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 Forum
Will New Tax Provisions Deliver Promised Big, Beautiful Refunds?
President Trump promised that new tax provisions in his One Big Beautiful Bill would deliver a windfall to millions of Americans. No more taxes on overtime. No…
- KQED's Forum
Planet Money Answers Your Big Economic Questions
NPR’s “Planet Money” has spent years answering economic questions big and small on its flagship podcast and the daily show “The Indicator,” and now the team is…
- KQED's Forum
Translating the World Through Literature
Books have long transported us to other worlds and lives. But in the American publishing market only a small fraction of books are works in translation…
- KQED's Forum
Amy Goodman Wants Corporate Media to ‘Steal This Story, Please!’
Thirty years ago, journalist Amy Goodman premiered the daily radio show Democracy Now. Launched on nine community radio stations in 1996, the program now…
- KQED's Forum
Division Grows Among U.S. Catholics Over Trump Policies
For decades, the top political issue for many U.S. Catholics has been abortion. But, a recent article in “The Atlantic” argues that the focus has shifted to…
- KQED's Forum
AI Data Center Opponents Fight Back at Local Level
The fight over data centers is intensifying in California and nationwide as organizers develop new strategies to take on tech companies and developers. While…
- KQED's Forum
What Can Y2K Tweens from Santa Rosa Teach Us About Childhood Creativity?
In the year 2000, four pre-teen girls in Santa Rosa — three 11-year-olds, and one 9-year-old little sister — wrote and recorded an album inspired by the Spice…
- KQED's Forum
ICE Shifts Strategy, Detaining Thousands of Kids
Last winter, ICE ramped up immigration enforcement in several American cities. It was a strategy that shifted focus from the US Mexico border to the streets of…
- KQED's Forum
How Apple Has Changed the Bay Area and the World
Today, Apple is a $3.5 trillion company with over 150,000 employees worldwide. Fifty years ago, it was two Steves – Jobs and Wozniak – working out of a Los…
- KQED's Forum
How the Iran War Has Isolated the US From Its Allies
President Trump backed down from his social media threat that “a whole civilization will die” after Pakistan helped broker a ceasefire deal with Iran. But the…
- KQED's Forum
Trump Administration Wants to Replace Cuba’s Government, But What Would Come Next?
High level talks between Cuba and the U.S. are ongoing as the Trump administration’s four-month oil blockade of the island nation continues. Trump has said he…
- KQED's Forum
Inside California’s Crowded Governor’s Race
California’s jam-packed governor’s primary may lead to a historic political shakeup this fall. Polls show the two leading Republicans, Riverside county sheriff…
- KQED's Forum
Why Aren’t Doctors Better At Diagnosing Illnesses?
A 2015 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that “most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their…
- KQED's Forum
How L.A. Cleaned Its Air—and What It Means for Climate Policy Today
Los Angeles was once defined by smog that for decades choked the city with toxic haze. It obscured surrounding mountains and exposed people – especially…
- KQED's Forum
California Farmers Struggle to Weather the Agriculture Crisis
It is a tough time to be a farmer. President Trump’s tariffs last year raised many of the costs of farming and shrunk food exports. Threats of immigration…
- KQED's Forum
Fewer Friends, More Pressure: The State of ‘American Men’
Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn has spent years studying some of the psychological challenges facing men in the United States. These include feelings of…
- KQED's Forum
Why We’re Headed Back to the Moon For the First Time in Half a Century
“We go for all humanity,” remarked Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, moments before the rocket taking him and his crew to the moon launched on Wednesday. It’s…
- KQED's Forum
Planning to Vote By Mail This November? What Californians Need to Know
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that aims to place federal restrictions on voting by mail ahead of this fall’s midterm elections. It comes…
- KQED's Forum
San Francisco Has Tried to Make its Streets Safer for Pedestrians – Has it Worked?
After a decade of Vision Zero, the effort that aimed to end traffic fatalities and severe injuries, San Francisco saw a drastic decrease in 2025 traffic…
- KQED's Forum
In New Book, Sen. Cory Booker Urges Americans to Take a 'Stand'
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said this weekend that Democrats have “failed to meet this moment” and that his party needed “generational renewal.” The…
- KQED's Forum
A Close Look at the Earth's Tiniest, and its Most Vast, Wonders
National Geographic Explorer and documentary filmmaker Ariel Waldman challenges our sense of scale in her new PBS series “Life Unearthed” which explores…
- KQED's Forum
How Can Climate Entertainment Help Us Talk About Climate Change?
Is emphasizing the cold, hard facts of climate change – the acres lost to sea level rise, the percentage increase of global warming – actually the right…
- KQED's Forum
Campus Closures and Teacher Layoffs: Bay Area Public Schools In Crisis
Education funding for California’s public schools is one of the largest parts of the state budget. Yet districts across the state, and here in the Bay Area…
- KQED's Forum
Addictive Social Media is Harmful to Youth, Jury Says
A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark case about social media addiction. Lawyers suing the tech giants argued that features like…
- KQED's Forum
U.S. Readying Ground Troops For Iran War
As the war in Iran continues into its fifth week, the Pentagon is contemplating sending an additional 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East. This escalation…
- KQED's Forum
Dialing Up 150 Years on the Phone
150 years ago this month, Alexander Graham Bell placed history’s first telephone call. And even though phones have changed — from a black metal cone mounted on…
- KQED's Forum
How the Labradoodle Unleashed An Industry
The poodle might be the most crossbred dog in modern times. There’s the labradoodle, goldendoodle and bernedoodle. And also cavapoos, cockapoos and maltipoos…
- KQED's Forum
David George Haskell on 'How Flowers Made Our World'
“When we give a scented flower, bring blooms to a grave, or dab perfume onto our skin, we are not enacting arbitrary, merely symbolic rituals. Rather, we…
- KQED's Forum
Car and Gas Prices Are Shooting Up. How Will Drivers Respond?
Cars have become dramatically more expensive in the United States in recent years, with the average price hitting a record of $50,000 in 2025. But now the…
- KQED's Forum
Is Another ‘Great Recession’ on the Horizon?
With the war in Iran creating major economic uncertainty, some economists are forecasting that a recession could arrive this year. The economy had already been…
- KQED's Forum
Social Media and AI Disrupt, Distort Iran War Coverage
In 2022, the conflict in Ukraine unleashed the first TikTok war. Now, four years later with the war in Iran, AI and a souped up social media are documenting…
- KQED's Forum
What Would Escalation in Iran Look Like?
The United States continues to ramp up its military presence near Iran, newly deploying three San Diego-based warships to the Middle East along with some 2500…
- KQED's Forum
San Francisco Has A Lot of Commissions. Should We Keep Them?
San Francisco’s government has long been shaped by a tension between efficiency and public oversight. After voters approved Prop E in 2024, a new Commission…
- KQED's Forum
Tahoe Resorts Shut Down a Month Early
An intense mid-March heat wave was the death knell for operations at some California ski parks. Several Tahoe resorts waved the white flag and are closing…
- KQED's Forum
Trump Limits Pathways to Legal Status for Immigrants
President Trump has said he supports “legal” immigration, but his administration has dismantled or limited pathways for immigrants to attain legal status. Visa…
- KQED's Forum
California Confronts the Cesar Chavez Allegations
California will rename Cesar Chavez Day after the New York Times reported Wednesday that the labor icon had sexually abused, assaulted and raped girls and…
- KQED's Forum
How Food Delivery Apps Are Changing the Way We Eat In – And Out
When mealtimes come, more and more people instinctively reach for their phones and open up an app. Many customers now want restaurant food, often delivered…
- KQED's Forum
What Do Rising Gas Prices Mean for Californians?
Gas prices are spiking worldwide as the war in Iran and the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz cause major disruptions to the transport of about a fifth of…
- KQED's Forum
Fighting for Internet Privacy in an Increasingly Surveilled World
“Privacy is a check on power,” writes Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in her book, “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year…
- KQED's Forum
Do Airlines Care About Basic Economy Passengers?
With the spring travel season upon us, the cheapest airline tickets are becoming even more restrictive, as the nation’s top airlines chip away at what’s…
- KQED's Forum
Celebrating the ‘Unsung Heroines’ of the Bay Area
Women’s history often goes unwritten and unspoken. But KQED’s Rae Alexandra sets the record straight in her new book, ‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed…
- KQED's Forum
Ibram X. Kendi Chronicles Impact and Spread of ‘Great Replacement Theory'
Historian Ibram X. Kendi says that in order to understand the rise of authoritarianism, we need to understand great replacement theory. It’s the racist idea…
- KQED's Forum
What's Behind the Great Crime Decline?
Despite a spike during the pandemic, violent crime in the Bay Area and the United States has been on the decline for most of the last 30 years. Now, data from…
- KQED's Forum
Should Californians Have to Show ID to Vote?
Reform California, the conservative group behind a proposal to require voters to show identification at the polls, say they’ve gathered enough signatures to…
- KQED's Forum
We’re in for a Major Heat Wave
It’s about to get very hot. A prolonged heat wave is hitting Western states with Bay Area temperatures expected to get 20 to 30 degrees above average, likely…
- KQED's Forum
The First-Ever Casting Director Oscar Goes To...And ‘Pope of Trash' John Waters on the Power of Weird Queer Cinema
The 98th Academy Awards will honor casting directors for the first time in the ceremony’s history. It’s the first new category in 25 years. We’ll speak with…
- KQED's Forum
Did Your Great Resignation Career Change Work Out?
There was a period of time about five years ago that came to be known as the Great Resignation, when workers quit their jobs en masse. The pandemic forced many…
- KQED's Forum
The World Cup Heads to California
The World Cup may be three months away, but it’s already making news. Iran, which was scheduled to play its first match in Los Angeles, announced Wednesday…
- KQED's Forum
Local Businesses Were Hit Hard by Tariffs. Now They Want A Refund.
When the Supreme Court invalidated a tranche of Trump’s tariffs last month, businesses around the country and world began clamoring for a refund. To date…
- KQED's Forum
How to Keep Track of all the Corruption Concerns of Trump 2.0
Since President Trump’s return to office, his net worth has nearly doubled to an estimated $7 billion. He’s used his office to promote his family’s…
- KQED's Forum
Child Sex Trafficking is a Big Problem in the Bay Area. How Can We Stop It?
Last month’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara drew thousands of visitors to the Bay Area, including some looking to pay for sex. Police set up an operation to stop…
- KQED's Forum
Anthropic-Pentagon Clash Spotlights Role of AI in War
Anthropic sued the U.S. Department of Defense on Monday over its decision to designate the San Francisco AI company a “supply-chain risk to America’s national…
- KQED's Forum
In Second Week, Iran War Expands Through Region
On Monday, President Trump declared the war in Iran “very complete” as missile and drone strikes continue. Trump’s comments belie the situation on the ground…
- KQED's Forum
Why Is California's Cannabis Black Market Still So Strong?
Journalist Scott Eden’s new book, “A Killing in Cannabis,” tells the story of a tech industry veteran who set out to make his mark in the newly legal marijuana…
- KQED's Forum
Bay Area Legends: Celebrating the Trailblazing Life of the Nation’s Oldest Park Ranger Betty Reid Soskin
Betty Reid Soskin was a civil rights pioneer, musician, and the nation’s oldest park ranger when, at the age of 100, she retired from Richmond’s Rosie the…
- KQED's Forum
Unpacking the Latest Developments in Iran
As we near one week since the start of Israeli and U.S. airstrikes on Iran, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, we take stock of where…
- KQED's Forum
Local YA Novels Tell San Francisco Stories
First-time YA novelists René Peña-Govea and Susie Nadler are both school librarians living in the Bay Area. Thus, it is no surprise that in their publishing…
- KQED's Forum
Ranchers vs. Wolves: Navigating a Controversial Comeback
After a century-long absence, gray wolves are returning to California. Biologists estimate some 70 wolves are living in the state, and recently, a female wolf…
- KQED's Forum
Understanding the Sierra Avalanche Tragedy
People who ski in the Sierra Nevada backcountry say there’s no better way to experience the wonder of the mountains in winter. But the avalanche that killed…
- KQED's Forum
ICE Looks to Expand Detention Centers – Including in California
As recent court decisions make more people vulnerable to ICE detention, the Trump administration is purchasing massive warehouses that could detain upward of…