon Boat…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Chapter 510 Turns The Big 10
For a decade, an Oakland center has been helping local young people discover the joy of writing. Today, we hear about their new anthology of works by 4th…
- Crosscurrents
Foundering: The Killing of Bob Lee
In April 2023, tech executive Bob Lee was found near San Francisco’s Embarcadero with severe stab wounds. He later died from these injuries. Shortly after his…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: Chapter 510 Empowers Young Oakland Writers
KALW’s Jeneé Darden who grew up in East Oakland in the ‘80s and ‘90s… and her little kid self would’ve loved a place like Chapter 510. The youth writing center…
- Crosscurrents
Bay Poets: 'It is I, the Immigrant' by Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo
Here is Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo reading her poem “It is I, the immigrant.”
- Crosscurrents
A Special Send Off to KALW's Graduating Audio Academy Class
Today, we speak with one of the lawyers that exposed a culture of corruption and racism in Oakland’s Police department. Then, for the past year, our Audio…
- Crosscurrents
Lawyer who led long fight to reform OPD says department has been transformed
Oakland’s Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003. The oversight began after a civil rights lawsuit was filed on behalf of 119 residents…
- Crosscurrents
A tribute to our 2026 Audio Academy graduates!
Every September, KALW welcomes a new cohort of eight fellows to our Audio Academy training program that’s now in its thirteenth year. Over a span of 9 months…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Police Reform, and Street Poetry
After more than two decades, Oakland’s Police Department is on track to be released from federal oversight. Today, the future of Oakland’s PD. Then, the Flor Y…
- Crosscurrents
OPD poised to emerge from 23 years of federal oversight
Oakland’s Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003, but this year that will be coming to an end. The oversight began after a civil rights…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: Flor Y Canto Literary Festival Returns to the Mission
Flor Y Canto, translates to “flower and song.” This weekend San Francisco’s Mission District will be home again to the weekend-long literary festival known as…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Seeking Refuge in Black Horror and AfroFuturism
Today, an East Bay author channels the monsters of injustice into a new horror novel. Then, one bookstore owner is helping people connect and envision brighter…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: 'The Curse of Hester Gardens' horror novel
In the novel, “The Curse of Hester Gardens” a Black mother lives in a Michigan housing project with her teen sons. She’s raising them alone while her husband…
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From horror to healing for Afro-futures
Black horror can be informed by past trauma and that sometimes gives us glimpses of the future. In Octavia Butler’s classic 1993 book “Parable of the Sower,”…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: BAVC Turns Fifty! And, National Immigration Heritage Month
The Bay Area Video Coalition has had a big impact on local media for half a century. Now it looks to the future. Then, the story of a Liberian immigrant’s…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: Bay Area Video Coalition's 50th anniversary
If you’ve made media art in the Bay Area sometime in the last fifty years… you probably know the Bay Area Video Coalition: BAVC. Around 2,500 students and…
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Dancing in and escaping from wartime Liberia
June is National Immigrant Heritage Month. And that brings us to another legacy Bay Area arts institution was founded by immigrants from west Africa: Diamano…
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Bay Poets: 'Another Time' by poet Daisy Zamora
Immigrant artists have a big impact on their adopted countries, but many also leave a legacy in their countries of origin. Daisy Zamora has been a foundational…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: San Francisco's Legacy of Queer Community Care
Today, we explore a series that captures San Francisco at the height of the AIDS epidemic. It's a conversation with the host of “When We All Get To Heaven.”…
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How San Francisco's first gay-positive church weathered the AIDs crisis
Pride Month is a time to celebrate accomplishments of LGBTQ+ individuals, and commemorate the ongoing fight for the whole community to gain equality and…
- Crosscurrents
BOUNCE Ep. 3: Rikki's - The Bay Area's First Women's Sports Bar
In June 2025, San Francisco welcomed its first women's sports bar: Rikki’s! In honor of Rikki’s first anniversary, here’s the story of how it came to be, from…
- Crosscurrents
Bay Poets: 'everyday I become egg' by poet Lorenz Mazon Dumuk
Now, a poem about becoming ourselves, with the help of our chosen family. This is San Jose Poet, Lorenz Mazon Dumuk reading his poem, “Everyday I become an…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Celebrating Caribbean Heritage Month
Today, we take dancing to a deeper level with Afro-Cuban folklore. Experiencing dance as spiritual practice. And, we head over to Oakland's first Haitian…
- Crosscurrents
Oxtails and black beans- telling the Haitian story through food in Oakland
June is Caribbean Heritage Month. And The Bay Area is home to a vibrant Caribbean American community, including thousands of Haitians. Crosscurrents host, Hana…
- Crosscurrents
Afro-Cuban movement with meaning
You can experience Caribbean culture in the Bay Area though delicious food. And also through rhythm and dance. Next a dance form that’s deeply connected to the…
- Crosscurrents
Bay Poets: 'Bones talk out the side of their neck' by poet Nia Pearl
Here’s Nia Pearl reading her poem ‘Bones talk out of the side of their neck. You can hear more from local poets here.
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Queer Surfers, and First Time Voters
It’s California’s primary election day. Today, we hear how first time voting can be daunting... and depending on where you are, a potentially baffling…
- Crosscurrents
TBH: New Voters
Figuring out where and how to cast a ballot can be difficult to navigate, especially when we are leading busier lives and also investing time to make informed…
- Crosscurrents
Queer Surf: From the bars to the beach
Two Bay Area surfers are opening up the possibilities at the shoreline. Kyla Langen and Nic Brisebois are the founders of the Queer Surf Collective. They…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Nurturing Belonging, Progress, and Pride
Today, one school program in San Francisco is connecting ethnic studies and environmental science, to nurturing belonging. Then, an immersive play that brings…
- Crosscurrents
Combining ethnic studies with outdoor ed to foster connection, inside and out
The Bay Area is known for its beautiful natural places and for being the birthplace of many social movements. One school program has found common ground…
- Crosscurrents
Sights + Sounds: 'The Compton's Cafeteria Riot' immersive play
Late on a summer night in 1966, a cop put his hands on a customer at a popular gathering space for trans women and drag queens. Coffee was thrown in his face…
- Crosscurrents
Oldest San Francisco: Pride Flag
San Francisco laid many of the bricks that built the road to LGBTQ+ liberation, equality, and Pride. One of them takes the shape of a piece of fabric, that’s…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Cultural Explorations and Tributes
Today, we’ll hear how Bay Area listening bars have their roots in World War II Japanese culture. Finding a space just for music. Then, we’ll unpack the…
- Crosscurrents
Listening bars challenge us to sit down, shut up, and tune in
A different kind of bar scene has grown across the Bay Area since the pandemic: listening bars. Derived from a tradition that took off in 1930s Tokyo, they're…
- Crosscurrents
Worst Quality Crab podcast: Bonnie Tsui
This is our last episode airing during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so today we bring you a conversation from our friends at the podcast…
- Crosscurrents
Bay Poets: 'Mission Vision' by poet Alejandro Murguía
San Francisco’s first Latino poet laureate, Alejandro Murguia published his poem ‘Mission Vision,’ in 2013. Here is Bay Poets host Josiah Luis Alderete…
- Crosscurrents
SHOW: Envisioning, Writing, and Taxing Bay Area Futures
Today, we hear advocates defend their cases for San Francisco’s competing tax propositions. We’re getting into San Francisco props C and D. Then, we hear from…