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 ForumOlympics Week One Roundup: Wins, Losses, and Reckonings on Athlete Mental Health, Sexism
On Thursday, U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee won all-around gold as fellow gymnast and defending champion Simone Biles celebrated in the stands following her…
KQED's ForumIn 'Stereo(TYPE),' poet Jonah Mixon-Webster Analyzes Identity and His Hometown Flint, Michigan
"It is 2020 and the City of Flint Says, / 'Don't boil the water' / And I refuse to drink a single drop / from any tap or bottle now. I've stopped / bathing…
KQED's ForumNew Poll of Likely Voters Shows Newsom Recall Vote Is Close
A new poll by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies shows that among likely voters, 47% favor the recall of Governor Gavin Newsom, and 50% oppose…
KQED's ForumAuthor Kristen Radtke Takes a 'Journey Through American Loneliness'
Is there a difference between feeling alone and being lonely? This is one of the questions that propelled author Kristen Radtke to write "Seek You: A Journey…
KQED's ForumSobering Testimony from Police Officers Launches House Committee Investigation of January 6 Insurrection
Four police officers who were on the scene January 6th as insurrectionists breached the U.S. Capitol gave emotional testimony on Tuesday about the physical…
KQED's ForumHow the Delta Variant Is Driving Another Wave of COVID-19
The Delta variant now accounts for the vast majority of new COVID-19 infections in the United States. New models suggest the variant is driving a stark…
KQED's Forum'Orca' Explores Extinction Crisis Facing Pacific Northwest Whales
In 2018, science journalist Lynda Mapes drew international attention for her day-by-day coverage of the female orca known as "Tahlequah," who carried her dead…
KQED's ForumChecking in on Bay Area Ferries
Not much can beat sipping a coffee or drink from the cafe as you gaze over the SF skyline heading to work — or returning home — on one of the ferries that…
KQED's ForumNewest ‘Washington Week’ Moderator Yamiche Alcindor Makes Her Mark
Yamiche Alcindor may be the ultimate Washington multi-tasker. She’s the White House correspondent for the PBS Newshour, a political contributor for NBC News…
KQED's ForumThe Science of Sweat
To sweat is human. That’s according to science journalist Sarah Everts, whose new book “The Joy of Sweat” explores the biology of what she calls our “oddly…
KQED's ForumHow to Picnic in Style in the Bay Area
There’s no better time than now to head out for a picnic. There are few weather impediments in the Bay Area — besides fog and wind — and the pandemic taught us…
KQED's ForumElectronic Artist Nam June Paik Celebrated in SFMOMA Retrospective
In the first retrospective of his work on the West Coast, SFMOMA’s current exhibition on electronic art pioneer Nam June Paik features more than 200 works from…
KQED's ForumJuly Book Club: ‘Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces’ by Maceo Montoya
For our inaugural Forum Book Club, we’ve picked Maceo Montoya’s “Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces.” The book interweaves its narrative with drawings…
KQED's ForumSpace Travel for Everyone. The Final Frontier?
Recent space flights by Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have raised the tantalizing question of whether space travel is in our near future. Space exploration…
KQED's ForumTo Reduce Fire Risk, PG&E to Bury 10,000 Miles of Power Lines
PG&E announced yesterday that it will bury power lines in high wildfire risk areas of California, amounting to 10,000 miles of lines, enough to reach about…
KQED's ForumCalifornia Approves Reparations for Survivors of Forced Sterilization
In the first half of the 20th century, California forcibly sterilized more than 20,000 people in state hospitals and other institutions, under a 1909 eugenics…
KQED's Forum'An Ugly Truth' Examines Facebook's Desire To Dominate
President Joe Biden lashed out at Facebook last week, saying the site was killing people by spreading coronavirus-vaccine misinformation. As New York Times…
KQED's ForumThe Cultural Relevance of ‘Boyz N The Hood,’ 30 Years Later
Writer and director John Singleton’s 1991 debut film “Boyz N the Hood,” centered on the coming of age of a Black man in South Central Los Angeles named Tre…
KQED's ForumEven the Wealthiest Nations are Unprepared for a Hotter Planet
In Germany, searches for the missing continue in the wake of recent catastrophic flooding that destroyed villages and claimed almost 200 lives so far. That…
KQED's ForumDrought, Warming Temperatures Threaten Endangered California Salmon Population
California’s ongoing drought and predicted heatwave is causing overly warm and low level waters and threatening to kill off the entire populations of already…
KQED's ForumState Allocates Additional $500 Million for Wildfire Prevention
Fuel breaks and prescribed burns are some of the tools used by firefighters to help reduce the severity of wildfires. California Governor Gavin Newsom was…
KQED's ForumAfter Texas Court Ruling, What’s the Future for Young Immigrants and DACA Recipients?
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. are in limbo, after a Texas judge ruled on Friday that former President Barack Obama illegally launched the…
KQED's ForumNext Steps for a Childcare System in Crisis
California has almost 3 million children 5 years old and under. Hundreds of thousands of these kids lack affordable childcare because of backlogs in the…
KQED's ForumWhy Talking to Strangers is Good for Us
Many of us spent the better part of the last pandemic year taking pains to minimize interactions with people outside our households or pods. With social venues…
KQED's ForumUCSF Scientists Translate Brain Signals to Words on a Screen
In a major breakthrough, scientists at UC San Francisco developed technology to decode words from the brain activity of a paralyzed man who is unable to speak…
KQED's ForumTell Us Your Summer Reading Picks
It's summer in the Bay Area, which means it’s time to cozy up by the fire and read some books about tropical islands, deserts and other warm places. We’ll…
- KQED's Forum
Spotlight on Bay Area Culture, Character, Charisma in Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal’s TV Series “Blindspotting”
Blindspotting was one of 2018’s critically acclaimed films. Penned by old friends, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, it took on race and gentrification in…
KQED's ForumLatest Wave of Ransomware Attacks Raises National Security Concerns
Ransomware group REvil’s sites on the dark web went down Tuesday, weeks after the group attacked meat processing company JBS and information technology firm…
KQED's ForumCovid Cases on the Rise Among California's Unvaccinated
Los Angeles County has over the last several days recorded more than 3000 new covid cases, 99 percent of which occurred among the unvaccinated, according to…
KQED's ForumTa-Nehisi Coates Talks Journalism, Democracy and His Next Role
Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of America’s premier thinkers on racism and systemic inequality, has taken on many roles: Atlantic staff writer, best-selling author…
KQED's ForumWhat It's Like Entering the Job Market in 2021
The class of 2021 has graduated and millions of young people are now looking to start their first “real world” jobs. Some experts say the current economy is…
KQED's ForumCalifornia Considers New Law to Protect Workers Who Break NDAs to Speak Out Against Discrimination
When Ifeoma Ozoma detailed the racism and sexism she faced as a Pinterest employee in a Twitter thread back in June 2020, she did so knowing she was in…
KQED's Forum20 Years After Enron and Rolling Blackouts, What Have We Learned?
Twenty years ago, California went dark. Without enough electricity to power the state, rolling blackouts shut down businesses, PG&E filed for bankruptcy, the…
KQED's ForumKaiser Permanente Withheld Postpartum Treatment From Some Patients
A recent KQED report found that Kaiser Permanente, the largest health insurer in California, impeded some patients from accessing brexanolone, the first and…
KQED's ForumOakland’s I-580 Bans Trucks. I-880 Doesn’t. Residents Feel the Difference.
By law, trucks weighing more than 4.5 tons are barred from driving through a portion of Interstate 580 in Oakland and San Leandro near the East Bay Hills. This…
KQED's ForumForum From the Archives: Suzanne Simard on the Intelligence of the Forest
Decades ago, when forest ecologist Suzanne Simard set out to understand why forests tended to heal themselves when left to their own devices, she uncovered…
KQED's ForumLoving It Or Leaving It: Contemplating the Soul of a Changing San Francisco
Is San Francisco over? Its a question that has dominated conversations in the city for years, maybe even decades. Has its maverick soul been lost to the tech…
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 ForumWhat Would Happen If It Was 116 Degrees in San Francisco?
Last week temperatures hit 116 degrees in Portland, 108 in Seattle, and 121 degrees in western Canada. According to news reports, nearly one billion sea…
KQED's Forum‘The Sound of the Sea’ Probes Beauty and Environmental Importance of Seashells
At a seashell museum on Sanibel, an island off southwest Florida, environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett discovered that 90% of the museum’s visitors didn’t…
KQED's ForumForum From the Archives: How TikTok Became a Home For Those in Search of Community
The social media app TikTok has grown exponentially since its release in 2016, with over 689 million active users worldwide. Famous for its short, looping…
KQED's ForumForum From the Archives: Shankar Vedantam On The Upside of Lying
Can self-deception be beneficial? That’s one of the questions animating Shankar Vedantam’s new book “Useful Delusions,” which argues that holding false beliefs…
KQED's ForumJournalist Sebastian Junger Asks What ‘Freedom’ Means
Sebastian Junger walked 400 miles from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh, using railroad lines to follow the footsteps of America’s first colonizers. Analyzing…
KQED's ForumForum From the Archives: So, That Didn't Age Well: When Our Favorite Movies and TV Shows Don't Hold Up
Have you watched a throwback TV show or movie recently that — upon viewing now — made you cringe because of scenes or jokes that are so obviously, well…
KQED's ForumForum From the Archives: Jennifer Egan and Isabel Wilkerson
In this special holiday edition of Forum, we've gone back into our archives to two interviews that Michael Krasny, our recently retired host, did in 2011. They…
KQED's Forum‘¡Hola Papi!’ Columnist JP Brammer Explains How to Find Love and Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot
John Paul Brammer, the self-described “Chicano Carrie Bradshaw,” writes the popular column, ¡Hola Papi!, which he started in 2017 when dating app Grindr…
KQED's ForumTrump Organization Charged in Tax Fraud Scheme
Prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg on Thursday with running a 15-year scheme to defraud the government of income tax…
KQED's ForumPioneering Playwright Kathleen Collins Celebrated in Oakland Theater Project’s ‘Begin the Beguine’
When film director, poet and playwright Kathleen Collins passed away in 1988, her work had yet to fully receive its due. Following the efforts of her daughter…
KQED's ForumLooking Back At Writings From The Poet-Run Town Of Bolinas, 50 Years On
Bolinas, writes English Professor Lytle Shaw, is “the only instance I could think of where a town was essentially governed by poets.” Shaw’s thoughts are part…
KQED's ForumCalifornians in Fire Prone Areas Struggle to Find Insurance
California bars insurance companies from cancelling residential property insurance policies for homes in places that burned in the 2020 wildfires. But after…
KQED's ForumOakland City Council Considering A’s 'Howard Terminal or Bust' Offer
In three weeks, the Oakland City Council will vote whether to approve the A’s proposal to build a new baseball stadium at Howard Terminal. The A’s say their…
KQED's ForumClint Smith's New Book Challenges Americans to Rethink What We Know About Slavery
Poet, teacher and Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith joins us to talk about his new book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across…
KQED's ForumHow Bay Area Transit Plans to Recover Post-Pandemic
Public transit ridership is slowly rising after the pandemic forced transit agencies to cut services. But few other agencies across the nation decreased…
KQED's ForumLegal Experts Assess the Supreme Court's Term (So Far)
As the Supreme Court's term nears a close, we analyze some of the significant opinions released so far, which span religious liberty and free speech questions…
KQED's ForumWhy We Stop Talking to Our Family Members
More than a quarter of Americans are estranged from a close family member, new research from Cornell University finds. The reasons for breaking off contact are…
KQED's ForumEdward Slingerland Explores Human Impulse to Get ‘Drunk’ — and Why It’s Not Always A Bad Idea
“It should puzzle us more than it does that one of the greatest foci of human ingenuity and concentrated effort over the past millennia has been the problem of…
KQED's ForumRolling Through The Bay With Rightnowish
Californian’s famously love their cars, but around the Bay Area a lot of people are more passionate about other ways to roll, like bikes, roller skates or…
KQED's ForumThe Changing Geography of Cannabis Cultivation in the Bay Area
With the approval of two major cannabis growing and distribution projects, Antioch has put itself on the map as a significant player in the marijuana industry…
KQED's ForumBritney Spears Offers Disturbing Testimony About Her Conservatorship
For 13 years, pop star Britney Spears has been subject to a conservatorship that controlled many of her life decisions, and on Wednesday, Spears testified…
KQED's ForumBrandon Taylor Explores Inner ‘Filthy Animals’ in Short Story Collection
In Brandon Taylor’s new collection of short stories, “Filthy Animals,” characters either hide their teeth or give in to their animalistic impulses. They…