KQED's Forum

Thousands of Northern California residents awoke to flames on Monday, as dry conditions and high winds caused multiple fires to explode in size overnight. The Glass Fire - after merging with the Boysen Fire in St. Helena and Shady Fire near Santa Rosa - scorched an estimated 11,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma wine country. Tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate as of Monday afternoon. We'll g...

Many of us take money for granted as a certainty, but what exactly is money? Jacob Goldstein, co-host of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, explores that question in his book, “Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.” Goldstein argues that monetary systems depend on a collective belief that an object, such as a piece of metal or paper, is worth a given amount. The history of money stretches back centur...

President Trump nominated federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday. The conservative jurist is known for her skepticism of the Affordable Care Act, abortion rights and deference to pre-existing legal precedents. One day before the first presidential debate, we'll look at what her nomination could mean for the November election. We'll also discuss the poli...

We'll get an update on the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma County and check in on Bay Area air quality with KQED's Dan Brekke and Alice Woelfle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump said he will name his nominee to succeed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday -- a little more than a week after the death of the trailblazing feminist jurist. One of the top contenders is Amy Coney Barrett, whose conservative jurisprudence calls into question the future of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that affirmed a woman's right to choose an ab...

In an effort to wean California off carbon emissions, Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order to ban sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The state's Air Resources Board will work out the details. It's a big move, but environmentalists say it's not big enough to slow climate change. We'll hear from energy experts about what else will have to change to accommodate all those electr...

Journalist and author Maria Hinojosa was, as she put, “the first Latina in every newsroom I ever worked in." In her new memoir, “Once I Was You,” the longtime host of NPR’s Latino USA tells the story of her life as an immigrant, storyteller and advocate, as well as her challenging rise in broadcast journalism. Hinojosa details her struggles with anxiety, managing family and career, and becoming a...

This week, the United States marked a grim milestone: more than 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic. Against this backdrop, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar moved to bar the national health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, from signing off on any new rules without his consent. Azar's sweeping declaration, called by some as a "power grab," wo...

Protesters across the Bay Area and nationwide continue to hold rallies today after a Kentucky grand jury declined yesterday to charge Louisville police in the murder of Breonna Taylor, who was shot in her home six months ago during a botched drug raid on a neighboring apartment. The grand jury brought criminal charges against only one of the three police officers involved in the raid for recklessi...

The climate crisis isn’t just an environmental one — it is also a crisis of leadership. That's according to Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson, co-editors of the new anthology “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis.” Johnson, a marine biologist and policy expert, and Wilkinson, author of "Drawdown," add that "we need feminine and feminist climate leader...

There are 330 million people in the United States. Vox co-founder and economics journalist Matt Yglesias makes the case for adding 670 million more in his new book, "One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger." With an increased population size, the U.S. could maintain its status as a world superpower, increase its wealth and improve its population’s standards of living, Yglesias argues....

Is prison necessary? That’s a central question in the work of longtime prison abolitionist and well-known prison scholar, Ruth Wilson Gilmore. A co-founder of activist organization Critical Resistance, Gilmore’s seminal book “Golden Gulag” analyzed California’s role in propelling both the prison building boom and tough-on-crime sentencing in the U.S. Today, criminal justice reform is under a brigh...

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, San Francisco-based artist George McCalman says that just as he was processing his own grief and anger, he found himself deluged with calls and emails from white acquaintances. Some of the messages expressed concern, but too many were clueless and empty, reflecting what he calls "an echo chamber of fragility." For his latest project, McCalman collect...

Facing a massive backlog of 600,000 cases, California’s Employment Development Department says it will not accept new unemployment claims until October 5 as it works to restructure its website to process claims more efficiently. The temporary “pause” comes after a state government report called on EDD to address a number of problems with its claims processing, such as outdated technology and ineff...

In a nation already sharply divided along partisan lines, the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Republican plans to quickly confirm her successor has ignited new political fires. In this hour of Forum, we'll look at how this epic confirmation battle could shape the outcome of an election already upended by the pandemic and concerns about the U.S. Postal Service’s integrity with a political...

Thousands of people gathered in San Francisco and at vigils across the country over the weekend in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday at age 87. “I think a lot of us felt like, ‘Well, as long as RBG is there, we’re gonna be good, we’re gonna be good’,” San Francisco resident Shawn Rosenmoss told KQED News at the vigil. “Now I’m a little lost, which is why I...

Across California, county public health departments have issued guidelines banning parades, block parties and haunted houses. “A different type of Halloween” must happen this year, state health secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday. Last week, Los Angeles County banned trick-or-treating, then revised its language to instead discourage the activity. This week, San Francisco County similarly discour...

Following her critically-acclaimed debut novel "Homegoing," novelist Yaa Gyasi returns with “Transcendent Kingdom.” The story follows Gifty, a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University. After losing her brother to a heroin overdose and while caring for her suicidal mother, she is determined to find a scientific reason for suffering. But even as Gifty embarks on her scientific quest...

How would you describe the past six months in six words? SMITH Magazine founding editor Larry Smith posed that question to followers of his Six-Word Memoir project, receiving answers that included, "I want my senior year back," "Social distancing myself from the fridge" and "Dear first grandchild: see you soon." Smith will join us to talk some of the most memorable responses. We want to hear from...

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed an agreement at the White House this week to normalize relations with Israel, signaling a diplomatic shift in the Middle East and a new alliance against Iran. President Donald Trump lauded the deal as historic. But the agreement -- between countries already at peace with each other -- could further isolate the Palestinians, who immediately condemned the...

What will happen if both Donald Trump and Joe Biden claim victory in November? Unfortunately, according to scholars Larry Diamond and Ned Foley, American election laws "provide a shockingly inadequate guide" for resolving such a deadlock. We'll talk to Diamond and Foley about what could trigger a contested election, the limitations of the laws and constitutional provisions that govern electoral co...

After President Trump claimed last month that mail-in ballots will lead to a "rigged" election, journalism professor and media critic Jay Rosen wrote that the president now posed "an active threat to American democracy". But the media, he says, is still failing to convey the urgency of that threat. Instead, reporters too often amplify the president's dubious claims and normalize his conduct. Rosen...

Distance learning poses huge challenges for students of every age group, but it’s especially difficult for the youngest students. Children in preschool and early elementary grades rely on interacting with teachers and other kids to learn basic skills and lessons – something that is difficult to replicate over a computer screen. School districts are also struggling to meet the needs of low-income f...

Get caught without a mask in Berkeley and you could be fined $100. That's after the city council passed an ordinance last night that allows code enforcement officers to hand out tickets to mask scofflaws. Many cities and counties have similar ordinances. But Berkeley has a close eye on parks, restaurants, parties, and especially college students. There's been an uptick in coronavirus cases as Cal...

Evidence is emerging that the nine-county Bay Area is making significant strides against the coronavirus pandemic. New cases have fallen by more than 60% since mid August, and hospitalizations are down by 35% from their peak, according to state health data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle. We'll talk about what's contributed to the declines, how progress differs by county and whether we can...