I’ll be double-hosting on KALW today. First, on Your Call’s One Planet Series at 10am PT, we discuss the Trump administration’s attack on environmental protections.
Donald Trump’s EPA chief, Lee Zeldin, plans to roll back more than two dozen regulations that protect our health, air, water, and climate, eliminate the Office of Research and Development, and fire hundreds of scientists. Joining us to discuss will be:
- Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & Environment
- Marianne Lavelle, award-winning reporter for Inside Climate News
Later in the program, we’ll examine the Trump administration’s decision to drop a landmark environmental justice case in Louisiana’s cancer alley, with Robert Taylor, executive director of Concerned Citizens for St. John.
Then at 6pm PT, I’ll be hosting State of the Bay. First, we’ll talk to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie about his new plan on homelessness.
Then we’ll talk about the suffering endured by millions of people due to Long Covid, with Dr. Linda Geng, co-director of the Stanford Long Covid Collaborative, and Philip Hoover, a screenwriter and North Bay resident who has firsthand experience navigating life with Long COVID.
Finally, we’ll talk to Ramon Ramos Alayo of the dance festival CubaCaribe.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT for Your Call and then again at 6pm PT for State of the Bay. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call’s One Planet Series, we’ll discuss the importance of environmental journalism with:
- Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now, environment correspondent for The Nation, and author of Big Red’s Mercy: The Shooting of Deborah Cotton and A Story of Race in America.
- Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times and author of the paper’s Boiling Point newsletter
How should journalists cover the Trump administration’s moves to stop climate action?
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call One Planet Series, we discuss a new analysis by Last Chance Alliance that shows the Oil and gas companies spent a record $38 million in 2024 to fight climate and environmental justice policies in California.
That brings the annual price tag for last year to $38 million, shattering the annual state lobbying record for the industry by 45%, which stood at $26.2 million in 2017. Spending by two groups alone, Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and Chevron, broke the previous record, coming in at $31.6 million in 2024. WSPA and Chevron accounted for 83% of the industry’s expenditure.
To talk more about the report, we’ll be joined by:
- Ryan Schleeter, communications director for The Climate Center
- Christina Scaringe, California Climate Policy Director at the Center for Biological Diversity Climate Law Institute
Later in the program, we’ll talk to Mark Olalde, award winning reporter covering the environment for Propublica, about how Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government have left the country’s wildland firefighting force unprepared for the rapidly approaching wildfire season.
According to Propublica, the administration has frozen funds, including money appropriated by Congress, and issued a deluge of orders eliminating federal employees, which has thrown agencies tasked with battling blazes into disarray as individual offices and managers struggle to interpret the directives. The uncertainty has limited training and postponed work to reduce flammable vegetation in areas vulnerable to wildfire. It has also left some firefighters with little choice but to leave the force, their colleagues said.
Then on State of the Bay at 6pm PT, we’ll delve into the Bay Area’s homelessness crisis with San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and DignityMoves CEO Elizabeth Funk. Why has it proven so tough to tackle? And could building more interim housing be the key to turning things around?
Then we’ll meet San Francisco’s new District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood.
Finally, we’ll hear about challenges facing today’s boys from Ruth Whippman, author of the book BoyMom.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT for Your Call and then again at 6pm PT for State of the Bay. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Double shot of KALW for me today! First, on Your Call’s One Planet Series at 10am: how will the rising cost of home insurance, driven by worsening climate disasters, push up the costs of owning a home? In some cases, insurance companies are pulling out of towns altogether. And in others, people are beginning to move away. Abrahm Lustgarten, an investigative reporter at ProPublica and The New York Times, will discuss these trends.
Later in the show, we’ll examine the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency with Marianne Lavelle, an award winning reporter for the Pulitzer Prize-winning, non-profit, news organization Inside Climate News. According to Inside Climate News, employees tasked with overseeing environmental justice initiatives at the Environmental Protection Agency could be placed on immediate administrative leave, leaving them in limbo.
Then at 6pm PT, I’m hosting State of the Bay, where we’ll talk to UCSF doctors and scientists about the impact of uncertain federal funding on our public health and on the cutting edge research happening here in the Bay. Guests include Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease doctor at UCSF, and Pamela Munster, Professor in the Department of Medicine in Hematology/Oncology at UCSF.
We’ll also discuss how the Rose Pak Democratic Club recently ended its affiliation with the Democratic Party. Joining us will be Jeremy Lee, President of the Rose Pak Democratic Club, and Ko Lyn Cheang, Asian American and Pacific Islander reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.
And finally, we’ll hear from the director of the new film Underdogs, about how the human-dog bond transforms incarcerated people.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT for Your Call and then again at 6pm PT for State of the Bay. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call Media Roundtable, we’ll discuss a recent investigation about how a deceptive PR strategy pioneered in 1950s California first exposed the risk of climate change and then helped the industry deny it. Joining us will be Rebecca John, investigative climate journalist and research Fellow at the Climate Investigations Center.
We also talk about the news media coverage of the devastating LA fires, and the fossil fuel industry’s efforts in California to kill a bill that would have forced major fossil fuel companies to contribute to a fund, which would pay for climate disasters. Aaron Cantu, award-winning investigative journalist covering gas and oil in California for the Capital & Main, will describe the details.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On Today’s Your Call, we’ll discuss how the ongoing fires in Los Angeles will affect the home insurance market. Joining us will be:
- Dave Jones, the Director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE), who served two terms as California’s Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018
- Jake Bittle, staff writer at Grist covering disasters and climate adaptation, and the author of the 2023 book: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call’s One Planet Series, entomologist professor Doug Tallamy, TA Baker Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Delaware, joins us to discuss his book, “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.”
Tallamy says we can no longer tolerate actions that degrade our local environment. We must now act collectively to put our ecosystems back together again. What actions can we take to heal our damaged landscapes right now, starting in our backyards and urban spaces?
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for Dr. Tallamy? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call Media Roundtable, we’ll get the latest on the wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area from Noah Haggerty, environment, health and science reporter at the Los Angeles Times.
So far, at least 10 people have died, and nearly 180,000 have been ordered to leave their homes around Los Angeles as five fires continue to burn. Officials say, more than 9,000 homes and other structures have been damaged or destroyed in the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Then we discuss a recent expose by Propublica about how UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to a treatment for thousands of children with autism across the country. Reporter Annie Waldman, ProPublica health reporter, joins us for the details.
ProPublica has obtained what is effectively the company’s strategic playbook, developed by Optum, the division that manages mental health benefits for United. In internal reports, the company acknowledges that the therapy, called applied behavior analysis, is the “evidence-based gold standard treatment for those with medically necessary needs.”
But the company’s costs have climbed as the number of children diagnosed with autism has ballooned; experts say greater awareness and improved screening have contributed to a fourfold increase in the past two decades — from 1 in 150 to 1 in 36.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
As the market for the electric buses, cars, trucks, and trains that help curb the climate crisis continues to grow globally, the battery supply chain faces increased scrutiny. Minerals like lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt are too often mined and processed in ways that contribute to harming communities and ecosystems, while the batteries often face wasteful end-of-life disposal.
To address this challenge and identify solutions, Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and ClimateWorks Foundation founded in 2022 the Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries, a worldwide network of nonprofit leaders, experts, and advocates committed to transportation electrification and mining justice.
In 2024, the Forum developed a 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision that we’re releasing publicly today, with the aim of guiding policymakers, organizations, companies, and the general public on the key elements of what a truly sustainable battery should be by 2040. The 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision covers all aspects of the supply chain and beyond, including:
- Sourcing of raw and recovered minerals and materials
- Battery manufacturing
- Battery end-of-life
- Battery value chain traceability
The Vision has received the endorsement of leading environmental and mining justice organizations from around the world, along with supportive quotes. You can view the full list of signatories and their quotes here. And if you represent an organization that would like to endorse it as well, please contact me.
Our hope is that pursuing this 2040 Vision will not only benefit affected communities and stakeholders, it holds the promise of ensuring that the world can meet the transportation electrification challenge both more sustainably and rapidly.
Tonight on State of the Bay, we’ll hear from CLEE’s Louise Bedsworth and Isabel Rewick, both of whom took part in this year’s United Nations climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
AND we interview Assemblymember Damon Connolly, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, and Senator Scott Wiener about how new Trump administration policies might impact life here in the Bay Area.
PLUS, we’ll get advice from Luisa Smith of Book Passage on the perfect gift for the booklover on your holiday list.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
