The Bay Agenda: Kevin Fagan, The Lost & The Found Book Talk & Signing

Join KALW for an evening with award-winning journalist and author Kevin Fagan, as he discusses his powerful new book, The Lost & The Found, in conversation with Alastair Boone, director of Street Spirit.

Set in San Francisco—one of the wealthiest cities in America—The Lost & The Found takes a deeply human approach to exploring the homelessness crisis. Through the moving and complex stories of Rita and Tyson—two unhoused individuals fighting to reclaim their lives—Fagan sheds light on the devastating intersection of homelessness and addiction. The book is both an intimate portrait of survival and an incisive commentary on housing, equality, and the policies shaping this national emergency.

Kevin Fagan is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and former San Francisco Chronicle reporter who has spent decades covering homelessness and poverty. His groundbreaking work has helped shape public discourse and policy, making him one of the country’s leading voices on the issue.

Don’t miss this thought-provoking conversation, followed by a book signing.

Kevin Fagan is an award-winning journalist and passionate storyteller. He specializes in writing about homelessness and poverty, human interest, crime, breaking news and the American West, taking pleasure in ferreting out stories others might not find — from immersing in street camps of the unhoused to riding the rails with modern-day hobos.
As a veteran reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, Kevin focused extensively on the gritty culture of street people. Over the past 20-plus years he produced more than 500 high-impact articles and projects that helped drive city and national policy on homelessness, comparing and examining housing and counseling programs in the Bay Area and throughout the nation. From 2016 to 2021 he led the Chronicle’s annual sweeping “SF Homeless Project,” and in 2003 he spent six months in San Francisco’s streets to produce the influential five-day “Shame of the City” series exploring the then-exploding crisis of homelessness and its possible solutions.
He has witnessed seven Pr*son executions, and covered the Sept. 11 terror attacks at Ground Zero, mass shootings including the Columbine High School massacre, the Occupy movement and aftermath, California droughts, floods and fires. Kevin's interviews have ranged the gamut from presidents and soldiers to comedians, and he's filed dispatches from Laos and the Dominican Republic on M**der, guerrilla warfare, land mine danger and drug abuse. Kevin’s ground-breaking 8-part podcast and story package on the unsolved case of the Doodler serial killer, who murdered gay men in San Francisco, was an international hit on the true crime podcast charts, scoring in the top 3 for the U.S. and Britain.

Kevin's awards include the national James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism and prizes from National Headliner Awards, Best of the West, California Newspaper Publishers' Association, Society of Professional Journalists, Heywood Broun and the San Francisco Press Club. He received the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship to Stanford University, which allowed him to spend an academic year at the university studying aspects of the American West, and he has been nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize for stories ranging from homelessness to disaster coverage and feature writing.

He retired from the SF Chronicle in 2025 to concentrate on book writing, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed issued a proclamation declaring his last day of work to be "Kevin Fagan Day" in San Francisco.

Alastair Boone has been covering homelessness since 2018 when she became Editor in Chief of Street Spirit newspaper — the publication that is sold by unhoused people on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland. During her tenure as EIC she told the stories of countless encampment sweeps, curbside communities, policy changes and their impacts on individuals. Since graduating from KALW's 2024 Audio Academy, she has continued to tell these stories on the radio as a beat reporting fellow at the station. She also works as Director of Street Spirit, where she is learning the ins and outs of nonprofit development and business management with the goal of helping these stories reach a wider audience.

The Lost & The Found. Support KALW by reserving your copy of Kevin Fagan's new book, which he'll sign for you at the event! You can get your copy in the add-on area of our ticketing page.

Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.

📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI
🚪 Doors open at 5:00
🗣️ Program begins at 6:00
🍷 Refreshments for donation (and KALW members get their first one on the house)
🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want

Please note:

• The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
• We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
• Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
• If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location

Host or Publisher KALW Public Media