This episode of our “Civic” podcast explores the history of health professionals, city leaders and community advocates in San Francisco working together to improve education and outreach around hepatitis B, including how to reduce transmission and treat chronic infection.
Category: “Civic” Podcast
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Government & Politics, Health, Social Services
Veterans Say VA Staffing Cuts Are Worsening Their Lives
As the Trump administration cuts tens of thousands of federal jobs under the guise of “efficiency,” veterans say the sweeping layoffs and surreptitious push toward privatization are worsening their lives and eroding essential Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare and support programs.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, From the Newsroom, Government & Politics, Media
Audience Trust Essential Amid Attacks on Media, DEI and Democracy, PBS Public Editor Says
The San Francisco Public Press on April 30, 2025, hosted a fireside chat with Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, the public editor at PBS, and Lila LaHood, executive director of the Public Press, about recent attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, and threats to democracy and the media.
Sandoval-Palos and LaHood talked about what might happen if the federal government were to cut funding to PBS and NPR, which receive a portion of their budgets from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The next day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to do just that.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, City Hall, Homelessness, Law & Justice, Public Safety, Social Services
Visible Progress or Political Theater? Factions Disagree on How to Clean Up Street Conditions
In February, the San Francisco Police Department converted a Sixth Street parking lot in South of Market to what it called a triage center — a fenced-off area where police could connect people to social services or put them in a van bound for jail.
According to a city staff report, in the first month of the triage center’s operation, police made 350 arrests, three-quarters of them drug related. Triage personnel connected 275 people to shelter and 408 people to health care.
Advocates for people struggling with homelessness or substance use disorder say the city’s approach is unnecessarily punitive, but some business owners and community members say they approve of what the mayor and Police Department are doing.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Bay Area, California, Immigration
Thousands Across Bay Area Mobilize Against Mass Deportation
Ever since President Donald Trump’s inauguration this year, thousands of residents and officials across the Bay Area have been showing support for municipal and state policies that protect undocumented immigrants.
Communities from San Mateo to Dublin have held protests each week in response to the Trump administration’s promises of mass deportation and threats to cut federal funding to sanctuary cities.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Community, Government & Politics
Revisiting Conversations With Shaken Ukrainian Diaspora in SF
This week marks three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the conflict shows no signs of ending. On the eve of this grim anniversary, Russia launched its largest drone attack yet, causing widespread destruction and civilian casualties. Days later, the U.S. voted against a U.N. resolution calling for Russia’s withdrawal. In this episode of “Civic,” […]
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Government & Politics, Health
San Francisco Tries to Mitigate Harm of Out-of-State Abortion Bans
Anti-abortion groups have initiated increasingly aggressive activities in San Francisco since the fall of Roe v. Wade, with some ignoring protective zones around clinics and even threatening violence.
In response, community groups, nonprofits and local government have stepped up efforts to ensure access to abortions and reproductive health support in San Francisco — both for people who live in the city and for those who travel here seeking help.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Community, Health, LGBTQ+
Hostility Plagues LGBTQ Latin American Immigrants Seeking Addiction Recovery Support
A new San Francisco-based group offers safe space for a stigmatized population struggling with substance use disorder.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Environment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
A Community of Color Contends With the Navy’s Toxic Legacy
In the first of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe traces the soil contamination plaguing a Navy shipyard back to its origins — 20th century nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.
Environmental justice advocates, scholars and military officials describe their experiences battling over land redevelopment, and reckoning with the legacy of a radiation laboratory that sometimes used human subjects.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Environment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Why the Navy Conducted Radiation Experiments on Humans
In the second of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe lays out what we know from scattered documents and a few remaining eyewitnesses about a Cold War research program that pushed ethical boundaries in the name of national defense.
Bowe speaks with veterans who describe their experiences as guinea pigs in field decontamination exercises that yielded little useful data, and talks with colleague Chris Roberts about what the surviving record say about tests involving injection and ingestion of radioactive substances.