I think you could probably go back and track the stages of grief, probably that is what I went through. But I think if you do it right, you end up at acceptance. And that's where I ended up. And that's not to say that I've fully accepted the idea that the golden toad is extinct. Personally, I do still hold out hope that it could still be out there in those forests." - Trevor Ritland This conversation is with Trevor Ritland, who—along with his twin brother Kyle—authored The Golden Toad . The book chronicles their remarkable journey into Costa Rica’s cloud forest, once home to hundreds of brilliant golden toads that would emerge for just a few weeks each year—until, one day, they vanished without a trace. What began as a search for a lost species soon became something much more profound: a confrontation with ecological grief, a meditation on hope, and a powerful call to protect the natural world while we still can. Links: SpeciesUnite.com Kyle and Trevor: https://kyleandtrevor.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adventureterm/ Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222249677-the-golden-toad Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Toad-Ecological-Mystery-Species/dp/163576996…
Since 1980, City Arts & Lectures has presented onstage conversations with outstanding figures in literature, politics, criticism, science, and the performing arts, offering the most diverse perspectives about ideas and values. City Arts & Lectures programs can be heard on more than 130 public radio stations across the country and wherever you get your podcasts. The broadcasts are co-produced with KQED 88.5 FM in San Francisco. Visit CITYARTS.NET for more info.
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Recordings of the radio broadcast of City Arts and Lectures, an interview/lecture series in San Francisco www.cityarts.net/radio.html
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A podcast/blog spotlighting the Birmingham Theatre scene, and occasionally ranting about other topics in theatre, film, and social issues.
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Dr. Flow aka André Stith (aka @AndreInTheFlow) has launched a Creative Mutual Support Network + Online eCampus + Café dedicated to uplifting humanity through the making of music, sharing resources, and community organizing through in-person + digital gatherings.
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A monthly look at the lively arts scene – film, theatre, art, dance, music and events – in the New York metropolitan area.
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Alejandro Heredia is an Afro-Dominican working at the intersection of literature and activism. He immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic at the age of seven. His debut novel, Loca, explores migration, identity, and the queer experience. On June 11, 2025, Heredia visited the KQED studios in San Francisco for a conversation with …
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Eve Ewing is a professor at the University of Chicago and the author of four books including Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism. It looks back on the history of America’s education system and offers a path forward by imagining public school as a public good. On July 7, 2025, Ewing …
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We’re going back into the archives for a conversation with David Mitchell, recorded in 2021. In novels like Cloud Atlas, and The Bone Clocks, Mitchell weaves together the supernatural and the natural. He’s also one of the most structurally inventive writers of our time, featuring multiple genres in a single book. On May 8, 2021, Mitchell talked to …
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Michael Pollan and Gul Dolen
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1:11:32A conversation about the evolving world of psychedelics. While scientific breakthroughs continue to reshape our understanding of how these substances work, psychedelics are also at the center of debates about religious freedom, mystical experiences, politics, and how we treat mental health. For more than thirty years, Michael Pollan has been writin…
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Shoshana von Blanckensee is a novelist whose debut work, Girls Girls Girls, explores coming of age, queer identity, and San Francisco in the 1990s. It follows Hannah, a young queer Jewish woman, as she embarks on a cross-country journey with her high school girlfriend - in search of acceptance and a vibrant queer community. On June 13, 2025, Shosha…
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Shelley Sella is a board-certified OB-GYN who recently retired after decades as an abortion provider. Her book, Beyond Limits: Stories of the Third-Trimester Abortion Care, looks at one of the most highly politicized areas of medicine, upending many common myths about abortion care and the women who seek it. On May 21, 2025, Sella came to KQED stud…
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Jacinda Ardern
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1:13:12In 2017, 37-year-old Jacinda Ardern was elected the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, becoming the country’s youngest Prime Minister in more than 150 years and the youngest woman to serve as head of government anywhere in the world. She was first elected to Parliament in 2008 and left as Prime Minister in 2023. Her tenure as Prime Minister coinci…
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This month on Arts in the City… we stop by the newly renovated Frick; visit a museum dedicated to vintage toys; take in the outdoor art on the High Line; check out an exhibit inspired by the Bronx; get insider tips for Broadway on a budget; and stop by a cafe fusing Ethiopian and Israeli cuisine.
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Thomas Keller and Alice Waters
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1:12:51Thomas Keller has built a collection of restaurants that have set new standards in the hospitality profession. As the first American-born chef to receive multiple three-star ratings from the Michelin Guide for The French Laundry and Per Se and one star for The Surf Club Restaurant, he is the most recognized American chef by Michelin. In 2011, he wa…
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Alison Bechdel
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1:00:07Alison Bechdel‘s cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For grew wildly in response to her graphic memoirs, the best-selling Fun Home, adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, Are You My Mother?, and The Secret to Superhuman Strength. To many, her name is synonymous with the Bechdel Test, a metric to evaluate a film’s represe…
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Ron Chernow
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1:14:24Biographer Ron Chernow’s acclaimed books include Alexander Hamilton, adapted into the Broadway musical Hamilton, and Washington: A Life, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. With his new book Mark Twain, Chernow illuminates the colorful and complex life of the fame-seeking journalist, satirist, performer and political pundit. America’s …
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Encore: Jon M. Chu and Awkwafina
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1:06:06Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American helping at his parents’ Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. Growing up on the cutting edge of 21st-century…
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Anna Malaika Tubbs
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1:17:57Our guest today is Anna Malaika Tubbs, a multidisciplinary expert on current and historical understandings of race, gender, and equity. She is the author of “The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation” and the just-published “Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us”. In bo…
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This month on Arts in the City…we tour the Noguchi Museum in Queens; visit the immersive exhibits at Mercer Labs; check out a play about Hollywood icon Bette Davis; take a look at inspiring murals with Groundswell; and chat with the creative team and stars of the Broadway hit Boop!
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Ross Gay
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1:15:50Ross Gay is a writer with a mission: to help readers explore the beautiful complexities of joy, gratitude, and delight. In his essays and poetry, Gay brings his overflowing kindness and relentless eye for details to community gardens, the lives of Black people, the artistry of basketball, and much more. He is the author of the poetry collections Ca…
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Alec Karakatsanis is a lawyer, writer, and the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Civil Rights Corps. He graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School, and served as a deputy public defender in the District of Columbia. His books are "Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System" and the newly publishe…
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Vauhini Vara is a journalist, novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She began her journalism career as a technology reporter at the Wall Street Journal and later launched, edited and wrote for the business section of the New Yorker’s website. Her latest book, Searches, is a work of journalism and memoir about how big technology companies ar…
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Encore: Ocean Vuong
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1:15:14This is a rebroadcast of a program that originally aired in August of 2023. We've selected the encore to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the turning point in the Vietnamese diaspora of which Ocean Vuong is a part. Ocean Vuong‘s exquisitely crafted poetry and prose ask perennial and pressing questions about race, masculinit…
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