Shows / KQED's Forum
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…
Episodes
KQED's ForumWe Answer Your COVID-19 Questions as New Variants Spread
Covid 19 cases are on the rise again as various Omicron subvariants spread. Epidemiologists warn that people may not have as much immunity to new variants…
KQED's ForumCalifornia’s 2nd Generation ‘Doughnut Kids’ Are Taking Over the Store
Nearly 80 percent of Southern California’s doughnut shops are estimated to be owned by Cambodian immigrants. Many of those owners, who struggled over hot…
KQED's ForumWhat Stockton Residents Can Teach Us About Saving ‘Discarded America’
Stockton is the most diverse city in America. It was also one of the hardest hit by post-industrial decline, the Great Recession and foreclosures, leading it…
KQED's ForumSearching for Safe Spaces When You’re Black and Queer in the Bay
There’s a dream of the Bay Area as a place of liberation: queer liberation, Black liberation, trans liberation, liberation for all. It’s a reputation that has…
KQED's ForumForum From The Archives: Mental Health Issues Among Veterinarian Medicine on the Rise
Veterinarians are nearly three times more likely than the general public to die by suicide, and one in six has contemplated taking their life, according to…
KQED's ForumHow Abortion Care Is Adapting to a Post-Roe America
Though it was expected, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has sent shock waves throughout the country. Legislatures in more than two dozen…
KQED's ForumForum From The Archives: Celebrating Beauty Beyond the Gender Binary
From celebrities like Harry Styles and the members of boy band BTS to social media beauty influencers like Patrick Starrr and Kenneth Senegal, more and more…
KQED's ForumReligious Influence on U.S. Politics Grows Even as Americans Become More Secular
Judging from the recent Supreme Court decisions allowing prayer during high school sports, the use of public funds for religious schools and the overturning of…
KQED's ForumForum from the Archives: 'The Song of Our Scars' Surveys Chronic Pain in All Its Complexities
Pain is a "hallmark of consciousness among all beings," writes physician Haider Warraich in his new book "The Song of Our Scars." Pain, he explains, is also…
KQED's ForumChore Wars: How to Divide Household Tasks More Fairly
Chores are well… a chore. And for many households, the lockdown only intensified domestic tension over tasks like cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping…
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Ibram X. Kendi on 'How to Raise an Antiracist'
“There’s nothing wrong with me because of the color of my skin.” Award-winning scholar and author Ibram X. Kendi wants us to imagine a world where all kids of…
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Celestial Events Abound in July's Night Skies
Fireworks may be in your future this holiday, but there are other reasons to gaze skyward in July. We’ll talk about meteor showers and other celestial events…
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Oh Say Can You Sing ... the National Anthem?
America's national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” was written by a white lawyer who owned slaves but fought for Black freedom in court. That contradiction…
KQED's ForumA Ground Shifting Supreme Court Term Comes to a Close
This year’s ground shifting Supreme Court term comes to a close on Thursday. This term, the Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, expanded religious rights and…
KQED's ForumThe Vast, Various and Multicultural World of Bay Area BBQ
In some parts of the country, barbecue is a fighting word. It launches hot debates on vinegar versus tomato-based sauce and the right ways to rub, spice and…
KQED's ForumAnswering Your Covid Questions with UCSF’s Dr. Peter Chin-Hong
The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee decided Tuesday to recommend that covid vaccines be reformulated to better protect against the…
KQED's ForumShocking Details Emerge from Witness Testimony at Jan. 6 Committee Hearings
Former President Donald Trump tried to wrestle control of a vehicle so he could join the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020. That was just one of…
KQED's ForumHow Can California Rein in Skyrocketing Cost of Building Affordable Housing
A recent Los Angeles Times report examined seven affordable housing projects in Northern California in which the cost of development surpassed $1 million per…
KQED's ForumWhat’s Ahead for the DOJ as the Jan. 6 Hearings Pause
Former President Trump repeatedly tried to persuade top Justice Department officials to act on baseless fraud allegations in the days after the 2020 election…
KQED's ForumHow to Fix the Internet? Deprivatize It and Make It a Co-Op
Author Ben Tarnoff thinks the internet is broken:It is rife with misinformation and vitriolic hate speech. It potentially invades privacy rights. In the United…
KQED's ForumSupreme Court Strikes Down Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade is overturned. Just short of 50 years after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, the…
KQED's ForumListeners React to Historic Supreme Court Ruling Overturning Roe vs. Wade
"Painful" is how many reproductive rights advocates are describing their reactions to the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe vs. Wade that was officially…
KQED's ForumCalifornia Gave Cal Fire $1.5 Billion for Wildfire Prevention. How is that Effort Going?
California allocated a record $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest health in 2021. Yet Cal Fire, the agency largely in charge of prevention efforts…
KQED's ForumLeila Mottley’s Debut Novel 'Nightcrawling' Tells a Universal Story Rooted in Oakland
“I really wanted to depict the ways that young Black girls are made adults by a culture that sees us that way,” says Leila Mottley of her debut novel…
KQED's ForumEd Yong Explores the Wonders of Animal Senses in ‘An Immense World’
Bumblebees can’t see red, but they can detect the ultraviolet hue, invisible to humans, at the center of a sunflower. A fly can taste an apple just by landing…
KQED's ForumWho Is In Your 'Chosen Family?'
There’s the family that you’re born with, and then there’s the family that you choose. The concept of chosen family took hold several decades ago in the LGBTQ+…
KQED's ForumLearning English as an Adult Isn’t as Easy as A-B-C.
Learning a new language is easier said than done, and English in particular is a tricky one to master. It is a language that has absorbed influences from other…
KQED's ForumWhat We’ve Learned and What’s Ahead in the Jan. 6 Hearings
Thursday’s hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection highlighted the effort to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of the 2020 election…
KQED's ForumHow the Bay Area Commemorates Juneteenth
As the United States observes its second Juneteenth as a federal holiday, we’ll look to its history here in California and the role the Bay Area played in the…
KQED's ForumFans React to the Golden State Warriors' 'Unlikely' Championship
Unlikely. That’s what Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr called this championship. After two years of battling injuries and tough losses, the Dubs won…
KQED's Forum'We the Users' Proposes Fixes for the Tech That's Failing Us
Geoffrey Fowler recalls that when he first began reporting on consumer tech innovations two decades ago, the worst you might say about a product was that it…
KQED's ForumForum From the Archives: Reem Assil’s Cookbook 'Arabiyya' Weaves 'Recipes for Resilience' With Reflections on the Arab Diaspora
Reem Assil, owner of San Francisco and Oakland’s Reem’s Kitchen, began her career as a chef with a thirst for activism, often advocating for social justice and…
KQED's ForumRacism's Insidious Toll on the Health of the Nation
For decades, award-winning health journalist Linda Villarosa says she “long understood that something about being Black has led to the documented poor health…
KQED's ForumHonoring Norman Mineta’s Legacy as He’s Laid to Rest in San Jose
Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Transportation, Congressmember and San Jose mayor, will be laid to rest in San Jose on…
KQED's ForumLooking for Solutions to Drought and Deluge by Asking 'What Does Water Want?'
Water has agency. It wants to go where it wants to go. Humans, particularly in recent centuries, have fought against the desires of water with almost…
KQED's ForumTrump’s “Big Lie” Was A “Big Rip-Off” and Other Revelations from the January 6th Hearings
In blunt testimony to the January 6th committee, former Attorney General William Barr testified he thought Donald Trump was “detached from reality” as the…
KQED's ForumPlant Intelligence, AI and Non-Human Personhood: James Bridle Explores our Planet’s Countless ‘Ways of Being’
“What would it mean to build artificial intelligence and other machines that were more like octopuses, more like fungi, or more like forests?” asks James…
KQED's ForumThe Anus — and Other Body Parts We Shouldn't Have a Hard Time Talking About
“The appearance of the anus was momentous in animal evolution, turning a one-hole digestive sac into an open-ended tunnel,” writes Katherine J. Wu in her…
KQED's ForumKQED Arts Series, 'Our Creative Futures,' Profiles Bay Artists and the Communities that Uplift Them
A new series from KQED Arts & Culture takes stock of how Bay Area artists have weathered the pandemic and what they are doing now to lift up themselves and…
KQED's ForumWhat Can Drought-Ridden California Learn from Las Vegas?
Residents of California's South Coast -- the hydrologic region that includes Los Angeles -- used about 25% more water in April than a year ago, according to…
KQED's ForumWhat Would it Take to Revive San Francisco’s Deserted Downtown?
Office buildings in downtown San Francisco sit empty or nearly empty as thousands of workers continue working from home. Back in 2019, San Francisco had one of…
KQED's ForumWhat Message Did Voters Send in the California Primary?
As Californians went to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the state’s primary, predicted low voter turnout seemed to be the top headline statewide. While every…
KQED's ForumMaking Sense of Bay Area’s 2022 Primary Election Results
Voters cast ballots in consequential races across the Bay Area on Tuesday. San Franciscans decided whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a campaign…
KQED's ForumAmor Towles Shares His Odysseys, Both Literary and Literal
California – and specifically Lincoln Park in San Francisco – is at least in theory the ultimate destination for the band of travelers and seekers that…
KQED's ForumWhy Mexican-Americans Are Choosing To Move to Mexico
Tens of millions of Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. to give their children better lives, but now some of those children are choosing to pack up and make their…
KQED's ForumCalifornia’s Primary Election is Tuesday. What Are Your Questions?
California voters head to the polls Tuesday to narrow the candidate fields in multiple state and local elections, from mayors’ races in San Jose and Los…
KQED's ForumThe Golden State Warriors 2022 NBA Finals
The Golden State Warriors are back in the NBA finals this year, facing serious competition from a tough Boston Celtics squad. We’ll talk about their season…
KQED's Forum'Dollars for Life' Plots Rise of Anti-Abortion Extremism Within the GOP
Oklahoma last week became the first state to ban almost all abortions from the moment of conception, and at least 20 more are poised to outlaw or severely…
KQED's ForumFantastic Negrito Shares New Album and Ancestral Stories with KQED Live
Fantastic Negrito is one of the most original and successful performers to emerge from the Bay Area over the last decade. A musician, a storyteller and a…
KQED's ForumIn the Aftermath of Uvalde, Teachers Share Their Reflections
As teachers process the horror of the Uvalde shootings, they’re also managing concerns about safety in their own workplaces and supporting and protecting…
KQED's ForumDaytripping Food Destinations and Favorite Road Stops Along the Way
Summer is the perfect time to hop in the car for a day trip, and while there’s nothing wrong with stopping at In-N-Out on 580, with a little planning, you can…
KQED's ForumNew Documentary ‘Plague at the Golden Gate’ Examines Public Health, Racism and Why History Repeats Itself
An infectious disease arrives in San Francisco and is immediately associated with residents of Chinatown. Scientists and public health officials try to stop…
KQED's ForumShould California Keep Generating Nuclear Power?
With the possibility of rolling blackouts looming for the summer, Governor Gavin Newsom said last week that he would consider delaying the 2025 shutdown of…
KQED's ForumHow Big Tech Turned Work Into a Religion
In her new book, "Work Pray Code," UC Berkeley professor Carolyn Chen offers up a provocative spin on what has happened among Silicon Valley professionals…
KQED's ForumTo Reduce Gun Violence, Advocates are Using Public Health Strategies
What if some of the same public health strategies used to manage a pandemic could be marshaled to stem gun violence? As legislative solutions falter and…
KQED's ForumFor Oakland A’s Fans, It’s Not Been A Field of Dreams
A recent piece in the New York Times, called the Oakland A’s “the loneliest team in baseball.” Though the Coliseum where they play can hold 57,000 fans, on…
KQED's ForumForum from the Archives: Jennifer Senior on the Fragility of Friendship
“Modern life conspires against friendship,” says Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Senior, "even as it requires the bonds of friendship all the more." That’s one…
KQED's ForumUnderstanding Grief in a Time of National Mourning
More than one million Americans have died from COVID-19. Close to 8,000 Americans have died from gun violence in 2022. Another nine thousand died of suicide…
KQED's ForumPhil Klay on the Invisibility of Endless War
“War remains a large part of who we are as Americans,” writes Phil Klay, who notes that almost a sixth of our federal budget goes to defense, supporting a…
KQED's ForumBeyond the NRA: How the Political Debate Over Gun Safety Is Shifting
This week’s deadly shooting rampage at a Texas elementary school didn’t stop the National Rifle Association from holding its annual meeting this weekend in…