What It’s Like to Work for a Coding Startup … In Prison

Stay caught up with the best of KQED's reporting each week by subscribing to the Q'ed Up podcast.

1. Just your average coding startup ... in prison

San Quentin State Prison is known as a pretty progressive place, at least as far as prisons go. It has a lot of programming and activities available to inmates, and there's even a podcast produced inside.

But I had no idea there was an honest-to-goodness coding startup operating there too. The Last Mile Works is staffed by inmate developers who work on websites and apps for clients on the outside, including major companies like Airbnb.

KQED cartoonist Mark Fiore visited San Quentin to learn more about The Last Mile, and he produced this amazing longform cartoon all about the program and the prisoners who work there.

2. Who needs Dykes on Bikes when you've got Tykes on Trikes?

Oakland resident Noelle Kaplan (L) and her wife Stacey (R) with their daughter Sage at her first birthday party. The Kaplans moved to Oakland in part because they wanted to be somewhere with a lot of other queer families. (Courtesy of Noelle Kaplan)

San Francisco's massive Pride celebration every June is one of the biggest parties of the summer in the Bay Area. But Oakland — and its growing LGBTQ population — has its own thing going on.

Sunday is Oakland Pride, and it's bound to be a much more relaxed and family-focused affair. While the San Francisco parade is always led by Dykes on Bikes, the Oakland parade will have Tykes on Trikes out front. There will also be a Family and Children’s Garden, which is expected to attract 1,500 LGBTQ families.

Here's everything you need to know before you head out to Oakland Pride, and here is the shirt I'll be wearing come Monday.

3. MeToo meets yoga

A KQED investigation found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks. (Mark Fiore/KQED)

I love when I get to practice yoga. It's the rare chance for me to slow down and relax my body and mind.

But for many women in California, yoga has been a place of sexual abuse. Over the course of a monthslong investigation, KQED's Miranda Leitsinger heard a range of allegations from inappropriate massage to a violating touch in class, from drugging to unlawful sex with a minor.

She also found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in this sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks. It's a powerful investigation that's worth your time.

4. A trip down memory lane with one of the first Oakland Raiders cheerleaders

Detail from one of Rita Cecaci's Raiderettes programs from 1962. (Pendarvis Harshaw/KQED)

I love sitting down with friends or family and flipping through an old photo album (or, more often, scrolling through someone's photo album on their phone).

KQED Arts' Pendarvis Harshaw did just that with Rita Cecaci, one of the first Oakland Raiders cheerleaders from back in 1962. That story would've been enough, but looking through Cecaci's photo album, Harshaw got a front row look at life in Oakland in the second half of the 20th century.

5. How do you define the "Bay Area"?

An image of the San Francisco Bay Area taken by Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian crew member aboard the International Space Station. (Samantha Cristoforetti via Twitter)

Working in local news, I have a firm grasp on what I consider the Bay Area: the nine counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma.

But that's just one way to define the Bay Area, and it's far from a consensus opinion. Turns out, people have a lot of thoughts about what the Bay Area is, and it's a fascinating discussion that gets to how each of us define ourselves, the place we live and our culture.

Plus, Bay Curious made this amazing jingle to help you remember the nine Bay Area counties.