Rightnowish
Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home. New to the show? Start here.

All EpisodesAll Episodes

Man with locs holding a smiling baby.
Ras K'dee smiles and looks at the camera, while wearing a yellow knitted cap and sitting in his music studio.
Artist and curator Marcel Pardo Ariza poses for a photo at the archives of San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society.
A man wearing a tan bucket hat, handkerchief around his neck, black shirt and tan jacket posing for a photo on a rooftop.
Tomas Moniz, author of All Friends Are Necessary, a novel about friendship in the Bay Area.
A black and white photo of Giulio Xavier Cetto playing the upright bass.

Featured Series: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma

Man wearing blue jeans and long sleeved shirt, faces the camera while riding a light blue and purple colored, adult tricycle, with a large speaker in its cargo rack.
Rapper Too $hort drives a drop-top old school car as MTV host Sway Calloway sits in the passenger seat and a film crew sits in the back recording an episode of MTV My Block: The Bay in 2006.
Legendary Vallejo rapper E-40 stands in front of a purple Buick "scraper" as three young folks dance atop the vehicle during the filming of the video for the song, "Tell Me When To Go" in Deep East Oakland back in 2006.

Featured Series: Adorned

A woman with dark brown hair poses in front of a bougainvillea bush. A a man with short hair poses in front of a green succulent.
Chelsea poses for the camera wearing an orange jacket and pants. A picture of a chained necklace with beaded letters reads MAHAL.
A woman with long hair wears a niners jacket and holds a bouquet of dahlias in front of a hummingbird painted on the wall.

Featured Series: Liner Notes

Stories about Jazz in the Bay Area

Elena Pinderhughes is an extremely talented flutist and vocalist from Berkeley.
A black and white photo of Giulio Xavier Cetto playing the upright bass.
Dr. Angela Wellman looks directly into the camera as she plays her trombone.

Featured Series: Pen’s Pals

Anwar Bey in Eswatini/ aka Swaziland.
Mohammad Gorjestani holding a copy of his "Where Is The Friend's House?" book.
Dear Future Self... [image of a letter written to someone's "future self".]

Featured Series: From the Soil

Looking for a good story? Look to the ground. Over six episodes the Rightnowish team will explore some of the tales that this soil holds.

Marisol Medina-Cadena holds a boom mic while Pendarvis Harshaw poses with his camera around his neck, as they stand on a hillside in San Francisco-- the site of the 280 Project's wine vineyard.
Valentin Lopez, tribal chair leader of the Amah Mutsun tribal ban, standing near the fence that separates the road from the historic sacred site known as Juristac in Santa Clara County.
Arieann Harrison, CEO of The Marie Harrison Community Foundation, holds an umbrella in the rain while standing on Third Street in Bayview-Hunters Point.

Contact Rightnowish

Want to talk to us? Email us at rightnowish@kqed.org or leave a voicemail at 415-553-2803.

Rightnowish Team

Pendarvis Harshaw
Pendarvis Harshaw

Host / Producer

Pendarvis is a journalist from Oakland, California and the host of Rightnowish. He's a graduate of Howard University's School of Communications and UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. He is the director of the documentary film, TDK: The Dream Kontinues. And the author of OG Told Me, a coming of age memoir about Harshaw's upbringing in Oakland. He currently works as a freelance writer for a number of outlets, and contributes weekly columns to KQED Arts. @OGpenn
Marisol Medina-Cadena
Marisol Medina-Cadena

Producer

Marisol is a fourth generation Californian with roots throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles County. As the producer of Rightnowish she makes episodes sparkle with emotive tape, groovy music, and archival gems. She has also worked as a producer for 99% Invisible’s According to Need, California Foodways, KALW public radio, and KQED favorites like The California Report, The Bay and Bay Curious. In 2017, she won an Emmy Award for her work on City Rising. When she's not reporting or producing, she's rehearsing improv comedy, reading memoirs, and making playlists for every occasion. @marisolreports
Chris Hambrick
Chris Hambrick

Editor

Chris is an editor for KQED Podcasts and loves holding the big picture vision for shows. Previously they were a producer for Spooked Podcast from Snap Judgment Studios, host for The Tracklist on KGPC, as well as White Rabbit Story Hour podcast. They have contributed to KALW, KQED’s Bay Curious, and facilitated for national oral history project, StoryCorps. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can catch her telling stories on the MortifiedSFLitCrawl or Moth stages.
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