This week we are in Albany, California to see the ponies run at Golden Gate Fields. This is the only major racetrack in Northern California and thoroughbreds first started racing here back in 1941.

This track has seen some truly great racehorses over the years including Noor, Citation and one of the sport’s most popular horses, the legendary John Henry.

We are going to take a look behind the scenes and meet some of the people that make horseracing happen at one of the best places to visit in the Bay Area.

We aren’t going to teach you how to handicap horses or place any 2-dollar bets but we are going to introduce you to a number of winners.

Along the way we are also going to profile a very unique friendship between Jim Boggeri, a local Marin firefighter, and his rescue dog partner that will just about melt your heart.

Finally tonight we profile a horseracing Hall of Famer and North America’s all-time winning jockey, the legendary Russell Baze.

Terry Fong is leading NASA’s new push into space exploration. Long gone is its legendary space shuttle program. The future belongs to Terry’s Robotics Intelligence Group. His team designs everything from land rovers to droids that help astronauts aboard the International Space Station. We’ll step inside the lab where they’re creating NASA’s latest robots. Astronauts aboard the ISS will soon operate one of these robots while its stationed at Moffett Field. It’s a challenging job, but Terry wouldn’t have it any other way. “The first thing I want to do, even before breakfast, is get to work,” he says.

This week we are in Santa Cruz aboard Iowa Pacific for a ride on the newly re-opened 32-mile Branch Rail Line in Santa Cruz County.

This is the most recent train to rumble through the central coast but certainly not the first. Today we’re going to learn a bit about local railroad history, from Sandy Lydon.

We’ll also meet, Richard Hatfield, a different kind of engineer - one who’s battery powered motorcycle has set new world record; Jill Alexander, a Santa Cruz woman who is the only U.S. designer to be invited to U. K. Fashion Week and Laura Stachel, a local doctor saving lives around the world with her solar power plant … that fits into a suitcase.
Ep.502

This week we are at International Culinary Center in Campbell.
Have we got some treats for you! First we’re going to learn to make a famous french pastry with an American twist.....and plenty of chocolate.
Will also meet three of the finest and chefs in the Bay Area -
Santa Cruz’s Reilly Meehan, the very
first American and the youngest person to be named “The Best Young Chef in the World,” Chef Charles Phan, owner of the famed Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco, world renowned for its home style Vietnamese cooking; and finally Richard Donnelly, one of the best Chocolatiers in the nation. Ep. 507

At the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, Table Tennis is the sport that rules the hardwood. You may know it as “Ping Pong” but this cutthroat game played by young kids with a “take no prisoners attitude,” has captured city. Two of the ICC’s finest players, Lily Zhang and Timothy Wang were members of the 2012 United States Olympic Table Tennis Team. Find out why Zhang and Wang have a shot to medal at the 2016 Games and why the sport’s very best players are products of Milpitas.

Professional sailor and America’s Cup winner John Kostecki has been a force in his sport for the past thirty years. Raised near Marin and a master of the tricky San Francisco Bay waters, Kostecki is a former Olympic sailor who captured a silver medal in the Soiling Class at the 1988 Games in South Korea. A former Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Kostecki was part of the crew aboard Oracle that defeated the Swiss boat Alinghi to recapture the America’s Cup in 2008. The victory marked the first time the oldest trophy in American history has returned to these shores in 15 years. Kostecki is currently the Tactician for Team USA Oracle, as this country prepares to defend the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay.

This week we are at History where we'll take a look at San Jose’s famous Electric Tower, just one of the many amazing things you’ll discover walking around grounds here.

The tower we'll show you is a replica of the original, which was built in 1881 to ‘light up’ the downtown area. It was hailed as the ‘Seventh Wonder of the West’. Legend has it that the designer of the Eiffel Tower visited San José’s Electric Light Tower when he was looking for ideas.

In this episode, we’re going on a journey back in time to take a look at early spy gear. We’ll see all kinds of technology used by spies throughout history.

We’ll also meet an energetic pair of paddle-pounding Olympians from Milpitas;
a NASA scientist who is re-inventing the way we do planetary exploration and one of the youngest female engineers to fire up a steam engine!

You can watch the show on KQED Plus on April 17 at 7pm.
Episode 503

The film posted here, Dave Tatsuno Movies and Memories, documents an important piece of American and Bay Area history. In 1942 about 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States were placed in "war relocation camps."

Japanese-American businessman, Dave Masaharu Tatsuno and his family were relocated to the Topaz Interment Camp, in Utah, for the duration of World War II. While imprisoned, he filmed a remarkable series of home movies documenting his family's life at Topaz.

Later, Mr. Tatsuno created a film with that footage called, Topaz Memories. It is the only full-color movie of life in an internment camp shot from the perspective of an internee. Mr. Tatsuno showed the homemade film at schools and community events to educate younger generations. In 1997, he gave Topaz Memoriesto the Library of Congress as a gift to the American people.

Dave Tatsuno Movies and Memories is about the inspiring documentarian, himself. The footage Mr.Tatsuno courageously shot at Topaz is featured in the documentary by Public Television Station, KTEH (now KQED Silicon Valley) in 2006.

J

Melani Clark is the CEO of Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, California. One of the just a few women in the country running a rail line.
Founded by her father, Norman Clark, Roaring Camp is 180 acre historic, old western theme park. Complete with several 100 year old steam engines.
And Clark is not just the railroad's CEO, she also takes her turn in the cab as a fireman. A job she started at just 19. At the time, she was one of the youngest female fireman in the country.

In 2008, Dr. Laura Stachel went to Nigeria to find out why so many women were dying there during childbirth. She was flabbergasted to discover that in many areas, women were giving birth without electricity – sometimes in near total darkness. Doctors and midwives often helped delivered babies with only a cell phone or lantern for light. With her husband, a solar expert, she devised a way to bring light to clinics in Nigeria and other Third World countries. They did this by creating a solar kit that could fit inside a suitcase. It was small enough to sneak past customs and big enough to power 2 bright lights, as well as medical equipment. The solar suitcase has had instant and powerful results in clinics around the world. Stachel’s organization, WE CARE Solar, has distributed solar suitcases to 20 different countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan and Liberia.