Bay Curious - The Berkeley Park That Was Once All Trash
Bay Curious listener Tom Rauch grew up in Berkeley in the 1960s. Some of his most vivid memories from that time are of the old Berkeley dump. “It really was just this big, giant pit where you backed up your car, opened up your trunk and just shoveled whatever you had into this open pit,” he said. Fast forward to today, and the dump is long gone. In its place is César Chávez Park, a big grassy expanse with sweeping views of the entire San Francisco Bay.
Rauch recently started to wonder about the old dump, and submitted some questions to Bay Curious. How did it go from a squalid mass of junk to a beautiful shoreline park where people go to walk their dogs, fly kites and have picnics? And what are some of the challenges of turning a big pile of trash into a recreational space? Reporter Dana Cronin takes us on the journey to find out.
Additional Reading:
- The 'Trashy' History of Berkeley’s César Chávez Park
- Read the transcript of this episode
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This story was reported by Dana Cronin. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.
Everything Everywhere Daily - Mass Extinction Events
We like to think of the Earth as a very stable place. While there might be seasonal variation in the weather, things don’t really change that much within our lifetimes.
However, if you take a longer perspective, a much longer perspective, things can change a lot.
In fact, there have been five times in the history of the Earth when life on Eath completely changed. When over half of the species on the planet completely disappeared.
Learn more about the Earth’s mass extinction events and what caused them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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the memory palace - Episode 229: Teammates
Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.
During mid-April, 2025, I'm doing a southern book tour, with stops in San Antonio, Houston, Gainesville, Montgomery, New Orleans, and Oxford. Find out more at www.thememorypalace.us/events.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com.
Music
- La Copla from Atahualpa Yupanqui
- Yes, Brick by Brick and Waende by Caeys
- Space in Between by Federico Albanese
- Kieke by Shida Shihabi
Notes
- My favorite work on Mays is James Hirsch's glorious biography, Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend. I also recommend John Klima's Willie's Boys, about the Black Baron's 1948 season.
- If you're looking to get more context for the city during those years, I'd recommend Diane McWhorter's history, Carry Me Home.
The Indicator from Planet Money - Why the great vinyl shortage is over
Related episodes:
Rumor has it Adele broke the vinyl supply chain
'Let's Get It On' ... in court (Update) (Apple / Spotify)
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NPR's Book of the Day - To confront radical change, ‘Slate’ writer Scaachi Koul wrote a new book of essays
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Engines of Our Ingenuity - The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2444: Of Wombats and Armadillos
Curious City - What’s up with the Chicago’s feral cats?
Everything Everywhere Daily - Questions and Answers: Volume 29
If you happen to live in the Northern Hemisphere, April is a time when days get longer, the temperature gets warmer, and things start to become green again.
It is also the month of National Unicorn Day, National Superhero Day, National Take A Wild Guess Day, and, of course, National Hairball Awareness Day.
More important than any of these august holidays, it is the month where I answer your question.
Stay tuned for another episode of Questions and Answers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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- Plan your next adventure at Spain.info
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- Go to get.stash.com/EVERYTHING to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures.
Subscribe to the podcast!
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The Indicator from Planet Money - What $10 billion in data centers actually gets you
On today's episode: Why data centers create few permanent jobs. And why communities might want them anyway.
Related episodes:
Why China's DeepSeek AI is such a big deal (Apple / Spotify)
Is AI overrated? (Apple / Spotify)
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