HeyJaredKPFA - East Bay Yesterday
This series explores stories of culture, politics and nature from Oakland, Berkeley and other towns throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 23, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest episodes
East Bay Yesterday Fund Drive Special: “No Casual Experiments” — Inside a Legendary Psychedelics Lab (opens the original)
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In a small, bunker-like laboratory in the East Bay hills, Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin created some of the world’s most powerful psychedelic drugs. Astonishingly, he didn’t try to hide his activities. On the contrary, Sasha published instruction manuals on how to make his mind-expanding compounds, and his farm in Lafayette became a mecca for scientists, therapists, artists, and others who were drawn into his world of pharmacological experimentation. Along with his wife, Ann, Sasha was a pioneer who
East Bay Yesterday – Boomtown: Oakland’s High-Flying Ambitions and the Dynamite History of Hercules (opens the original)
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In the early 1900s, Oakland’s business leaders believed their city was destined to become “the great metropolis of the West Coast”—a soaring ambition symbolized by a hot-air balloon called the City of Oakland. We explore the balloon’s fate and what it revealed about Oakland’s economic trajectory. Then, author Steve Lawton shares the explosive history of Hercules, the small Contra Costa County town that once produced more dynamite than anywhere else in the world. This series explores stories of c
East Bay Yesterday – Oakland Underground, Part 2: A Party on Wheels and the Legend of Lobot (opens the original)
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The Oakland Underground miniseries continues with two stories from the East Bay’s early-2000s DIY scene. First, John Benson recalls transforming an old AC Transit bus into a venue on wheels, picking up passengers and bringing bands, comedians, free food and renegade performances to unexpected locations. Then, former residents Sabrina Sierra and Ben Valis share stories from Lobot, one of West Oakland’s largest, longest-running and most legendary live-work warehouse spaces, from all-night parties
East Bay Yesterday – Canyon: The Hidden Village Behind the Oakland Hills (opens the original)
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Liam O’Donoghue shares excerpts from his miniseries about Canyon, California—a tiny community tucked among the redwoods behind the Oakland Hills. Once a booming logging town with more residents than Oakland, Canyon has a history where fact and urban legend often intertwine. This series explores stories of culture, politics and nature from Oakland, Berkeley and other towns throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The post East Bay Yesterday – Canyon: The Hidden Village Behind the Oakland Hil
East Bay Yesterday – “It was like a carnival” The betrayal of Oakland’s 1946 General Strike (opens the original)
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In 1946, a few hundred department store employees, mostly women, walked off the job and started a picket line in downtown Oakland. Within a few weeks, more than 100,000 workers joined them, filling the streets with protesters who danced under holiday wreaths hanging from lampposts. “This seemingly small action turned into the biggest challenge to corporate domination of American workers in the postwar years,” according to Erik Loomis, author of “A History of America in Ten Strikes.” Despite an u
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