We expect to release our episodes in late 2026.
Listen to our audio trailer here, and scroll down for samples of our journalism.
Rural Mental Health
When we first got started on this project in 2019, we made a preview episode that digs into the extraordinary challenges in rural California. There’s a saying in remote Siskiyou County -- that geography is destiny. And for Marlene Baker it was. To get the help she needed, she had to commit a crime. Not just any crime. A felony. But stick with us, and you'll discover what can happen when public defenders, prosecutors, judges and mental health officials collaborate to try to break the cycle of mental illness and incarceration.
History As a Road Map
Up until about fifty years ago, even in California, being LGBTQ+ meant living in the shadows. You could be targeted, entrapped, incarcerated or committed by a judge to a psychiatric hospital. Listen to this June 2022 show of KQED’s The California Report Magazine. You can read the print version of the story here, at MindSite News. It’s full of photos and links to historical documents.
Conditions of Confinement
Conditions of confinement in jails and prisons worsen mental health. That’s especially true for Black transgender women. Listen to this October 2023 show of KQED’s The California Report Magazine. You can read the print version here. It’s full of links to documents and more.
Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED
When Law Enforcement Won’t Help
Read Lee’s April 2025 piece in CalMatters here about the growing reluctance of law enforcement to respond to mental health crisis calls that don’t involve crime
Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
And listen to her interview about that work with Tradeoff’s founder Dan Gorenstein