The Bay

It's Inauguration Day in the U.S. The end of the Trump administration, and the beginning of the Biden administration is a monumental moment for the country –and for the rest of the world. Today, we hear from members of the Iranian diaspora here in the Bay Area about what this change in power means for them, their loved ones in Iran, and for the future hopes of the relationship between their two home countries.Guest: Kyana Moghadam, KQED podcast producerRead the transcript here. Find all of our "By the People" episodes here. Subscribe to our newsletter here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Silicon Valley giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google have long struggled to deal with violent language and misinformation on their platforms.But after the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, a line was crossed — and these companies banned or restricted President Trump, along with some of his supporters who have incited violence.So what took these companies so long to take action? And how should we feel about their continued role in how we communicate?Guest: Rachael Myrow, KQED Silicon Valley senior editorRead the transcript here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, California’s COVID-19 death toll reached 30,000. Gov. Gavin Newsom and health officials are relying on mass vaccinations to slow the spread, but there’s a lot of reason to believe accomplishing that will be hard. A majority of California is under stay at home orders until things get better, but the first phase of the rollout has already been slower than some hoped.Guest: Barbara Feder Ostrov, Contributing Writer for CalMattersRead the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It takes a lot of work to undo white supremacy. For many who have been committed to this work, it’s a lifetime of protests, campaigning, donating, and showing up. And sometimes, it can feel like an impossible task.Following the attack by the pro-Trump extremists at the U.S. Capitol last week, we invited longtime Bay Area activist Cat Brooks to talk with us about how she’s been processing everything, and how to make your activism sustainable.Guest: Cat Brooks, executive director of the Justice Teams Network and co-founder of the Anti Police Terror ProjectRead the transcript here. Find all of our By The People episodes here. Subscribe to our newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is a state run by Democrats. But we have elected officials who have either ignored or enabled President Trump through the years — including on Wednesday, when a pro-Trump mob violently took over the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden.Even after the process resumed, 7 out of 10 House Republicans from California voted to overturn electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Today, we'll talk about why this matters to Californians, even after Trump leaves office.Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics correspondent and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcastRead the transcript here.Subscribe to our newsletter here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, 200+ employees at Google announced that they've formed a union. The Alphabet Workers Union, which is supported by Communications Workers of America (CWA), is the first of its kind at Google, and will include dues-paying members, an elected board of directors, and paid organizing staff. For now, it still represents a small fraction of the roughly 260,000 workers at Alphabet. But it's still a big deal — especially in Silicon Valley, where it's so hard to organize at all.Guest: Sam Harnett, Silicon Valley Reporter for KQEDRead the transcript here. Listen to our How We Got Here series here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you want to get involved in local politics, your city council meeting can be a good place to start.But it can also be a lot. It's where your elected representatives make decisions that directly affect your life. And it's where anybody can tell their local leaders what they really think about those decisions.LaTonda Simmons knows all about this. Today, she looks back on 16 years running Oakland City Council meetings, and offers some advice for people hoping to participate for the first time.Guest: LaTonda Simmons, Oakland City Clerk from 2004 to 2020Read the transcript here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year in news has changed us all in so many ways. And as we wrap up 2020 with our final episode of the year, we thought we'd take some time to reflect on the stories that have stuck with us the most.Remembering San Francisco Lesbian Rights Activist Phyllis Lyon — Ericka Cruz Guevarra'These Kids are Fearless': Vallejo Families Seeking Justice for Police Killings Reflect on Protests — Devin KatayamaMeet the Poll Workers Who Made Election Day in the Bay Area Possible — Alan MontecilloGuests: Devin Katayama, Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Alan Montecillo, and Kyana MoghadamRead the transcript here. We've off for the next two weeks, and our next episode will be on Jan. 4, 2021.Subscribe to our newsletter here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August, a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in Livingston was temporarily shut down because of a a COVID-19 outbreak where at least 392 workers tested positive and 9 workers died. Now, Foster Farms is facing outbreaks at three of the company’s plants in the Central Valley.But it’s been really hard to get basic information about what’s going on about things like worker safety and who makes the final decisions. Today, we talk about what we do and don’t know about these outbreaks, and what this lack of information means for the general public and the company’s workers.Guest: Alexandra Hall, KQED Central Valley reporterRead the transcript here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the fourth episode of By The People, The Bay podcast’s new series highlighting the way democracy shows up in the places around us, and how we can all plug in.It's been called one of the biggest protests the world has ever seen. Farmers in India have been protesting for months over new agriculture laws passed by the Indian Parliament in September, which farmers feel would destroy their livelihoods.People around the world are showing solidarity with them, including here in the Bay Area. On Dec. 5, some thousands of protestors led by Sikh Americans — many who have personal connections to what's happening in India — marched to the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, using the Bay Area as a platform to help boost awareness abroad.Guest: Lakshmi Sarah, KQED reporterRead the transcript here. Subscribe to our newsletter here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices