Reported California stories, told one place at a time.
Produced at KQED, this weekly magazine program builds each episode from reported California stories: a produce market in the early morning, a post office window that serves people without an address, tribal communities reclaiming ancestral land and water. Correspondents do the legwork, and the narration ties one small place to a larger state-wide question.
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The California Report Magazine is a weekly program from KQED that treats the state as a place worth reporting from the ground up. It does not lead with a thesis. It leads with a scene. Listeners arrive inside the Oakland Grill at eight in the morning, where a restaurant has stood in a produce market since 1970 and vendors talk about metal doors coming down and developers who never quite managed to move them. They stand in the Tenderloin on a Tuesday afternoon, in a line outside a service window that looks like a fast-food pickup counter but is actually the general delivery unit of the post office, where a man named Gary waits on a replacement driver's license because he has no address of his own. They walk a property where mushrooms of every size and color cover a table, salmon cooks nearby, and a girl who says she hates mushrooms forages anyway so she can show her class what grows around there. From each of these openings the program expands. The produce market becomes a story about rezoning, condos and the long argument over what a waterfront neighborhood is for. The general delivery window becomes a decade-long lifeline for people who are unhoused. The gathering becomes a story about Indigenous communities reclaiming ancestral lands and waters. A recurring KQED series on affordability threads through the show, following the pressure of housing, food, utilities and gas, and the calculation people make about whether staying is still possible. For some, as one segment makes plain, remaining in California is not about preference at all but about safety. The show also makes room for portraits. An Oakland comedian recounts watching open mics for nearly two years before finding the nerve to perform, and describes crowd energy as something to lean into rather than fear. Coverage of Altadena after the Eaton Fire includes a local radio host still asking hard questions in his second year on the story, and reporters who say plainly that the line between journalist and neighbour blurs when you know more than two hundred families who lost everything. Hosting duties rotate, and the closing credits read out the producers, engineer and intern behind each episode, which suits a program whose voice comes from its editing as much as from any single presenter. The tone stays warm without tipping into sentiment. Interviewees are given room to finish their thoughts, then framed rather than argued with. It is public radio storytelling that trusts detail and accumulated observation, and it ends most stories by folding a local particular back into something civic or historical.
Made for: Listeners who want long-form public radio storytelling about California and prefer reported scenes with real voices over pundit commentary. It suits anyone interested in housing and affordability, Indigenous land and water issues, wildfire recovery, and the working life of the state's neighbourhoods and markets.
What sets it apart: Rather than interviewing newsmakers about the day's headlines, it sends correspondents into markets, post office lines, forage gatherings and fire-scarred neighbourhoods, then lets those recordings carry the argument. The rotating hosts and named production credits give it the feel of a magazine assembled by a newsroom rather than a program built around one personality.
Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes California's public life tangible through intimate reporting on recovery, culture, creativity, land, and the people carrying each story.
The California Report Magazine turns statewide reporting into close, human-scale encounters. Sasha Koka moves between interviews and reported features, following Californians through wildfire recovery, artistic work, cultural memory, and questions of land and belonging.
A mushroom hunt leads to mushroom Alfredo, and your idea of a state report starts widening.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded, human-scale look at the workers and infrastructure behind California's everyday food supply.
Food gets to a grocery shelf through early starts, local institutions, and labor that usually sits out of view. Lisa Morehouse follows Doug Maeda to Oakland's produce market at 3 a.m., where bulk buyers, vendors, and boxes of produce move through a waterfront shaped by zoning…
A focused look at how waiting, grief, and courage brought Jackie Kali'i'a'a to the stage.
Jackie Kali'i'a'a comes across as someone whose path into stand-up was shaped as much by waiting as by nerve. She spent nearly two years watching comedy before stepping onstage, and the moment arrived in the shadow of her mother's death.
A mushroom hunt gives land reclamation a vivid, communal shape near Fort Bragg.
A mushroom hunt near Fort Bragg makes a land-back milestone feel concrete. Locals gather on ancestral property recently bought back by the Potter Valley Band of the Pomo Indians, with federal USDA dollars noted as part of the purchase.
A grounded look at how Black local media stays present after disaster.
After the Eaton fire tore through Altadena, this episode stays close to the people doing the slower work of recovery: local reporters listening, checking in, and keeping vital information moving through the community.
A grounded look at rebuilding after fire in the Palisades, with architecture as both shelter and statement.
California's early spring signs frame a larger question here: what does regrowth look like after fire? The California Report Magazine moves from lush hills and blooming plants to the Palisades rebuild, where the Alphabet Streets lost over a thousand houses.
A brisk California ballot fight leads into a resonant story of Armenian memory carried through the duduk.
The episode starts with Prop 50, California's Election Rigging Response Act, and Governor Gavin Newsom's push for a measure meant to create more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in answer to Texas redistricting plans favoring Republicans.
Wildfire recovery and music-making share a California episode attentive to lives being rebuilt.
California comes through in this episode as a place measured by what remains: an Altadena child's shock after the Eaton fire, and Kishi Bashi trying musical ideas on his phone before working them into songs.
This episode of The California Report Magazine covers three distinct California stories.
This episode of The California Report Magazine features three stories about Californians navigating change through music and community.
This episode of 'Buzzkill' investigates the critical role of honeybees in almond pollination and the challenges facing commercial beekeeping.
César Quihano trains for the San Diego 100-mile race while rebuilding his life after prison and heroin addiction.
The California Report magazine follows Lisa Morehouse through Oakland's produce market at 3 a.m., where Doug Maeda shops for a small grocery store by judging pineapples, Cara Cara oranges, and grapes packed almost three months earlier.
The California Report Magazine revisits Oakland comedian Jackie Kali'i'a'a, who describes being Native Hawaiian, Washoe, Paiute, Portuguese, and Italian while people in Hayward kept misidentifying her as Asian, Latina, Japanese, or Mexican.
Vanessa Rancagno, filling in for Sasha Koka, opens California Report magazine at a mushroom hunt on 48 acres near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County.
This episode explores how Californians are creatively managing the high cost of living, featuring Liam Chavez's story of finding safety and belonging in the Bay Area as an LGBTQ individual.
A look at San Francisco's General Delivery post office, a lifeline for unhoused people to receive mail without a permanent address.
Altadena Rising on KBLA helped Jarvis Emerson rebuild after the Eaton Fire in six months.
In Altadena, Claire Robinson, Wynne Wilson, and Lori Scott are trying to restore what the Eaton Fire burned by rehydrating trees, stopping unnecessary removals, and giving away plants and seeds.
Reporter Lisa Morehouse concludes her California Foodways series with a story about Chef Chu's, a family-owned Chinese restaurant that grew alongside Silicon Valley.
An interview explaining California's Prop 50, a redistricting measure aimed at countering Texas's Republican-leaning map, featuring perspectives from supporters and opponents.
The California Report celebrates its 30th anniversary with a party featuring musician Kishi Bashi and a segment on California Foodways.
A profile of composer Reena Esmail, who blends Western classical and Indian music to foster cross-cultural dialogue.