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First Person
A series featuring the leaders, innovators and other compelling characters who make the Bay Area unique.
Episodes
Forum | Friday, Mar 22, 2013, 10:00 AM
First Person: Susan Wojcicki
Susan Wojcicki is a central player in the origin story of Google. In 1998 she rented her Menlo Park garage to Sergey Brin and Larry Page to start the company. She became Google's 16th employee and now, as the head of the company's advertising products, she brought in $43.7 billion last year - 95 percent of Google's revenue. As part of our First Person series profiling notable leaders in the Bay Area, we talk with Susan Wojcicki about the changing world of digital advertising, and about raising four children and a flock of chickens while holding one of the most powerful business positions in the world.
Forum | Thursday, Mar 21, 2013, 10:00 AM
First Person: Rose Pak
Rose Pak has been called the most powerful woman in San Francisco. Many credit the Chinatown political activist with being the kingmaker behind Mayor Ed Lee's election, and the person most responsible for the increasing political power of Asian-Americans in the city. Pak joins us as part of our First Person series, profiling the leaders, innovators and others that make the Bay Area unique.
Forum | Monday, Mar 11, 2013, 10:00 AM
First Person: Aileen Hernandez
For more than six decades, San Franciscan Aileen Hernandez has been working to make American society more equal. A native New Yorker born of Jamaican parents, she moved to California to work for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. She went on to become the only woman appointed by President Johnson to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and, soon after, helped found the National Organization for Women (NOW). She became NOW's second president, where she worked for more inclusion of women of color in the women's rights movement.
Forum | Monday, Feb 11, 2013, 10:00 AM
First Person: Rhodessa Jones
Performer, teacher and theater director Rhodessa Jones has spent her rich and varied career merging social activism and theater. In the late 1980s she founded the widely acclaimed Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, which in recent years has been exploring the stories of women living with HIV. Jones was recently presented with the San Francisco Mayor's Art Award. We talk with Rhodessa Jones as part of our First Person series on the leaders, innovators and others who make the Bay Area unique.
Forum | Thursday, Jan 31, 2013, 10:00 AM
First Person: Street Outreach With Kevin Grant
Kevin Grant knows about life on the streets. He used to be an Oakland gang member, and did time in and out of prison for robberies and selling drugs. Now he's back on the streets at night, but in a different role. He's breaking up fights before they escalate into violence or murder in Oakland -- and he's talking young people into putting down their guns. Grant won the California Peace Prize for his work in November. He joins us to talk about breaking the cycle of violence and retaliation in one of California's deadliest cities.
Forum | Monday, Oct 22, 2012, 10:00 AM
First Person: Joe Marshall
San Francisco's Omega Boys Club is marking 25 years helping at-risk kids lead lives free from violence and incarceration, succeed academically and make positive contributions to society. Omega has provided academic and life skills support to more than 1,300 boys and girls, and its violence prevention programs have reached more than 15,000 students. Co-founder and Executive Director Joe Marshall joins us as part of our First Person series on the leaders, innovators and others who make the Bay Area unique.
Forum | Friday, Sep 21, 2012, 10:00 AM
First Person: Bee Wrangler Norman Gary
Honeybee expert and former UC Davis professor Norman Gary spent 40 years moonlighting as a "bee wrangler" for TV shows and Hollywood films like "Fried Green Tomatoes," "The X Files" and "Candyman." Gary is also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having 109 bees in his mouth for 10 seconds. He joins us to discuss his career as well as colony collapse disorder, the rise of urban beekeeping and his book "The Honey Bee Hobbyist."
Forum | Friday, Aug 31, 2012, 10:00 AM
First Person: Jennifer Pahlka
Jen Pahlka founded Code for America, a Bay Area non-profit working to reshape the way government works through the use of technology and public service. She joins us in the studio as part of our "First Person" series on the leaders, innovators and other compelling characters that make the Bay Area unique.
Forum | Thursday, Aug 09, 2012, 10:00 AM
First Person: Glynn Washington
Oakland's Glynn Washington beat out more than 1,000 competitors five years ago in an "American Idol"-type national talent search for a new public radio host. Washington created and hosts the NPR/PRX program "Snap Judgment" out of Oakland. He joins us as part of our First Person series on the leaders, innovators and other compelling characters that make the Bay Area unique.
Forum | Wednesday, Jun 20, 2012, 10:00 AM
First Person: Cecil Williams
Nearly half a century ago, Rev. Cecil Williams took over as the minister of a small Methodist church in San Francisco's Tenderloin. He went on to transform Glide into a diverse institution committed to inclusiveness and devoted to serving the poor and marginalized. Today, with a budget of over $15 million, Glide provides free meals, health care and other services to thousands of people each day.
