Fifth & Mission

Millions of Americans have lost their sense of taste and smell after getting COVID-19. For chefs and restaurant owners, the impact has been devastating. Host Cecilia Lei chats with Bay Area food professionals to discuss their experience, and UCSF’s Dr. Patricia Loftus explains why researchers think the phenomenon happens, and the treatments that might help. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 13, the California Public Utilities Commission will vote on a resolution to give driverless robotaxis full access to pick up paying passengers in San Francisco. To find out what that might be like, opinion columnist Emily Hoeven recently took a ride in a Waymo robotaxi. She tells host Demian Bulwa what it was like and why some San Francisco officials are sounding the alarm. Note: The vote was previously scheduled for June 29 and was postponed after this episode published. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1996, a state ballot measure barred public universities from using race as a factor in admissions. Now, with the Supreme Court weighing affirmative action, the University of California's struggle to build a diverse student body may hold lessons for private universities that could soon face the same restriction. Chronicle reporter Nanette Asimov joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the stakes. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Nasser Mohamed became the first Qatari to come out as gay during an interview with BBC World last year ahead of the World Cup. Since then, the S.F. primary care physician has connected with hundreds of other LGBTQ people in Qatar where homosexuality is persecuted. Mohamed was elected to serve as a Grand Marshall in this year's SF Pride Parade and joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about his activism and finding a queer Middle Eastern community in San Francisco. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new team of San Francisco police officers has arrested or cited people for drug offenses 53 times in recent weeks as part Mayor London Breed's crackdown on drug dealing and use. She's talked about "tough love" and getting people into treatment, but so far none of the arrests have resulted in someone accepting drug treatment services. Chronicle reporter Mallory Moench joins host Demian Bulwa to explain the goals of this crackdown, why critics say it may exacerbate the overdose crisis and what to expect next. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“This is a story of deep poverty in a state with incredibly high housing costs.” That’s how Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, describes the takeaway from California’s largest study of homeless adults in three decades. As Kushel, the study's lead investigator, tells host Cecilia Lei, the majority of respondents became homeless in California — and relatively small amounts of money could have prevented it for almost everyone. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California became one of the last states in the country to decertify or suspend cops for serious misconduct when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB2 in 2021. The law went into effect this year, and the commission in charge of enforcing it estimates that up to 3,500 police officers could be stripped of their badges each year. Chronicle reporter Sophia Bollag joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the law's impact and the pushback by opponents. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Best of 5M: In honor of Juneteenth, we're republishing this episode from February 24. In a wide-raging onstage conversation with host Cecilia Lei, the comic, host of CNN's "United Shades of America," producer and director of "We Have to Talk About Cosby" and co-author of "Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book" says being progressive is about just that — doing the work. This episode was recorded live at Manny’s in San Francisco as part of Fifth & Mission’s 1,000th episode celebration. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas took a leap forward this week, as the Nevada Legislature passed a bill granting $380 million in public funding for a new ballpark on the Strip. But fans aren’t letting the team go quietly. More than 27,000 supporters showed up Tuesday for a reverse boycott demanding owner John Fisher sell the squad. Chronicle columnist Ann Killion was there and joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about what’s next for the team and why the eternal underdogs have always inspired a special kind of pride. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Downtown San Francisco suffered another major blow this week when Westfield, the owner of the San Francisco Centre Mall, announced it would be returning the massive property to its lender. While the mall won't close immediately, it's a sign of serious trouble in the city's commercial core, where the owner of two major hotels also recently decided to surrender them. Host Cecilia Lei talks with reporters Roland Li and Carolyn Said to learn what might have prompted these owners to walk away and how the moves might open the door to new opportunities down the line.| Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a series of unrelated mass shootings last weekend in the Bay Area, 19 people were shot and one died. The shootings fit into a broader pattern: After a decades-long decline in violent crime, homicides and gun-related incidents have risen since the start of the pandemic. Data reporter Susie Neilson talks to host Demian Bulwa about whether this week's shootings are part of a new spike in violence, or just a very bad weekend. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trains once an hour? No weekend service? What would the Bay Area look like if transit agencies like BART and Muni had to make deep service cuts? A proposed state bailout would avert immediate disaster, but it’s not a done deal. Reporters Ricardo Cano and Dustin Gardiner join host Cecilia Lei to discuss what’s at stake in the budget crisis, and Annie Fryman, director of special projects at the think tank SPUR, talks about why this moment is a wake-up call for California. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Santa Rosa native Brett Crozier was the captain of the nuclear aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. His email to Navy brass begging for more help as the virus spread among his crew made international news — and cost him his post. It's All Political on Fifth & Mission host host Joe Garofoli broke that story with fellow Chronicle reporter Matthias Gafni. Crozier hasn't spoken about the incident until now. He joins Garofoli to discuss his "conscience over career moment" and his new memoir, "Surf When You Can: Lessons in Life, Loyalty, and Leadership from a Maverick Navy Captain." | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod From March 31, 2020: "Sailors Do Not Need to Die": pod.fo/e/17152 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food is personal for new restaurant critic and hometown native Mackenzie Chung Fegan. She joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss how her family's San Francisco restaurant, Henry's Hunan, changed her life — and her approach to restaurant criticism. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In two separate incidents last month, pilots approaching San Francisco International Airport had to abort landings at the last minute — just a few hundred feet from the ground — due to planes on the runway. Go-arounds, as the maneuvers are called, happen at every airport, but experts say the events at SFO are signs of an airport that's overburdened. Reporter Matthias Gafni joins host Demian Bulwa to review what happened and what's so unusual about these episodes. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Got a tip, comment, question? Email us: fifth@sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices