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The Finest

KPBS Public Media

What makes San Diego America’s Finest City? It’s the people, art and movements redefining the region’s cultural identity. The Finest is a podcast that highlights the emerging voices and dynamic forces reshaping community and expression.

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Episodes

62 episodes

  1. Inside prison, art offers a path to healing — and freedom 34:26
  2. Bonus: Voice of San Diego Podcast on HBO's 'Neighbors' and orphaned bear cubs, plus great local dive bars 32:32
  3. How Taylor Guitars changed the guitar industry — and helped revitalize an African forest in the process 28:54
  4. Physics Girl spent her life explaining science. Then science couldn't explain her illness 36:54
  5. Nicole Hernandez's music crosses borders, languages and genres 19:45
  6. What we lose with remote work — and could working together (at a baseball game) fix it? 29:56
  7. A comic book challenges the way California tells its history (July 2025) 32:33
  8. The US has a loneliness problem. Maybe we need book clubs more than ever | Live at the KPBS San Diego Book Festival 32:08
  9. 'End of the 8': How a group of friends made San Diego's newest sitcom 24:28
  10. Best of KPBS Podcasts - Port of Entry & The Finest 53:14
  11. What makes art human? Inside animation's AI reckoning 35:27
  12. Why everyone is reading romantasy (July 2025) 37:22
  13. Finding your own form of protest: Koy Sun on art, resistance and slowing down 29:33
  14. Why Americans 'fear, loathe and deny' aging — and how one thrift store wants to change that 30:07
  15. 'Nature-deficit disorder' and the surprising science of paying attention outdoors 25:37
  16. A Costco tattoo, a rotisserie chicken and a community 28:26
  17. The songs we write when life doesn't come with answers 26:24
  18. Mahjong is having a moment. What that says about how we connect 26:02
  19. The Pokémon economy: The real cost of catching 'em all 32:49
  20. An electric streetcar network once crisscrossed San Diego. What if we got it back? 28:19
  21. The rise, fall and comeback of pro skateboarder Brandon Turner 28:29
  22. Rugs, rituals and resilience: How artists are expanding the story of Iran beyond conflict 25:18
  23. How streaming changed what we hear — and what musicians earn (May 2025) 36:26
  24. Every object tells a story: The unseen craft of theatrical props 25:36
  25. Dance or die — and the fight to be more than a headline 32:55
  26. Scientists are still mapping plants. How the public is helping — with an app 31:48
  27. The matcha boom: How a centuries-old tradition became a global craze 28:23
  28. Unboxing hidden music history: Lou Curtiss' Whimsical Collection and vinyl's survival 23:01
  29. Bonus: One of Their Own, a San Diego officer's death and the questions left behind 26:09
  30. Topeka Clementine performs live at KPBS and talks cooking, art, viral moments and music as action 20:34
  31. The art, the joy, the keeper: The hidden work behind Niki de Saint Phalle's beloved mosaic sculptures 30:40
  32. From Seafood City to stardom: How Jessica Sanchez returned to 'America's Got Talent' 20 years later 28:51
  33. 'Made in a Home Kitchen': Raíz Chocolate turns Mexican tradition into a microenterprise 30:08
  34. Risograph revival: How a forgotten printer built a global DIY art movement 36:34
  35. The Finest: New season, new stories 2:04
  36. A special episode where a superfan takes our survey — plus your chance to win a Finest T-shirt 11:08
  37. The nation's largest book ban: Inside the fight to read in America's prisons 36:56
  38. The lost composer: Alice Barnett and the paradox of fame and memory 39:39
  39. The science of the supernatural: Psychics, cults and why we believe 32:19
  40. Big guitars, bigger feelings: Slacker's San Diego story of growing pains and friendship 22:59
  41. By 25, one San Diegan visited every country on Earth — here's what he found 33:05
  42. Bonus: Soup dumplings, hidden trails, enemies-to-lovers and a viral clip — reflections from The Finest 31:57
  43. More than a menu: How Mabel's Gone Fishing became a San Diego gathering place 25:41
  44. From TV auctions to social media bidding: How the live shopping thrill lives on 32:46
  45. Myth, post-truth and empathetic villains – from an ancient fantasy world to Kellyanne Conway: Live at the San Diego Book Festival 33:24
  46. The story of Lucky Wong and his legendary one-man diner in San Diego 34:05
  47. Blink-182, lucky breaks and the power of place 30:11
  48. Romantasy rising: How a dismissed book genre became a publishing powerhouse 36:28
  49. Bonus: Nortec Collective at 25 — a Port of Entry story 29:48
  50. 3 friends return to graffiti decades after a police sting shattered their world 36:46