KQED's Forum

An estimated one in eight Americans has now tried a GLP-1 medication like Ozempic or Wegovy: to lose weight, manage diabetes or experiment with anecdotal, off-label benefits. Yet GLP-1s can be hard to talk about — whether you want to ask someone if they take one, respond if you do, or discuss weight without dredging up unhealthy diet discourse. We’ll hear how you’re navigating these conversations...

Oakland based art-pop band Tune-Yards is widely loved for their complex and funky rhythms, layers of sound, thrillingly dynamic vocals, and thought provoking lyrics. The duo, Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, have just released a new album, “Better Dreaming,” praised by critics as highly danceable and jubilant while, as always, grappling with the state of the world. Merrill Garbus joins us in the s...

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 traveled into Los Angeles County, the first such sighting. But their comeback is not without controversy. Ranchers in rural counties say they’re losing livestock to predation, while conservationists say the wolves bring ecological benefits a...

For people of Mexican descent, mariachi music is synonymous with milestones such as weddings, birthday parties, funerals or maybe just Saturday-morning chores. The genre, which originated in the 18th century in the western state of Jalisco, has morphed into one of Mexico’s most beloved styles of music that is now popular worldwide. In California, more high schools and colleges such as San Jose Sta...

During his second term, President Trump has taken aim at DEI initiatives across the federal government, a focus that has been embraced by his cabinet. Deriding “affirmative action promotions,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directly intervened to block the promotions of more than a dozen Black and women officers. The Atlantic’s Clint Smith recently reported on those snubs and how the Pentagon’s...

Thirty years ago, a cowboy doll and a space ranger taught a generation that the toys in our closets might have inner lives of their own. Pixar’s beloved gang returns in Toy Story 5 — and this time, the threat to playtime isn’t a rival toy or a forgetful kid heading off to college. It’s the glowing rectangle in every child’s hands: a tablet. We’ll hear from the film’s co-director Kenna Harris and i...

What happens when an ordinary dinner party becomes a reckoning for a marriage? That question drives “The Invite,” a new film directed by and starring Olivia Wilde. The film follows a couple whose tense evening with their transgressive upstairs neighbors forces them to confront questions about desire, jealousy and whether it’s possible to have a new relationship with the same person. We’ll talk wit...

As our nation nears its 250th anniversary, we reflect on what was going on in the Bay Area at the time. In 1776 California was newly part of the Spanish colony that would later become Mexico. The summer of 1776 was also pivotal in San Francisco’s history: construction started on the Presidio and Mission Dolores was founded five days before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Most of the lo...

The United States celebrates its 250th anniversary on July 4th. Past presidents have marked similar milestones by reflecting on our complex history, but for President Trump, the commemoration will mark just how great America’s history has always been. Many historians argue that the Trump Administration is whitewashing the nation’s violent past, and for the New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb, it’s just the l...

During a San Francisco Giants home game this month dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, four pitchers drew attention for their protest of the team’s themed rainbow uniform. One player opted out of wearing the uniform entirely, while three others doctored their hats with a bible verse that has been used by some Christian groups to “reclaim” the rainbow. Major League Baseball issued a warning to those...

Visitors to Yosemite National Park are reporting huge summer crowds and nearly impossible parking, which are the result of federal staffing cuts and the elimination of the park’s entry reservation system. We’ll dig into the cause and impact of the changes at Yosemite and discuss where else in California you can find peak outdoor experiences. Guests: Sarah Wright, outdoors engagement reporter, KQED...

As part of negotiations over terms of the ceasefire memorandum between Iran and the U.S., the Trump Administration on Monday temporarily lifted all oil sanctions on Iran, a significant reversal of longstanding American policy. Critics in the president’s own party have sharply criticized the deal which includes a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, a ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hor...

We rely on the Global Positioning System for so much — mapping our commutes, tracking our runs, hailing ride shares, matching with dates and more — that it can be hard to remember life before it. The U.S. military sent the first GPS satellite to space in 1978, and journalist Katherine Dunn says remembering those military roots can help us understand of how enemy actors today are distorting, blocki...

Communities across the Bay Area, including Gilroy, Oakley and Pittsburg, are pushing back on new data centers in their cities. Data centers, which house the computing equipment and servers that power the internet, have been around for decades, but opposition to them has exploded as tech companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into building thousands of new centers nationwide. Residents worr...

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 that “powerful elites are enabling peoples of color to steal the lives, livelihoods, cultures and electoral power and freedoms of white people,” Kendi writes in his new book, “Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.” We talk to t...

New Yorker magazine poetry editor Kevin Young has called poetry "the most efficient mode of time travel." In his new volume of poems "Night Watch,” Young, a literary hyphenate who edits, writes and teaches, takes readers on a journey of loss and re-emergence. From his cycle of poems about a conjoined pair of twins born into slavery and kidnapped to a carnival freak show to his meditations on grief...

Ultra-endurance athlete Catherine Breed has accomplished many physical feats — including a record-breaking swim across Lake Tahoe—but her latest challenge may be her most audacious. Beginning in July, she’ll spend several months swimming the entire coastline of California. The 900-mile journey will begin at the top of California, and Breed will swim to the California-Mexico border. She joins us to...

Journalist Jonathan Weber has had a front row seat to San Francisco’s many rises and falls as the nation’s tech capital since the early 1990s. His new book, “City on the Edge” offers a sweeping history of the tech industry in San Francisco, chronicling its unprecedented successes as well as its devastating consequences. Drawing on 200 interviews with mayors, CEOs, political leaders, activists, ent...

We tend to focus on how climate change affects coral reefs, sea turtles and polar bears on melting ice. But we rarely focus on how climate change is affecting microbes — the bacteria, fungi and viruses we can only see with microscopes — which outnumber all other life on earth. So says science writer Shayla Love, who warns that a warming planet might be making those microorganisms mutate in a conce...

Cigarettes are cool again…especially with GenZ. Despite decades of anti-smoking campaigns, you’re likely to see more young people smoking in films, at bars, on street corners, and in social media feeds. Researchers tie the trend to Y2K nostalgia, soft nihilism, and a turn away from “clean girl” wellness culture. Actual youth smoking rates are still at historic lows, but we’ll explore how glamoriza...

It’s no longer news that Hollywood studios are using artificial intelligence in editing, animation, visual effects and more. But last week “Dreams of Violets,” a new film about protests in Iran, became the first fully AI-generated live-action feature to screen at Tribeca and is a project that journalist Steven Zeitchik says the industry is watching nervously. We talk about the rapidly growing use...

Oakland filmmaker, rapper and activist Boots Riley’s new film ‘I Love Boosters’ is a surreal crime comedy that follows three women who shoplift clothes to make ends meet. Like all of his work, there’s radical pro-worker politics, indictments of industry, and funk-filled absurdism. We’ll talk to Riley about his distinctive storytelling and how it centers his hometown. Guests: Boots Riley, writer an...

After decades of decline, many church leaders believe that religious life is on the upswing as some younger Americans flock to Christianity — including Vice President JD Vance, whose new book on his Catholic conversion drops this week. But the fuller picture is more complicated. Coming up, we’ll talk to religion reporters and a church leader about what may be driving this shift, and what its lasti...

In writer and poet Ben Lerner’s latest novel, “Transcription,” an unnamed narrator travels to interview his elderly mentor. But shortly after checking into his hotel, the narrator knocks his phone into water, ruining the only recording device he brought. What unfolds is an exploration of all of the mundane and profound ways technology intersects with our lives. There’s the bad: the mental offloadi...

Former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland won the New Mexico Democratic gubernatorial primary this month, and if she wins this November, she would become the first female Native American governor in U.S. history. Haaland was already the first Native American cabinet secretary, which she describes in her new memoir as a uniquely profound experience: “Unlike any previous interior secretary, I had...