KQED's Perspectives

Deidre Green describes the reunion of two long-separated and aging sisters.

Absentee, early voting and mail-in ballots are all great, but Wendy Stancer misses something special that comes when voting with her neighbors on election day. Wendy Stancer is a Northern California native.

Two women respond to a stricken man. One is highly trained. The other asks all the right questions. Jessica Nussbaum explains. Jessica Nussbaum lives in Alameda and is a business-to-business technology marketer.

Sadie Lincoln and her husband, Chris, had what seemed like the perfect life – well-paying jobs, a house in the Bay Area, two kids. But one day they decided to sell everything and start a new business called Barre3: a studio exercise program that blends ballet with pilates and yoga. Today, Barre3 has more than 100 studios across the country. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," we check back with Alexander Harik, who turned his mom's recipe for fragrant Middle Eastern za'atar spread into Zesty Z: The Za'atar Company. (Original broadcast date: September 11, 2017.)

Tuesday is election day and Marilyn Englander is among the legion of volunteers urging their fellow citizens to not sit this one out. Marilyn Englander is a North Bay educator and founder of REAL SchoolMarin.

Rock ‘n roll lyrics can make sticklers for good grammar like Lane Parker cringe, but if the English is perfect, is it really rock ‘n roll? Lane Parker is a writer and editor in San Francisco. 

Marnie Webb says that steps to make voting simpler are understandable but miss one important truth: Democracy is hard work. Marnie Webb works for a San Francisco nonprofit and lives in Berkeley.

Michael Newland looks at what men have done to support women subject to predatory assault and sees nothing but utter failure. Mike Newland is a father and husband, living in Sonoma County.

What if you won the lottery? What if the life you actually have looked to others like you already had won the lottery?

When Jon Stein realized he couldn't stand the sight of blood, he gave up the idea of becoming a doctor. Instead, he went into finance, but soon grew restless with "helping banks make more money." So he decided to build a business where he could help everyday investors make more money: an online service that would use a combination of algorithms and human advisers. Jon launched Betterment at a precarious time — shortly after the financial crash of 2008. But today, the company has roughly 13 billion dollars under management. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how Gerry Stellenberg combined his knack for technology and his love for pinball to create the P3: a pinball machine that allows a real-life ball to interact with virtual objects.

Richard Friedlander struggles with the old goal of how to live in this world without being of it.

Beauty standards may vary around the world, but they are a powerful force. Especially on teen girls. Here’s YR Media’s Sarah Ng on putting down the eyelid tape.

When she tries to help a young student get organized, Lauren John must first deal with a backpack full of stuff.

She was very young and spoke little English. But her talent, says Richard Swerdlow, was as stunning as it was surprising.

Communicating in a new language is more than learning conjugations and vocabulary. It’s about listening and speaking. When Andy Monteiro figured that out, it changed his life. Andy Monteiro works in high tech and lives with his wife in Silicon Valley.