KQED's Perspectives

In the lost and found of life, Holly Hubbard Preston learned that what you find isn’t necessarily what you were looking for.

For Lili Beechinor the most profound love has nothing to do with candy and flowers.

Michael Ellis takes a look at one of California's most dramatic birds.

Although not Jewish, Evan Ho is mesmerized by his first experience of a Bar Mitzvah.

Owners of rooftop solar systems, like Andrew Lewis, are outraged by a PUC proposal to impose sharp new costs on them.

High school student Sidrah Siddiqui wears a hijab and the reactions are awkward and uncomfortable.

Rat poison wipes out a family of owls that had delighted EK Bayer's neighborhood. 

Marilyn Englander says the pandemic has given birth to a new kind of village square.

YR Media's Nina Thompson feels she must choose between protecting her health and a good education.

After all the tests, pills, and procedures, the best medicine is still something that can’t be prescribed. Jane Thomas-Tran has this Perspective. I’m a medical student, just a few months from being a doctor, and 100% of my clinical training has occurred in the COVID era. To me, hospital rooms filled with get-well-soon cards and eager visitors are a relic of the past. A beloved grandfather comes to mind. On the day of admission, he couldn’t open his eyes, just moaned a little. For three days, he didn’t speak. On the fourth day, he awoke to an empty room and asked, “Where am I?” On the sixth day, his soft voice told us: “I’ve lived a long life. A good life.”  On the seventh day, his wife and daughter brought his dentures and hearing aid. They couldn’t come inside the building because of pandemic rules. I met them outside. “That’s his room, his window, right up there!” I pointed. “Wait here." Back in the hospital room, yelling so he could hear, “Your wife and daughter are outside your window!” He seemed confused, so I urged him to get out of bed so he could wave to them from his window. We heaved him to his feet. He stood unsteadily, walked for the first time, stepped to the window, and saw them below. His lips cracked into a smile. His wife jumped up and down. After that, he got out of bed regularly and was soon discharged home. Just a glimpse of his family was more potent medicine – a reason to heal and to live – than we could provide in the preceding week of lab tests and petitions for off-formulary meds. While I support infection control strategies, I also wonder: how much has this missing medicine of the smiling faces of family affected our other patients’ outcomes? With a Perspective, I’m Jane Thomas-Tran.   Jane Thomas-Tran is a fourth-year medical student at Stanford, currently applying to pediatrics residencies.

It's been a rough year for San Francisco's eclectic entertainment community, but Connie Champagne hopes better time aren't just somewhere over the rainbow.

At-home COVID test kits are in short supply, posing some tough choices for families like Vanessa Dueck's. 

A most unusual relationship is at the heart of young Jackie Tavernetti’s introduction to homelessness.

As teachers, administrators, students, and parents wrestle with COVID restrictions, Richard Swerdlow sees a bright ray of hope. Schools from coast to coast are struggling to stay open as the pandemic rages. With so many teachers out sick, schools are deploying everyone, even superintendents, to cover classes. I was sent to teach first grade. Teachers … Continue reading Richard Swerdlow: Show and Tell →

As the pandemic drags on, Dr. Baldeep Singh is seeing many patients who are not only having trouble physically but also mentally and emotionally. When Dennis came to see me, I could see something was wrong. He started telling me about fatigue, headaches, and trouble sleeping. After some probing, he shared that his marriage was … Continue reading Dr. Baldeep Singh: Coping with COVID →