KQED's Forum

Wearing blue vests labeled “Press,” journalists in Gaza risk their lives to document and publicize a war that’s killed more than 28,000 people. At least 85 journalists are among the dead – 78 of whom were Palestinian. Because Israel and Egypt have denied foreign journalists entry into Gaza, the burden of on-the-ground reporting falls predominantly to Palestinian journalists, who work amid airstrik...

San Francisco resident Kristin Urquiza has spent the past two years advocating for a national Covid memorial for the million-plus people who died from the disease, including her father. She co-founded Marked By Covid to push for a memorial that will not only speak to our grief, but also encapsulate the conditions and decisions that led to so many deaths. Urquiza shared her journey with the podcast...

Governor Gavin Newsom pledged this month to veto a bill that would ban tackle football for children under 12. Sponsored by Sacramento assemblymember Kevin McCarty, the bill was designed to protect children from the potentially debilitating long-term effects of repeated head injury. But even as evidence of its potential harm mounts, youth football culture in California is deeply ingrained, with the...

Bonnie Ora Sherk began her career as a landscape painter, but then realized she wanted to be in the landscape herself. From the nucleus of that idea, her 1970 installation “Portable Park,” a popup farm complete with sod, trees, and farm animals situated under a San Francisco freeway overpass, was born. As she observed, “Freeways are beautiful, but they need to be softened. Why use them just for ca...

In 2002, California became the first state to pass its own voting rights act with the aim of increasing minority representation at the local level. But as a recent San Francisco Chronicle investigation found, the California Voting Rights Act has produced mixed results— and the state does not track its outcomes. In some localities, the law has led to better community representation and more people...

Journalism in America was a highly profitable business for more than a century until the internet – and other factors – disrupted the traditional business model resulting in decades of declining advertising and subscription revenue. Last week, the Los Angeles Times cut about 20 percent of its staff, adding to a growing list of news organizations making cuts in the past few months: The Washington P...

When Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky knew that the Russian military would be hard to defeat – not only because of its strength but because for years “the Kremlin had waged its war through propaganda, seeking to convince anyone who speaks the Russian language that Ukraine does not exist.” That’s according to Time Magazine senior correspondent Simon Shuster,...

Nearly 1.5 million homes have been destroyed in Russia’s war on Ukraine, and rebuilding the country could cost more than $400 billion, according to the United Nations. Despite the ongoing fighting, Ukrainian leaders say they urgently need to start rebuilding homes, factories, and other structures, so that the millions of Ukrainians who fled the war – and who are key to redeveloping the country – c...

California regulators approved new rules last month to enable water suppliers to treat wastewater and redistribute it as drinking water. The state says that the new standards, which took years to craft, are the most advanced in the nation for treating wastewater and will add millions of gallons of additional drinking water to state supplies. But hurdles, including stigmas that surround what’s know...

“You don’t just smell an aroma; you fall into it,” writes artisan perfumer Mandy Aftel. And entering her exquisite small museum, the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, tucked into a backyard in Berkeley, is to fall into an ancient, mysterious world. Amid centuries-old books, bottles and curios are natural fragrances that come from the secretions of civets and the bowels of sperm whales, as well as f...

As winter rains descend, mushrooms are blooming across California — in oak and conifer forests, along riverbanks and even in your own garden. You can forage for “the winter trio:” yellow-footed chanterelles, black trumpets and hedgehogs. And you may even come across our new state mushroom, the massive (and delicious) California golden chanterelle. We’ll talk about how to identify California’s mush...

Millennial writer Kyle Chayka longs for the good old days of the Internet, when online forums and MP3 piracy helped him define his own personal sense of style and taste. You had to work at it: Wake up early to catch that anime you wanted to watch and record on a VHS tape, find the MySpace page devoted to your favorite show, search out the music magazine featuring cool bands. But today, he observes...

In most of the world, “salvage” is a hopeful word, writes journalist Patricia Evangelista. But in Philippine English, to salvage is also to execute a suspected criminal without trial. The salvages of suspected drug users and dealers encouraged by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are the subject of Evangelista’s new book “Some People Need Killing,” which draws its title from the words of...

The U.S. expanded its bombing campaign of Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen this week, as the group continues to attack ships in the Red Sea. But Yemen is just one of the Middle East flashpoints raising concerns about a wider conflict in the region spreading from the Israel-Gaza war. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah at the Israel-Lebanon border is also ramping up. Meanwhile, violence has spilled o...

The top four candidates for Dianne Feinstein’s senate seat face off in a televised debate on Monday evening. Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee and Republican Steve Garvey will take on topics such as homelessness and housing, criminal justice, immigration and U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas. How will Lee and Porter take on the front runner Schiff? Or does Garvey have...

Building homes in factories can save money and time – so why has prefabricated housing struggled to gain traction in the U.S.? Scandinavian countries use it for more than 40% of their housing production, whereas in the U.S. it’s less than 4%, according to a 2023 report from consulting firm McKinsey. The Bay Area has produced some big winners and losers in the prefab space. In the past decade alone...

“Ethical non-monogamy isn’t new… and it isn’t exactly mainstream, but it isn’t so fringe either (or reserved for those who live in the Bay Area).” That’s according to New York Magazine, which released a cover issue on polyamory this month. Those who regularly date or love multiple people at once say it’s liberating and fosters intimacy and connection. But even its most passionate advocates say pol...

Are “Zynfluencers” the new Joe Camel? Joe was the cartoon mascot used by R.J. Reynolds to sell cigarettes in the 1990s, until the government cracked down on marketing tobacco to youth. Today, according to journalist Emily Dreyfuss, social media influencers are using their platforms to push addictive and harmful products like Zyn, a nicotine pouch, to young people. In a recent New York Times piece,...

In 1976, in the Central Valley town of Chowchilla, 26 children and their school bus driver were kidnapped by three masked men and held captive for twenty-eight hours until they managed to free themselves and escape. Although no one was physically harmed, the incident took a severe emotional toll on the children and would go on to influence how we address childhood trauma. A new CNN documentary tak...

“Girls had rich lives outdoors, but history has largely overlooked them,” writes Harvard professor and National Book award winner Tiya Miles. In her latest book, “Wild Girls,” Miles sets out to unearth those stories. There’s Harriet Tubman, an “outdoorswoman” who used her knowledge of the natural world and the night skies to lead people escaping slavery to freedom. And “Little Women” author Louisa...

The California Department of Public Health issued new COVID-19 guidance last week, advising that people may return to school and work even if they test positive for the virus. We’ll talk about California’s recommendations, the new COVID variant known as JN.1 and the latest developments in treatment and prevention. And we’ll hear from you: How are you living with COVID in 2024? Learn more about you...

San Francisco and Oakland were some of the first cities in the country to adopt ranked choice voting. It’s now a popular election reform that is being adopted across the country. Advocates say allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference on their ballots – instead of just picking one – gives them more say over who ends up in office and more freedom to vote for a longshot candidate wit...

Central Texas resident Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick became pregnant in December 2021, three months after Texas banned virtually all abortions past six weeks of pregnancy and imposed criminal penalties on doctors carrying them out. Yeni had diabetes, severe hypertension and other medical conditions that made her pregnancy dangerous, and as the months wore on, she became sicker and sicker. In July...

53 million Americans provide care for a family member or friend with health or disability issues. While there can be joy and satisfaction found in helping a loved one age or cope with an illness, the work can also be hard and emotionally draining: Research shows that caregivers are at greater risk for anxiety, depression, chronic health problems, and financial strain. With little to no government...

Ever since our moon formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, it has “conduct(ed) the symphony of life on Earth.” That’s according to lifelong moon enthusiast and science journalist Rebecca Boyle, who says that the moon has influenced modern science, reproduction, migration, religious rituals and even possibly the blood in our veins. Boyle’s new book is “Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Trans...