Bay Area stories with civic depth.
Crosscurrents moves through Bay Area life with a steady public-radio frame. Recent episodes connect San Francisco transit history, congressional politics, prison family visits, immersive art, and Oakland poetry without losing sight of the people inside each story.
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Crosscurrents is a Bay Area public-radio news magazine with a broad civic lens and a patient ear. It moves story by story, using concise narration to orient the audience before letting interviews, essays, and field tape carry the weight. The show’s range is part of its identity. A recent hour can begin with San Francisco’s transit history and end with poetry, while still feeling like one coherent account of local life. Its reporting on Muni photography turns an archive into a way of seeing how the city moves. The details matter: buses, streetcars, handwritten metadata, City Hall light, and ordinary people waiting on platforms. Historical memory returns in coverage of a 1906 earthquake-inspired immersive show at the Haas Lilienthal House. There, spectacle and civic remembrance share the same room. Crosscurrents also makes space for first-person stories that are smaller in scale but heavy with consequence. Michael Callahan’s family visit at San Quentin turns a game of catch, a broken window, and a meal into a story about parenting under confinement. The political segments are direct. Candidate conversations about California’s 11th district include policy, identity, public safety, health care, and listener challenges rather than polished campaign summaries. The show does not flatten disagreement. It frames the stakes, asks follow-ups, and lets the tension remain audible. Arts coverage brings a warmer current, especially in segments on Beast Crawl, Bay Area poets, and Bob Kaufman’s work. Even there, the show keeps its editorial discipline. Crosscurrents is not a chat show and not a culture calendar. It is a daily-feeling portrait of a region through institutions, neighborhoods, artists, families, archives, and arguments. Its strength is attention: to place, to memory, and to the people who explain what public life feels like from the inside.
Made for: For listeners who want local reporting that treats politics, arts, history, transportation, and community life as connected parts of the same region. It suits people who like public-radio pacing, clear context, and interview-driven storytelling.
What sets it apart: Crosscurrents stands out by moving comfortably between hard civic questions and intimate cultural scenes. Its segments keep local specificity intact, from Muni archives and City Hall exhibits to San Quentin family visits and Oakland poetry spaces.
Crosscurrents is KALW Public Radio's award-winning news magazine, broadcasting in the Bay Area Mondays through Thursdays on 91.7 FM. We make joyful, informative stories that engage people across the economic, social, and cultural divides in our community.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Crosscurrents connects Bay Area public life to the people navigating its schools, politics, arts, histories and changing civic spaces.
Crosscurrents assembles Bay Area life through reported pieces, interviews, poetry and music, with Hanat Baba guiding each edition through quick changes of scale.
A bus photograph becomes your portal into 120 years of San Francisco life.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
San Francisco memory is traced through Muni photos, an earthquake show, and a prison visit.
Crosscurrents opens with Moving San Francisco at City Hall, where more than 120 years of Muni photography connects buses, streetcars, and light rail to the city’s history, technology, and topography.
A civic hour that pairs a competitive congressional race with the city's literary life.
This hour frames San Francisco through a close congressional race, using a candidate interview to ask what the district expects from its next representative.
A warm, centered episode about autism, storytelling, communication, and making room for peace.
CrossCurrents marks Autism Acceptance Month with a focused conversation about autism, communication, and creative work. Jonathan Kormer, a San Mateo-based voice actor and host of Dork Tales Storytime, speaks about being neurodivergent, telling stories, conducting interviews, and…
A Vallejo basketball hopeful and a San Francisco henna pioneer share a compact Bay Area portrait.
CrossCurrents follows Chance McMillan through his first season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State's developmental affiliate, then turns to a San Francisco pioneer who helped bring henna art to the Bay Area 30 years ago.
A grounded look at vague school AI rules and the learning those rules are meant to protect.
CrossCurrents looks at how schools are trying to prepare students for an AI-shaped future while the rules around using it still feel unsettled.
Careful conversations at the edge of education and AI.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
This episode of CrossCurrents features two distinct stories.
This episode explores Sydney Robertson's 1930s government-funded project to document folk music in Northern California, highlighting how these recordings preserve cultural heritage and connect generations through personal stories.
This episode explores how AI tools like ChatGPT are impacting K-12 education, focusing on student experiences with using AI for homework assignments like research papers.
This episode from CrossCurrents' series 'The Homework Machine' explores how schools are struggling to adapt to AI tools like ChatGPT three years after its arrival.
CrossCurrents traces queer radio in the Bay Area from KPFA’s 1956 broadcast of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” through the 1958 special The Homosexual in Our Society and later programs including The Gay Life.
Crosscurrents presents Uncuffed host Greg Eskridge's episode “I Was Just a Kid,” featuring childhood memories from producers and incarcerated storytellers in three California prisons.
This episode explores the history of San Francisco through a photography exhibit at City Hall featuring images from Muni photographers, highlighting connections between the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes.
This episode explores an immersive theatrical show at the historic Haas Lilienthal House in San Francisco, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the devastating 1906 earthquake through an interview with the show's producer.
A father in San Quentin prison reflects on a family visit where playing baseball with his sons taught him a profound lesson in empathy and parenting.
Crosscurrents opens on San Francisco's buses and the ritual of getting from place to place.
Josiah Luis Alderete reads Bob Kaufman's poem 'Suicide' from his 1967 book Golden Sardine to celebrate National Poetry Month and Kaufman's birthday, with details about a live reading event.
CrossCurrents turns to San Francisco's suddenly competitive congressional race.
CrossCurrents features San Mateo voice actor Jonathan Kormer, whose autism and hyperfocus on stories inform his work hosting Dork Tales Storytime.
This episode explores a young basketball player's journey toward the NBA and celebrates SWANA cultures through henna art in the Bay Area.
This episode explores how schools are grappling with AI tools like ChatGPT in education, focusing on cheating concerns and preparing students for a future with artificial intelligence.
This episode explores the impact of AI tools like ChatGPT on K-12 education, featuring student experiences with using AI for homework assignments.