KQED's Forum

Edward Fishman, a former top sanctions official in the U.S. Department of State, says that “the world economy has become a battlefield,” with sanctions, tariffs, and embargoes as the U.S.’s primary tools for engagement. But after years of U.S. sanctions against Russia and a Ukraine truce still out of reach, are they effective? In his new book “Chokepoints,” Fishman examines the history of economic...

How should we raise children in a world that is burning? This is the question that Berkeley poet Rachel Richardson contemplates in her new collection, “Smother.” As wildfires beset California, Richardson worried about the impact it would have on the land, communities and her own family. “The smoke is not cruel, only truthful,” she writes. And throughout the collection, fire, smoke and air flecked...

Who is the Government? Dave Eggers and Sarah Vowell attempt to answer that question in essays about the scientists who discover new planets at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and the archivists who safeguard the nation’s historical record. They’re both featured in the new anthology, “Who is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service.” We talk to Vowell and Eggers about the civil...

President Donald Trump has called for the impeachment of the federal judge who ordered a halt on the administration’s deportation of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law. The administration went ahead with the deportations over the weekend despite the judge’s order. The clash comes a few weeks after the controversial arrest of Columbia University...

California in 2023 experienced a net loss of nearly 270,000 residents. The main reason given by those surveyed? The state’s cost of living is too high for working families. According to journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, much of the blame for that lies with Democrats, who they say have “failed at the work of governing” by pushing policies that make it too hard to build homes, mass transit...

In his new book “Carbon: The Book of Life,” Paul Hawken guides readers through the integral role of carbon in our world and daily lives. Carbon is a miracle element that is the basis of life on earth, and yet, it has become maligned as the culprit of our climate change crisis. Hawken, a Bay Area native and longtime environmentalist and entrepreneur, offers a hopeful re-consideration of carbon, as...

Emmy award winning Comedian Carol Leifer has sat through countless bad speeches. Fed up, she set out to create the ultimate guide to speech writing with co-author Rick Mitchell. It’s called “How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Graduation, and Every Other Event You Didn’t Want to Go to in the First Place.” Leifer offers thoughtful writing tips honed during her time working on te...

The Pacific Circuit comprises the vast system of trade routes, cargo ships and relationships connecting Asian manufacturing and American consumers. And it all starts at the Port of Oakland. In his new book “The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City,” Forum co-host Alexis Madrigal charts how the port shaped Oakland’s history and how, in turn, the globa...

Dani Offline joins us in the studio for a live musical performance. Fresh off of two sold-out shows at SFJAZZ as part of the Noise Pop festival, the Oakland-based R&B singer is celebrating the release of her new single, “Desire.” We talk with her about the freedom of being a self-produced musician and how studying literary criticism at UC Berkeley inspired her upcoming album. Guest: Dani Offline, ...

Through years of hosting dinner parties with fellow grievers, Carla Fernandez, writes that she learned to approach grief without sweeping it under the rug. “I learned about approaching grief less as a noun, a thing to distance ourselves from, and more as a verb,” as she writes in her new book, “Renegade Grief: A Guide to the Wild Ride of Life After Loss.” Fernandez lost her father to brain cancer...

California is increasingly relying on for-profit psychiatric hospitals to care for the tens of thousands of people experiencing serious mental health crises every year. But a new San Francisco Chronicle investigation finds that the companies that own these hospitals have “capitalized on lax state regulations to strip their workforces bare, generating massive earnings for investors and owners while...

“I possessed a unique ability to find suffering in even the best circumstances,” admits Atlantic writer Olga Khazan. That trait is one reason why she wished for a different personality; she wasn’t seeking radical change, just one to make her life a little bit better. And over the course of a year she did just that, embarking on a journey through the science of personality. Khazan interviewed resea...

Who is the leader of the Democratic party? It was a question that appeared to stump Minnesota governor and vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz in a CNN interview last week, and he’s not the only one who’s feeling a leadership void. Only 1 in 10 Democrats say their party has a solid strategy to deal with the Trump administration, according to a recent poll by the opinion research firm Blueprint. D...

The Trump Administration cut $400 million in grants to Columbia for its alleged failure to address anti-semitism on campus. And 60 more universities are on Trump’s target list for similar cuts, including UC Berkeley, all while the federal Department of Education is on the chopping block. We’ll talk about the potential impacts on students from kindergarten to college, and why the Department of Educ...

Pennies are as lucky as ever, but the U.S. Mint reported losing more than $85 million last year producing the coin. Now President Trump has added his voice to bipartisan calls to stop minting the penny, but it would be up to Congress to make change. Would you miss the one-cent piece? We look at the historical, cultural and economic significance of the penny. Tell us your thoughts. Guests: Seth Cha...

Venture capital is meant to infuse burgeoning companies with cash to grow, but instead it’s become a sector that is too obsessed with raking in short-term results and rapid growth at any cost. So argues Catherine Bracy in her new book, “World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy.” Bracy examines how the venture capital model has led to countless companies failing and has distor...

Scientists who study and keep the public informed about wildfires, hurricanes, avalanches and climate change are reeling from the Trump administration’s mass firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service. We talk to climate scientist Daniel Swain about the essential work NOAA does in California and nationwide and the impacts of the firi...

The average American student is “less than halfway to a full academic recovery” from the effects of the Covid pandemic. That’s according to a 2024 report by the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Studies show that lockdown also took a toll on kids’ mental health, as well as social and emotional skills. And like other Covid impacts, these challenges often hit students of color the hardest. In...

In 2013, Patrick Hutchison bought a derelict shack in the Cascades not far from his home in Seattle. Within a few years, the weekend renovation project would become an all-consuming DIY effort. He documents his turbulent journey from copywriter to carpenter in his recent book “Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman.” We talk to him about what he learned from transforming a “leaky...

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 federal agency overseeing Voice of America has placed its chief national correspondent on a paid “excused absence” while it investigates his alleged bias against Donald Trump. The White House continues to bar the Associated Press from presidential events and maintains that it can handpick its press pool. Meanwhile, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos — who donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugurati...

Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman is bullish on the ability of AI to improve our society and our selves. In his new book, “SuperAgency: What Could Possibly Go Right With Our AI Future?” Hoffman, a longtime booster and investor in AI, and co-author Greg Beato, counter fears that autonomous AI will dehumanize us and make us subject to an Orwellian compliance. Rather, they argue, AI gives humans more...

Gossip can be “juicy, strange, funny and utterly banal” and we love to hear it, whether we identify as gossips or not. Kelsey McKinney, host and creator of the podcast Normal Gossip, has perfected the art of relaying other people’s business, and she thinks that gossip has been unfairly maligned. In her book “You Didn’t Hear This From Me,” McKinney reflects on the multitude of petty and profound wa...

Donald Trump takes the stage on Tuesday night, addressing Congress to make the case for his agenda, after a whirlwind six weeks in office. This week, Trump has levied tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China, which set the stock market plunging. He also halted funding of Ukraine’s war effort following a public berating of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. And his DOGE-cuts of various agencie...

Anger and frustration over Elon Musk’s DOGE and its drastic, legally questionable cuts to the federal workforce have sparked protests outside Tesla dealerships around the country, leaving some Tesla owners feeling less than great about their cars. If you have a Tesla, are you thinking of getting rid of it? We’ll talk about whether Elon Musk and the Trump Administration in general are affecting wha...