KQED's Forum

Millions of people are expected to take part in "No Kings" protests this Saturday in over 2000 cities across the country. The demonstrations are being coordinated as frustration mounts over the president’s military crackdown in cities and federal funding cuts. We talk about what to expect and how this movement compares to previous mass demonstrations in American history. Later in the hour, we talk...

In a news conference Wednesday, President Trump said he will be “strongly recommending” his administration look into sending troops to the city, which he called “a mess.” The comments come after Elon Musk and Mark Benioff said they’d like to see the National Guard in San Francisco. We discuss what may come next, but first we talk with the new host of “Reading Rainbow.” Almost 20 years since it wen...

Why is it so hard to change the U.S. Constitution? Harvard historian Jill Lepore says the Constitution was intended to be amended but that we’ve all but abandoned the practice. That’s had profound consequences, leaving us with vestigial antidemocratic provisions like the Electoral College, a malapportioned Senate and life tenure for Supreme Court justices. We talk to Lepore about why amendments ar...

Julian Brave NoiseCat’s paternal family traces their origins to the Coyote, a trickster from native mythology who helped create the world. The story of Coyote weaves through NoiseCat’s memoir, “We Survived the Night,” which recounts his childhood in Oakland, growing up with a non-native mother, and an absent Indian father who was born, and nearly killed, in an infamous Canadian reservation school....

At a summit in Egypt on Monday, President Trump and world leaders signed the first phase of a ceasefire agreement aimed at bringing to an end the brutal two-year war between Israel and Hamas. Under the terms of the deal, Hamas on Monday released all 20 of the remaining hostages it had held since its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinians it held in jails...

We continue our series, “In Search of Home: Solutions for the Homelessness Crisis” with an examination of what it takes to help a person experiencing homelessness find their way into permanent housing. We talk with providers operating transitional housing with wrap-around services and rapid rehousing programs, that help with leasing new apartments, about the most effective ways to move a formerly...

We meet Stanford chemical engineer William Tarpeh, who was recently awarded a 2025 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Tarpeh’s work involves developing systems to extract nitrogen from waste streams to be used in fertilizer, cleaners and industrial chemical production. We talk to him about the environmental and public health benefits of his projects in Kenya and elsewhere, the role that California has...

According to San Francisco workers, the hustle culture of the pre-pandemic days has returned in the form of long working days and weekends at the office. So called “996 work”, which originates from China’s tech scene, is a work schedule that starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m., six days a week. The hustle isn’t new to Silicon Valley, but the hyper-competitive AI tech race and the fact that some em...

A group of American investors, including Silicon Valley allies of President Trump, is expected to take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese parent company ByteDance, according to the White House. The video sharing platform has come under heavy bipartisan criticism as a national security risk. We’ll talk to Forbes investigative reporter Emily Baker-White about the proposed deal and what...

The deadline is approaching for Governor Newsom to sign — or veto — any remaining bills passed last month by California’s legislature. He’s recently approved laws that crack down on illegal street vending, bar ICE officers from wearing masks and enhance data privacy. Some of the measures pending include a proposal for more transit-oriented development and a reparations package. We’ll talk about wh...

Alice Waters has changed the way the country thinks about the importance of fresh, organic produce in the more than fifty years since she founded her restaurant, Chez Panisse, and in the three decades since launching the Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley. Now, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. extolls the importance of healthy food for kids while the administration slashes funding for...

The scope of presidential power is front and center as the Supreme Court begins a new term. Cases on the docket will test Trump’s agenda, including his ability to levy tariffs and his attempts to fire Federal Reserve members. Also at stake are the survival of the Voting Rights Act, as well as a state’s authority to ban conversion therapy, and the rights of transgender athletes.  We talk about how...

Amidst funding cuts, massive layoffs, editorial differences and Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on media, more and more journalists and creators are leaving traditional media platforms and going independent. They’re turning to newsletters, Substack channels, Youtube and more, to keep doing the work they’ve been doing – but without institutional guardrails. As stalwart publications like The Washingt...

Preventing the next deadly pandemic, because it’s only a matter of time.  Senior Science magazine correspondent Jon Cohen has travelled Vietnam and the Amazon rainforest to learn what scientists are doing to keep the most dangerous pathogens at bay, and why we need to avoid what he calls cycles of panic and neglect — a rush of  resources and interest when a virus bursts on the scene followed by in...

AI video creation software is advancing rapidly and some of its output is very alarming. OpenAI’s Sora, currently the most downloaded app in the App Store, allows users to create incredibly realistic deepfake videos with minimal effort. One viral example? A fake video of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shoplifting in a department store. With technology this convincing, how can we trust what we see online? A...

What makes us vulnerable to charlatans? A new book by journalist Quico Toro takes a close look at charismatic manipulators from literal snake oil peddlers to crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried. We talk to Toro about how charlatans exploit our need for certainty, belonging and leadership — and why the tricks are old, but thanks to viral amplification on social media, the scale is new. Toro’s book, co...

California has a massive economy, the power of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and we grow much of the nation’s food. As the Trump administration targets the state with federal cuts, ICE raids, and the deployment of the National Guard, some are asking: How could California—and other blue states—use their considerable power? Could there be a kind of “soft secession” from the federal government? We’ll...

California City in Kern county is now home to the state’s largest ICE detention facility after private prison giant CoreCivic formally contracted to run it last month. But immigrant rights advocates say it lacks proper permits, and detainees have staged hunger strikes to protest filthy conditions and lack of access to medical care. Meanwhile, California City officials say they have no authority to...

The government has shut down and President Trump is withholding dedicated funds to blue states, demanding  universities sign a pact to get federal funding and cracking down on free speech. We bring together a panel of reporters to sort through what is happening in Washington and discuss the ways the Trump administration is throwing out the playbook and creating new, and sometimes unlawful, norms....

As the federal government shutdown extended through a second day, President Trump on Thursday redoubled his threats to carry out mass layoffs, posting on his social media platform that Democrats had given him an “unprecedented opportunity.” We talk to California Senator Adam Schiff about the Democrats’ long game on the shutdown and get his response to Trump’s call this week to use U.S. cities as a...

This fall brings Bay Area residents plenty of options for enjoying the arts from the Castro Theatre reopening with a Sam Smith residency after a two year closure to an exhibit of Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge at Stanford. And of course, there are the perennial events like LitQuake, the region’s premier literary festival, and celebrations of Oktoberfest, Día de los Muertos, and Halloween....

The United States has for generations been a magnet for students and scholars from around the world seeking higher education and research positions. In fields such as engineering and the life sciences, at least half of workers here with doctorates are born outside the country. But crackdowns on universities, federal funding cuts and a precarious climate for immigrants is turning a brain gain into...

Even after the tremendous success of her cookbook, “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” and the Netflix series it inspired, Samin Nosrat found that, she was lonely and depressed. What grounded her, and helped her claw back the joy in her life, was regularly cooking and eating with friends and committing to community – one “lazy sugo” at a time .  We talk to Nosrat about her journey and her new book, “Good Thin...

Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most beloved primatologists, has died. She was 91. Goodall was a hero of the conservation movement known for her decades long study of chimpanzees — how they use tools, care for their young, and care for each other. Her discoveries led her to devote her life to animal conservation and fighting deforestation, balanced with the needs of local people. We listen back t...

The federal government shut down at midnight on Tuesday after lawmakers failed to reach a deal to continue funding its operations. We hear from Bay Area congressman Mark DeSaulnier as Democrats and Republicans fight a messaging war over who to blame for what could be a long and painful period of no pay and potential job losses for federal employees. Guests: Mark DeSaulnier, United States Congressm...