Bay Curious
Bay Curious is a show about your questions – and the adventures you find when you go looking for the answers. Join host Olivia Allen-Price to explore all aspects of the San Francisco Bay Area – from the debate over "Frisco", to the dinosaurs that once roamed California, to the causes of homelessness. Whether you lived here your whole life, or just arrived, Bay Curious will deepen your understanding of this place you call home.
Episodes
May 1, 2025 • 20 mins
When it comes to private school enrollment, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin counties are all well above the state average. But why? In today's episode, we'll explore the many reasons San Francisco families choose to send their kids to private schools. It's a trend rooted in the history of desegregation that's been hard to reverse.
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Why Is Private Schooling So Popular in the San Francisco ...
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April 30, 2025 • 2 mins
Join host Xorje Andrés Olivares and guests to explore what it means to live within a hyphenation. Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to have easy conversations about hard things: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. Hyphenación—where conversation and cultura meet!
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April 24, 2025 • 40 mins
As part of Youth Takeover Week at KQED The Bay and Bay Curious have teamed up to collaborate with four high school students who live in San Pablo, Fremont, Walnut Creek and San Jose. For several months, these teenagers — two juniors and two seniors — have shared what’s going on in their lives, what’s got them worried, what’s making them excited and what they're passionate about.
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April 21, 2025 • 19 mins
Olivia Allen-Price will be taking a step back from the show for a few months to give birth to her second child. Bay Curious producer and editor Katrina Schwartz will be stepping into the host role while she's gone. The two are both parents of young children in the Bay Area, so for this bonus hand-off episode they discuss some of the ways living here has changed since becoming mothers, including the high cost of housing in San Franc...
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April 17, 2025 • 17 mins
A lot of things in the South Bay, specifically around Cupertino and Mountain View, are named after somebody called Stevens. There’s Stevens Creek Boulevard, the Stevens Creek watershed, and Stevens Creek Reservoir, to name a few. Our question asker, Pete Smoot, wants to know: Who exactly was Stevens? Turns out we should really be asking: "Who was Stephens?" with a P-H! We've been misspelling the name of Elisha Stephens for decades....
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April 10, 2025 • 21 mins
Starting in the mid-1800s, salmon canneries were big business along the West Coast, stretching all the way up to Alaska. San Francisco played an outsized role in the industry — especially in providing the workers who did the tough, dirty, low-paid work in the canneries. We trace the salmon connections between San Francisco and Alaska and learn about the early workers who made the industry possible.
Additional Resources:
How Cann...
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April 3, 2025 • 20 mins
Bay Curious listener Tom Rauch grew up in Berkeley in the 1960s. Some of his most vivid memories from that time are of the old Berkeley dump. “It really was just this big, giant pit where you backed up your car, opened up your trunk and just shoveled whatever you had into this open pit,” he said. Fast forward to today, and the dump is long gone. In its place is César Chávez Park, a big grassy expanse with sweeping views of the enti...
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March 27, 2025 • 19 mins
These days, when you see a show at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, you might be lucky enough to get your very own poster for free. They’re a highly anticipated parting gift given out at the biggest shows. “The posters are artifacts, pieces of time,” says this week's question asker ,Ben Kaiser. “They’re as much [a part] of the concert as the concert.” That got him wondering: the posters of the Fillmore are so legendary, wh...
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March 20, 2025 • 29 mins
One of the topics we get the most questions about from our audience is transportation. Today we round up answers to a handful of your questions, including: Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go? Why has one toll booth on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge been closed for years? Why are do so many of our interstates end in "80"? And: Are there more vanity plates in the Bay Area? Plus a few more! We're joined by K...
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March 13, 2025 • 19 mins
A Bay Area artist in Richmond has been stealthily building and placing fairy houses around his neighborhood. His creations bring ‘endless fun and fascination’ to the East Bay town. And, across the Bay Bridge, a waterfall in Golden Gate Park is sometimes an "alarming shade of green." What's going on with the water there?
Additional Reading
Point Richmond's Fairy Houses: Miniature Worlds of Whimsy
Ever Wondered Why Some Water in G...
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March 6, 2025 • 16 mins
San Francisco's oldest lesbian bar, The Wild Side West, is in the Bernal Heights neighborhood. It's been open since 1962 and has a long history of offering sanctuary to a community that hasn't always felt welcome elsewhere. As lesbian bars around the Bay Area have been closing, the Wild Side West has survived in part because of dedicated regulars, like Timotha Doane, who has been going there for over fifty years. She just celebrate...
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March 3, 2025 • 4 mins
Ever wonder where the internet stops and IRL begins? Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor. From internet trends to AI slop to the politics of memes, Close All Tabs covers it all.
How will AI change our jobs and lives? Is the government watching what I post? Is there life beyond TikTok? Host Morgan Sung pulls from experts, the audience, and history to add c...
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February 27, 2025 • 20 mins
A British sailor named Charles Lightoller visited San Francisco in the late 1800s and raved about the "'Frisco biscuit" he ate there. Carl Merritt read that in a book and wondered: "What is a Frisco biscuit?" That little question took us on a long journey for the answer.
Additional Reading:
Ever Heard of a 'Frisco Biscuit'? Neither Had Many Maritime Historians
Is There Treasure At the Bottom Of San Francisco Bay
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February 20, 2025 • 21 mins
Whether it's on the apps or in real life it can be hard to meet romantic partners. We explore what it's like to be dating right now in the Bay Area. This episode is brought to you by the team over on KQED's The Bay podcast.
Additional Reading:
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February 13, 2025 • 25 mins
Listener Tadd Williams often sees the 16th Street Station from I-880. It's a huge, stately building in the Beaux-Arts style. It's looking a little rundown now, but it was clearly once dazzling. In today's episode, we explore how this spot was important to West Oakland's Black community and the Civil Rights Movement. And we get a promising update on it's future.
Additional Reading
How Oakland's 16th Street Station Helped Build Wes...
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February 6, 2025 • 20 mins
Reserving camp sites in California can feel sometimes feel as hard as scoring Taylor Swift concert tickets. KQED's Senior Editor for Audience News, Carly Severn, breaks down some tips and tricks so you can score a great spot this summer.
Additional Reading:
Episode Transcript
How to Find a Camping Spot in California (When They Always Seem to Be Booked)
Want to Go Camping in the Bay Area This Summer? Get Your Reservations Now (S...
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January 30, 2025 • 19 mins
Just off the coast of Richmond is a small island that's home to over a hundred bird species, lots of field mice, one dog and one man. The singular human resident is caretaker for Brooks Island, which is actually a nature preserve run by the East Bay Regional Parks District. This week, reporter Katherine Monahan paddles out on a special kayak tour to discover the rich history of this lonely little island in the bay.
Additional Rea...
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January 23, 2025 • 19 mins
Mare Island, Alameda Naval Air Station, Treasure Island — San Francisco Bay is surrounded by former military bases that look largely abandoned and forgotten. Some businesses and artists are already making use of these spaces, but as reporter Pauline Bartolone finds out, redeveloping old military sites can be challenging, especially if the idea is to build much needed housing. This is the second installment in a two part series on s...
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January 16, 2025 • 23 mins
All around the edges of San Francisco Bay you'll find reminders of a once robust military presence in this area. The Presidio, Alameda Naval Air Station, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Fort Baker and a slew of others—all of them closed. The Bay was once considered a strategic military stronghold, the 'Gateway to the Pacific,' but at some point that changed. This week, in the first installment of a two part story, Pauline Bartolone dig...
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January 9, 2025 • 21 mins
If you can brave the cold and get over your worries about sharks, is it a good idea to swim in the bay's somewhat murky depths? This week, reporter Dana Cronin dives into this question about whether it's safe to swim in the bay and when it might not be such a good idea.
Additional Reading:
Is it Safe to Swim in the Bay? Braving the Cold (and Sometimes Dirty) Water
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