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Hana Baba

News Reporter/Host, Crosscurrents

Hana Baba is an award-winning radio journalist and host of "Crosscurrents," the daily newsmagazine on NPR member station KALW Public Radio in San Francisco. She is also co-host/co-producer of The Stoop podcast, telling stories from across the Black Diaspora.

A Sudanese American, she enjoys exploring intersectionality and the richness of diaspora and immigrant community experiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Her work also appears on NPR, PRX, BBC, CBC, and others, and she has interviewed personalities like Levar Burton, Jimmy Carter, Stacey Abrams, and more.

Her work has won awards by the National Association of Black Journalists , the San Francisco Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Religion News Association, she is a Webby honoree, and more.

When she's not on the air, Hana speaks and consults with communities on how to enter media fields to affect change in current media narratives about African, Arab and Muslim communities. For this work, she was named a Bay Area African Cultural Icon by the California Legislature.

She also teaches radio journalism, lectures at Bay Area colleges, and is a voice and narration expert.

You can hear her on museum audio tours at SFMOMA, the De Young Museum, and The Legion of Honors.

  • Crosscurrents
    Joel Umanzor is a reporter for Richmondside. His five part series, “Restrained and Sedated,” investigates the deaths of two men who died after encounters with Richmond police officers.
  • Crosscurrents
    Joe Garcia is a reporter with CalMatters, and was incarcerated at San Quentin. He just published a story on how one mural came to be, and how he helped make it happen.He says it all started with his friend, Kai Bannon.
  • Crosscurrents
    Pastor Stevenson Noel heads a community church in the North Bay, and estimates about 5000 Haitians living in the Bay Area. He says his congregation is living in fear and confusion.
  • Crosscurrents
    The Bay Area is home to thousands of Haitians. In this segment of our Diaspora stories, Crosscurrents host, Hana Baba went to visit one whose restaurant was named one of the tastiest restaurants in the Bay Area by the SF Chronicle.
  • Crosscurrents
    After 31 years, the AIDS LifeCycle is taking it's final ride. We hear from KALW's Director of Operations & Strategic Growth, Jon Carroll, about why he's taking part, and what the ride has meant to him.
  • Crosscurrents
    Today, we hear an excerpt from the first episode of the new season of "The Nocturnists" and meet Doctor Emily Silverman, the founder and host of the series.
  • Crosscurrents
    Ciiku N’dungu Case is the founder of Cheza Nami, an East Bay based organization that spreads awareness of African cultures in schools through music and dance. Now she is out with a new children’s book called "Wanjiku, Child of Mine." It's about a little girl who grows up in Kenya…
  • Crosscurrents
    There are roughly 1000 small businesses that call San Francisco’s Chinatown home. To help us understand how the tariffs are threatening the whole neighborhood, I spoke with the President of the city's Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Donald Luu.
  • Crosscurrents
    Since the Trump administration put a hold on funding for climate programs back in January, federal support for a wide range of climate related projects has been thrown into question.
  • Crosscurrents
    Today, we hear from Greg Eskridge, Uncuffed’s first Leadership Fellow and the host of the show. And Greg is joined by Kelly McEvers, the Storytelling Lead Teacher for Uncuffed’s expansion into the California Institution for Women.