"Little Africa" located in Guangzhou, China faces many challenges as an immigrant community in a foreign land. Adjustment of the two communities (Chinese and African) has been precarious at times considering the diverse cultures. Integration has been frought with mistrust and misunderstandings on both sides of the spectrum. There are, however, positive signs of successful coexistence, if not, outright integration resulting in marriages and children.

... << MORE >>

Leonard Lothlen of the "Leonard Lothlen Band" talks about the popularity of his baseball song which has received, so far, 82,000 Youtube hits on a retired Navy Seal's Youtube site. He chronicles his efforts to pitch the song to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and the Oakland "A's."  He states most of his songs have timeless messages, such as, his "Stop the Killing" song that has been uploaded to Youtube with a moving collage of the recent Trayvon Martin video.
... << MORE >>

As a survivor of seven concentration camps during WWII, Ernie Ostreicher describes encountering the "Angel of Death" Joseph Mengele while at Auschwitz prison camp, the loss of his parents to the Holocaust, Hitler's "Final solution," eating dog food as one of the best meals he's ever had, and being liberated by the allies.

Mr Ostreicher states that he has always been lucky and attributes his many escapes from death to that fact. The life expectancy of Jews who were captured during the last year of the war was ... << MORE >>

The Bay Area Effect sat down with General Manager Michael Sherman at the studios of KTSF TV channel 26 where the history of the station and its impact in the Asian community was discussed.

As the largest and oldest Asian-language television station in the United States which is located in Brisbane, California,  KTSF has been in existence for over 30 years and has consistently under the stewardship of owner Lillian Lincoln Howell  beat out its foreign-language competitors such ... << MORE >>

30:46 minutes

Comedian Faizon Love, whose film credits include, Made, Parent Hood, The Replacements, Money Talks, Elf, Couples Retreat, Who's your Caddy, and many more discusses the direction he believes, as only he can, Hollywood is headed, the internet and how it is by-passing Hollywood, the Spike Lee/Tyler Perry brouhaha, and where Black people come from. The candor in which he addresses the various issues in Tinseltown as it relates to the business of acting is humorous, educational, and informative.  ... << MORE >>

Without verbal comment here is the SF Mayoral Debate held in District10 on the 27th of September, at the Southeast Community Facility on Oakdale Avenue. Candidates Jeff Adachi, Joanna Rees, Cesar Ascurrunz, Leland Yee, Bevan Dufty, David Chiu, and Terry Joan Baum were in attendance. The debate lasted approximately 1.5 hours, so this podcast was reduced to the opening and closing remarks of each candidate and even that lasted approximately 40 minutes.

San Francisco like Oakland is using the Rank Voting system--a somewhat ... << MORE >>

12:00 min

John Lomax, 86yrs., enlisted out of high school in the Navy for 4 years and later graduated from Stanford University in 1951. In 1961, President Kennedy asked the military to test nuclear weapons in which he wanted three questions answered. 1.)  Do they work?  2.)  What the affect the blasts would have on radar systems?  3.)  And what the affect would be on the military radio systems?  Mr. Lomax won the bid competition to answer those questions and  then went about designing an experiment grouped ... << MORE >>

With the recent Shooting of a knife-wielding homeless man BART Police again finds itself under scrutiny and protest. I sat down with Officer Shaunte Barnes and Sergeant Marlon Dixon to discuss the latest training slated for BART officers regarding Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and  the newly formed Trauma Response Team (TRT) respectively.  The aim is to raise officer awareness, thus reducing lethal contact, of the mentally-ill and post traumatic individual they ... << MORE >>

More fitting with the milieu of a "Cocktail Party" the cast of characters that attended boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard's book signing brought their T-shirts, Boxing gloves, and books to be autographed along with their stories to be validated. Retired boxers, aspiring boxers, and fantasy boxers relived the ... << MORE >>

15:00 minutes:

Milton Hughes, 89yrs., discusses his upbringing in Placerville, aka "Hangtown", California. His father a Superintindent of Roads and Trails for the Sierra National Forest lost Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Stock Market crash of 1929. At the age of twenty,  Milton was drafted into the Armed Forces where he served on the front lines of France. He still carries the shrapnel from a mortar attack in both legs.

12:00 minutes: ... << MORE >>

5:40 minutes

Doris Watson, 86yrs., stated that when World War II ended, she and a group of friends got on a ferry from Oakland and went to San Francisco to celebrate. She said the crowds went crazy, breaking windows, snatching people out of their automobiles--the rioting on Market street went on for days.


17:00 minutes

Descending from the Samurai family, Mae Hirasuna, 91yrs., was attending New York University when World War II broke out. Her ... << MORE >>

Mandarin Language instruction

Played: 213 | Download | Duration: 00:09:33

When two communities live in close proximity to each other with few positive interactions, mistrust and suspicion pervade the psyche contributing to a "Them versus Us" attitude.   Addressing recent tensions between the Black and Chinese communities in the SF bay area--efforts are launched to bridge the cultural divide. 

New America Media KAWL 91.7 Radio interview.

Mandarin Language instruction

Played: 249 | Download | Duration: 00:39:21

Senator Yee is running for the position of Mayor in the the city of San Francisco.  We met Thursday morning at his campaign headquarters on Van Ness Avenue to discuss the recent issues of Union busting in Wisconsin, the practice of Shark Finning, Rush Limbaugh and the Sponsor boycott, the incivility of the public and politicians, Racist and threatening faxes sent to his office, President Obama's recent reversal on D.O.M.A. (the Defense of Marriage Act), his upbringing and what America means to him.