KQED's Forum
Forum tells remarkable and true stories about who we are and where we live. In the first hour, Alexis Madrigal convenes the diverse voices of the Bay Area, before turning to Mina Kim for the second hour to chronicle and center Californians’ experience. In an increasingly divided world, Mina and Alexis host conversations that inform, challenge and unify listeners with big ideas and different viewpoints. Want to call/submit your comments during our live Forum program Mon-Fri, 9am-11am? We'd love to hear from you! Please dial 866.SF.FORUM or (866) 733-6786 or email forum@kqed.org, tweet, or post on Facebook.
Episodes
May 17, 2024 • 55 mins
A generation of American folk singers – including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie – owe their inspiration to a little-known New Deal project known as the U.S. Music Unit. Over the course of two years, federal workers recorded amateur musicians at government-owned homesteads as a way to “raise morale, build community, and create hope,” according to music scholar Sheryl Kaskowitz. The Music Unit made hundreds of recordings for...
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May 17, 2024 • 55 mins
Whether you’re looking for an outdoor excursion, a quiet art gallery to wander through or a rousing show for an evening’s entertainment, KQED’s Arts & Culture team has got you covered. From festival dates to soccer schedules, the 2024 Summer Guide has recommendations in the Bay Area covering every interest and price point. We’ll get a temperature check on how the region’s arts and culture ecosystem is faring and hear from reporters...
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May 16, 2024 • 55 mins
Gov. Gavin Newsom last week proposed a series of deep cuts to close the state’s $45 billion budget deficit. The proposals, which include no new taxes, include a nearly 8% cut to state operations and the elimination of 10,000 unfilled jobs and will affect some education, public health and affordable housing programs. The governor’s office says that the proposal “maintains service levels for key housing, food, health care, and other ...
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May 16, 2024 • 55 mins
Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid “is the most openly authoritarian campaign I’ve seen [from] any candidate anywhere in the world since World War II”. That’s according to Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky, co-author of the book “How Democracies Die”. Trump’s stated plans include seeking revenge on political opponents, purging the federal workforce, ordering mass deportations, and deploying the military domestically. As...
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May 15, 2024 • 55 mins
You may know actor and stand-up comedian Tiffany Haddish best for her riotous performance in the 2017 film “Girls Trip.” Or for her Emmy Award-winning turn as host of Saturday Night Live…or for her voicework in “The Lego Movie 2” and other animated films. But her successes came hard-won against a backdrop of childhood trauma and mental health challenges. “I know what it feels like to hurt and what it feels like to see other people ...
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May 15, 2024 • 55 mins
In his magazine profiles and podcasts, Oakland writer Carvell Wallace has a gift for examining people and the times we live in with clarity and wisdom. With his new memoir “Another Word for Love,” Wallace extends his compassionate gaze to his own story, tracing a childhood peppered with homelessness and abuse, through to his quest for healing, pleasure and the divine. “It is is not enough to be hurt and to know that you have been h...
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May 14, 2024 • 55 mins
Amtrak reports that overall demand for passenger rail is soaring as yearly ridership totals approach pre-pandemic levels. But in California, the story is different. Popular west coast lines are losing riders and remain challenged by underinvestment and rules that give track priority to freight trains. In addition, increasingly powerful storms and rising seas threaten Amtrak’s infrastructure: Southern California’s Pacific Surfliner ...
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May 14, 2024 • 55 mins
Fashion is self-expression. It’s art. It’s also responsible for between 8 and 9 percent of planet-warming emissions. But it doesn’t have to be. We’ll talk about the fashion industry’s troubled relationship to labor, climate, and human rights issues – and spotlight companies creating sustainable alternatives. Plus, our panel of mending, thrifting and styling experts will share practical tips so that you can be chic… and climate-cons...
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In his new memoir “Small Acts of Courage,” MSNBC host Ali Velshi recounts his family’s migration across continents –– beginning in India under British rule, intersecting with Gandhi’s “satyagraha” movement in South Africa, and eventually settling in Canada during a refugee crisis for the global Indian diaspora. Ali himself immigrated to the United States two days after September 11, 2001 and writes: “Cynicism about politics is actu...
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May 13, 2024 • 55 mins
Yet another stretch of Highway 1 near Big Sur remains closed after a chunk of the roadway fell into the ocean in March. The latest closure raises questions about the future of the iconic highway amid threats from extreme weather and coastal erosion. “Everything is working against Highway 1,” Gary Griggs, an oceanography professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz told the Washington Post. We’ll look at what it could tak...
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May 10, 2024 • 55 mins
When most people think of a burrito, the “mission-style” burrito probably comes to mind. Rice, beans, meat – and maybe guacamole or salsa – wrapped in a giant flour tortilla and served in foil. Popularized across the country by the Chipotle chain, the mission-style burrito has its roots in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. But just because it’s the most popular, is it the best? Los Angeles and San Diego each provide their ...
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May 10, 2024 • 55 mins
Author and seasoned travel writer Gary Shteyngart had never been on a ship larger than the Staten Island Ferry before he embarked on the inaugural voyage of the “Icon of the Seas,” the world’s largest cruise ship. Proudly sporting a “Daddy’s Little Meatball” t-shirt that he hoped would be a conversation starter and aiming to make new friends, Shteyngart instead experienced loneliness and despair. He chronicles his experience in the...
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May 9, 2024 • 55 mins
Recent Hollywood films and TV shows have taken to presenting a “Magical Multiracial Past,” according to filmmaker Kabir Chibber in a recent New York Times Magazine article. It’s a past where “every race exists, cheerfully and seemingly as equals, in the same place at the same time. History becomes an emoji, its flesh tone changing as needed.” Some of the backlash to so-called colorblind casting has been outright racist. But some of...
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May 9, 2024 • 55 mins
Berkeley Unified School District superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel testified before Congress on Wednesday as part of hearings examining how K-12 school districts are handling anti-semitism in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Republicans say the education leaders invited to testify – from Berkeley, New York City, and Montgomery County, Maryland – have failed to respond to antisemitic inciden...
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May 8, 2024 • 55 mins
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Illia Ponomarenko was a 29-year-old journalist for the newspaper he co-founded, The Kyiv Independent. His daily, on-the-ground reporting quickly captured an international audience: by 2023 the German media organization Der Spiegel called him “likely the best-known Ukrainian after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.” Ponomarenko’s new book, “I Will Show You How It Was,” provides a first-perso...
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May 8, 2024 • 55 mins
The 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting was awarded to the staff of Lookout Santa Cruz on Monday. The prize committee praised the tiny, digital-only media outlet for its “detailed and nimble community-focused coverage” of the catastrophic flooding and mudslides last year that did great damage to the Santa Cruz area. We’ll talk to the staff about the media outlet, which was founded in 2020, its coverage, and the future o...
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May 7, 2024 • 55 mins
Amor Towles says the title of his new book “Table for Two” arose from a subconscious conviction “that our lives can often change materially due to a single conversation.” And it’s the power of a conversation – or a chance encounter or a sudden decision – to force a personal or historical reckoning that animate the characters in his latest work, a collection of six stories and a novella set in in New York and Los Angeles. We talk to...
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May 7, 2024 • 55 mins
If you go to the SFMOMA right now, it’ll be hard to miss the massive, 32-foot wide mural depicting a utopian, fantastical and hopeful version of San Francisco. The mural is the opening to a historic exhibition, “The House that Art Built,” which showcases eleven artists with developmental disabilities who are associated with Oakland-based nonprofit Creative Growth. In addition to the exhibition, SFMOMA has also permanently acquired ...
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May 6, 2024 • 55 mins
As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its eighth month, U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators are awaiting an official response from Hamas on a proposed ceasefire deal that calls for the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The latest reports have stated that talks have broken down as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel will invade the Palestinian city Rafah – where one million displace...
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May 6, 2024 • 55 mins
What’s next for TikTok? President Biden signed legislation on April 24 that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells to a U.S-based company. Supporters of the law say TikTok poses national security risks, warning that the Chinese government could potentially access sensitive user data or spread misinformation on the app. ByteDance says it has no intention of selling and will fight in the cour...
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