audio
Below are select audio stories I've reported and/or produced for the San Francisco Chronicle.
extra spicy podcast
I was the lead producer and editor of Season 1 and 2 of the weekly food and culture podcast.
Season 1 was featured in The Atlantic's 50 Best Podcasts of 2020, Discover Pod's 10 Food Podcasts To Sink Your Teeth Into and Eater SF's Your Favorite New Podcasters Are Already Bay Area Food Stars.
Season 2 was awarded Best Podcast by the Society for Features Journalism.
Here are a few of my favorite episodes:
Chuck E. Cheese & Ferrero Rocher: How Immigrants Learn to be American: Writer and journalist Liana Aghajanian shares stories about growing up in the U.S. as a child of Iranian-Armenian refugees and how she approaches writing about diaspora cuisines in a unique way.
Three-Michelin-Starred: A Fine Dining Legacy, Burned Down: A narrative podcast episode about 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.
Asian & Black People Are Hurting. And It's Complicated: A frank conversation about the tensions between Asian and Black communities, the dangers of a widening rift, and the media’s role in perpetuating misunderstanding.
fifth & mission podcast
For The Chronicle's flagship news podcast, I adapted our newsroom's biggest stories and turned them into narrative episodes. I also reported my own original stories and investigations.
Here are a few of my favorite episodes:
Crossing the Border Amid the Pandemic: The U.S.-Mexico border has been a major focus of the Trump administration. But for some American citizens, it's simply a part of their day. They live in Mexico but work or go to school in the U.S. I talked to people who cross the border on a daily basis, braving early hours, long lines and coronavirus danger.
The Man Who Finds Bodies: Keith Cormican has a very unusual job: he finds and retrieves dead bodies in lakes and rivers across the country. I adapted this long-form reporting project into a narrative episode.
“I Am Risking My Health By Being Here”: A narrative podcast episode about workers from San Francisco’s Mission District who work — and potentially risk their health — amid the coronavirus shelter in place orders.