Civic

President Trump calls it “One Big Beautiful Bill,” but critics say the latest federal budget will slash more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid over the next decade — cutting coverage for an estimated 12 million people. In San Francisco, more than 250,000 residents rely on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, along with tens of thousands of caregivers who support them. This episode of Civic from the San Francisco Public Press examines how the bill could affect local patients, long-term care workers, and the city’s healthcare safety net — with voices from those fighting to protect services that are essential to survival.

Chronic hepatitis B can lay dormant for years until the infection has caused life-threatening damage to the liver. We hear the stories of patients living with the disease, and about how a lack of resources and infection patterns put Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at greater risk. Researchers are working on a cure as activists and medical professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area create a unique model of care for the disease that is being copied around the U.S.

The San Francisco Public Press on April 30, 2025, hosted a fireside chat recorded for this “Civic” episode about attacks on diversity, democracy and media with Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, the public editor at PBS, and Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press. In addition to discussing how journalists can do better covering issues their audiences care about in a political environment that is fraught with conflict, how PBS engages with listeners and viewers about their critiques and concerns, and why public media newsrooms aim to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, Sandoval-Palos and LaHood talked about what might happen if the federal government were to cut funding to PBS and NPR, which receive a portion of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The next day, President Trump signed an executive order attempting to do just that.

The U.S. news media, broadly, is under attack by a leader who calls journalists the enemy of the people. But the destruction of local newspapers has been underway for years with hedge fund owners buying up publications, laying off staff, and selling valuable assets, usually real estate, for a quick profit. In this episode, we talk with Rick Goldsmith to explore this topic and discuss his documentary, “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.”

This week marks three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the conflict shows no signs of ending. On the eve of this grim anniversary, Russia launched its largest drone attack yet, causing widespread destruction and civilian casualties. Days later, the U.S. voted against a U.N. resolution calling for Russia’s withdrawal. In this episode, we revisit conversations first aired on April 7, 2022 — just six weeks after the invasion began — as San Francisco residents with deep ties to Ukraine were fearing for loved ones and desperately trying to help. From sending vital medical supplies to welcoming refugees into the Bay Area, their stories remain powerful and urgent as the crisis continues.

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The Navy conducted radiation experiments on humans at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, turning hundreds of servicemen and shipyard workers into unwitting “volunteers” for Cold War scientists’ biology and safety research.