KQED's Forum

Multiple wildfires continue to sweep through LA county, causing massive evacuations and the most destructive fires Los Angeles has ever seen. We’ll provide an update on the fires, and the fierce winds and weather conditions intensifying their spread. Guests: Anthony Edwards, newsroom meteorologist, SF Chronicle On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to take up TikTok’s appeal challenging a feder...

Three major wildfires fueled by winds up to 100 miles an hour are tearing through the Los Angeles region of Southern California this morning. The fires are destroying property and forcing evacuations in Pacific Palisades, Pasadena and Malibu. Many homes have been lost and officials are warning that the worst is yet to come. We’ll provide an update and hear from you. Guests: Saul Gonzalez, co-host,...

San Francisco inaugurates its new mayor, Daniel Lurie, on Wednesday. Across the bay, councilmember Kevin Jenkins has been appointed as Oakland’s interim mayor while contenders, including longtime Congresswoman Barbara Lee, line up for the election to finish the term of former mayor Sheng Tao, who was ousted in a recall vote. Alameda County now has an interim district attorney taking the reins afte...

For some Gen-Z and millennials seeking “in real life” connection, nothing beats a heated game of Uno, Rummikub or mahjong. Board and card games are proliferating in their popularity as people – really of all ages– seek community, light-hearted entertainment and a chance to hang with friends. In the context of a game, you can learn a lot about a person: are they a savvy strategist, a sore loser, or...

Jeff Tumlin became director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in December 2019, just months before the pandemic sent ridership plummeting, creating huge financial challenges and forcing unprecedented change. Tumlin, who has just stepped down as director, was at times a lightning rod for controversies about pedestrian safety, bike lanes, closing streets to car traffic and transit...

Pro-anorexia content is spreading on all social media platforms, but on X it is thriving. So-called “pro-ana” communities, which attract tens of thousands of users, circulate photos glorifying thinness and promote unhealthy dieting advice, which is then amplified through algorithmic recommendations. Although some tech companies have attempted to curb this issue, the rollback of content moderation...

Monday will mark 4 years since the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol, which the FBI classified as an act of domestic terrorism. President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on revisionist history of the event, even calling it a “day of love” and vowing to pardon the rioters. We’ll look back at what really took place that day and the ongoing implications for the rule of law and the future of de...

California officials could face jail time if they attempt to block the administration’s immigration agenda, according to a recent letter to state and local leaders from Trump ally Stephen Miller’s non-profit, America First Legal (AFL). At issue is California’s “Sanctuary State” law, which seeks to prevent state resources from being used to assist with federal immigration enforcement. And several l...

The murals inside of San Francisco’s Coit Tower are a popular tourist destination, but have been a source of contention from their inception. In his new book, “The Coit Tower Murals: New Deal Art and Political Controversy in San Francisco,” San Francisco State professor Robert Cherny chronicles the history of the murals, which were painted in the style of Diego Rivera and depict life in the Bay Ar...

Last year, visitors flocked to the path of the solar eclipse, packed up to visit national parks and headed abroad. While climate change and overtouristing are impacting travel, post-COVID wanderlust shows no sign of abating in 2025. Maybe it will be a trip to Belgrade, Benin or the Bold Coast of Maine. We talk to travel experts about places we’ve been and where we should go in the new year. What’s...

“Aristotle taught that all human beings want to know,” writes Columbia professor of humanities Mark Lilla, adding that “our own experience teaches us that all human beings also want not to know, sometimes fiercely so.” We’ll talk to Lilla about our innate disposition toward ignorance – whether about a political reality or an uncomfortable family secret. Lilla’s new book is “Ignorance and Bliss: On...

Neuroscientist and musician Daniel Levitin says we can trace beliefs about music’s power to heal mind, body and spirit back 20,000 years, to the Upper Paleolithic era. But only recently have we had good science to explain how music affects us and how we can use it therapeutically. Not only to relax, uplift and bring us together, but as part of treatment of trauma, depression, Parkinson’s, Alzheime...

One problem with 2016 polling data indicating that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency was the oversampling of people with college and graduate degrees. Today’s Democrats tend to value credentials and degrees, while Republicans tend to champion skeptics who distrust institutions like universities. That’s according to political scientist David Hopkins, who says that the “diploma divide” is a m...

Looking back at the year in tech in 2024, generative artificial intelligence dominated headlines, became part of our daily lives and pumped up the Bay Area’s job market. On social media, Elon Musk steered the platform X to the right, and worked to elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, users experimented with other social media platforms, which are increasingly marketing machines for online retailers. We...

Much has been written about Ronald Reagan, but historian Max Boot’s new biography, which draws on new archival sources and interviews with nearly a hundred people who knew Reagan best, is being hailed as definitive. Boot says Reagan was possessed of “myriad contradictions and inconsistencies:” a skeptic of government who presided over vast spending increases; a gun rights advocate who supported to...

A new year holds promise for a new you. But writer Oliver Burkeman says you shouldn’t strive for perfection. Instead, in his latest book, “Meditations for Mortals,” Burkeman encourages readers to embrace imperfection, let some goals slide, and do less. His approach has been called “liberating and humane.” We talk to Burkeman about how to thrive and despite our mortal failings. Guests: Oliver Burke...

Have you ever reread something you wrote years earlier and cringed? Or maybe you were surprised by the depth, heart and complexity of what your younger self put to the page. Ann Patchett had both experiences recently when she reread her award-winning 2001 book “Bel Canto.” She’s now reissued the novel with her own handwritten margin notes — both complimentary and critical. We’ll talk to Patchett a...

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...

Anthropologist Jason De León has spent a career documenting the stories of migrants making their way across the Sonoran Desert at the Southern US border. But in his new book, “Soldiers And Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling,” De León turns his gaze towards the smugglers. For nearly seven years, he embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Central America and M...

Are we alone? Really, though, in a cosmic sense. 40 years ago the pioneering radio astronomer Jill Tarter co-founded a Bay Area non profit to support humanity searching for life beyond ourselves. We celebrate the SETI – as in, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – Institute’s anniversary and all their contributions to science which, sadly, do not yet include finding aliens. What do you hope S...

“The time to fight, with all our ingenuity and tenacity, and love and fury, is now.” That sounds like a rallying cry for democrats after their profound election defeat last week. But it’s in fact an environmental call to action from Katherine Rundell, whose new book “Vanishing Treasures” celebrates some of the earth’s most imperiled and unusual creatures. We’ll talk to Rundell about wombats that c...

For 45 years, the Bay Area's vocal ensemble Kitka has entranced audiences with their complex harmonies, breathtaking vocal techniques and vast repertoire of traditional songs from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The 10 members of Kitka join us in studio to share songs from their Wintersongs concerts, featuring music from the country of Georgia. Guests: Shira Cion, executive director, Kitka Women's Voc...

Novelist Richard Powers has a way of making us see the world, and our place in it, in entirely new ways. His 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winning novel Overstory attuned readers to the power and mystery of trees. In his new novel, Playground, he focuses his awe and concern on marine life, the oceans and the perils we’ve inflicted on them. We talk to Powers about his epic story of friendship, colonialism an...

The past year, more than any other, “demonstrated how podcasts as a whole bleed into the real world and play a huge role in American culture, for better or worse,” Vulture podcast critic Nicholas Quah recently wrote. It used to be, if a presidential nominee wanted to make news, they would go on TV. In 2024, it was all about podcasts…shows like Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy. The industry is still re...

About ten years ago, two of journalist Lissa Soep’s closest friends died around the same time. In her grieving, she found consolation in the philosophy of a 20th century Russian literary theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin, and his theory of “double voicing” – the idea that our speech is “filled to overflowing with other people’s words." Her friends had not disappeared, instead, they’d slipped into her own...