Oakland Fire Survivor: Create Affordable, Safe Living Spaces & Stop Treating Artists Like Criminals

Mourning continues in Oakland after the death of at least 36 people in a fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse, where the victims were overwhelmingly young artists, activists and community organizers. Many local artists and tenants’ rights activists say the fire is a symptom of a failed urban housing policy where rising rents have forced people to live and make art in sometimes hazardous spaces. "We need safe spaces to be able to come into the light and to stop treating artists like criminals," says the show's guest, Nihar Bhatt, a Bay Area DJ and record label owner who survived the warehouse fire but lost seven friends.