Sasha Khokha Named Host of 'The California Report' Magazine Radio Show

SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2016 -- KQED Public Radio 88.5 FM announced today that Sasha Khokha has been named host of the statewide public radio magazine program The California Report. She begins her hosting duties on April 8.

“Sasha is a native Californian with a deep understanding of the people and issues throughout the Golden State,” said Executive Editor of KQED News Holly Kernan. “She’s a passionate journalist who has a unique ability to combine hard-hitting reporting with human storytelling. She has a fresh perspective and creative approach that’s right in line with the direction we hope to take the weekend program.”

“The California Report is the only public radio show that brings a statewide perspective to this huge, diverse place,” said Khokha. “It allows listeners on the freeway in San Diego or brushing their teeth in San Francisco to hear stories from Fresno, Mendocino and Sacramento. It brings us the stories of real people, the intimacy of their voices, and helps knit together our diverse state.”

After joining KQED in 2004, Sasha rose to Central Valley Bureau Chief for The California Report. In that role she covered a vast geographic beat, including the nation’s most productive farm belt, some of California’s poorest towns, and Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks. She reported on environmental justice issues, including air and water pollution, as well as bringing the lives and concerns of rural Californians to listeners across the state.

Sasha’s reporting has helped expose the hidden price that immigrant women janitors and farmworkers may pay to keep their jobs: sexual assault at work. Her “Rape in the Fields” radio series, produced in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, helped change California law with regard to sexual harassment training for farm supervisors. Her work has also won a national PRNDI award for investigative reporting, as well as multiple prizes from the Radio Television News Directors Association and the Society for Professional Journalists.

Sasha began her radio career in waterproof overalls filing stories about the salmon fishery at Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska. She has produced and reported for several documentary films. Hunger in the Valley of Plenty, exposing farmworkers’ lack of access to fresh produce for their families, won a Northern California Emmy. Calcutta Calling, about children adopted from India to Swedish-Lutheran Minnesota, was nominated for a national Emmy Award.

Born in a multicultural household -- her father is from India, her mother Irish-American -- Sasha grew up in Los Angeles, spent more than a decade in the Bay Area, and moved to the Central Valley 11 years ago to head up the Fresno Bureau for The California Report. She’s fluent in Spanish. Hello - whats

Sasha is a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Brown University, and the mother of two young children.

About The California Report
Distributed by satellite from the KQED Public Radio studios in San Francisco, The California Report provides daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions affecting California and its diverse population. It is carried by more than 30 public radio stations from Arcata to San Diego. Many local station reporters are regular contributors to the program. The daily morning edition of The California Report, a nine-minute program, airs on KQED 88.5 FM Monday through Friday at 5:50 a.m., 6:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m. The Friday afternoon edition, a half-hour magazine, airs on KQED 88.5 FM at 4:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 11p.m., and provides in-depth analysis, sound-rich radio excursions and commentaries from voices around the state. Subscribe to The California Report podcast on iTunes. For more information, check out californiareport.org.

About KQED
KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. Home to one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program, and as a leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas. As other news organizations have shrunk, KQED has expanded its efforts to cover the issues and events that are important to the Bay Area. As the most trusted source of news in the Bay Area, KQED is a multiplatform operation with offices and bureaus in San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno and Los Angeles. Stories from all KQED news programs are featured online at KQED.org/news.