Holly McDede

Holly J. McDede has spent over four years as a reporter for KALW public radio, producing in depth, sound rich audio pieces on everything from a reunion for former Alcatraz inmates to mental health training for police to efforts to reform the state's sex registry. During that time, she's also led KALW's training programs for high school students, and worked as an editor and producer on the breaking news desk at KCBS radio. Now she is an on-call producer and reporter with KQED, where she files daily news stories and produces The California Report.

Articles

Reporting Strategies

Understanding the overdose crisis through the eyes of workers trying to save lives

Following sources to work and shadowing them can sometimes be all you need to tell a story successfully, leading to indelible moments you'd never otherwise capture.

Addiction

Two people posing with soda cans, chips, and other items

Children & Families

In Harm's Way, Pt. 4: Bringing Lived Experience with Addiction to Class

Addiction

Person sitting on chair looking at a monitor and working

In Harm's Way Pt. 3: Not Enough Counselors

Take a look at the national staffing crisis among substance use disorder counsellors across the state, and spend time with a supervisor who started out as a group counsellor making $19 an hour.

People with truck, "Punks with lunch" written on truck

In Harm's Way Pt. 2: The Punks with Lunch

Meet West Oakland Punks with Lunch, a group that's been providing sandwiches, cookies, syringes, and lifesaving services for unhoused residents in the community.

Addiction

Housing and Homeslessness

Healthcare Systems & Policy

In Harm’s Way Pt.1: Street Outreach in San Francisco

Meet an outreach manager who worked at the Tenderloin Linkage Center, and a former guest at the center who wishes more people considered the humanity of unhoused people struggling with addiction.

Addiction

Dawn Koch, a former guest at Hotel Whitcomb, talks to a Five Keys staff member (not pictured) at the Hotel Whitcomb in San Francisco in February, 2022.Dawn Koch, a former guest at Hotel Whitcomb, talks to a Five Keys staff member (not pictured) at the Hotel Whitcomb in San Francisco in February, 2022.

Reporting on the frontlines of the Bay Area’s overdose epidemic

“It’s like a scene from a bad movie where people are trying, and trying, and trying until someone pulls them off,” said one hotel staffer, describing the day one of the guests fatally overdosed.

Housing and Homeslessness

San Francisco’s overdose crisis has received national attention. So why is the data such a mess?

Fentanyl had saturated the city’s drug supply. But it seemed too easy to blame fentanyl when people in nearby counties were not dying at the same rates.

Iyana Spruell points to her cousin Sterling Ulrich in a photo of them as teens in Merced, outside her home in San Francisco's Te

Health Equity & Social Justice

Staff at a San Francisco hotel battle an overdose crisis

About 400 unhoused people stay at Hotel Whitcomb, and many deal with substance use disorders. That means staff who work at the hotel are fighting to keep guests alive.

Race and Equity

Poverty and Class

Housing and Homeslessness

Rachel McLean holds two pins on orange fabric hearts from the memorial for Pete Morse, at her home on March 10, 2022.

Mental Health & Trauma

From the Underground to Public Health Policy: A History of Harm Reduction in San Francisco

The philosophy of harm reduction spread internationally when activists and caregivers sought ways to reduce suffering and health risks during the AIDS crisis in the '80s.

Health Insurance and Costs

Mental Health

Keith Thompson waits to get in to the Tenderloin Linkage Center in San Francisco on Feb. 8, 2022.

Community & Public Health

New Tenderloin Site Highlights Challenge of Connecting People to Drug Treatment and Housing Services

The new site opened amid mounting pressure on city leaders to reduce open-air drug use and skyrocketing overdose deaths in the neighborhood.

Race and Equity

Housing and Homeslessness

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Holly McDede

Articles

Understanding the overdose crisis through the eyes of workers trying to save lives

In Harm's Way, Pt. 4: Bringing Lived Experience with Addiction to Class

In Harm's Way Pt. 3: Not Enough Counselors

In Harm's Way Pt. 2: The Punks with Lunch

In Harm’s Way Pt.1: Street Outreach in San Francisco

Reporting on the frontlines of the Bay Area’s overdose epidemic

San Francisco’s overdose crisis has received national attention. So why is the data such a mess?

Staff at a San Francisco hotel battle an overdose crisis

From the Underground to Public Health Policy: A History of Harm Reduction in San Francisco

New Tenderloin Site Highlights Challenge of Connecting People to Drug Treatment and Housing Services