KQED's Forum

As the war between Russia and Ukraine drags on without any clear momentum on either side, Republicans in Congress are balking at more U.S. aid to defeat Putin, while the Biden Administration pursues a deal that would include tougher border enforcement. We’ll discuss the standoff over Ukraine funding in Congress and get the latest on what’s happening on the battlefield as winter arrives. Guests: St...

The magazine Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), which produces the podcast Reveal, will be merging. Based in the Bay Area, the two news organizations both work on a nonprofit model and are known for their deeply reported investigative pieces. The two organizations share a long and collaborative history, and have done joint stories in the past such as the 2021 piece on s...

The Vatican announced Monday that Catholic priests will be allowed to bless the unions of same sex couples. It’s seen as an important step toward a more inclusive approach to LGBTQ+ church members, but is not the same as a marriage sacrament, which is a formal ceremonial rite. The Vatican emphasized it does not amend “the traditional doctrine of the church about marriage” and should not be connect...

Large corporations have quietly bought large collections of homes in California, mostly for use as rental properties, often hidden behind complex networks of shell companies. A Sacramento appraiser has begun to crack the code, revealing more than ten thousand properties in California owned by one company, Invitation Homes. He joins us, with other experts, to discuss the extent of corporate home ow...

With the Republicans’ majority in the House down to just three votes, control of Congress is very much up in the air next year. And once again the road to a majority for Democrats runs through California. Nonpartisan analysts say five House seats are up for grabs, all of them currently held by Republicans. We’ll check in on those races, plus the hotly contested race to replace Palo Alto Democrat A...

Sea-level rise is already causing harm in the Bay Area, but it’s hard to picture what’s yet to come. Some Bay Area artists are using their crafts to imagine what our region might look like as waters continue to rise: drowned cities, hills turned into islands, and more commuting by boat. These visions of the future are manifested through graphic images, art installations and storytelling. For our l...

The end of the year is a time of reflection, and for some, a chance to reassess our priorities. But if the goal is greater happiness, says author and Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks, we may be going about New Year’s resolutions all wrong. It’s great to try and lose weight or save more money, but research shows that practicing things like forgiveness and gratitude are actually more likely to inc...

It’s the season of craft fairs, when artisans come out from their studios, or from a corner of an apartment stuffed with art supplies, and try to sell what they’ve made. We sit down with local craftspeople and creators to discuss the world of crafts, and what it means to be an artisan today in the Bay Area, where culture is rich but finances are always tight. We talk about hobbies, obsessions, sid...

The 28th United Nations climate conference, COP28, ended Wednesday in Dubai with an agreement among nearly 200 nations to transition away from fossil fuels and achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. California took the stage at the talks and joined subnational governments in task forces, including one committed to reducing methane emissions. We’ll talk about what the conference accompl...

When he opened his popular and award-winning restaurant Rintaro, Sylvan Mishima Brackett wanted to serve “the kind of food you’d expect if the Bay Area were a region of Japan.” At Rintaro, you’ll find dishes like yakitori brushed with tare sauce and seared on a binchotan grill, chicken and cheese katsu atop snowy piles of cabbage, and toothsome udon noodles piled in a clear, umami-packed broth. No...

What was your movie of the year? Maybe you were one of many who donned hot pink at the theaters. Maybe your movie of the year is one that just came out, or one you felt never got its due. 2023 was a weird year for movies: the SAG strike prevented actors from promoting their work; Marvel and Disney flicks underperformed; few expected “Barbie” to be the massive box office hit it was. We hear from cr...

Hate crimes against Jews and Muslims in the U.S. are reaching all time highs according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, three college students wearing Palestinian scarves were shot in Vermont, synagogues have been targets of gunshots and vandalism, and reports of physical assaults against Jews and Muslims are rapidly rising. Fears of physi...

Health officials in Gaza report that at least 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its bombardment of the region, in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 attack that left 1200 Israelis dead and 240 more taken hostage. The war has created increasingly desperate conditions in Gaza as its health care system collapses, food and water shortages worsen and the vast majority of re...

During the past year, Bay Area artists including Chicana songstress La Doña, homegrown rapper and producer Afterthought and Oakland indie singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney dropped new albums proving that our region remains a hotbed of musical talent. The genres and styles of music coming out of the Bay also reflect the diversity of thoughts and backgrounds of our region’s people. For this hour of...

Millions of Californians rely on CalFresh’s benefits to feed their families. But ever since emergency federal contributions to the program ended back in April, food banks across the state say they’re serving record numbers. One in five Californians is food insecure, according to a CalMatters report published in August, but getting accurate accounting presents its own challenges, as various ethnic...

Former U.S. housing secretary and presidential candidate Julian Castro joins us to talk about his new role as CEO of the San Francisco-based Latino Community Foundation. The foundation, which has raised more than $100 million in the last decade, is the largest statewide organization that supports Latino-centered programs. Castro has spent most of his career in Texas, including his tenure as mayor...

“Tumultuous” is how the New Yorker described the podcast industry this year. “Pretty rough” is how Vulture put it. Amid mass layoffs that forced many beloved shows to end, some have described 2023 as the year big money left podcasting. And yet, critics and fans seem to agree that the best podcasts of this year exemplify the medium — showcasing intimate storytelling that has something new to say ab...

Legendary Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz transversed the United States and Mexico for decades recording traditional roots music and unknown artists. The El Cerrito-based producer, who died last year, was known for his ear for music, but he also had an eye for capturing images. More than 150 of those photos documenting his travels and recording sessions are collected in a new book, “Arho...

Humanitarian conditions in Gaza have become increasingly desperate as Israeli forces intensified bombardments in the southern part of the region this week, now leaving most of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents displaced, thousands dead and electricity, food and water in short supply. Two months after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel, we take stock of the war that’s ensued, its devastating impact on civi...

When you get to the part of the ballot that asks you to vote for a local judge, have you ever thought, “am I qualified to make this decision?” While federal court trial and appellate judges are appointed and enjoy lifetime tenures, state court judges often have to run for election or re-election, and most voters have scant information on the candidates. In California, you can run to be a judge if...

Distinguishing facts from unreliable or false information online is difficult for many of us. And the confusion affects all age groups, political parties and demographics, according to Stanford Professor Sam Wineburg, who writes that “if the internet is the information superhighway, then none of us were given driver’s ed manuals.” Wineburg’s new book, co-authored by Mike Caulfield, plans to fill t...

Former president Trump has been saying very inflammatory things in public speeches and posts lately. He’s advocated violence, praised autocratic leaders and called his political opponents “vermin” that need to be “rooted out”. We’ll analyze Trump’s recent campaign rhetoric and discuss how the press and social media platforms are handling it all. We talk with experts about what we have learned from...

When was the last time you spent a weekend listening to a piece of music for hours on end? For gamers, that’s not an uncommon practice. Along with story, graphics, and gameplay, the music plays a vital role in the gaming experience, helping to immerse the player and provide clues on where the action is headed. But despite the sophistication of video game scores, their composers have not been appre...

Concord has joined a growing list of Bay Area cities testing guaranteed income programs. The East Bay city’s model will provide 120 families with $500 a month for a year. More than 20 similar pilot programs have sprung up in the Bay Area in the last few years after more state and local officials allocated money to fund them. That has made California a hotbed for guaranteed income experiments. Advo...

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, died on Friday. She was 93. A Ronald Reagan appointee who retired from the high court in 2006, O’Connor was known as a swing vote in contentious cases on abortion, religious liberty and affirmative action. She once wrote, “Rare indeed is the legal victory — in court or legislature — that is not a careful byproduct of an emerg...