Recent Work
Aug 05, 2020
"You have to constantly check in with yourself, have to constantly replenish your well, to do any work which is in the service of others. period ... so it's almost like getting care of yourself is like a selfless act because you're doing it not only for self preservation, but in order to keep doing the work that you do."
For Making Contact as part of the 2020 California Fellowship from USC's Center for Health Journalism
Jul 22, 2020
"Yosemite national park officials suspect that hundreds of visitors this summer may have had Covid-19 thanks to an unorthodox approach – testing sewage."
Reported for The Guardian.
Jul 14, 2020
"Domestic workers in California such as nannies, house cleaners and caregivers for the elderly are excluded from the enforcement of workplace health and safety rules that govern most other jobs."
Reported for Marketplace Morning Report.
Jul 11, 2020
"The city program, combined with increasing demand from consumers and businesses, has spurred many LA garment companies to pivot to mask-making, hiring new workers and refocusing existing production facilities. But garment workers and advocates say it has come at the expense of the health of the people who make them."
Reported for The Guardian
May 07, 2020
"When she brought me to the U.S., she told me 'don’t worry – they’re nice people, they’ll treat you like family.' That was a lie."
Audio documentary produced for KCRW's UnFictional.
May 05, 2020
Did you know a 5,000-year-old mummy found in the Swiss Alps is one of the first people we know had tattoos?
Reported for American Public Media's kids podcast Brains On!
(Starting at 23:45 marker)
Apr 24, 2020
“Right now it’s hard, through text they’re sending like, I haven’t worked like in a week, I haven’t get a job in like two weeks you know? Is there anything that you can help me with, we need food.”
Reported for Marketplace Morning Report.
Mar 27, 2020
How activists and others who serve the Latinx immigrant community in Los Angeles protect their mental health while doing their jobs.
Selected to be a 2020 California Fellow, audio documentary project airing in August 2020 on Making Contact radio.
Mar 03, 2020
Did you know the weather forecast was invented by the man who sailed Charles Darwin's ship to the Galagos?
Reported for American Public Media's kids podcast Brains On!
(Starting at 9:00 marker)
Jan 26, 2020
Catholic Church helps immigrant families get useful paperwork
Feature about Catholic Churches along the border organizing passport workshops for immigrant families with U.S. citizen children.
Reported for Marketplace Morning Report (not aired)
Oct 15, 2019
A Trump Administration policy change that was supposed to take effect October 15th would deny permanent legal residence to low-income immigrants who use government services. A federal judge blocked it from going into effect, but California health care clinics say their immigrant patients are still afraid of seeking services, and that chilling effect is a concern for public health.
(starts at 6:00 in episode audio)
Reported for KQED's The California Report.
Oct 10, 2019
Members of the Pilipino Workers Center in LA, that organizes domestic workers, travel on a bus to the Central Valley, where they learn about the Filipino farmworkers who started the Delano Grape Strike of 1965.
Reported for Greater LA on KCRW.
Jul 30, 2019
What's it like for day laborers with the ramped-up immigration crackdown under President Trump? They're feeling a lot of anxiety, but the threat of deportation is nothing new for this group of workers. So it's not stopping a lot of them from going out to look for work.
Reported for Greater LA on KCRW.
May 16, 2019
The rock band Fanny ruled the Sunset Strip in the 1970s, and they were supposed to be the next big thing. They explain the price women pay for being ahead of their time.
Producer of Episode 4 of KCRW's music documentary podcast Lost Notes.
May 15, 2019
Six Catholic dioceses, including LA, Orange, San Diego, Fresno and Sacramento, have formed a compensation fund for victims of sexual abuse by clergy.
For KQED's The California Report.
May 02, 2019
Poet and author Hanif Abdurraqib's letter to Cat Power about how her album The Greatest worked its way into his life.
Co-producer of episode 2 of KCRW's music documentary podcast Lost Notes.
Nov 15, 2018
The history of cameras explained - for kids! For the "Forever Ago" series from kids podcast Brains on! from American Public Media
Oct 18, 2018
For KQED's The California Report.
Sep 21, 2018
Governor Brown signed a bill earlier this week decriminalizing street vending in California. The bill stems from a long-running campaign here in Los Angeles.
For KQED's The California Report.
Sep 19, 2018
Governor Brown just signed a bill decriminalizing street vending in California, an effort stemming from decades of activism in Los Angeles.
For L.A. Taco
Aug 20, 2018
A coalition of immigrant rights groups has launched a 12-week trip across 50 cities to advocate against the end of TPS, or temporary protected status. A report from the steps of LA City Hall.
For KQED's California Report.
Jul 10, 2018
Article published in L.A. Taco about the San Fernando Valley homeless community.
Jun 22, 2018
Three people open up about asking — or not — for accommodations on the job.
Produced for Marketplace Weekend's special episode: The Economics of Disability
May 11, 2018
The billion-dollar romance novel industry struggles to make diversity
a priority, despite there being a large demand AND supply
for books written by women of color.
Reported and produced for Marketplace Weekend.
Apr 10, 2018
El Gabfest en Español discusses how an anti-establishment mood
—and a certain U.S. president—
are benefiting a veteran leftist candidate in Mexico’s election.
Translated and transcribed for Slate.com
Mar 08, 2018
A secret road leads to a marooned community
and an ocean paradise along the coast of California.
Reported and produced with Carla Green for KCRW's Unfictional.
Mar 01, 2018
New survey finds three-quarters of employees don’t earn enough for basic expenses, while one in 10 have experienced homelessness.
Reported for The Guardian.
Dec 25, 2017
2017 was full of natural disasters. They didn’t seem to let up — fires in California, floods in Texas, hurricane after hurricane in the Caribbean and on the Gulf Coast. The media moved on quickly, but recovery efforts are long from over. We talked to local officials in five American cities and territories about their hopes and objectives in the coming year.
Produced series of 5 pieces covering natural disaster recovery in Santa Rosa, California; Houston, Texas; Naples, Florida; The U.S. Virgin Islands; San German, Puerto Rico. For Marketplace Morning Report.
Aug 25, 2017
Millennials are more likely than any other generation to visit the public library, says a new Pew Research Center poll. And libraries are starting to take note.
Reported and produced for Marketplace Weekend.
Aug 18, 2017
Two businesses - one on the border with Mexico
and the other on the border with Canada —
are watching what happens with NAFTA.
Produced for Marketplace Weekend.
Aug 15, 2017
The Port of San Diego is renovating Seaport Village.
A beloved spot widely accessible by the public.
What are locals feeling about it?
And what does this mean for how we think of public space?
Reported for KCRW's Design and Architecture.
Jul 17, 2017
Homelessness at the Happiest Place on Earth, for "Outside in America : On the frontline of the homelessness crisis in the western US" series.
Reported for The Guardian.
Jun 30, 2017
Two workers on or near the minimum wage tell what it's like to try to live and support a family: one in Louisiana, another in California.
Produced for Marketplace Weekend.
Jun 23, 2017
The pitfalls of relying on social media to fill the gaps in our health care system.
Produced for Marketplace Weekend with Lizzie O'Leary.
Jun 23, 2017
A former underground coal miner from Eastern Kentucky talks about what that job was like and why it won't be coming back soon.
Produced for Marketplace Weekend.
Apr 26, 2017
Day laborers in Pasadena, California, band together at their Workers Center to fight wage theft, the most common form of abuse by employers of this vulnerable working class.
Reported for Making Contact, Social Justice Radio.
Finalist for the Ruben Salazar Award from the California Chicano National Media Association
Apr 01, 2017
Marketplace looks into what jobs are protected from automation, and why.
Assisted in production of podcast and radio audio.
Nominated for a 2018 Gerald Loeb Award.
For Marketplace Morning Report with David Brancaccio.
Dec 28, 2016
A look at how immigrants in Los Angeles are preparing for a Trump anti-immigrant crackdown, a month after he is elected.
Reported for FSRN, Free Speech Radio News.
Dec 23, 2016
Damon Stathatos runs his father's floral business in Pasadena, California. Stat's is now most famous for its intense Christmas season.
Produced for KCRW's Sounds LA series / KCRW Independent Producer Project.
Oct 26, 2016
Non-citizens were allowed to vote when our country was being created. Now immigrant parents in San Francisco are seeking to be enfranchised to represent their children's interests in the School Board.
Reported for Making Contact, Social Justice Radio.
Mar 01, 2016
Volunteer reporting for KPFA (Bay Area) and KPFK (Los Angeles) - Pacifica Radio's evening news program, March 2016 - present.
Topics: Immigration, Politics, Local Government, Protests, Gentrification, Voting, Transgender Rights
See below for best features.
Undocumented Latinos in Santa Rosa who can't vote are mobilizing to have their interests represented.
Miss El/La 2016 will represent the transgender Latina community at the annual Trans March.
71 years after the bombing of Nagasaki, anti-nuclear activists including Daniel Ellsberg protest at the Livermore Lab.
A class-action lawsuit claims the bank refuses loans to immigrants with temporary protected status.
Pasadena schools could become safe zones for families with no legal immigration status.
Concern for the next generation prompts Chinese-American leaders.
A re-entry hiring program will provide 1400 county jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors consider allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote in municipal elections.
Iconic "Dreamer" activist Lizbeth Mateo fights against her own deportation.
Rising property prices are forcing neighborhood mental health clinic out of the Haight after 37 years of service to the community.
What happens to the 375 000 residents in Alameda County with criminal records, who do not qualify for public housing, in one of the most expensive markets in the U.S.?
A transgender woman on the 16th day of a hunger strike in the San Francisco jail demands a new inmate housing policy that respects her gender self-determination.
Ballot Measure AA during the 2016 California Primary would raise $500 million in 20 years to restore native wetlands.
The return of African-American pride and history to an iconic San Francisco neighborhood.