Weekly Program Highlights

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Friday 05/10

1:30 – 2:00 PM
Making Contact… Hear the stories of two women, one who fled Shanghai during Mao's Chinese Revolution, and the other who escaped the Bolshevik Revolution and Ukrainian pogroms. Learn about the stories they told their families years later and the trauma they held close to allow the next generation to heal.

2:00 – 3:00 PM
Hidden Brain… Something profound happens in our minds when we come to believe that there's a ceiling on what we can accomplish. In Hidden Brains’ latest "Innovation 2.0 series," Mary Murphy explores the effects of these mental ceilings and shares how we can create better environments to foster our growth.

3:00 – 4:00 PM
Fresh Air… With three episodes left on the HBO series The Sympathizer, hear from Viet Thanh Nguyen, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel the series is based on, set in Vietnam and in the US after the fall of Saigon. Ngyuyen was four when his family fled to America after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… Hanging out with Royalty: The group went by quite a number of different names, but the one they were best known for was The Washboard Rhythm Kings. They were, by far, the most successful skiffle band of the early 1930s.

Saturday 05/11

10:00 – 11:00 AM
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!… Join panelists Brian Babylon, Tom Papa, and new-comer Meredith Scardino. She’s the creator of the Peacock and Netflix series Girls5eva. And, pop musician Chappell Roan plays Not My Job.

11:00 – NOON
Radiolab… Radiolab goes deep through a whole stack of stories about breath. Hear from scientists, musicians, activists, and breath mint experts, and try to climb into the very center of this thing we all do, and are all doing right now.

3:00 – 5:00 PM
American Routes… Celebrates Mother’s Day with host Marty Stuart and his mom, Hilda. They talk about their shared love of photography and a certain girl singer, Connie Smith. Then, hear stories about mothers from Fontella Bass, Sonny Rollins, and Bo Diddley, among others.

5:00 – 6:00 PM
The Thistle and Shamrock… Host Fiona Ritchie picks her way through another loose assortment of themes with music from artists including Skipinnish, Suzy Bogguss, and Dick Gaughan from his Harvard Tapes.

Sunday 05/12

10:00 – 11:00 AM
Reveal… When a pregnant woman was murdered in 1989, Boston police rounded up countless young Black men in search of her killer, but the whole time, they were chasing a lie that was all too easy for the city to believe. Find out why police bought into a racist hoax.

11:00 – NOON
This American Life… Majid Khan spent years locked away in CIA black sites.What would he tell the world when he finally got the chance to speak?

NOON – 3:00 PM
Sunday Baroque… Celebrate Mother’s Day weekend with music by composers who all had mothers, and you’ll hear music by an accomplished French keyboard virtuoso and composer who was herself a mother. [12 sec]

3:00 – 4:00 PM
Code Switch & Life Kit… Hear a conversation with author Daniel Olivas about his novel Chicano Frankenstein. Then on Life Kit, learn how to be a better everyday negotiator.

4:00 – 5:00 PM
The Moth Radio Hour… In a special Mother's Day edition, hear stories about a mother helping her daughter get her first contact lenses, an unwanted parental intervention at a school concert, a new mother in Zambia awaiting test results, a life or death bee sting, and a teenage mother who couldn't be happier to welcome her child into the world.

Monday 05/13

2:00 – 3:00 PM
The Splendid Table… Explore the world of food with a sense of humor with help from two comedians. Ivy Le, host of the podcast FOGO: Fear of Going Outside, and Dan Ahdoot, author of the new book Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That’s a Dumb Way to Live.

Tuesday 05/14

1:00 – 2:00 PM
TED Radio Hour… AI, EVs, and satellites are tackling the climate crisis. But they have environmental downsides. TED speakers explain how to use these tools without making global warming worse.

2:00 – 3:00 PM
A Conversation with the Reluctant Therapist… Tune in for a conversation with Dr. Tim Muehlhoff, communications professor, co-host of the Winsome Conviction podcast, and co-director of Biola University’s Winsome Conviction Project, which seeks to reintroduce civility into public disagreements.

Wednesday 05/15

1:00 – 1:30 PM
Bioneers… Droughts, floods, soil erosion, climate change, biodiversity loss - you name it, and the beaver is on it. Kate Lundquist and Brock Dolman of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center share their semi-aquatic journey to becoming “Beaver Believers.” They are part of a passionate global movement to bring back our rodent relatives who show us how to heal nature by working with nature.

1:30 – 2:00 PM
California Report Magazine… The Central Coast is home to one of the most biodiverse stretches of ocean in the country. It’s also the ancestral homeland of the indigenous Chumash and Salinan peoples. For years, the Northern Chumash have been working to create a marine sanctuary off the coast of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. If the federal government approves the designation this summer, it would be the first U.S. marine sanctuary to be nominated by, and named after, an indigenous tribe. It’s the culmination of decades of tribal conservation work — but it’s also the legacy of a father and daughter. Benjamin Purper reports.

2:00 – 3:00 PM
Freakonomics Radio… So you want to help people? That’s great — but beware the law of unintended consequences. Hear three stories from the modern workplace.

6:30 – 8:00 PM
KCBX in Concert… Host Lisa Nauful celebrates spring and looks forward to summer with a program of seasonally-inspired compositions. Hear selections from Johann Strauss , Delius , and Barber. The evening concludes with Chanticleer’s rendition of Gershwin’s "Summertime" with countertenor soloist Cortez Mitchell. Additionally, listeners will be treated to the beautiful second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

Thursday 05/16

1:00 – 2:00 PM
Central Coast Voices… Older LGBTQ+ people should be able to access inclusive, welcoming, and culturally competent services in long-term care communities, free from discrimination. But do they? Hear about a new nationwide survey of long-term care and senior housing communities that looks into LGBTQ+ inclusion. Learn about what the national and local results showed, efforts that will make a difference in our community and how you can get involved. You are invited to listen, learn, and send your questions or comments during the show to voices@kcbx.org.

2:00 – 3:00 PM
Latino USA… Hear a conversation with journalist Andrea Elliott about her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. In the book, Andrea follows the life of Dasani Coates for eight vital years. Dasani is a teenage girl with a willpower as soaring as the skyscrapers she looks at from the window of a Brooklyn homeless shelter.

Friday 05/17

6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… A Sobering Reality: During the 1920s, jazz became incredibly popular, as did social liberation. However with the stock market crash in 1929, the brakes were applied on much of that enthusiasm. Unless you were among the upper class, hardship set in very quickly for almost everyone. Of course, there had to be a scapegoat. So, booze, jazz and loose morals were to blame. But jazz managed to continue, albeit with fewer venues and fewer jobs. This program is devoted to those smaller groups that continued to play the music that meant so much to them.