Feature first aired on San Francisco public radio KALW (91.7 FM) on its nightly news show Crosscurrents, August 6, 2018.
The Bay Area Vintage Baseball league is devoted to playing by 19th century rules with uniforms and equipment from the same era. Players actually do use mitts, but they’re practically hand-sized. The wooden bats the hitters swing are much heavier than today’s models. I took some new-fangled audio equipment out to a recent contest to see how the nineteenth century game was played.
Photo credit: Kristi Coale
Feature first aired on public radio KALW (91.7 FM), on its nightly news show Crosscurrents, August 13, 2018.
When the Golden State Warriors won their second consecutive championship in June, fans in the Bay Area celebrated, but then … the basketball season was over. What’s a hoops fan to do in the offseason? Well, those in the know headed to the east end of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to see professional-level basketball live and in-person for free all summer long. The San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am League has featured former and current college stars, former high school stars, and even some professional players for 40 years. I checked in on some of the season’s action.
Photo credit: Kristi Coale
Feature originally aired on public radio station KALW (91.7 FM), on its nightly news showCrosscurrents, October 30, 2008.
When my mother passed away after a long illness, I went sifting through photos, handmade clothing, buttons and sewing patterns. Things that made her seem very much alive to me. I made up my mind then that I'd celebrate her memory on Día De Los Muertos. For years, friends of mine who've lost parents and siblings have observed this occasion the first few days of November by building altars to their loved ones. Putting out favorite books, food and shoes. It's a way of setting aside time each year to be with the spirit of the person.
I'd been trying to figure out what my mother's altar might look like. So I went looking for inspiration. And I found it at the SOMArts Cultural Center.
Photo credit: Kristi Coale
Story originally aired on the nightly news show Crosscurrents for its pilot episode on public radio station KALW (91.7 FM), November 19, 2007.
When a large shipping vessel ran into the Bay Bridge, sending 50,000 gallons of oil into the bay, most clean up efforts seemed to focus on Crissy Field and other picturesque areas in the north and west bay, leaving the Richmond shoreline to volunteer efforts. I reported on this for one of the pilots of what evolved into Crosscurrents at KALW.
Photos - Left: Richmond shoreline post spill; Right: Marin shoreline post spill with hazmat-clad emergency-response personnel.
Photo credits: Kristi Coale
Documentary first aired on San Francisco public radio station KALW (91.7 FM) on its weekly news show, KALW News, August 2006.
Company Town is a radio documentary I reported and produced for KALW’s weekly news program that evolved into Crosscurrents. This piece traces the century-plus relationship between the Bay Area city of Richmond, California and the Chevron Corporation.
Image credit: seal from the City of Richmond, CA
Photo credit: Chris Jordan-Bloch
This award-winning feature originally aired on public radio station KALW (91.7 FM) on the Transportation Edition of the weekly show, KALW News, September 2006.
Single mother Sylvia Darensberg relies on the bus to get and her children to and from school and work as well as to do her shopping. Trouble is, the bus she relies on - AC Transit - has cut service in neighborhoods like hers while raising fares. Now she and others who rely on the bus are suing to get transit equity. I travelled with Darensberg and interviewed transit officials and civil rights lawyers about this case.
This story won the Northern California SPJ prize in 2006 for best explanatory journalism.
Photo credit: AC Transit
Feature originally aired on public radio station KALW (91.7 FM) on the It’s the environment edition of its weekly news show, KALW News, October, 2005.
We've got one word for you: Plastics. The material is in just about every part of our lives. Sadly, it's also ubiquitous in the seas, too. I went out to SF Recology to see where our plastics go. I also spoke with people looking to change our synthetic ways.
Photo credit: Kristi Coale
