KQED's Forum

What constitutes homelessness? In his new book, “There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America”, author Brian Goldstone documents the stories of five families in Atlanta that despite having full time work are living unhoused. We talk with Goldstone and Margot Kushel, Director of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, about the circumstances that render unhoused people invisib...

President Trump’s recently passed megabill allocates $75 billion in extra funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tripling its budget and making ICE the largest law enforcement agency in the country. Historian and journalist Garrett Graff has covered law enforcement and democracy for the last 20 years and says it’s hard not to see the funding increase as “turbo-charging an increasingly law...

You’ve probably been to a national or state park in California. But have you ever hiked in BLM land?  15% of California –  15 million acres – is  public land operated by the federal Bureau of Land Management. This is land that no one wanted: not beautiful enough to be deemed a national park and too remote to be developed. As such, they are under threat of being exploited for their resources or sol...

We need to make “Much Ado About Keanu” Reeves. That’s according to pop culture writer Sezín Devi Koehler’s new book about the wildly popular – if sometimes underestimated – Hollywood star. Besides acting in eighty films over his 40-year career, from “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” to “The Matrix,” Reeves’ roles have challenged stereotypes of masculinity, provided representation of Asian America...

A bill to claw back $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds public radio and television, will be voted on by the House on Thursday evening. The legislation has already passed the Senate, on a largely partisan vote. We’ll talk to the president of KQED and representatives from other public radio and television outlets about the impacts these cuts will have on...

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a spate of lawsuits against the Trump administration, including challenges to mass terminations of federal employees, the sharing of Medicaid data with immigration authorities and the federal government’s takeover of the California National Guard. His office is also involved in lawsuits related to public health funding cuts and stalled clean energy p...

The Ukrainian town of Irpin made international headlines at the outset of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion when local reservists repelled Russian forces advancing toward Kyiv. But the toll was severe for the town Ukraine has now designated a “hero city.” Hundreds of civilians were killed during Russia’s month-long occupation of Irpin, and thousands of buildings were destroyed. Among those was the...

“You can tell what a culture values by who it labels a genius—and also what it is prepared to tolerate. The Renaissance had its great artists. The Romantics lionized androgynous, tubercular poets. Today we are in thrall to tech innovators and brilliant jerks in Silicon Valley.” So writes Atlantic staff writer Helen Lewis in her new book, “The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea.” Le...

The Bay Area is getting increasingly older at a faster rate than other parts of the country, making it the third oldest region in the U.S. Some neighborhoods in Berkeley have a median age of 60. What will it take for our infrastructures to be well set up for our aging population? We talk through the latest data, hear from aging experts and learn from local organizations who have been meeting the ‘...

Adolescence has always been turbulent, but what happens when you mix in early puberty, digital information overload and a world that feels increasingly unsteady? Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Matt Richtel says we’re living through a radical shift in how we come of age. In his new book “How We Grow Up,” Richtel draws on neuroscience and conversations with youth and their families to explore...

In the first six months of his second term, President Trump has done a lot of what he said he would do, from proposing sweeping tariffs to gutting federal agencies and their workers to deporting thousands of immigrants. And Americans now await the effects of Republicans’ massive bill cutting taxes and expanding immigration enforcement while slashing popular programs. We check in on Trump’s ambitio...

Water conservation is a constant challenge for Californians, but according to the New York Times’s Michael Kimmelman, there’s one city that’s doing it right: Los Angeles. Kimmelman found that L.A. has consumed less water in total since 1990 even as the city gained millions of residents. We talk with Kimmelman and California water officials about the strategies L.A. is using and what other states c...

To be a modern consumer is to experience poor customer service at some point in your life. The kind of service that has you in a fever dream of pressing “1” for “representative,” getting your call dropped, calling back again, and then asking to speak to a manager who can’t solve your problem. Experts call this kind of service “sludge,” an administrative morass meant to deter, not help, consumers....

Journalist E. Jean Carroll has won two multimillion-dollar judgments against President Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. Her new memoir, “Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President,” is a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to sue a U.S. President: the toll it took, and how support and some dark humor helped carry her through. We talk to Carroll about her experiences and hear reflections fro...

No band may better reflect the multicultural, gender-expansive exuberance of the Bay Area dream than Sly and the Family Stone. A new documentary “Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” explores the life and context of Vallejo’s brilliant, charismatic and troubled bandleader. We talk with the film’s creators and participants about the gifts Sly gave the world and the tolls it took on him. Gues...

The flooding in Central Texas over the Fourth of July holiday has claimed more than 100 lives and caused widespread destruction across six counties. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing, with teams from across the country — including California — joining the response. We get on-the-ground updates, hear how rescue operations are going and as extreme weather events become more common, we look at wh...

As the Library of Congress’s new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Bay Area children’s author Mac Barnett wants to reframe how we think about picture books. With his platform, “Behold the Picture Book,” he’s championing the vital role picture books play in engaging readers of all ages and why we love them. What’s the picture book you love reading over and over and over? Guests: Ma...

President Trump on Friday signed into law a massive tax and spending package: the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which delivers sweeping tax breaks for the wealthy while slashing social safety net programs. It cuts nearly $30 billion in Medicaid funding to California, defunds wildfire prevention and, according to Governor Gavin Newsom’s office, puts hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state...

Caregiving is the most universal of human acts. But also one of the most invisible. While caring for a child, parent or loved one can be meaningful, and life defining, it can also be exhausting and life breaking. Drawing on her groundbreaking research on baby’s brains, UC Berkeley psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik is leading a multidisciplinary project to better understand the social scie...

Atlantic staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Bruenig has attended five death row executions over the past half-decade. “What I witnessed,” she writes in her new cover story, “has not changed my conviction that capital punishment must end. But in sometimes-unexpected ways, it has changed my understanding of why.” We talk to Bruenig about what she saw and what she learned about mercy,...

When a scrappy San Francisco literary journal launched in 1985 to champion West Coast writers, the dream was to make a lasting imprint. Now, 40 years later, we celebrate Zyzzyza’s anniversary with editor Oscar Villalon and writers Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) and Ingrid Rojas Contreras. We’ll talk about the literary journal’s vision, its stellar roster of writers and poets, and what makes t...

Musician Greta Morgan began performing professionally when she was 16, singing for groups like The Hush Sound and Gold Motel before touring with Vampire Weekend and charting her own path as a singer-songwriter. But in 2020, a severe case of Covid led to a neurological disorder that reduced her voice to a hush. We talk to Morgan about what a drastic change to her singing voice taught her about her...

“An artist is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special,” said San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa. From her studio in her home in Noe Valley, Asawa created crocheted wire sculptures whose shadows are just as evocative as the art itself. But as the mother of six, Asawa was also passionate about arts education and teaching. As a new retrospective of her work and life opens a...

Rick Steves is one of the most trusted sources for Americans traveling abroad. But he once dreamed of becoming a piano teacher. That was before he backpacked along the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to Kathmandu in 1978, a trip that made him want to help others experience life-altering travel. We talk to him about his new book called “On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Trav...

LaRussell is known for a lot of things. His prolific music drops. His backyard concerts from his hometown, the “itty bitty city near the Bay,” Vallejo. And, for making a name in the world of hip hop on his own – no record deal needed. LaRussell is one of the Bay Area’s hottest musicians not just because of his talent and artistry, but also his business savvy. He is the founder of Good Compenny, a...