Bay Curious is a show about your questions – and the adventures you find when you go looking for the answers. Join host Olivia Allen-Price to explore all aspects of the Bay Area – from the debate over "Frisco", to the dinosaurs that once roamed California, to the causes of homelessness. Whether you lived here your whole life, or just arrived, Bay Curious will deepen your understanding of this place you call home.
Olivia is a big believer in the value of public-powered journalism. She helped launch Bay Curious as a radio series in 2015, then turned it into a podcast in 2017. Before working on the show, Olivia was an engagement producer at KQED. She's also worked at The Baltimore Sun and The Virginian-Pilot. When not tethered to a computer by a pair of headphones, Olivia loves running, playing with other people's dogs and taking weekend trips around California. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
Katrina Schwartz
Producer
Katrina grew up in San Francisco and loves learning new things about her hometown. She helped pilot the first iteration of Bay Curious when it was just a radio feature. Before joining the team, Katrina reported on education for MindShift and was a finalist for the Education Writers Association beat reporting and audio storytelling awards. She co-hosts the MindShift podcast about the future of learning, and has been making radio since 2010. When she’s not reporting, Katrina loves reading, the ocean and the mountains, and playing ultimate frisbee.
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article first published in 2022 and has been lightly updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any group that feels obligated to include “Are you a sex cult?” on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html\">frequently asked questions page\u003c/a> probably has something of a public relations problem, even when the answer is, “No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seriously, we are in many ways fairly traditional, suburban families and individuals but we’re also a group exploring pleasurable living, which qualifies us as an alternative lifestyle,” writes the intentional community Lafayette Morehouse on its website. According to a 2020 webcast from Morehouse, “dozens and dozens” of people are still living communally in a group that has been active since the late 1960s. It’s one of a small fraction of surviving communes from that heyday of experimentation in group living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County locals like Sabrina McQueen used to see group members — who live on a secluded parcel of some 20-plus acres, including a swimming pool, tennis court and, at one time, a boxing ring — driving around town in purple limos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d drop people off at the grocery store,” McQueen said. “So it’s like, ‘Well, what’s that?’ And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the Purple People.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Purple is a big theme with Morehouse, whose members also live in purple-painted houses. In high school, McQueen and her friends were so curious about the group they’d make a night of spying on the property from the one lookout point where you could see it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Purple People” themselves \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html#purple-people\">do not answer to that name\u003c/a>. “Do I look purple to you?” one Morehouse member \u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/purple-haze/Content?oid=2132347\">told an SF Weekly reporter in 1995\u003c/a>. And their penchant for privacy is well-known in the area; McQueen’s father was a mail carrier, but Morehouse wouldn’t let him get past the gate of their property to make his deliveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McQueen herself had never heard the name Lafayette Morehouse. She has, however, heard the sex cult rumor, and media organizations also have referred to the group that way. So she wants to know the truth about Morehouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just wondering, are the Purple People still there and what are they about?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marco Beneteau took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 2000s and has lived in several communes. He said the idea that the group is a cult is “complete nonsense,” and that the group has displayed none of the characteristics associated with cults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives. None of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academics who study intentional communities like Morehouse eschew the very word “cult,” said \u003ca href=\"https://religiousstudies.ku.edu/timothy-miller\">Tim Miller, a professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas\u003c/a> who has written extensively about 1960s-era communes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way people in common parlance use the word is to say [this is] something I don’t like, and that may have a good basis and it may not,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why has Lafayette Morehouse acquired this reputation? I very much wanted to talk to the group, but despite numerous emails and phone calls, they mostly ignored me. However, some of their history is available in newspaper stories, magazine articles and books, on websites and via former members. What has come through is that Lafayette Morehouse is one of the few surviving links to an increasingly forgotten part of Bay Area history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgR5YkWAekM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>This promotional video produced by Lafayette Morehouse is the only one on their YouTube channel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Communes, gurus and human potential\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To really understand Lafayette Morehouse, you have to grasp a few things about the 1960s and early 1970s other than Bob Dylan, Vietnam and hippies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the era, the younger generation — believe it or not, the baby boomers now so readily derided as out of touch — formed the bulk of a counterculture looking to overthrow norms and conventions in just about everything: religion, politics, music, art — you name it. Hundreds of thousands — even up to a million — young people took to living together in groups organized around political, religious or environmental ideals, said Miller, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/60s-Communes-Syracuse-Conflict-Resolution/dp/081560601X?asin=081560601X&revisionId=&format=4&depth=2\">authored a survey of the era’s communes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in 1965, he said, “there was just an explosion” of new communities. These groups sought to build a better society based on values other than those enshrined in what Miller calls “this sort of me-first” American culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While communitarian ideas were inspiring people to live together in collectivist ways, a parallel, more individualistic philosophy also was gaining ground. The human potential movement was based on the notion that people could tap into their unused abilities to attain “self-actualization.” The Bay Area became a hub for both these ideas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12081386 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-08-KQED-3.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This also was the age when high-profile evangelists pushed for expanding human consciousness. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/2013/10/timothy-leary-archives/\">The former Harvard professor Timothy Leary\u003c/a> urged young people to take psychedelic drugs and “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Meanwhile, self-educated former car salesman Werner Erhard promoted \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training\">a program of intense seminars called EST\u003c/a>, designed to bring about personal transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, at the intersection of communes, the human potential movement and the rise of these charismatic gurus, appeared the founder of Morehouse: Victor Baranco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Victor Baranco was one of the teachers who had come up with a philosophy that helped people to self-actualize or reach their human potential,” said Laurie Rivlin-Heller, who knew Baranco in the 1970s when she lived in Morehouse residences in Oakland and Rohnert Park. \u003ca href=\"https://communalstudies.org/product/communal-societies-vol-25-2005/\">She later wrote her master’s thesis on the group\u003c/a>, which was initially called the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandmorehouse.com/\">Institute of Human Abilities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco was a former appliance salesman now selling a new philosophy, in which the goal, broadly speaking, was to remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was good at reeling people into his orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would participate in a course in which he was the teacher,” Rivlin-Heller said. “And he would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing. Not only did he listen, but he looked and he could assess on the basis of your question and maybe a couple of follow-up questions where you were coming from. It was a unique gift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco’s group made money by selling courses and renovating dilapidated houses he’d purchased. The Morehouse concept was so successful that at one point it had dozens of affiliates around the country, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sgt-bilko-meets-the-new-culture-182617/\">Rolling Stone reported\u003c/a> that people in Berkeley were calling the founder “the Colonel Sanders of the commune scene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 1971 article was less than complimentary, portraying Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo surrounded by obsequious devotees who paid money to hear him deliver homespun homilies. Baranco was also quoted as acknowledging he’d been a “hustler” who’d made “big money in shady ways. Not necessarily illegal, but shady,” including selling phony diamond rings and watches. The article later appeared in a book called “Mindfuckers” alongside a chapter on Charles Manson — not a good look for any leader of a commune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivlin-Heller said the article missed the point of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He put everything up front,” she said. “The introductory course to Morehouse is called the ‘Mark Group,’ where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were volunteering, entering into the hustle and participating in it. Those that I know, [they] had a good experience there … and if they didn’t feel they were getting value, they would leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another former Morehouse adherent, Rebekah Beneteau, said she took a lot of courses at the Lafayette property in the 1990s and also lived with her then-husband, Marco, in a Yonkers, New York, Morehouse. She described her time there as “a really life-changing experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12084476 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HistoryofWetsuit.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I call them the silver-lining people,” Beneteau said, “because their philosophy and approach to life was to always view everything as if it was a gift and their own creation. And how could they use it? How could they view it as already perfect, including the potential for change?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the primary components of the Morehouse philosophy, both Beneateaus said, is that a community runs better when its women are happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau said that while the Morehouses clearly had a money-making component, she never felt they took advantage of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve actually been affiliated with way more organizations that are way more pushy and suck your money out,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So what’s with the sex?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lafayette Morehouse bills its philosophy as “responsible hedonism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hedonism is an ethical point of view that has the pursuit of pleasure as the highest goal,” the group writes on its website. “People often think that living pleasurably means that you don’t care about anybody else. Our experience has proven that if you are going to have a pleasurable life, then you have to see to it that others around you live pleasurably too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big part of Morehouse’s hedonistic doctrine appears to involve having better sex. The group currently has nine sensuality-related \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">courses advertised on its website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11913695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1296px\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11913695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of the nine course titles offered by Lafayette Morehouse related to sensuality.\" width=\"1296\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png 1296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-800x254.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-1020x324.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-160x51.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current sensuality-related courses offered by Lafayette Morehouse. \u003ccite>(Lafayette Morehouse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The focus on sex is a reflection of the culture at the time of Morehouse’s founding, said Rivlin-Heller. Baranco, who was in his 30s at the time, saw a way for people his age and older to participate in the sexual revolution happening around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of these different gurus had different hooks,” Rivlin-Heller said. “Ram Dass did meditation and chanting and Buddhism. Esalen had humanistic psychology. So the sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One notorious Morehouse event was a \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/first-demo.html\">public demonstration\u003c/a> in 1976 of what the group claimed was a woman having a three-hour orgasm. (No, I couldn’t find any video.) And Baranco took advantage of California’s loose postsecondary education standards to turn the Lafayette commune into “More University,” which offered Ph.D.s in the humanities and sensuality, and conducted what the organization said was sexual research. In 1992, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that courses cost as much as $16,800. A 1994 profile of the university in \u003ca href=\"https://docplayer.net/45093155-Volume-2-no-7-march-1994-2-50.html\">the conservative magazine Heterodoxy\u003c/a> described a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/us/california-trying-to-close-worthless-diploma-schools.html\">less than rigorous academic program\u003c/a>, to put it mildly, as well as some alleged troubling sexual incidents, though no arrests or charges were ever made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s and ’90s, Baranco unsuccessfully sued The Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times for libel. One court decision is not-safe-for-work reading: According to the court, More University’s Advanced Sensuality class included research in “engorgement, lubrication, seminal secretion.” It said one of the goals of the course was to “make friends with another crotch.” The university was forced to shut down in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau, at least, believes Morehouse did legitimate sexual research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many people now who are teaching [the one-hour orgasm] who either attribute it to them or not,” she said. “They have a technique that allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a whole hour?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flafayette.morehouse%2Fvideos%2F2506462923003338%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>A Facebook Live video from Lafayette Morehouse discussing their approach to communal living and COVID-19.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fear of what’s different\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the 1970s into the early 1990s, Lafayette Morehouse engaged in an ongoing battle with the county and neighbors over zoning issues and code violations, including allowing unhoused people to live on the property in tents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Miller, the historian of intentional communities, said it’s not uncommon for communes to be unpopular among local residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a very typical thing that’s happened throughout history,” he said. “There seems to be an instinctive fear among a lot of people of anything that’s new or different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said the remaining ’60s-era communes are “often quite quiet. They don’t want to call attention to themselves, even though … they get along with their neighbors and all of that. [But] the big problem they have over and over are zoning laws [that] often forbid communal living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Surviving the decades\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Baranco died in Hawaii in 2002, and since then Lafayette Morehouse has been mostly free of controversy. The great swell of ’60s-era communes eventually dissipated, leaving only a small fraction of surviving groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A friend of mine, who still lives on one of the ’60s-era communes, said when their community had a great out-migration in the ’80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all,” said Miller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say why Morehouse has outlasted its peers, but Rebekah Beneteau said \u003ca href=\"https://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/how-to-free-love-commune-neil-strauss-2018-6/\">Morehouse has figured out how to make group living work\u003c/a>. During the coronavirus pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://fb.watch/cNfpmcgSuM/\">the group held a webcast\u003c/a> where they described the difficulty of living in a close community with so many people during a pandemic. But true to their “silver lining” philosophy, they were looking for ways the experience could actually enhance their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not a bad goal, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. You’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today we’re going to venture back to the 1960s and 70s, when the Bay Area was a center for many social movements.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sound pop of protest\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Black Panther Party formed in response to police brutality against Black people …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speech: We are talking about the survival of Black people, nothing else…\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women were frustrated by the gender inequality they faced daily … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chanting: Free our sisters, free ourselves\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a lot of people started to think differently about how they wanted to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As many as a million Americans decided to join communes, group living situations, often with shared chores and finances.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now the vast majority of those intentional communities that formed in the 60s and 70s have disappeared. But not all of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Jon Brooks went looking for one that survived in the suburbs of Contra Costa County, a group that has been steeped in mystery and sometimes controversy.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One note for listeners: we do talk about sex in this episode. It first aired in 2022. Here’s Jon… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If you were a high school kid growing up in the Walnut Creek area back in the 1990s, there wasn’t a lot to do. That’s one reason why Sabrina McQueen has never forgotten the big purple car she saw driving around town. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They’d drop people off at the grocery store. So it’s like, well, what’s that? And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the purple people.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purple people. That is fun to say. Say it once, you’re probably gonna want to say it again. Purple people. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who could they possibly be? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s what Sabrina wants to know. She remembers in the seventh grade she went with a friend to pick someone up who lived on the purple people’s property…a com pound on some 20-plus acres. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was so excited that I thought I was going to go inside and be able to see it. And then we got just to the gate, and that was it. You can’t get past the gate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What exactly was going on in there? It’s one of those lingering mysteries to people who live in the area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, here we should tell you, the Purple People aren’t really called the Purple People. (I know, rats.) That is just what locals call them. Why? Because they’re known to drive around in purple vehicles and live in purple-painted houses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you know the official name of the group?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, I don’t. That’s why I asked this question. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their real name is Lafayette Morehouse. And they are one of a very small fraction of 1960s-era communes that survive to this day. Lafayette Morehouse was so mysterious to locals like Sabrina, she and her friends on weekends would drive to this one lookout point to see if they could catch a glimpse of the property. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be kind of like, Hey, what do you guys want to go do tonight? It’s like, Oh, you guys want to go like, check out the purple people? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s driving me to that spot now. But she’s having a hard time finding it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So, here’s where we’re going to turn. But it has been 30 years\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Excuse me, we’re looking for the Purple People campus … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Purple people campus? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sorry, no idea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You never heard that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you think they don’t know for real?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music post\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lafayette Morehouse has a colorful history, which we’re going to get into in a moment, but in recent decades it’s been quiet. Three years ago, the group was briefly in the news after someone left racist graffiti on their buildings. Morehouse’s reaction to the media at the time: No comment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, I wanted very much to talk to the group, but they declined multiple interview requests. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I did find three former Morehouse members who did want to talk. Like Rebekah Beneteau. She took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 1990s. The group was so successful at attracting members, Morehouse branches sprang up around the country. Beneteau says she lived for six years in one of the sister Morehouse communes in New York. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Really the core of Morehouse’s philosophy is that life is better lived together and that we disrupted that in the 50s by shuttling every woman, every couple, off into their own houses. And then we invented Valium because there were all these women alone at home going nuts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1960s and 70s a lot of people were looking for new ways to live more fulfilling lives, at least more fulfilling than their parents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way to escape the prescribed path laid out by society – school, job, marriage, kids, death – was to live together in groups organized around political, religious, or environmental ideals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of thousands, up to a million, people tried their hand at communal living, says professor Tim Miller, an expert on intentional communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tim Miller:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Starting in 1965, I think you can date it that precisely. there was a whole new wave of communities came along… (4:00) I would say by and large these new young people’s communities were not very popular with mainstream society, and I would say that’s a very typical thing. I think it’s just that fear of what’s different.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1970s ..and all the way through the 90s, Morehouse and Contra Costa County also battled over zoning issues and code violations … skirmishes that were frequently reported in the news. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psychedelic music starts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1960s and 70s were also the age of … the guru. Like Timothy Leary – who urged people to take psychedelic drugs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Leary: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turn on, tune in, and drop out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Werner Erhard, creator of something called E-S-T, or EST. This was a program of intense seminars supposedly leading to personal transformation. What Erhard was prescribing was… um, I don’t know…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Werner Erhard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People are…that love is attention. People are…that love is attention. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of these different gurus had different hooks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Laurie Rivlin Heller. In the early ‘70s she dropped out of college and moved to the Bay Area. Here, she got interested in the human potential movement – the idea that people could tap into their unused abilities to reach their full potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s when she discovered someone named \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We’ve got to pause for a quick break. When we return … we get to know Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laurie Rivlin Heller met Victor Baranco in the early 70s, and found herself drawn to him.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Berkeley-born Baranco was the founder of Morehouse, which had branches in a few Bay Area cities. Baranco had a successful career as an appliance salesman. But with Morehouse, he was offering something more than consumer goods. He was selling a new philosophy. The goal…remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that he could so clearly understand who I was and where I was coming from. And he did that to everybody. It was a unique gift. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco called his program for living “responsible hedonism.” That means creating a pleasurable life for not only yourself, but for others. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The responsible part\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was that you take responsibility for your life and your action. Things could change, but it was up to you to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hedonism part? That’s where the “more” in Mor ehouse comes in. And a lot of it has to do with … you guessed it … or you didn’t, because this is public media: sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco. There were young people in this time period who were experiencing sexuality in a way that hadn’t been done previously. And there were older people who wanted a piece of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to former members, one of the tenets of Baranco’s teaching was that a community functioned better when the women were happy, sexually and otherwise.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The group is famous for a 1976 demonstration of a woman reportedly having a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3-hour\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> orgasm. Yes I said what I said. I spent a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lot\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of time looking for that tape. Didn’t find it. But I did find some current Morehouse YouTube videos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the fundamentals of sensuality course, we discuss the nature of orgasm. And in the afternoon, there’s a live demonstration of a woman in orgasm for an hour that will really blow your mind. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rebekah Beneteau…the woman who lived in a Morehouse commune in New York… was at first put off by the emphasis on sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They had a class where a woman was demonstrating being in orgasm for an hour. I thought that was extremely freaky. I didn’t want anything to do with them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But she did like the group’s positive outlook and focus on people’s ability to change. Now, she offers sex and intimacy coaching. And, she changed her mind about the one-hour orgasm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They have a technique that also allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 30:05 Can you really have a one-hour orgasm?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mm, 27 minutes. Pretty, pretty good.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this focus on sex has led to a certain reputation for Morehouse among its neighbors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s a couple of rumors, one that it was a sex cult. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, the group has definitely at times been labeled a sex cult. So much so they even have a question on their F-A-Q page … “Are you a sex cult?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I mean, that’s complete nonsense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Marco Beneteau. He and Rebekah used to be married. He also took a lot of Morehouse courses. Then the two of them started their own commune in Philadelphia. Now he lives on a commune in Wyoming. So the man knows his communes. He says Morehouse didn’t have any of the characteristics people associate with cults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion. You know, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives, that, you know, none of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Morehouse isn’t a cult, it has been controversial. In 1971, Rolling Stone published a pretty unflattering portrait of the group – complete with Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo. The article implied Baranco was making a lot of money off group members. But Laurie Rivlin Heller says there was nothing devious going on. Self-interest was an open part of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I would say that he put everything up front. The introductory course to Morehouse is called the Mark Group, where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were voluntarily entering into the hustle and participating in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, that Rolling Stone article later appeared in a book alongside a chapter on Charles Manson. Not a good look for any leader of a commune. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using classical educational modes, More university is dedicated to the full realization of human potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco later turned Lafayette Morehouse into More University. More University, more controversy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university offered PhDs in the humanities and of course, sensuality, including sexual research. In 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at least one course cost almost 17-thousand dollars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 80s and 90s Baranco sued the Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times for libel. (Hashtag please don’t sue \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">us\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.) The court threw those lawsuits out. One of the decisions is not-safe-for-work reading. According to the court, a goal of More University’s Advanced Sensuality class was to “make friends with another crotch.” Which, if you’re listening Morehouse, would be an awesome bumper sticker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university shut down in the mid-90s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco died in 2002 at the age of 68. And, eventually, the great majority of ‘60s communes faded away. Professor Timothy Miller:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Miller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friend of mine, who still lives on one of the 60s era communes, said when their community had a great outmigration in the 80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Morehouse has survived. The decades come, the decades go, and they’re still doing their thing – whatever it is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in the car with Sabrina, we wandered around trying to find that one view of the campus she remembers. We kept taking wrong turns, going back over the same streets. And then… …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a purple house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s excited. She’s a Purple People fan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wonder if that belongs to… Oh, yeah, I mean, that is, does that look like it’s purple?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nice\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> property, with tennis courts and everything. But really, there’s not much to see and the group does have a right to its privacy. Sabrina, I think, is viewing it through the eyes of her high school years, when there was this mysterious aura around this counterculture group … \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in her own suburban home town.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wanted to know what she thinks of the Purple People now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is kind of interesting that this has survived so long, which I think is so amazing. I mean, hey, if that’s what they want to do and they’re peaceful and they are able to be part of our community, it sounds like they’re having fun. So good for them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m a reporter. It’s my job to be skeptical. But I will say one thing. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Lafayette Morehouse went live over Facebook. They were definitely taking safety seriously. But, their aim wasn’t just to survive COVID, they said that wasn’t a high enough goal. They wanted to use the experience as a way to make their lives even better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If life hands you really sour lemons, make even sweeter lemonade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to admit, I’m still thinking about that one.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was reporter Jon Brooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you like Bay Curious, I’ve got a request. Please tell your podcast listening friends about the show. We all like a good recommendation…help us grow!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as always, consider donating to help sustain the work we do on Bay Curious. More info at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Brendan Willard and Sebastian Miño-Bucheli also helped on this episode. We get extra support from: Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Contra Costa County locals have long wondered about an intentional community in their midst whose roots stretch back to the 1960s. The group likes their privacy, but we talked to former members to learn what they're about.",
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"subhead": "Locals call them the \"Purple People\" because they drive around in purple limos and live in purple houses.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article first published in 2022 and has been lightly updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any group that feels obligated to include “Are you a sex cult?” on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html\">frequently asked questions page\u003c/a> probably has something of a public relations problem, even when the answer is, “No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seriously, we are in many ways fairly traditional, suburban families and individuals but we’re also a group exploring pleasurable living, which qualifies us as an alternative lifestyle,” writes the intentional community Lafayette Morehouse on its website. According to a 2020 webcast from Morehouse, “dozens and dozens” of people are still living communally in a group that has been active since the late 1960s. It’s one of a small fraction of surviving communes from that heyday of experimentation in group living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County locals like Sabrina McQueen used to see group members — who live on a secluded parcel of some 20-plus acres, including a swimming pool, tennis court and, at one time, a boxing ring — driving around town in purple limos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d drop people off at the grocery store,” McQueen said. “So it’s like, ‘Well, what’s that?’ And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the Purple People.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Purple is a big theme with Morehouse, whose members also live in purple-painted houses. In high school, McQueen and her friends were so curious about the group they’d make a night of spying on the property from the one lookout point where you could see it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Purple People” themselves \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html#purple-people\">do not answer to that name\u003c/a>. “Do I look purple to you?” one Morehouse member \u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/purple-haze/Content?oid=2132347\">told an SF Weekly reporter in 1995\u003c/a>. And their penchant for privacy is well-known in the area; McQueen’s father was a mail carrier, but Morehouse wouldn’t let him get past the gate of their property to make his deliveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McQueen herself had never heard the name Lafayette Morehouse. She has, however, heard the sex cult rumor, and media organizations also have referred to the group that way. So she wants to know the truth about Morehouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just wondering, are the Purple People still there and what are they about?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marco Beneteau took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 2000s and has lived in several communes. He said the idea that the group is a cult is “complete nonsense,” and that the group has displayed none of the characteristics associated with cults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives. None of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academics who study intentional communities like Morehouse eschew the very word “cult,” said \u003ca href=\"https://religiousstudies.ku.edu/timothy-miller\">Tim Miller, a professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas\u003c/a> who has written extensively about 1960s-era communes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way people in common parlance use the word is to say [this is] something I don’t like, and that may have a good basis and it may not,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why has Lafayette Morehouse acquired this reputation? I very much wanted to talk to the group, but despite numerous emails and phone calls, they mostly ignored me. However, some of their history is available in newspaper stories, magazine articles and books, on websites and via former members. What has come through is that Lafayette Morehouse is one of the few surviving links to an increasingly forgotten part of Bay Area history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgR5YkWAekM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>This promotional video produced by Lafayette Morehouse is the only one on their YouTube channel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Communes, gurus and human potential\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To really understand Lafayette Morehouse, you have to grasp a few things about the 1960s and early 1970s other than Bob Dylan, Vietnam and hippies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the era, the younger generation — believe it or not, the baby boomers now so readily derided as out of touch — formed the bulk of a counterculture looking to overthrow norms and conventions in just about everything: religion, politics, music, art — you name it. Hundreds of thousands — even up to a million — young people took to living together in groups organized around political, religious or environmental ideals, said Miller, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/60s-Communes-Syracuse-Conflict-Resolution/dp/081560601X?asin=081560601X&revisionId=&format=4&depth=2\">authored a survey of the era’s communes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in 1965, he said, “there was just an explosion” of new communities. These groups sought to build a better society based on values other than those enshrined in what Miller calls “this sort of me-first” American culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While communitarian ideas were inspiring people to live together in collectivist ways, a parallel, more individualistic philosophy also was gaining ground. The human potential movement was based on the notion that people could tap into their unused abilities to attain “self-actualization.” The Bay Area became a hub for both these ideas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This also was the age when high-profile evangelists pushed for expanding human consciousness. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/2013/10/timothy-leary-archives/\">The former Harvard professor Timothy Leary\u003c/a> urged young people to take psychedelic drugs and “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Meanwhile, self-educated former car salesman Werner Erhard promoted \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training\">a program of intense seminars called EST\u003c/a>, designed to bring about personal transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, at the intersection of communes, the human potential movement and the rise of these charismatic gurus, appeared the founder of Morehouse: Victor Baranco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Victor Baranco was one of the teachers who had come up with a philosophy that helped people to self-actualize or reach their human potential,” said Laurie Rivlin-Heller, who knew Baranco in the 1970s when she lived in Morehouse residences in Oakland and Rohnert Park. \u003ca href=\"https://communalstudies.org/product/communal-societies-vol-25-2005/\">She later wrote her master’s thesis on the group\u003c/a>, which was initially called the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandmorehouse.com/\">Institute of Human Abilities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco was a former appliance salesman now selling a new philosophy, in which the goal, broadly speaking, was to remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was good at reeling people into his orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would participate in a course in which he was the teacher,” Rivlin-Heller said. “And he would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing. Not only did he listen, but he looked and he could assess on the basis of your question and maybe a couple of follow-up questions where you were coming from. It was a unique gift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco’s group made money by selling courses and renovating dilapidated houses he’d purchased. The Morehouse concept was so successful that at one point it had dozens of affiliates around the country, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sgt-bilko-meets-the-new-culture-182617/\">Rolling Stone reported\u003c/a> that people in Berkeley were calling the founder “the Colonel Sanders of the commune scene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 1971 article was less than complimentary, portraying Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo surrounded by obsequious devotees who paid money to hear him deliver homespun homilies. Baranco was also quoted as acknowledging he’d been a “hustler” who’d made “big money in shady ways. Not necessarily illegal, but shady,” including selling phony diamond rings and watches. The article later appeared in a book called “Mindfuckers” alongside a chapter on Charles Manson — not a good look for any leader of a commune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivlin-Heller said the article missed the point of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He put everything up front,” she said. “The introductory course to Morehouse is called the ‘Mark Group,’ where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were volunteering, entering into the hustle and participating in it. Those that I know, [they] had a good experience there … and if they didn’t feel they were getting value, they would leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another former Morehouse adherent, Rebekah Beneteau, said she took a lot of courses at the Lafayette property in the 1990s and also lived with her then-husband, Marco, in a Yonkers, New York, Morehouse. She described her time there as “a really life-changing experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I call them the silver-lining people,” Beneteau said, “because their philosophy and approach to life was to always view everything as if it was a gift and their own creation. And how could they use it? How could they view it as already perfect, including the potential for change?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the primary components of the Morehouse philosophy, both Beneateaus said, is that a community runs better when its women are happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau said that while the Morehouses clearly had a money-making component, she never felt they took advantage of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve actually been affiliated with way more organizations that are way more pushy and suck your money out,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So what’s with the sex?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lafayette Morehouse bills its philosophy as “responsible hedonism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hedonism is an ethical point of view that has the pursuit of pleasure as the highest goal,” the group writes on its website. “People often think that living pleasurably means that you don’t care about anybody else. Our experience has proven that if you are going to have a pleasurable life, then you have to see to it that others around you live pleasurably too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big part of Morehouse’s hedonistic doctrine appears to involve having better sex. The group currently has nine sensuality-related \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">courses advertised on its website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11913695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1296px\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11913695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of the nine course titles offered by Lafayette Morehouse related to sensuality.\" width=\"1296\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png 1296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-800x254.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-1020x324.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-160x51.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current sensuality-related courses offered by Lafayette Morehouse. \u003ccite>(Lafayette Morehouse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The focus on sex is a reflection of the culture at the time of Morehouse’s founding, said Rivlin-Heller. Baranco, who was in his 30s at the time, saw a way for people his age and older to participate in the sexual revolution happening around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of these different gurus had different hooks,” Rivlin-Heller said. “Ram Dass did meditation and chanting and Buddhism. Esalen had humanistic psychology. So the sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One notorious Morehouse event was a \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/first-demo.html\">public demonstration\u003c/a> in 1976 of what the group claimed was a woman having a three-hour orgasm. (No, I couldn’t find any video.) And Baranco took advantage of California’s loose postsecondary education standards to turn the Lafayette commune into “More University,” which offered Ph.D.s in the humanities and sensuality, and conducted what the organization said was sexual research. In 1992, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that courses cost as much as $16,800. A 1994 profile of the university in \u003ca href=\"https://docplayer.net/45093155-Volume-2-no-7-march-1994-2-50.html\">the conservative magazine Heterodoxy\u003c/a> described a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/us/california-trying-to-close-worthless-diploma-schools.html\">less than rigorous academic program\u003c/a>, to put it mildly, as well as some alleged troubling sexual incidents, though no arrests or charges were ever made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s and ’90s, Baranco unsuccessfully sued The Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times for libel. One court decision is not-safe-for-work reading: According to the court, More University’s Advanced Sensuality class included research in “engorgement, lubrication, seminal secretion.” It said one of the goals of the course was to “make friends with another crotch.” The university was forced to shut down in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau, at least, believes Morehouse did legitimate sexual research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many people now who are teaching [the one-hour orgasm] who either attribute it to them or not,” she said. “They have a technique that allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a whole hour?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flafayette.morehouse%2Fvideos%2F2506462923003338%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>A Facebook Live video from Lafayette Morehouse discussing their approach to communal living and COVID-19.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fear of what’s different\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the 1970s into the early 1990s, Lafayette Morehouse engaged in an ongoing battle with the county and neighbors over zoning issues and code violations, including allowing unhoused people to live on the property in tents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Miller, the historian of intentional communities, said it’s not uncommon for communes to be unpopular among local residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a very typical thing that’s happened throughout history,” he said. “There seems to be an instinctive fear among a lot of people of anything that’s new or different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said the remaining ’60s-era communes are “often quite quiet. They don’t want to call attention to themselves, even though … they get along with their neighbors and all of that. [But] the big problem they have over and over are zoning laws [that] often forbid communal living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Surviving the decades\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Baranco died in Hawaii in 2002, and since then Lafayette Morehouse has been mostly free of controversy. The great swell of ’60s-era communes eventually dissipated, leaving only a small fraction of surviving groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A friend of mine, who still lives on one of the ’60s-era communes, said when their community had a great out-migration in the ’80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all,” said Miller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say why Morehouse has outlasted its peers, but Rebekah Beneteau said \u003ca href=\"https://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/how-to-free-love-commune-neil-strauss-2018-6/\">Morehouse has figured out how to make group living work\u003c/a>. During the coronavirus pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://fb.watch/cNfpmcgSuM/\">the group held a webcast\u003c/a> where they described the difficulty of living in a close community with so many people during a pandemic. But true to their “silver lining” philosophy, they were looking for ways the experience could actually enhance their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not a bad goal, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. You’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today we’re going to venture back to the 1960s and 70s, when the Bay Area was a center for many social movements.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sound pop of protest\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Black Panther Party formed in response to police brutality against Black people …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speech: We are talking about the survival of Black people, nothing else…\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women were frustrated by the gender inequality they faced daily … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chanting: Free our sisters, free ourselves\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a lot of people started to think differently about how they wanted to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As many as a million Americans decided to join communes, group living situations, often with shared chores and finances.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now the vast majority of those intentional communities that formed in the 60s and 70s have disappeared. But not all of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Jon Brooks went looking for one that survived in the suburbs of Contra Costa County, a group that has been steeped in mystery and sometimes controversy.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One note for listeners: we do talk about sex in this episode. It first aired in 2022. Here’s Jon… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If you were a high school kid growing up in the Walnut Creek area back in the 1990s, there wasn’t a lot to do. That’s one reason why Sabrina McQueen has never forgotten the big purple car she saw driving around town. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They’d drop people off at the grocery store. So it’s like, well, what’s that? And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the purple people.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purple people. That is fun to say. Say it once, you’re probably gonna want to say it again. Purple people. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who could they possibly be? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s what Sabrina wants to know. She remembers in the seventh grade she went with a friend to pick someone up who lived on the purple people’s property…a com pound on some 20-plus acres. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was so excited that I thought I was going to go inside and be able to see it. And then we got just to the gate, and that was it. You can’t get past the gate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What exactly was going on in there? It’s one of those lingering mysteries to people who live in the area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, here we should tell you, the Purple People aren’t really called the Purple People. (I know, rats.) That is just what locals call them. Why? Because they’re known to drive around in purple vehicles and live in purple-painted houses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you know the official name of the group?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, I don’t. That’s why I asked this question. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their real name is Lafayette Morehouse. And they are one of a very small fraction of 1960s-era communes that survive to this day. Lafayette Morehouse was so mysterious to locals like Sabrina, she and her friends on weekends would drive to this one lookout point to see if they could catch a glimpse of the property. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be kind of like, Hey, what do you guys want to go do tonight? It’s like, Oh, you guys want to go like, check out the purple people? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s driving me to that spot now. But she’s having a hard time finding it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So, here’s where we’re going to turn. But it has been 30 years\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Excuse me, we’re looking for the Purple People campus … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Purple people campus? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sorry, no idea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You never heard that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you think they don’t know for real?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music post\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lafayette Morehouse has a colorful history, which we’re going to get into in a moment, but in recent decades it’s been quiet. Three years ago, the group was briefly in the news after someone left racist graffiti on their buildings. Morehouse’s reaction to the media at the time: No comment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, I wanted very much to talk to the group, but they declined multiple interview requests. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I did find three former Morehouse members who did want to talk. Like Rebekah Beneteau. She took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 1990s. The group was so successful at attracting members, Morehouse branches sprang up around the country. Beneteau says she lived for six years in one of the sister Morehouse communes in New York. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Really the core of Morehouse’s philosophy is that life is better lived together and that we disrupted that in the 50s by shuttling every woman, every couple, off into their own houses. And then we invented Valium because there were all these women alone at home going nuts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1960s and 70s a lot of people were looking for new ways to live more fulfilling lives, at least more fulfilling than their parents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way to escape the prescribed path laid out by society – school, job, marriage, kids, death – was to live together in groups organized around political, religious, or environmental ideals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of thousands, up to a million, people tried their hand at communal living, says professor Tim Miller, an expert on intentional communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tim Miller:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Starting in 1965, I think you can date it that precisely. there was a whole new wave of communities came along… (4:00) I would say by and large these new young people’s communities were not very popular with mainstream society, and I would say that’s a very typical thing. I think it’s just that fear of what’s different.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1970s ..and all the way through the 90s, Morehouse and Contra Costa County also battled over zoning issues and code violations … skirmishes that were frequently reported in the news. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psychedelic music starts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1960s and 70s were also the age of … the guru. Like Timothy Leary – who urged people to take psychedelic drugs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Leary: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turn on, tune in, and drop out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Werner Erhard, creator of something called E-S-T, or EST. This was a program of intense seminars supposedly leading to personal transformation. What Erhard was prescribing was… um, I don’t know…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Werner Erhard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People are…that love is attention. People are…that love is attention. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of these different gurus had different hooks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Laurie Rivlin Heller. In the early ‘70s she dropped out of college and moved to the Bay Area. Here, she got interested in the human potential movement – the idea that people could tap into their unused abilities to reach their full potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s when she discovered someone named \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We’ve got to pause for a quick break. When we return … we get to know Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laurie Rivlin Heller met Victor Baranco in the early 70s, and found herself drawn to him.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Berkeley-born Baranco was the founder of Morehouse, which had branches in a few Bay Area cities. Baranco had a successful career as an appliance salesman. But with Morehouse, he was offering something more than consumer goods. He was selling a new philosophy. The goal…remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that he could so clearly understand who I was and where I was coming from. And he did that to everybody. It was a unique gift. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco called his program for living “responsible hedonism.” That means creating a pleasurable life for not only yourself, but for others. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The responsible part\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was that you take responsibility for your life and your action. Things could change, but it was up to you to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hedonism part? That’s where the “more” in Mor ehouse comes in. And a lot of it has to do with … you guessed it … or you didn’t, because this is public media: sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco. There were young people in this time period who were experiencing sexuality in a way that hadn’t been done previously. And there were older people who wanted a piece of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to former members, one of the tenets of Baranco’s teaching was that a community functioned better when the women were happy, sexually and otherwise.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The group is famous for a 1976 demonstration of a woman reportedly having a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3-hour\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> orgasm. Yes I said what I said. I spent a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lot\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of time looking for that tape. Didn’t find it. But I did find some current Morehouse YouTube videos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the fundamentals of sensuality course, we discuss the nature of orgasm. And in the afternoon, there’s a live demonstration of a woman in orgasm for an hour that will really blow your mind. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rebekah Beneteau…the woman who lived in a Morehouse commune in New York… was at first put off by the emphasis on sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They had a class where a woman was demonstrating being in orgasm for an hour. I thought that was extremely freaky. I didn’t want anything to do with them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But she did like the group’s positive outlook and focus on people’s ability to change. Now, she offers sex and intimacy coaching. And, she changed her mind about the one-hour orgasm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They have a technique that also allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 30:05 Can you really have a one-hour orgasm?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mm, 27 minutes. Pretty, pretty good.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this focus on sex has led to a certain reputation for Morehouse among its neighbors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s a couple of rumors, one that it was a sex cult. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, the group has definitely at times been labeled a sex cult. So much so they even have a question on their F-A-Q page … “Are you a sex cult?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I mean, that’s complete nonsense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Marco Beneteau. He and Rebekah used to be married. He also took a lot of Morehouse courses. Then the two of them started their own commune in Philadelphia. Now he lives on a commune in Wyoming. So the man knows his communes. He says Morehouse didn’t have any of the characteristics people associate with cults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion. You know, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives, that, you know, none of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Morehouse isn’t a cult, it has been controversial. In 1971, Rolling Stone published a pretty unflattering portrait of the group – complete with Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo. The article implied Baranco was making a lot of money off group members. But Laurie Rivlin Heller says there was nothing devious going on. Self-interest was an open part of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I would say that he put everything up front. The introductory course to Morehouse is called the Mark Group, where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were voluntarily entering into the hustle and participating in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, that Rolling Stone article later appeared in a book alongside a chapter on Charles Manson. Not a good look for any leader of a commune. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using classical educational modes, More university is dedicated to the full realization of human potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco later turned Lafayette Morehouse into More University. More University, more controversy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university offered PhDs in the humanities and of course, sensuality, including sexual research. In 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at least one course cost almost 17-thousand dollars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 80s and 90s Baranco sued the Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times for libel. (Hashtag please don’t sue \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">us\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.) The court threw those lawsuits out. One of the decisions is not-safe-for-work reading. According to the court, a goal of More University’s Advanced Sensuality class was to “make friends with another crotch.” Which, if you’re listening Morehouse, would be an awesome bumper sticker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university shut down in the mid-90s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco died in 2002 at the age of 68. And, eventually, the great majority of ‘60s communes faded away. Professor Timothy Miller:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Miller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friend of mine, who still lives on one of the 60s era communes, said when their community had a great outmigration in the 80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Morehouse has survived. The decades come, the decades go, and they’re still doing their thing – whatever it is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in the car with Sabrina, we wandered around trying to find that one view of the campus she remembers. We kept taking wrong turns, going back over the same streets. And then… …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a purple house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s excited. She’s a Purple People fan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wonder if that belongs to… Oh, yeah, I mean, that is, does that look like it’s purple?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nice\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> property, with tennis courts and everything. But really, there’s not much to see and the group does have a right to its privacy. Sabrina, I think, is viewing it through the eyes of her high school years, when there was this mysterious aura around this counterculture group … \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in her own suburban home town.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wanted to know what she thinks of the Purple People now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is kind of interesting that this has survived so long, which I think is so amazing. I mean, hey, if that’s what they want to do and they’re peaceful and they are able to be part of our community, it sounds like they’re having fun. So good for them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m a reporter. It’s my job to be skeptical. But I will say one thing. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Lafayette Morehouse went live over Facebook. They were definitely taking safety seriously. But, their aim wasn’t just to survive COVID, they said that wasn’t a high enough goal. They wanted to use the experience as a way to make their lives even better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If life hands you really sour lemons, make even sweeter lemonade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to admit, I’m still thinking about that one.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was reporter Jon Brooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you like Bay Curious, I’ve got a request. Please tell your podcast listening friends about the show. We all like a good recommendation…help us grow!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as always, consider donating to help sustain the work we do on Bay Curious. More info at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Brendan Willard and Sebastian Miño-Bucheli also helped on this episode. We get extra support from: Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "meet-the-around-the-clock-mechanics-keeping-golden-gate-ferries-moving",
"title": "Meet the Around-the-Clock Mechanics Keeping Golden Gate Ferries Moving",
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"headTitle": "Meet the Around-the-Clock Mechanics Keeping Golden Gate Ferries Moving | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kristen Breck remembers sitting in traffic on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/richmond\">Richmond\u003c/a> Bridge and looking out on the water. She spotted a ferry coming in from Vallejo. Then she saw another one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just thought, they’re so beautiful,” she said. “What happens if they get injured? Where do they go? Who is taking care of them?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is home to two major public ferry agencies: SF Bay Ferry, serving the East Bay, and Golden Gate Ferry, which serves the North Bay. Last year, both agencies combined carried about 4 million passengers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in the region. Before the late 1930s, ferries were the primary way people got across the bay. But after the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were constructed in 1936 and 1937, respectively, ferry ridership dwindled to “extinction levels,” according to Tom Hall, director of operations and customer experience at SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a number of smaller companies continued to ferry people across the bay, the region went without a major ferry agency for decades. In 1970, Golden Gate Ferry began service to the North Bay as a way to ease congestion on the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in 1989, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949362/how-loma-prieta-changed-earthquake-science-building-codes-and-the-bay-area\">Loma Prieta earthquake\u003c/a> hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 6.9 magnitude earthquake, in which \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3092/pdf/fs2014-3092.pdf\">63 people died\u003c/a> and more than 3,700 were injured, collapsed a section of the Bay Bridge. It was unusable for about a month. Hall said that, after the disaster, officials realized they needed an alternative way to evacuate the city in cases of emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passengers exit from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local officials started to plan for a ferry service to serve the East Bay. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) was formed in 2007, and four years later, it started operating SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay Area,” Hall said. “Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping the ferries running\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day long and doing it full speed — you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running,” said Mike Hoffman, deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry. “It’s no different for our ferry vessels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agencies send most ferries to maintenance shops located locally for quick fixes. Golden Gate Ferry’s maintenance shop, at the Larkspur terminal, handles everything from replacing lightbulbs to rebuilding engines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078030\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hoffman, the deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry, poses for a portrait at the shop where ferry machinery is maintained at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To avoid service delays, mechanics in groups of four work in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, to make sure the seven Golden Gate ferries are running smoothly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry,” said Ray Garibaldi, who has worked as a ferry mechanic for the Golden Gate Transportation District since 2001. “I decided to stick with mechanical welding and fabricating. And it’s been a great career for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said every day brings a new problem to solve. One day, he might be making replacement parts and welding them in the metal shop. Other days, he is repairing water jets when they get clogged with fishing line and debris. If there are problems with the main engine, he will spend days in the hot engine room repairing the control system.[aside postID=news_12078602 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/20241204-BART-JY-002_qed.jpg']Meanwhile, across the bay, SF Bay Ferry operates 11 vessels, sailing from the San Francisco Ferry Building to several destinations in the East Bay, including Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo. For everyday maintenance, vessels are sent to decommissioned military bases in Alameda and Mare Island in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects ferries run by both agencies to make sure they are up to code. For those inspections, the ferries are sent to the decommissioned military bases so they can be hoisted out of the water — or “dry docked” — if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors will look for signs of weakness in the hull of the vessel or any small water intrusions that might be on the surface of the vessel. They will also ride with crews to make sure safety measures are followed properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries are dry-docked again every five or six years so crews can do more extensive repairs, including replacing carpets, repairing damaged seats and changing out older technology for updated systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To comply with California’s emissions standards, ferries are often decommissioned after 25 years. But Hall said the agencies often sell vessels to other states whose standards are less strict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats,” Hall said. “They always seem to have a second life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The future of Bay Area ferry service\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ferry operators, like other public transportation agencies, struggled during the coronavirus pandemic and mandatory shelter-in-place orders. SF Bay Ferry’s ridership dropped to 6% of its normal capacity, Hall said. They immediately reduced service to two routes built around essential workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When people came back to work, different commuting patterns emerged. Before the pandemic, the agency could count on passengers five days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078036\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Napa ferry is stationed at a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But after the pandemic, with many people working from home at least some of the time, ridership has been less predictable. Hall said one of the most surprising changes has been a boost in weekend ridership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were ready to go back out,” he said. “I think the fact that we have outdoor seating on all of the ferries helped us a ton because if you were uncomfortable being in an enclosed area with other people that you didn’t know, you [could] sit outside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As companies slowly called employees back into the office, the agency saw an uptick in ridership. Now, with the trend towards more weekend riding continuing, along with some weekday commuting, the agency is seeing more riders than it ever has. In May of 2026, it \u003ca href=\"https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/san-francisco-bay-ferry-sets-another-ridership-record-in-may/\">beat its all-time ridership\u003c/a> record for the third month in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078040\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078040\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A replacement water jet sits on a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re on track to have our all-time best year in 2026, if things keep going the way they do,” Hall said. “That’s been gratifying to see people come back to the ferries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferry lovers will be excited to know that SF Bay Ferry someday hopes to expand its service to Treasure Island, Mission Bay, Berkeley and Redwood City. However, that expansion probably won’t happen anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More immediately, riders of the Golden Gate ferries will start seeing new vessels in the rotation. Next year, the agency plans to start replacing its fleet, and the new boats will be more fuel efficient and will have elevators and more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds water lapping\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Every time I ride a ferry across San Francisco Bay I feel a little fizz of excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ferry engine sounds along with lapping water\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Part of me knows that ferries are practical. A way a lot of people commute to work. But I mean look around – it’s hard not to get caught up in the romance of being on the water in such a gorgeous place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people even ride them just for fun. Like Peggy Gallagher who was riding the Larkspur ferry with her sister, in from out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peggy Gallegher: \u003c/strong>I mean, we live in the Bay Area, the most beautiful area in the world. And you just kind of forget your troubles because everywhere you look is just another view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>From the deck of the ferry there’s a great view of downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz and Angel Island, the Golden Gate Bridge…even Mount Tam. When you’re riding one, you can really appreciate the bay itself…the water at the heart of our region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>I think ferries really are emblematic of where we live and I love where we live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Kristen Breck, our question asker today, doesn’t get to ride ferries as often as she’d like. But she sees them when she’s driving around. One day she was on the Richmond bridge looking out over the water when she saw a Vallejo ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>And I just thought, there’s just so beautiful. What happens if they get injured? I’d like to know how and where the Golden Gate ferries around the bay are serviced and fixed. What does it take to fix a ferry? Where does that work get done, and who does it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in our region. Before the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built in the 1930s, ferries were the primary way to get to and from The City from the North and East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more people drive than take ferries of course, but we still have two major public ferry services that together carry about 3 to 4 million passengers a year. SF Bay Ferry services the East Bay and Golden Gate Ferries serve the North Bay. KQED’s housing and transportation reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi checked in with both ferry agencies about how they manage and repair their vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of ferry commuters boarding\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> I join a group of commuters and tourists headed from the San Francisco Ferry building to Larkspur on a beautiful sunny day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene : \u003c/strong>That was so easy, I could use my clipper card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>I’m on my way to the maintenance shop housed at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, where a lot of the Golden Gate Ferries get repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>These ferry vessels go back and forth from San Francisco to Marin County all day long and they go full speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Mike Hoffman is the Deputy General Manager of Golden Gate Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>So imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day along and doing it full speed, you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running. It’s no different for our ferry vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The average ferry has a lifespan of about 25 years. And it’s mechanic Ray Garibaldi’s job to keep them running smoothly throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Wow, okay. What is this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray and I are looking at a ferry jet that has a fishing line and other debris caught in the rotors. It looks like the metal blade at the bottom of a blender…just much larger. All seven of Golden Gate Ferry’s vessels cycle through this shop at the Larkspur terminal at one time or another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We can be fabricating parts, welding, rebuilding water jets, working on the main engines, repairing the control systems. So every day is a little bit different.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are big machines all over the place– a bandsaw that cuts metal, a big crane and a huge workbench. The walls are lined with nuts and bolts organized into little cubbies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray has been a ferry mechanic for the past 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry and I decided to stick with mechanical welding, fabricating, and it’s been a great career for me.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>He and his colleagues at the Larkspur shop handle all the routine maintenance issues that come up. Everything from changing lightbulbs to fixing the main engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the team can’t get a boat running safely, that will cause service delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We have three shifts, seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are usually four mechanics on each shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>And each shift kind of does things a little different. You know, day shift takes care of the terminals and rebuilding some of the major components and swing shift starts doing the maintenance and repairs and then graveyard kind of gets scheduled for. Get the boats ready to go out again in the morning if there’s any issues that need to be taken care of.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray says, when he travels on a ferry now, he pays attention in a different way..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Boats are like a big tuning fork you could have you know a problem in one part of the boat and the sound will travel through the boat and end up in a different spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>In addition to these routine maintenance needs, every ferry boat goes through inspections every 2-3 years…and major refurbishments every 5-6 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on that after this quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We’ve learned what happens when one of our ferries needs day to day repairs, but where do they go when they need more intense repairs? KQED reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us into a ferry’s engine room to find out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Look closely next time you’re on a ferry, and you might notice a hatch on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, this is where we’re going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray Garibaldi leads me down a narrow ladder into the belly of the vessel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Okay, so, uh, where, where are we, Ray?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Oh, we’re in the main engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Oh man, okay, we’re like basically surrounded by pipes and ducts and nice and toasty in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it always stays warm in the engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> When things break in this room, Ray is looking at a longer repair. Changing fuel pumps and other machinery can be week-long fixes. It’s warm in here… I’m starting to sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> I would imagine if it’s like cold outside then it would be really nice to work in the engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yes, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects the engine room to make sure everything is up to code. They also look for signs of weakness in the hull of the boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Hall is the Director of Operations and Customer Experience of SF Bay Ferry serving the East Bay. He explains the aluminum boats are light and strong, but susceptible to water damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>So what they’re inspecting for is any intrusions, which kind of looks like little holes cropping up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>If they find any, those get patched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom says, after the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built, ferry ridership dropped dramatically. But when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge, lawmakers realized people needed an alternative way to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately following the earthquake, smaller ferry services picked up the slack. And in 2011, SF Bay Ferry was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay area. Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well, you known, moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>It’s now grown to be the largest ferry operator in the region, carrying three quarters of passengers on its routes to San Francisco, South San Francisco,Vallejo, Richmond, Alameda and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every five or six years, all ferries need a little bit of extra maintenance love. That means using a lift to hoist the vessel out of the water. Then, maintenance crews get to work replacing stuff like the carpets, electronics and other technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of that more intensive maintenance also happens here in the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>At our two maintenance facilities, we have one in Alameda, our Central Bay facility, and the second one is in Vallejo on Mare Island. They’re both on decommissioned military bases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>After 25 years of service, vessels often have to be decommissioned because they no longer meet state emissions standards. So, they get sold to other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats and so yeah, they always seem to have a second life.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I know a lot more about how ferries get fixed, Adhiti, but I’m wondering about their future. So many transit agencies have really been struggling these past few years. So, how is the ferry system doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> SF Bay Ferry is actually seeing more people use its service now than it did before the pandemic. But like other transit agencies, they took a huge hit when commuters were told to stay home and shelter in place. Tom Hall said, when people started coming back, they saw different patterns emerging. With people working from home some days of the week, they can’t rely on consistent weekday ridership. But–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in our weekend ridership, which is why we have so much weekend service now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Even though ridership is up now, they haven’t fully recovered. Both ferry services get some money from bridge tolls and local governments, but both still rely on fares. In fact, there’s a bond initiative making its way to the November ballot which could provide funding for BART and other transit agencies. If it passes, the two ferry agencies could get some money out of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Since people really like ferries, we often get questions about whether service will expand in the future. Can you tell us anything about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Well, SF Bay Ferry, which serves the East Bay, has long wanted to expand its service to Treasure Island and Mission Bay. And eventually, it could even run vessels to Berkeley and Redwood City too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But something that’s happening sooner– Golden Gate Ferry, which operates in the North Bay, is slowly replacing their fleet of vessels with brand new ships, thanks to some federal dollars that came through. The first vessel hits the water next year. The new ships will have elevators, which will make the ships more accessible. They’ll also be more fuel efficient, and will have more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Adhiti Bandlamudi covers housing and transit for KQED. Thanks so much for diving into this topic!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> My pleasure! It was a wild, but mostly pleasant ride!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Just like the ferries – KQED also needs some funding! Help us out by becoming a sustaining member. It’s an ongoing monthly donation that happens automatically – and you can change or cancel at any time. Learn more at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a>. Thanks!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olivia: Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kristen Breck remembers sitting in traffic on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/richmond\">Richmond\u003c/a> Bridge and looking out on the water. She spotted a ferry coming in from Vallejo. Then she saw another one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just thought, they’re so beautiful,” she said. “What happens if they get injured? Where do they go? Who is taking care of them?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is home to two major public ferry agencies: SF Bay Ferry, serving the East Bay, and Golden Gate Ferry, which serves the North Bay. Last year, both agencies combined carried about 4 million passengers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in the region. Before the late 1930s, ferries were the primary way people got across the bay. But after the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were constructed in 1936 and 1937, respectively, ferry ridership dwindled to “extinction levels,” according to Tom Hall, director of operations and customer experience at SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a number of smaller companies continued to ferry people across the bay, the region went without a major ferry agency for decades. In 1970, Golden Gate Ferry began service to the North Bay as a way to ease congestion on the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in 1989, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949362/how-loma-prieta-changed-earthquake-science-building-codes-and-the-bay-area\">Loma Prieta earthquake\u003c/a> hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 6.9 magnitude earthquake, in which \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3092/pdf/fs2014-3092.pdf\">63 people died\u003c/a> and more than 3,700 were injured, collapsed a section of the Bay Bridge. It was unusable for about a month. Hall said that, after the disaster, officials realized they needed an alternative way to evacuate the city in cases of emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passengers exit from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local officials started to plan for a ferry service to serve the East Bay. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) was formed in 2007, and four years later, it started operating SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay Area,” Hall said. “Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping the ferries running\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day long and doing it full speed — you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running,” said Mike Hoffman, deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry. “It’s no different for our ferry vessels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agencies send most ferries to maintenance shops located locally for quick fixes. Golden Gate Ferry’s maintenance shop, at the Larkspur terminal, handles everything from replacing lightbulbs to rebuilding engines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078030\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hoffman, the deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry, poses for a portrait at the shop where ferry machinery is maintained at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To avoid service delays, mechanics in groups of four work in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, to make sure the seven Golden Gate ferries are running smoothly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry,” said Ray Garibaldi, who has worked as a ferry mechanic for the Golden Gate Transportation District since 2001. “I decided to stick with mechanical welding and fabricating. And it’s been a great career for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said every day brings a new problem to solve. One day, he might be making replacement parts and welding them in the metal shop. Other days, he is repairing water jets when they get clogged with fishing line and debris. If there are problems with the main engine, he will spend days in the hot engine room repairing the control system.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, across the bay, SF Bay Ferry operates 11 vessels, sailing from the San Francisco Ferry Building to several destinations in the East Bay, including Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo. For everyday maintenance, vessels are sent to decommissioned military bases in Alameda and Mare Island in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects ferries run by both agencies to make sure they are up to code. For those inspections, the ferries are sent to the decommissioned military bases so they can be hoisted out of the water — or “dry docked” — if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors will look for signs of weakness in the hull of the vessel or any small water intrusions that might be on the surface of the vessel. They will also ride with crews to make sure safety measures are followed properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries are dry-docked again every five or six years so crews can do more extensive repairs, including replacing carpets, repairing damaged seats and changing out older technology for updated systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To comply with California’s emissions standards, ferries are often decommissioned after 25 years. But Hall said the agencies often sell vessels to other states whose standards are less strict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats,” Hall said. “They always seem to have a second life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The future of Bay Area ferry service\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ferry operators, like other public transportation agencies, struggled during the coronavirus pandemic and mandatory shelter-in-place orders. SF Bay Ferry’s ridership dropped to 6% of its normal capacity, Hall said. They immediately reduced service to two routes built around essential workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When people came back to work, different commuting patterns emerged. Before the pandemic, the agency could count on passengers five days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078036\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Napa ferry is stationed at a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But after the pandemic, with many people working from home at least some of the time, ridership has been less predictable. Hall said one of the most surprising changes has been a boost in weekend ridership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were ready to go back out,” he said. “I think the fact that we have outdoor seating on all of the ferries helped us a ton because if you were uncomfortable being in an enclosed area with other people that you didn’t know, you [could] sit outside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As companies slowly called employees back into the office, the agency saw an uptick in ridership. Now, with the trend towards more weekend riding continuing, along with some weekday commuting, the agency is seeing more riders than it ever has. In May of 2026, it \u003ca href=\"https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/san-francisco-bay-ferry-sets-another-ridership-record-in-may/\">beat its all-time ridership\u003c/a> record for the third month in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078040\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078040\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A replacement water jet sits on a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re on track to have our all-time best year in 2026, if things keep going the way they do,” Hall said. “That’s been gratifying to see people come back to the ferries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferry lovers will be excited to know that SF Bay Ferry someday hopes to expand its service to Treasure Island, Mission Bay, Berkeley and Redwood City. However, that expansion probably won’t happen anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More immediately, riders of the Golden Gate ferries will start seeing new vessels in the rotation. Next year, the agency plans to start replacing its fleet, and the new boats will be more fuel efficient and will have elevators and more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds water lapping\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Every time I ride a ferry across San Francisco Bay I feel a little fizz of excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ferry engine sounds along with lapping water\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Part of me knows that ferries are practical. A way a lot of people commute to work. But I mean look around – it’s hard not to get caught up in the romance of being on the water in such a gorgeous place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people even ride them just for fun. Like Peggy Gallagher who was riding the Larkspur ferry with her sister, in from out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peggy Gallegher: \u003c/strong>I mean, we live in the Bay Area, the most beautiful area in the world. And you just kind of forget your troubles because everywhere you look is just another view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>From the deck of the ferry there’s a great view of downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz and Angel Island, the Golden Gate Bridge…even Mount Tam. When you’re riding one, you can really appreciate the bay itself…the water at the heart of our region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>I think ferries really are emblematic of where we live and I love where we live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Kristen Breck, our question asker today, doesn’t get to ride ferries as often as she’d like. But she sees them when she’s driving around. One day she was on the Richmond bridge looking out over the water when she saw a Vallejo ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>And I just thought, there’s just so beautiful. What happens if they get injured? I’d like to know how and where the Golden Gate ferries around the bay are serviced and fixed. What does it take to fix a ferry? Where does that work get done, and who does it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in our region. Before the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built in the 1930s, ferries were the primary way to get to and from The City from the North and East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more people drive than take ferries of course, but we still have two major public ferry services that together carry about 3 to 4 million passengers a year. SF Bay Ferry services the East Bay and Golden Gate Ferries serve the North Bay. KQED’s housing and transportation reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi checked in with both ferry agencies about how they manage and repair their vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of ferry commuters boarding\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> I join a group of commuters and tourists headed from the San Francisco Ferry building to Larkspur on a beautiful sunny day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene : \u003c/strong>That was so easy, I could use my clipper card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>I’m on my way to the maintenance shop housed at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, where a lot of the Golden Gate Ferries get repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>These ferry vessels go back and forth from San Francisco to Marin County all day long and they go full speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Mike Hoffman is the Deputy General Manager of Golden Gate Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>So imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day along and doing it full speed, you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running. It’s no different for our ferry vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The average ferry has a lifespan of about 25 years. And it’s mechanic Ray Garibaldi’s job to keep them running smoothly throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Wow, okay. What is this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray and I are looking at a ferry jet that has a fishing line and other debris caught in the rotors. It looks like the metal blade at the bottom of a blender…just much larger. All seven of Golden Gate Ferry’s vessels cycle through this shop at the Larkspur terminal at one time or another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We can be fabricating parts, welding, rebuilding water jets, working on the main engines, repairing the control systems. So every day is a little bit different.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are big machines all over the place– a bandsaw that cuts metal, a big crane and a huge workbench. The walls are lined with nuts and bolts organized into little cubbies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray has been a ferry mechanic for the past 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry and I decided to stick with mechanical welding, fabricating, and it’s been a great career for me.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>He and his colleagues at the Larkspur shop handle all the routine maintenance issues that come up. Everything from changing lightbulbs to fixing the main engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the team can’t get a boat running safely, that will cause service delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We have three shifts, seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are usually four mechanics on each shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>And each shift kind of does things a little different. You know, day shift takes care of the terminals and rebuilding some of the major components and swing shift starts doing the maintenance and repairs and then graveyard kind of gets scheduled for. Get the boats ready to go out again in the morning if there’s any issues that need to be taken care of.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray says, when he travels on a ferry now, he pays attention in a different way..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Boats are like a big tuning fork you could have you know a problem in one part of the boat and the sound will travel through the boat and end up in a different spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>In addition to these routine maintenance needs, every ferry boat goes through inspections every 2-3 years…and major refurbishments every 5-6 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on that after this quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We’ve learned what happens when one of our ferries needs day to day repairs, but where do they go when they need more intense repairs? KQED reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us into a ferry’s engine room to find out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Look closely next time you’re on a ferry, and you might notice a hatch on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, this is where we’re going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray Garibaldi leads me down a narrow ladder into the belly of the vessel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Okay, so, uh, where, where are we, Ray?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Oh, we’re in the main engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Oh man, okay, we’re like basically surrounded by pipes and ducts and nice and toasty in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it always stays warm in the engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> When things break in this room, Ray is looking at a longer repair. Changing fuel pumps and other machinery can be week-long fixes. It’s warm in here… I’m starting to sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> I would imagine if it’s like cold outside then it would be really nice to work in the engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yes, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects the engine room to make sure everything is up to code. They also look for signs of weakness in the hull of the boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Hall is the Director of Operations and Customer Experience of SF Bay Ferry serving the East Bay. He explains the aluminum boats are light and strong, but susceptible to water damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>So what they’re inspecting for is any intrusions, which kind of looks like little holes cropping up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>If they find any, those get patched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom says, after the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built, ferry ridership dropped dramatically. But when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge, lawmakers realized people needed an alternative way to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately following the earthquake, smaller ferry services picked up the slack. And in 2011, SF Bay Ferry was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay area. Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well, you known, moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>It’s now grown to be the largest ferry operator in the region, carrying three quarters of passengers on its routes to San Francisco, South San Francisco,Vallejo, Richmond, Alameda and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every five or six years, all ferries need a little bit of extra maintenance love. That means using a lift to hoist the vessel out of the water. Then, maintenance crews get to work replacing stuff like the carpets, electronics and other technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of that more intensive maintenance also happens here in the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>At our two maintenance facilities, we have one in Alameda, our Central Bay facility, and the second one is in Vallejo on Mare Island. They’re both on decommissioned military bases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>After 25 years of service, vessels often have to be decommissioned because they no longer meet state emissions standards. So, they get sold to other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats and so yeah, they always seem to have a second life.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I know a lot more about how ferries get fixed, Adhiti, but I’m wondering about their future. So many transit agencies have really been struggling these past few years. So, how is the ferry system doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> SF Bay Ferry is actually seeing more people use its service now than it did before the pandemic. But like other transit agencies, they took a huge hit when commuters were told to stay home and shelter in place. Tom Hall said, when people started coming back, they saw different patterns emerging. With people working from home some days of the week, they can’t rely on consistent weekday ridership. But–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in our weekend ridership, which is why we have so much weekend service now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Even though ridership is up now, they haven’t fully recovered. Both ferry services get some money from bridge tolls and local governments, but both still rely on fares. In fact, there’s a bond initiative making its way to the November ballot which could provide funding for BART and other transit agencies. If it passes, the two ferry agencies could get some money out of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Since people really like ferries, we often get questions about whether service will expand in the future. Can you tell us anything about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Well, SF Bay Ferry, which serves the East Bay, has long wanted to expand its service to Treasure Island and Mission Bay. And eventually, it could even run vessels to Berkeley and Redwood City too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But something that’s happening sooner– Golden Gate Ferry, which operates in the North Bay, is slowly replacing their fleet of vessels with brand new ships, thanks to some federal dollars that came through. The first vessel hits the water next year. The new ships will have elevators, which will make the ships more accessible. They’ll also be more fuel efficient, and will have more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Adhiti Bandlamudi covers housing and transit for KQED. Thanks so much for diving into this topic!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> My pleasure! It was a wild, but mostly pleasant ride!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Just like the ferries – KQED also needs some funding! Help us out by becoming a sustaining member. It’s an ongoing monthly donation that happens automatically – and you can change or cancel at any time. Learn more at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a>. Thanks!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olivia: Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp> \u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is a beautiful state with incredible natural scenery. But it can sometimes feel daunting to actually get out and take advantage of all the state has to offer because there are so many other people vying for the same campsites and permits. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973183/want-to-go-camping-near-the-bay-area-this-summer-make-your-reservations-now#:~:text=Camping%20on%20federal%20Forest%20Service%20or%20BLM%20land\">process to reserve campsites\u003c/a> is notoriously cumbersome and favors people who know their plans in advance. But what if you find yourself with a free summer weekend? Dispersed camping might be just the thing, but it’s worth knowing what you’re getting yourself into. We break down the main things to be aware of so that you can have a great time and stay safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re looking for more resources about camping, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/explainers\">KQED’s Audience Desk\u003c/a> has a ton of helpful guides:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083697/how-to-find-dispersed-camping-california-near-san-francisco-bay-area-free-campsites-public-lands-national-forests-blm\">Dispersed Camping 101: How to Find Free Campsites Near the Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082396/cheap-camping-near-bay-area-checklist-gear-cookware-tent-rental-sleeping-bag-pad\">How Cheaply Can You Camp In the Bay Area Without Sacrificing Comfort?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035515/where-to-go-camping-in-the-south-bay\">Where to Go Camping In the South Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11920867/how-to-find-free-camping-in-californias-national-forests\">How to Find Free Camping in California’s National Forests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bay Curious audience has shown us over the years that you all are very interested in camping. In 2017, we did a story about how bots snap up campsites, making it nearly impossible for real humans to click their way into a primo reservation. And you made it one of our most popular stories of the year. Last year, we offered a little update on that story. TLDR, things are better, but still, it’s tough out there. And we offered some tips on how to be a camping reservation making master. This year, we wanted to help you even more by going in depth on how to get out and go camping if you’re maybe not the type of person who could wake up early and make a reservation six months in advance. Or maybe if you feel like being at a campsite that’s a stone’s throw from the next group isn’t quite getting away from it all. Today, we’re talking about dispersed camping. No reservations needed, just show up, set up, and go. Could it be camping at its finest, easiest, truest form, or could it be more than you bargained for? Here to guide us through it all and answer your questions about dispersed camping is KQED’s outdoor reporter, Sarah Wright. Welcome, Sarah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks so much for having me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I gotta start by showing my cards here. I have done some dispersed camping myself. For people who have not tried this yet, what is dispersed camping?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, so I have also done quite a lot of dispersed camping, most of it backpacking, so hiking out to a secluded spot all by yourself, which I think is like the best way to experience nature, but there’s a way to do that without hiking at all with your car. Dispersed camping is where you are usually going to a federal government wilderness area, there’s no campground, you’re on public land, It’s usually free to camp out there. And it’s sort of like a safari. That’s how Ben Easley, the founder of Overland Trail Guides, described it to me. He runs a website that offers downloadable guides and GPS waypoints for remote camping all over the US.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s still some amazing campgrounds out there, don’t get me wrong, but I think once you get turned on to dispersed camping, you can make better educated decisions on where to camp that are gonna meet your criteria.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It sounds like an absolute dream, but there are some drawbacks that people need to understand up front, right? What are those?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because you’re not at a developed campsite, there’s not gonna be any facilities. That means no bathrooms, no running water, often there’s no cell service, there’s trash service either, so you’ll have to pack out everything you bring in. It’s not really a campsite. It’s just a spot where you can set up and you’ll be out there completely on your own. So logistically, you need to be ready for that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You’ll still see people when you go to Spurs camping, but once you kind of get the hang of it, even with 40 million people in the state, you can absolutely find locations where you won’t see a neighbor around you if you know where to look.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But none of these places are particularly close to here. We should also be upfront about that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, that’s right. Typically, you can only disperse camp on federal lands. That means you have to get out of our local state parks, our local beaches, where everything’s regulated and developed campsites are the norms. And you have to go to places like Tahoe National Forest or Mendocino, a few hours farther away, but a chance to explore a new wilderness area. How do you find a place to disperse camp? What do you look for? First, I would advise figuring out where you want to go. Do you want be in Redwood Forest? Do you wanna be up in high alpine lakes? You wanna be by the beach? Narrow it down generally to a region and then do your research. There’s a ton of information online. There are lots of YouTube accounts, lots of bloggers who will show you kind of the opportunities in those areas. Your next step is to figure out what agency manages the land that you’re trying to go on. So go to the website of that agency. It’s probably the Bureau of Land Management or the US Forest Service. And it might be as easy as downloading the free maps on that website to figure out where is a road that you can take and where can you disperse camp. The best advice that Ben gave me and that I agree with is to just call up the local ranger station.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I know people don’t do this anymore, but you’d be amazed how much information you can simply get by just picking up a phone. And sometimes the people that you talk to will tell you their secret spots of places to go check out as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If this is sounding intimidating, but people are still interested, is there sort of a recommendation for where you might get started?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don’t want to design your own itinerary, you can download some expert resources. So there are free and paid apps that have overlays essentially, so maps that can tell you where the U.S. Forest Service or BLM land is and help you design a route through these lands in order to camp somewhere that’s for sure on public, not private land, which is important. And so some of the paid apps are apps like Onyx or Gaia GPS or The Dirt. And the good thing about these apps is most of them offer like a two-week free promo period. So you can test them out and see if you like them and if they’re helpful before committing. There’s also free apps like Cal Topo. They take a little bit more tinkering and time to get used to, but if you’re someone who’s really into like… Maps and navigating, play around in those and you can even build routes and have them accessible offline while you’re actually camping.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And maybe walk me through, what was your experience of going dispersed camping? Like you roll up, what then?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of my favorite things about this first camping is that you have to have a first choice, a second choice, and a third choice, because you don’t know if people are going to be there. So my experience is you roll up and you’re shocked and excited that your first choice is available and hopefully as beautiful as you thought. But you always have to be prepared in the case that someone’s already there. And Ben gave me good advice, you know, if somebody’s in the spot you were hoping to get.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When there’s other room around you, the expectation is that, like, you should respect that somebody got that site before you and you should try to find somewhere else.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My experience in general has been that there’s more than enough space to go around. You can go down the dirt road a couple more miles and find an equally great spot.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’ll say a lot of the dispersed camping I’ve done has been a little bit more, like, of the dirt bag variety, I would say. So the camp site that we were at wasn’t particularly beautiful, but it was more about proximity to something that was really cool. So we’ve crashed a couple times outside of Yosemite. There’s some forest service land that is not particularly notable, but it’s really about just having a place to sleep so you can wake up early and then get into Yosemite and have a great day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’re going to pause for a quick break. More just ahead. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor break\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some friends of mine went dispersed camping for their very first trip this past weekend. And I was asking them about what questions they were facing as they were sort of getting ready to, you know, embark on this new adventure. And one of their biggest concerns was about water. How do you camp without a clean water source or a spigot?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You basically have two options. If the place you’re going, you know, has access to a stream or a river or a lake, you can pack a water filter and just make sure you’re also packing like some sort of receptacle to hold the water in. So I bring these big two, three liter bags. You can bring, you know, those sort of car camping jugs, but if you aren’t sure you are gonna have water, it’s always kind of better to be safe than sorry. Just bring enough. And make sure you have enough to cook. Enough to clean, enough to put out a fire if you create a fire. So just like have extra as insurance. Also if it’s hotter than you think it’s going to be all you have to do is be prepared. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And what about fires? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First thing first you must check if you’re allowed to build a campfire at the place you’re going and this might be seasonal. So check the website of the place you’re going call the ranger if you have questions. Just triple check whether or not you’re allowed to build a campfire, if you are. Typically, you’ll be required to make it in sort of a cleared out space with some rocks. There might even be dispersed sites like past people who have made, sort of, little campfire area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anywhere you’re camping in California, you need to get a California campfire permit. Even if you’re not going to make a campfire, if you are going to cook using a stove, if you’re going to use fire for any reason at all while you’re out there, you need to have a valid campfire permit. It’s like a five minute video. You sign up, it’s free. It just to remind you of how to safely use fire out in the backcountry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And finally, we have to talk about it, but toilets. You won’t find any if you’re dispersed camping for the most part. What are guidelines people need to keep in mind for when nature calls?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, so there’s this handy tool called a trowel and you should always have one. It’s basically like a mini shovel for your poop. And most regulations here in California are to bury your poop six to eight inches deep in a hole. And you wanna be at least 200 feet away from any water sources. And it’s important that you dig deep enough, you go in the hole, you cover it up, and try to- do it like also away from where anyone might be camping or anything like that. I personally always pack out my toilet paper. I know some people bury their toilet paper here on the West Coast. The climate is so dry that that toilet paper is not going to be decomposing at a reasonable rate. I put a ziplock inside of a ziplock. And I put all of my toilet paper in there and pack it out with the rest of my trash and just double-check some wilderness areas here in California will even require that you use a wag bag. It sounds more fun than it is. It’s basically an insulated, like scented Ziploc bag that you had to poop in and that’s so that you don’t leave any of your waste behind at all. And that may sound crazy, but. If you’ve ever been to an area that requires a wag bag, you’ll immediately understand why. It’s like beautiful granite landscapes where there are no trees, there’s no soil. So there’s just really no chance of your poop being, you know, biodegradable in a reasonable amount of time. So that’s something that you have to make sure that you’re prepared to do. And that means like bringing enough trash bags where you feel comfortable in your vehicle, storing your poop trash. Somewhere away from your food, away from your clothes, away from everything else. So just be prepared.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sounds so fun, but I mean, wag bags are great to have no matter what, even if you think you’re gonna be able to dig a hole because eight inches is pretty deep. You might not always have that much, I don’t know, digging interest in you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digging interest and also like warning time, like, if you’re just like gotta go it’s nice to have a wag bag ready.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, so if people are interested, where might they get started with some of this this summer?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, so Ben actually had a really good suggestion. It’s to go to Jackson Demonstration State Forest that’s up in Mendocino County. It’s not technically dispersed camping, but it’s an area that’s managed by Cal Fire and the sites are super spread out. They’re first come first serve and there are no facilities very similar to dispersed camping except there are outhouses. So he suggested it as a great sort of intro trip if you’re interested in dispersed camping, you want to start bringing your own water, bringing your own, you know, emergency devices, et cetera, but you’re a little scared to get out there for real. That’s a great first spot to check out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other suggestion I have is to pick the highway closest to you that goes up into the Sierras and find a spot at least a mile off of the highway in the National Forest there. So that’s likely to be like Tahoe National Forest or El Dorado or Stanislaus. And these types of spots are so beautiful. They’re almost Tahoe-like in their alpine wilderness, but without the crowds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We like to use the motor vehicle use map that the National Forest puts out that has a little bit more details about where all you can drive your car if you are in a National Forest.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, that map is super helpful and all those apps I mentioned have that as an overlay so you can check your route that you’re building with sort of those access areas. And of course, make sure that your car can handle the roads that you are planning to go down. Many of these roads are probably dirt or gravel roads and aren’t super well maintained. So just double check before you’re going about whether it’s a paved road or not and whether or not your car could handle it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those are some great tips. Sarah, thank you so much. Thank you. Sarah Wright is the outdoors reporter for KQED. She has a full guide to dispersed camping on kqed.org with lots of links and resources for planning your first trip. We’ll put a link in our show notes. Every month we invite our audience to vote on some questions we’re considering answering on the show. Our June round just went up. Here are your options. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 1:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I have lived in the Richmond District for decades and heard that it is also known as Little Russia. How did that happen? There’s a large Russian cathedral and several Russian stores and delis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 2: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I walked through the Presidio and noticed many beautiful private-looking residences. Is the public allowed to live there? Is it still a Navy and Army property? Who maintains this lovely park?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 3: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was there a steam railroad through Noe Valley and the Mission? Is there a way left to see it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cast your vote at BayCurious.org. It’s quick and easy. Bake Your Race is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen Price. We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien, Ethan Tovan Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price, happy trails. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Singing] Happy trails to you until we meet again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ooh, can we auto tune that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "View the full episode transcript. California is a beautiful state with incredible natural scenery. But it can sometimes feel daunting to actually get out and take advantage of all the state has to offer because there are so many other people vying for the same campsites and permits. The process to reserve campsites is notoriously",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is a beautiful state with incredible natural scenery. But it can sometimes feel daunting to actually get out and take advantage of all the state has to offer because there are so many other people vying for the same campsites and permits. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11973183/want-to-go-camping-near-the-bay-area-this-summer-make-your-reservations-now#:~:text=Camping%20on%20federal%20Forest%20Service%20or%20BLM%20land\">process to reserve campsites\u003c/a> is notoriously cumbersome and favors people who know their plans in advance. But what if you find yourself with a free summer weekend? Dispersed camping might be just the thing, but it’s worth knowing what you’re getting yourself into. We break down the main things to be aware of so that you can have a great time and stay safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re looking for more resources about camping, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/explainers\">KQED’s Audience Desk\u003c/a> has a ton of helpful guides:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12083697/how-to-find-dispersed-camping-california-near-san-francisco-bay-area-free-campsites-public-lands-national-forests-blm\">Dispersed Camping 101: How to Find Free Campsites Near the Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082396/cheap-camping-near-bay-area-checklist-gear-cookware-tent-rental-sleeping-bag-pad\">How Cheaply Can You Camp In the Bay Area Without Sacrificing Comfort?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035515/where-to-go-camping-in-the-south-bay\">Where to Go Camping In the South Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11920867/how-to-find-free-camping-in-californias-national-forests\">How to Find Free Camping in California’s National Forests\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bay Curious audience has shown us over the years that you all are very interested in camping. In 2017, we did a story about how bots snap up campsites, making it nearly impossible for real humans to click their way into a primo reservation. And you made it one of our most popular stories of the year. Last year, we offered a little update on that story. TLDR, things are better, but still, it’s tough out there. And we offered some tips on how to be a camping reservation making master. This year, we wanted to help you even more by going in depth on how to get out and go camping if you’re maybe not the type of person who could wake up early and make a reservation six months in advance. Or maybe if you feel like being at a campsite that’s a stone’s throw from the next group isn’t quite getting away from it all. Today, we’re talking about dispersed camping. No reservations needed, just show up, set up, and go. Could it be camping at its finest, easiest, truest form, or could it be more than you bargained for? Here to guide us through it all and answer your questions about dispersed camping is KQED’s outdoor reporter, Sarah Wright. Welcome, Sarah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks so much for having me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I gotta start by showing my cards here. I have done some dispersed camping myself. For people who have not tried this yet, what is dispersed camping?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, so I have also done quite a lot of dispersed camping, most of it backpacking, so hiking out to a secluded spot all by yourself, which I think is like the best way to experience nature, but there’s a way to do that without hiking at all with your car. Dispersed camping is where you are usually going to a federal government wilderness area, there’s no campground, you’re on public land, It’s usually free to camp out there. And it’s sort of like a safari. That’s how Ben Easley, the founder of Overland Trail Guides, described it to me. He runs a website that offers downloadable guides and GPS waypoints for remote camping all over the US.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s still some amazing campgrounds out there, don’t get me wrong, but I think once you get turned on to dispersed camping, you can make better educated decisions on where to camp that are gonna meet your criteria.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It sounds like an absolute dream, but there are some drawbacks that people need to understand up front, right? What are those?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because you’re not at a developed campsite, there’s not gonna be any facilities. That means no bathrooms, no running water, often there’s no cell service, there’s trash service either, so you’ll have to pack out everything you bring in. It’s not really a campsite. It’s just a spot where you can set up and you’ll be out there completely on your own. So logistically, you need to be ready for that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You’ll still see people when you go to Spurs camping, but once you kind of get the hang of it, even with 40 million people in the state, you can absolutely find locations where you won’t see a neighbor around you if you know where to look.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But none of these places are particularly close to here. We should also be upfront about that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, that’s right. Typically, you can only disperse camp on federal lands. That means you have to get out of our local state parks, our local beaches, where everything’s regulated and developed campsites are the norms. And you have to go to places like Tahoe National Forest or Mendocino, a few hours farther away, but a chance to explore a new wilderness area. How do you find a place to disperse camp? What do you look for? First, I would advise figuring out where you want to go. Do you want be in Redwood Forest? Do you wanna be up in high alpine lakes? You wanna be by the beach? Narrow it down generally to a region and then do your research. There’s a ton of information online. There are lots of YouTube accounts, lots of bloggers who will show you kind of the opportunities in those areas. Your next step is to figure out what agency manages the land that you’re trying to go on. So go to the website of that agency. It’s probably the Bureau of Land Management or the US Forest Service. And it might be as easy as downloading the free maps on that website to figure out where is a road that you can take and where can you disperse camp. The best advice that Ben gave me and that I agree with is to just call up the local ranger station.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I know people don’t do this anymore, but you’d be amazed how much information you can simply get by just picking up a phone. And sometimes the people that you talk to will tell you their secret spots of places to go check out as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If this is sounding intimidating, but people are still interested, is there sort of a recommendation for where you might get started?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don’t want to design your own itinerary, you can download some expert resources. So there are free and paid apps that have overlays essentially, so maps that can tell you where the U.S. Forest Service or BLM land is and help you design a route through these lands in order to camp somewhere that’s for sure on public, not private land, which is important. And so some of the paid apps are apps like Onyx or Gaia GPS or The Dirt. And the good thing about these apps is most of them offer like a two-week free promo period. So you can test them out and see if you like them and if they’re helpful before committing. There’s also free apps like Cal Topo. They take a little bit more tinkering and time to get used to, but if you’re someone who’s really into like… Maps and navigating, play around in those and you can even build routes and have them accessible offline while you’re actually camping.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And maybe walk me through, what was your experience of going dispersed camping? Like you roll up, what then?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of my favorite things about this first camping is that you have to have a first choice, a second choice, and a third choice, because you don’t know if people are going to be there. So my experience is you roll up and you’re shocked and excited that your first choice is available and hopefully as beautiful as you thought. But you always have to be prepared in the case that someone’s already there. And Ben gave me good advice, you know, if somebody’s in the spot you were hoping to get.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ben Easley: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When there’s other room around you, the expectation is that, like, you should respect that somebody got that site before you and you should try to find somewhere else.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My experience in general has been that there’s more than enough space to go around. You can go down the dirt road a couple more miles and find an equally great spot.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’ll say a lot of the dispersed camping I’ve done has been a little bit more, like, of the dirt bag variety, I would say. So the camp site that we were at wasn’t particularly beautiful, but it was more about proximity to something that was really cool. So we’ve crashed a couple times outside of Yosemite. There’s some forest service land that is not particularly notable, but it’s really about just having a place to sleep so you can wake up early and then get into Yosemite and have a great day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’re going to pause for a quick break. More just ahead. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor break\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some friends of mine went dispersed camping for their very first trip this past weekend. And I was asking them about what questions they were facing as they were sort of getting ready to, you know, embark on this new adventure. And one of their biggest concerns was about water. How do you camp without a clean water source or a spigot?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You basically have two options. If the place you’re going, you know, has access to a stream or a river or a lake, you can pack a water filter and just make sure you’re also packing like some sort of receptacle to hold the water in. So I bring these big two, three liter bags. You can bring, you know, those sort of car camping jugs, but if you aren’t sure you are gonna have water, it’s always kind of better to be safe than sorry. Just bring enough. And make sure you have enough to cook. Enough to clean, enough to put out a fire if you create a fire. So just like have extra as insurance. Also if it’s hotter than you think it’s going to be all you have to do is be prepared. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And what about fires? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First thing first you must check if you’re allowed to build a campfire at the place you’re going and this might be seasonal. So check the website of the place you’re going call the ranger if you have questions. Just triple check whether or not you’re allowed to build a campfire, if you are. Typically, you’ll be required to make it in sort of a cleared out space with some rocks. There might even be dispersed sites like past people who have made, sort of, little campfire area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anywhere you’re camping in California, you need to get a California campfire permit. Even if you’re not going to make a campfire, if you are going to cook using a stove, if you’re going to use fire for any reason at all while you’re out there, you need to have a valid campfire permit. It’s like a five minute video. You sign up, it’s free. It just to remind you of how to safely use fire out in the backcountry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And finally, we have to talk about it, but toilets. You won’t find any if you’re dispersed camping for the most part. What are guidelines people need to keep in mind for when nature calls?\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, so there’s this handy tool called a trowel and you should always have one. It’s basically like a mini shovel for your poop. And most regulations here in California are to bury your poop six to eight inches deep in a hole. And you wanna be at least 200 feet away from any water sources. And it’s important that you dig deep enough, you go in the hole, you cover it up, and try to- do it like also away from where anyone might be camping or anything like that. I personally always pack out my toilet paper. I know some people bury their toilet paper here on the West Coast. The climate is so dry that that toilet paper is not going to be decomposing at a reasonable rate. I put a ziplock inside of a ziplock. And I put all of my toilet paper in there and pack it out with the rest of my trash and just double-check some wilderness areas here in California will even require that you use a wag bag. It sounds more fun than it is. It’s basically an insulated, like scented Ziploc bag that you had to poop in and that’s so that you don’t leave any of your waste behind at all. And that may sound crazy, but. If you’ve ever been to an area that requires a wag bag, you’ll immediately understand why. It’s like beautiful granite landscapes where there are no trees, there’s no soil. So there’s just really no chance of your poop being, you know, biodegradable in a reasonable amount of time. So that’s something that you have to make sure that you’re prepared to do. And that means like bringing enough trash bags where you feel comfortable in your vehicle, storing your poop trash. Somewhere away from your food, away from your clothes, away from everything else. So just be prepared.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sounds so fun, but I mean, wag bags are great to have no matter what, even if you think you’re gonna be able to dig a hole because eight inches is pretty deep. You might not always have that much, I don’t know, digging interest in you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digging interest and also like warning time, like, if you’re just like gotta go it’s nice to have a wag bag ready.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, so if people are interested, where might they get started with some of this this summer?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, so Ben actually had a really good suggestion. It’s to go to Jackson Demonstration State Forest that’s up in Mendocino County. It’s not technically dispersed camping, but it’s an area that’s managed by Cal Fire and the sites are super spread out. They’re first come first serve and there are no facilities very similar to dispersed camping except there are outhouses. So he suggested it as a great sort of intro trip if you’re interested in dispersed camping, you want to start bringing your own water, bringing your own, you know, emergency devices, et cetera, but you’re a little scared to get out there for real. That’s a great first spot to check out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other suggestion I have is to pick the highway closest to you that goes up into the Sierras and find a spot at least a mile off of the highway in the National Forest there. So that’s likely to be like Tahoe National Forest or El Dorado or Stanislaus. And these types of spots are so beautiful. They’re almost Tahoe-like in their alpine wilderness, but without the crowds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We like to use the motor vehicle use map that the National Forest puts out that has a little bit more details about where all you can drive your car if you are in a National Forest.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Wright: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, that map is super helpful and all those apps I mentioned have that as an overlay so you can check your route that you’re building with sort of those access areas. And of course, make sure that your car can handle the roads that you are planning to go down. Many of these roads are probably dirt or gravel roads and aren’t super well maintained. So just double check before you’re going about whether it’s a paved road or not and whether or not your car could handle it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those are some great tips. Sarah, thank you so much. Thank you. Sarah Wright is the outdoors reporter for KQED. She has a full guide to dispersed camping on kqed.org with lots of links and resources for planning your first trip. We’ll put a link in our show notes. Every month we invite our audience to vote on some questions we’re considering answering on the show. Our June round just went up. Here are your options. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 1:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I have lived in the Richmond District for decades and heard that it is also known as Little Russia. How did that happen? There’s a large Russian cathedral and several Russian stores and delis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 2: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I walked through the Presidio and noticed many beautiful private-looking residences. Is the public allowed to live there? Is it still a Navy and Army property? Who maintains this lovely park?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice 3: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was there a steam railroad through Noe Valley and the Mission? Is there a way left to see it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cast your vote at BayCurious.org. It’s quick and easy. Bake Your Race is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen Price. We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien, Ethan Tovan Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price, happy trails. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Singing] Happy trails to you until we meet again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ooh, can we auto tune that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"order": 3
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},
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
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},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
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},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 18
},
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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