Fifth & Mission

Matthias Gafni has the shocking story of Michael Alexander, who confessed to a 2013 murder and went to prison even though another man's blood was all over the scene. He was freed years later after the other man was arrested, but prosecutors refused to clear him, and now say the two men committed the crime together. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod New podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Subscribe: podfollow.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hundreds of thousands of women are dropping out of the workforce every month due to lack of childcare and closed schools during the pandemic. The Chronicle's Heather Knight and Tal Kopan interview Rep. Katie Porter, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks and Emerge president A'shanti Gholar about this crisis and other major issues facing women during this election. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod New podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Subscribe: podfollow.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nancy O'Malley made headlines recently by charging a cop for a shooting in San Leandro — a first in her tenure — then reopening the investigation into the BART police killing of Oscar Grant. She says she's simply following the law. But as Megan Cassidy reports, O'Malley's decisions come amid the historic Black Lives Matter reform movement that has changed the very nature of being a prosecutor. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod New podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Subscribe: podfollow.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COVID-19 is spiking around the country. What are San Francisco and the Bay Area doing to sidestep the trend? And will it last? Reporters Catherine Ho and Aidin Vaziri talk about the local numbers, the danger of vaccine distrust and what you should know before making holiday plans. | Full Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod New podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Subscribe: podfollow.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senior political writer and It's All Political host Joe Garofoli and Washington correspondent Tal Kopan are the co-hosts of The Chronicle's new six-part miniseries about the life and career of the Democratic nominee for vice president. In Episode 1, "The Top Cop," the young prosecutor from Berkeley pulls off an upset and becomes San Francisco's first black, first Asian American and first female district attorney by running as a centrist against progressive incumbent Terence Hallinan. Kopan has a short chat with Fifth & Mission co-host Demian Bulwa to set up the episode. | Click here to listen to all six episodes: podfollow.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco resident Lala Wu co-founded Sister District, a national organization to influence the outcomes in state legislature races around the country. She tells Heather Knight why she’s optimistic as Election Day approaches. | Chronicle Voter Guide: sfchronicle.com/vote New Podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Click here to listen and subscribe: sfchronicle.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Located in Napa Valley’s St. Helena, the highly acclaimed Restaurant at Meadowood was destroyed on September 28th by the massive Glass Fire, which scorched close to the 67K acres in Sonoma and Napa counties. Under the leadership of executive chef Christopher Kostow, the decades-old resort restaurant earned accolades for its artistic, garden-to-table cuisine. The owners of Meadowood Napa Valley, which housed the famed restaurant, have since vowed to rebuild the property. But amid the news of its destruction, former employees and local fine dining chefs explore a range of emotions regarding its lasting legacy. On The Chronicle’s food and culture podcast, Extra Spicy, hosts Soleil Ho and Justin Phillips look into what it took for The Restaurant at Meadowood to earn its place as an international fine dining destination and the highly-disciplined, intense work environment that some former employees say was necessary for success, while others claim was an abusive workplace culture. You'll hear from San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins, sommelier Alexis Davis Iaconis of Brick & Mortar Wines, chef Ricky Odbert of Six Test Kitchen and more. Read the story and send us your questions about food, life and everything you’re obsessed with at sfchronicle.com/spicy. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newson, the state is launching a task force to study how it might approach reparations. The effort is a reminder that although California joined the union as a "free" state in 1850, forms of slavery continued here -- and legalized discrimination of African Americans followed. Reporters Dustin Gardiner and Justin Phillips discuss how we got here, and what comes next. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod New Podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Click here to listen and subscribe: sfchronicle.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Susan Solomon, president of the San Francisco teachers' union, speaks with host Heather Knight about why San Francisco's schools are lagging behind some other Bay Area districts in reopening and when it's likely most kids will return to the classroom. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

East Bay Columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. leads a discussion about what this election means for race in America. Joining him on the live Zoom event are Sarah Treuhaft, vice president of research at PolicyLink; Dr. Jason Williams, assistant professor of justice studies at Montclair State University; and Debra Gore-Mann, president and CEO of The Greenlining Institute. They talk about systemic racism in housing, criminal justice, income inequality and how certain ballot measures could either alleviate or exacerbate those problems. | 2020 Voter Guide: sfchronicle.com/voterguide | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod New Podcast! Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? Click here to listen and subscribe: sfchronicle.com/chronicled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maki, a 21-year-old ring-tailed lemur, was stolen from his enclosure at The San Francisco Zoo this week. It was the third high-profile theft from the zoo in recent years. News broke Thursday night that Maki had been found in Daly City and returned safely to the zoo. In a conversation recorded before that, Heather Knight and reporter Nora Mishanec discuss the lemur heist and share interviews with the lemur’s caretaker and a lemur expert. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of city residents are volunteering to sway swing state voters with calls, texts and letters. Eighteen drag queens joined the fight at Manny's outdoor victory booths and explained why so much hinges on the Nov. 3 election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A proposal to change how students are admitted to one of the nation's top public schools has ignited an emotional debate that spilled into a San Francisco school board meeting late Tuesday. Due to pandemic restrictions, Lowell may take students based on a lottery rather than academic scores. Is that the right move? Education reporter Jill Tucker breaks it down. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coronavirus is surging in several states as people loosen their behavior and President Trump downplays the risk. So why hasn't the Bay Area seen the same trend? Health reporter Erin Allday explains why the region is an "outlier," and what must be done to keep it that way. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas Wolf, who was homeless and addicted to heroin in the Tenderloin, now takes anybody who's interested on walking tours of the neighborhood. He thinks City Hall needs to overhaul its approach to the drug crisis, and new numbers showing 468 people died of overdoses in the first eight months of this year show he's right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices