Weekly Program Highlights
Friday 5/22
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Science Friday… This week on Science Friday, could a spooky rumble you can’t hear leave you feeling haunted? Follow a pseudoscience researcher as they investigate why old abandoned buildings creep us out.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Hidden Brain… Some people are good at putting themselves in another person’s shoes. Others may struggle to relate. But psychologist Jamil Zaki argues that empathy isn’t a fixed trait. This week on Hidden Brain, how to exercise our empathy muscles.
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Fresh Air… This week on Fresh Air, at the end of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s long run, Fresh Air features an interview they had with Colbert when his show first started. Also, listen back on an interview with former congressman Barney Frank, the first gay member of the House to come out. He died on May 19th at the age of 86.
6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… The Bumpy Road to Jazz: Several forces converged to make the 1920s an era of exceptional technical challenges. Harmonic sophistication was outrunning the training of most musicians, including Jelly Roll Morton. His early compositions were among the first to deliberately blend ragtime's structure with the new and inventive spontaneity of jazz. Morton sat at that crossroads of an evolving music, and his early pieces are a perfect lens for examining that transition.
Saturday 5/23
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!… This week on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, the panelists are Paula Poundstone, Luke Burbank, and Negin Farsad. Singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile joins to talk about her music career and then plays Not My Job. And then, give a fond farewell to Bill Kurtis as he retires from his role as judge and scorekeeper.
11:00 – NOON
Radiolab… There’s something rotten in the cows of Denmark, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Idaho. What could cause a previously thriving herd of majestic dairy cattle to stop drinking water and start drinking urine? This week on Radiolab, go knee-deep in a decades-old dairy farm controversy, rooted in a fundamental suspicion of the invisible streams of electrons that keep our world humming.
3:00 – 4:00 PM
American Routes… This week on American Routes, hear from the 2025 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows. As our country gears up to celebrate its 250th birthday, American Routes meets the great traditional musicians, storytellers, artisans, and cultural advocates who have received our nation’s highest honor in the folk arts. Visit with the honorees, including a Creole French musician and Japanese folk dancer. Also, hear music and conversation with fellows from years past, such as bluegrass hero Del McCoury, and dancer and drummer from the West African Congo, Sidiki Conde.
Sunday 5/24
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Reveal… This week on Reveal, take a look at the 9-1-1 system. It functions as a sort of promise: call for help, and someone will be there to respond quickly. But in many American cities, it’s a broken promise. Due in part to a widespread understaffing crisis across 9-1-1 dispatch centers, hundreds of thousands of callers are left waiting on hold during their most harrowing moments every year. Trace the issue from California to Wisconsin with a final stop on Capitol Hill.
11:00 – NOON
This American Life… This week on This American Life, adults telling kids who they are, and kids wondering — are they right?
NOON – 3:00 PM
Sunday Baroque… This Memorial Day weekend on Sunday Baroque, hear a gorgeous 17th century choral setting called Eternal Light, some contemplative music by a composer who joined the military to serve his royal patron and lost his life in a battle, and heroic marches for trumpet and organ.
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Code Switch & Life Kit… This week on Code Switch, a show about Latinos working for ICE and border patrol. Then on Life Kit, a show about how to crave movement as much as you crave screen time.
6:00 – 7:00 PM
The Moth Radio Hour… This week on The Moth Radio Hour, five storytellers work up the courage to face and battle fear and doubt.
Monday 5/25
2:00 – 3:00 PM
The Splendid Table… This week on The Splendid Table, it's a full hour with Spanish-American chef, author, educator, and humanitarian José Andrés. His new book is Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard.
Tuesday 5/26
1:00 – 2:00 PM
TED Radio Hour… Global food production is making climate change worse, and changing weather patterns are putting staple foods at risk. If we want to feed future generations, we’re going to have to make some big changes. This week on TED Radio Hour, host Manoush Zomorodi explores the future of food with a chef, a farmer, and a technologist, who share ideas about the revolution that's changing what's for dinner.
8:00 – 10:00 PM
Pickin’ Up the Tempo… The banjo is the quintessential sound of country and bluegrass—but its story started long before the Nashville hits. This week, Laura Joines hosts a special edition of Pickin' Up the Tempo. She explores the Black roots of the banjo and the intersection of African American history and country music. It’s an evening of deep roots and cool songs you won't want to miss.
Wednesday 5/27
1:00 – 1:30 PM
Bioneers… This week on Bioneers, hear from two visionary agroecology innovators. Miguel Altieri is an agroecologist and entomologist at U.C. Berkeley who’s showing how farmers who embrace agroecology are building a movement based on self-sufficiency, food security and freedom from fossil fuels and corporate control. Alex Eaton is the founder of Sistema Bio. This game-changing company helps farmers implement a simple technology that converts waste to energy, builds healthy soils, and holds the promise of massively reducing greenhouse gases and lifting people out of poverty.
1:30 – 2:00 PM
California Report Magazine… This week on California Report Magazine, a new club brings strangers together to hike, and then sew, at their destination.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Freakonomics Radio… This week on Freakonomics Radio, has the New York Times become a games company? Not exactly. But their runaway success with games like Wordle says something bigger about how – and why – we play.
6:30 – 8:00 PM
KCBX in Concert… From the elegance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 to the blazing grandeur of Respighi’s Pines of Rome, this week’s program with host Lisa Nauful is filled with vivid musical storytelling. Francesca Caccini’s expressive Baroque songs, Grieg’s beloved Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Mendelssohn’s gently swaying “Venetian Gondola Song,” and Tárrega’s Capricho Árabe performed by Andrés Segovia create an evening rich in atmosphere, color, and charm.
Thursday 5/28
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Central Coast Voices… This week on Central Coast Voices, host Lata Murti speaks with guests about the upcoming Clark Center concert, Postcards From Armenia. The concert features work by Armenian composers and also the world premiere of Dr. Nielsen Price's composition Conversation with Komitas. Her guests are Dr. Sushana Hakobyan of Shell Piano Trio and composer Dr. Deon Nielsen Price of Music for Unity.
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Latino USA… This week on Latino USA, step inside the 2026 Whitney Biennial, where sixteen Latino and Latina artists are reshaping the meaning of “American” art. Visit the exhibition with the museum’s first Latina curator, Marcela Guerrero, who guides us through immersive installations, digital worlds, and a sculpture that stares back at you. Also on the show, hear from the directors of Take It Away: The Rise and Fall of Tejano Hollywood, a recent documentary that looks at the life of Canales and his legacy.
Friday 5/29
1:00 – 2:00 PMScience Friday…
6:30 – 7:30 PM
The Club McKenzie… Puzzling: There are several layers of speculation around some of the curious events in jazz during the 1920s, and most of the stories that have evolved are not founded in fact. For example, trumpeter Buddy Bolden – who is often called the first jazz musician – was committed to a Louisiana asylum in 1907. By the 1920s, musicians spoke of him in almost mythological terms, debating what he actually sounded like. He supposedly established the jazz standard of a five-piece band consisting of trumpet, trombone, clarinet, banjo and drums. There were a few trumpet artists who filled the gap in those early years; the most successful was Joe Oliver, who became known as "King."