The Finest

Elizabeth "Ely" Rosales Aguilar has built Raíz Chocolate from her San Diego home kitchen, turning a childhood love of chocolate into a small but thriving business. She carefully sources Mexican cacao and crafts silky bars and rich drinking chocolates, like champurrado, using recipes passed down for generations. Her work is precise and deliberate, highlighting skill, patience and artistry while remaining deeply rooted in tradition.

From bean sourcing to finished bars, Ely keeps her process transparent and small-scale, with an emphasis on preserving natural flavors — a sharp contrast to mainstream chocolate production. The name Raíz, which means "source" or “root” in Spanish, reflects that commitment to honoring cacao’s origins and the heritage behind each recipe.

California's home kitchen and cottage food laws allowed her to turn that passion into a legitimate career, offering an alternative to mass-produced chocolate. Her story blends resilience, entrepreneurship and cultural heritage, showing how craft, intention and tradition can transform a home kitchen into a business that delivers exceptional flavor while preserving the legacy of Mexican chocolate-making.

Guests:
Elizabeth "Ely" Rosales Aguilar, Raíz Chocolate founder

Sources:
Home Kitchen Operations: Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (MEHKO) and Cottage Food Operations (CFO) (SanDiegoCounty.gov)
California Cottage Food Operations (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources)
​Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations (California Department of Health)
Restaurant Owner Demographics (National Restaurant Association)
At-home businesses are growing. Women and people of color benefit the most (Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th, 2021)
Almendra Blanca Bar - 70% Single-Origin, Finca Frida, México (Raíz Chocolate)
Revival Cacao (Supplier for Raíz Chocolate)
ILAB Cocoa Storyboard: Exposing Exploitation in Global Supply Chains (U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs)
Mars Supply Chain Transparency (Mars)
In Maya society, cacao use was for everyone, not just royals (Richard Kemeny, ScienceNews, 2022)
Life, Death and Chocolate in Mesoamerica: The Aztecs and the Maya; Where did the Ritual Use of Cacao Originate? (Caroline Seawright, 2012)
The Maya civilization used chocolate as money (Joshua Rapp Learn, Science, 2018)
What is the chocolate and cocoa industry worth in Mexico? (Laura Islas, Merca 2.0, 2025)
Mexico cocoa bean imports and exports (World Integrated Trade Solution)
Cottage Foods and Home Kitchens: 2021 State Policy Trends (The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, 2022)

Risograph printing was built for efficiency — a fast, economical way to make thousands of identical copies for offices, churches and schools. It was never meant to be expressive or personal. After newer technology pushed the machine into obsolescence, artists began discovering risography — drawn to its unpredictability, physicality and limits. From a squatted bank in the Netherlands to DIY print spaces across Europe and the U.S., Risograph printing became a tool for people working outside traditional art and publishing systems.

In San Diego, that lineage comes into focus at Burn All Books — a space that is part shop, part press and part gathering place. There, Risograph printing isn't just about what gets made, but how: through shared labor, in-person collaboration and a commitment to keeping artists connected in an increasingly expensive and isolating city.

"You need a network of people who want to help you. That's something cobbled together very slowly over a long period of time. I just feel like so much of our success, to me, has felt like a combination of flukes and really wonderful favors and opportunities," said Manda Bernal, who cofounded Burn All Books with her husband Nick.

Guests:
Manda and Nick Bernal, Burn All Books founders
 Kevin Huynh, artist
Paloma, Jill, Phillip, Noelle, Tia, Galia and the crew at Burn All Books
Jan Dirk de Wilde, Knust co-founder
George Wietor, Issue Press founder

Sources:
Squatting in the Netherlands: The social and political institutionalization of a movement (Hans Pruijt, Public goods versus economic interests via EUR Research Information Portal, 2017)
“KNUST, the pioneers of Riso print” documentary directed by Ivana Smudja
RISO Kagaku’s history (RISO official website)
The Vintage Japanese Copy Machine Enjoying an Artistic Renaissance (Evan Nicole Brown, Atlas Obscura, 2018)
Culture Report: The Rise of the Risograph (Julia Dixon Evans, Voice of San Diego, 2018)

The Finest returns with a new season, exploring the people, art and movements redefining San Diego culture. From discovering new species in local preserves to reviving forgotten arts, crafting chocolate at home and forging unexpected connections, these stories celebrate ingenuity, resilience, and community. Premiering Jan. 15, new episodes drop weekly. Search The Finest wherever you get your podcasts.

We’re dropping a special minisode during our season break with one request: Help shape Season 2 of The Finest by taking our anonymous survey at KPBS.org/TheFinestSurvey. Your feedback helps guide what stories we cover next — and it enters you in a raffle to win an exclusive The Finest T-shirt. We’ll draw winners before the Season 2 premiere on Jan. 15. Plus, KPBS Racial Justice and Social Equity Reporter Katie Hyson, a self-proclaimed The Finest fan, takes the survey live on the show.

For many people who are incarcerated, a single book can be life-changing – a rare source of freedom and connection in a system built on isolation. That was true for Cherish Burtson, who discovered during her time in federal prison that reading could be a source of survival. Books became her escape, her education and a starting point to rebuild her life. But getting books behind bars isn't easy. Across the United States, correctional systems routinely ban or reject thousands of titles each year, reflecting deeper struggles over punishment, control and compassion. According to PEN America,  correctional facilities in all 50 states contribute to the nation's largest book ban, censoring more books than schools and libraries combined. This episode follows a group of San Diego volunteers working to get books past prison walls. It explores how the simple act of reading can restore a sense of humanity in even the harshest conditions — and what it says about who we are when we decide who gets to read.

Guests:
Cherish Burtson, substance use disorders counselor at Family Health Centers of San Diego
Moira Marquis, Freewrite project senior manager at PEN America
terry vargas, Books Through Bars San Diego volunteer

Sources:
United States Incarceration Profile (Prison Policy Initiative)
Incarceration Trends (Vera, 2024)
Women’s Pathways to Serious and Habitual Crime: A Person-Centered Analysis Incorporating Gender Responsive Factors (Tim Brennan, Markus Breitenbach, William Dieterich, Emily J. Salisbury and Patricia van Voorhis Notes, Criminal Justice and Behavior via Sage Journals, 2012)
East Bay Federal Prison Plagued by Sex Abuse Scandal Will Close Permanently (KQED, 2024)
Time-In-Cell: A 2021 Snapshot of Restrictive Housing based on a Nationwide Survey of U.S. Prison Systems (The Correctional Leaders Association & The Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School, 2022)
COVID-19 Timeline (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Three State Prison Oversight During the COVID-19 Pandemic (John Howard Association of Illinois, the Correctional Association of New York and the Pennsylvania Prison Society, 2021)
Groundwork Books Collective (Idealist)
Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon (Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers, 2001)
Books Thru Bars 2024 Impact (Books Through Bars San Diego via Instagram, 2024)
Books Thru Bars Your Donation at a Glance (Books Through Bars San Diego via Instagram, 2025)
Local prison book program brings connection and humanity despite censorship (Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS, 2024)
Literature Locked Up How Prison Book Restriction Policies Constitute the Nation’s Largest Book Ban (James Tager, PEN America, 2019)
Reading Between the Bars: An In-Depth Look at Prison Censorship (Moira Marquis and Juliana Luna, PEN America, 2023)
Disapproved Publications (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Perfecting the Prison: United States, 1789-1865 (David J. Rothman, Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society via University of Minnesota Duluth, 1995)
History of Eastern State Penitentiary (Eastern State)
Deterrence and Incapacitation: A Quick Review of the Research (Laura Bennett and Felicity Rose, The Center for Just Journalism, 2025)
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2025 (Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative, 2025
Custodial Sanctions and Reoffending: A Meta-Analytic Review (Damon M. Petrich, Travis C. Pratt, Cheryl Lero Jonson and Francis T. Cullen, University of Chicago Press Journals, 2021)
Prison Banned Books Week: Books give incarcerated people access to the world, but tablets are often used to wall them off (Mike Wessler and Juliana Luna, Prison Policy Initiative, 2024)
Books through Bars Stories from the Prison Books Movement (Dave "Mac" Marquis and Moira Marquis, University of Georgia, 2024)