Tall Tales

These days, outrageous stories aren’t reserved for love songs. We read them in the news, see them on the television and hear them from the mouths of politicians. So today, we’re talking about tall tales. We’ll hear about liars; talk to tall women and learn about the sinister side of what was once the world’s tallest suspension bridge.

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The Underground

This week’s theme is the underground. We will take you six feet deep with celebrities of yesteryear and the people who just can’t let them go. We’ll also hear about efforts to ease the environmental cost of funerals. And we’ll follow an underground band that plays on street corners around San Francisco.

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Change

This week’s show is all about change, man. Our reporters are looking at some of the big changes happening in West Oakland, where a parking lot is now a skate park, and urban blight has become urban beauty with the arrival of a non-profit farm. We’re talking to people whose lives have been transformed by excruciating, relentless pain. And hear that clinking sound? Now that we’re in a recession, everyone is paying more attention to the change shaking around in our pockets. We talk to the owner of a coin shop. Plus, one year after a presidential election that promised huge political change, some thoughts on how the Obama administration scores on surveillance.

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Everything Ominous

The anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake just passed and Halloween is right around the corner. So, today’s show is about all things ominous. We’re looking at everything from disasters to ghosts to Oakland turf wars. We’ll hear from a reporter about his own morbid interest in earthquakes; and then meet a ghost channeler who tries to conjure up a dead professor. In Oakland, a city known for its high murder rate, 2009 has been a somewhat calmer year; we’ll learn about the anatomy of one of its turf wars. And we’ll hear how one burned down chicken farm struggles to survive through social networking.

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The Outsiders

Outsiders are not the norm–they often live and recreate outside of mainstream society. For today’s show, we meet people who are outsiders in the communities where they live, places where they work and in the sports that they play.

We’ll visit students at the California School for the Blind who are being trained for work in the service sector. And we’ll hear from a woman who was born outside the US, but forced to move here during World War II. We’ll speak to people participating in a variation of soccer. They hope to raise America’s underdog profile on the international soccer stage. And we’ll hangout with another group of Bay Area athletes. Only these wheelchair rugby players have redefined expectations for people with physical disabilities.

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The Economy

It was just over a year ago that U.S. financial markets melted down.  These days, more than one in ten Californians is without a job. Today we’ll take a stroll down economy lane and speak to a Berkeley resident who collects cans for extra cash.  We’ll also speak to Bay Area porn producers.  Turns out, their sales have gone soft during the recession.  And we’ll trek north and spend a day with an 81-year-old man who shoes horses in picturesque Humboldt County.

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Buttons

Today our theme is "Buttons"--from the buttons we push to the hot-button issues of the day. It’s all things buttons this half hour. California’s housing market has come unbuttoned. We’ll see the effects through the eyes of a local mail carrier. We’ll also discuss the hot-button topic of elderly suicide. And we’ll find out how the push-button world of the internet has created a digital divide for the visually impaired.

 
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Tomorrow

Today our theme is "Tomorrow." Not tomorrow as in Friday, but more like the future in general. We’ll learn about a shop that’s giving inventors the tools to create tomorrow’s great inventions. We’ll also hear from an ambitious New Zealander who’s making futuristic travel happen today. There are some people who know tomorrow’s news before anyone else. Our reporter follows around the guys who deliver the newspaper right to your doorstep. All this and more on North Gate Radio.

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Over and Under

Today our theme is "Over and Under." Parts of the Bay Area that aren’t at eye level. For this week’s show, most of our reporters go under. We’ll follow the trail of a real estate broker who got in over his head, and the people who went under because of it. We’ll talk about why black environmentalists fly under the radar, and meet a straight-A student who has to lay low. Since all our reporters went under, your hosts decided to go over. Hear what our anchors, Linsay and Noah found out about rock-climbers and overtone singing, all coming up on North Gate Radio.

 
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Backyard

Today we’re talking about backyards. As the weather gets warmer, you might be heading outside. Here are a few things that we found in the backyards of the Bay Area. 62 years ago, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Now America’s backyard game – baseball – in on the decline the African American community. We’ll step into the shoes of local movie lovers hoping to save a historic theater in their own backyard. And we’ll also talk with a community organizer who’s bringing urban farming to West Oakland, one backyard at a time.

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