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Sam Harnett

The World

Sam Harnett is a reporter and producer who contributes regularly to The World, Marketplace and KQED.

Sam Harnett is a reporter who covers tech and work at KQED in Northern California. For the last five years, many of his stories have shown how technology and capitalism are changing the way we think about ourselves and what it means to work. He is the co-creator of The World According to Sound, a 90-second podcast that features different sounds and the stories behind them. Before joining KQED, Sam worked as an independent reporter who contributed regularly to The California Report, Marketplace, The World and NPR. 

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How Filipino Americans spun their way to pop music fame

Arts

In the ’80s and ’90s, Filipino American turntablists dominated parts of California’s party scene, and pushed some DJs to national hip-hop fame.

STREET VIEW OF PRAGUE — The red dots are recordings taken from those locations. Aporee has the equivalent of 63 days worth of sound uploaded from all over the world.

Here’s what a map of the world sounds like

Media
Former NHK anchor Jun Hori speaks at a TEDx event in Kyoto, Japan, about opening Japanese journalism to non-traditional sources.

Japan’s timid coverage of Fukushima led this news anchor to revolt — and he’s not alone

Media
Kiyoko and her husband Yoshishiro Baba ran a fish restaurant in their home in Kawauchi until the Fukushima meltdown.

A couple returns to their ‘heaven’ near the Fukushima nuclear disaster

Environment
These residents have been given temporary jobs maintaining public places.

Not everyone wants the clean-up in Fukushima to be over

Environment
A protester at a rally against Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to expand Japan's military role.

Why young Japanese are joining a new wave of protests

Global Politics

Japan’s protest movement has been mostly dormant for decades. But a move by the prime minister to change the constitution is getting people out on the streets.Japan’s protest movement has been mostly dormant for decades. But a move by the prime minister to change the constitution is getting people out on the streets.

The Oath of Allegiance is held next to an American flag during a naturalization ceremony for citizen candidates in Washington, DC, on July 3, 2013.

What does the US citizenship exam actually test?

Development & Education

The US citizenship has an amazingly high pass rate — but it also has a number of critics. They argue the questions, frankly, are bad. And the test doesn’t encourage immigrants to become better citizens, but rather to memorize facts they can write on the test.

New citizens are naturalized during a ceremony in Oakland, California, on August 13, 2013.

Could you pass the test? International citizenship tests are often more interested in cultural quirks than national knowledge

Global Politics

At some level, all countries push new citizens to integrate and that’s where civics and language citizenship tests come in. But when you take a longer look at how citizenship exams are developed worldwide, you realize they can have less to do with methodology than promoting a strict cultural identity.

Energy East

Canada takes another run at finding a pipeline for its tar sands oil

Business, Economics and Jobs

There’s a new front opening in the effort to pump oil out of Canada’s tar sands. Plans to build pipelines to the south to the Gulf of Mexico and to the west to the Pacific Ocean are in question. Now TransCanada wants to head east from Alberta to refineries on the Atlantic.

Coach Matt Cheaves stands with members of the Dalton High School soccer team in Dalton, Ga.

The New American South: Latinos Make Their Mark in an Appalachian City

Arts, Culture & Media

El Nuevo South. That’s how some refer to the recent influx of Latinos to places like South Carolina, Arkansas, and Georgia. The changing demographic has sparked racial tensions. But the city of Dalton, in northwest Georgia, has a different story.