KQED's Forum

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a literal visionary. Her groundbreaking work on ImageNet, a vast visual recognition database, helped propel artificial intelligence at a critical moment. As one of the key innovators and thinkers in AI, Li has argued for a human-centered artificial intelligence that augments people’s capabilities instead of displacing them. We talk to Li about her work, her vision for AI and her...

It might be the most unusual event of this campaign season: California Governor Gavin Newsom is set to face off Thursday night against Governor – and GOP presidential candidate – Ron DeSantis of Florida in a Fox News-sponsored debate. What will this clash of two rising political stars from two of the nation’s most populous states reveal about issues like abortion, immigration, homelessness and our...

Earlier this month, the FBI indicted a major local real estate developer for bribing three San Francisco officials to obtain permits and expedite inspections. This episode is just the latest in a series of corruption scandals that began in 2020 and brought down officials in the Department of Power and Water, the Department of Building Inspection, and the city’s public utilities commission, among o...

Beneath the surface of a coffee bean or a red pepper flake or a nutmeg seed — or any of the plants we rely on for medicine, food and drink — lie a “bevy of poisons,” writes UC Berkeley evolutionary biologist Noah Whiteman. But the chemical compounds that treat our infections, spice up our meals and calm our nerves didn’t evolve for our benefit. Instead, plants, fungi and even some small animals pr...

In the last several years, a cult industrial complex has emerged to capitalize on Americans’ fascination with groups such as Jonestown, the Manson Family, the Branch Davidians, and the Rajneeshpuram community in Wasco County, Ore., argues UC Berkeley professor Poulomi Saha. But in her highly sought-after class called Cults in Popular Culture, they emphasize that it’s important to look beyond the s...

California’s stray animals face a slew of challenges that might sound familiar to human residents of the state: a lack of affordable housing, prohibitive health care costs, and a shortage of service providers. Animal shelters that emptied during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic have since refilled, and placing those animals in homes can be a struggle. We speak with a veterinarian and two sh...

Thirty years ago, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands on the White House lawn and pledged to work together for peace. At that historic meeting, they signed what became known as the first Oslo Accord, ushering in an era of renewed optimism that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be resolved. Was its failure inevitable? Amid the tragedy of the cu...

Proposition 8 passed 15 years ago this month, banning same-gender marriage in California. Two couples — one lesbian, one gay — sued to overturn the proposition and succeeded, with gay marriage made legal in California in 2013. The trial was videotaped, but those tapes didn’t become public until last year. That inspired KQED reporters Scott Shafer and Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli to invite those two coupl...

With $1.6 billion in assets, the San Francisco Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the country. The organization is now in its 75th year of using philanthropy to try to improve the lives of residents across the Bay Area by funding nonprofit programs, pushing for policy change, and training leaders. Some of the foundation’s efforts include helping hotel workers win fair wages...

University of Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy loves games. He’s spent much of his career popularizing math — and for him, games are a way to “play mathematics.” But playing math might not be the first reason your nephew gives when you ask him why he loves video games, or your friend when she describes her undying love for “Risk”. There are elements of social psychology, from competition to c...

The New York Times has called Rick Prelinger “one of the great, undersung historians of 20th century cinema.” But the Bay Area-based archivist isn’t known for books on Chaplin or Bergman. Instead, Rick and partner Megan Prelinger collect the film history of everyday life: home movies, industrial films, studio outtakes and other works that would otherwise be lost or forgotten. The duo may be best k...

Americans are doing a lot more of their shopping online, and thanks to generous return policies we’re also sending back more of the stuff that doesn’t fit, doesn’t work or just doesn’t look like its JPG. Many of us even regularly buy clothes in multiple sizes and colors and simply send back anything that we don’t like the look of. But very little of what we return, from bathing suits to defective...

What do you notice out the window from your seat on BART, or Muni, or the Golden Gate Ferry? When you ride public transit, you’re free to look around, and looking around can tell you a lot about where you live. We talk about the breathtaking vistas and hidden histories revealed to us through the windows of public transit and how what we see – or don’t see – shapes our connection to the Bay Area. G...

Brown v Board of Education, the landmark civil rights decision banning racial segregation in public schools, was supposed to give Black children greater educational opportunities. But instead, according to Columbia Teachers College professor Bettina Love, it marked the beginning of an anti-Black educational agenda, characterized by low academic expectations, excessive suspensions, surveillance and...

In 2017 students at Albany High School in the East Bay became aware of a private instagram account created by a student, and followed by just over a dozen more, containing viciously racist posts about fellow classmates. The disputes about why it happened, how to hold the creator and the followers accountable, and what to do about the anger, shame and fear caused by the posts tore through the schoo...

Whether you’re a seasoned chef or first-time cook preparing a casual dinner with friends, Thanksgiving can be a stressful time in the kitchen. Many of us are frantically checking the internet for recipes, tips, and fresh ideas on what to eat on Thursday. New York Times Cooking is aware of the stakes — they know their recipes will end up on dinner tables across the country in a few days and have be...

San Francisco is a city of survivors. For all the talk of doom loops, the city has reinvented itself many times, and if it had an architectural mascot, it would be Ferry Building, argues San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King. In his new book “Portal,” King tells the story of the building that once saw 50 million ferry travelers annually and now serves as a popular destination for t...

People of all genders have rimmed their eyes with pigment for thousands of years. But as Zahra Hankir explains in her new book on the history of eyeliner, its use goes far beyond aesthetics. Eyeliner has also served as a vehicle for identity, self-expression, empowerment and protest. Bedouin men in the deserts of Arabia have worn it to repel the sun – and attract potential mates. Egyptian Queen Ne...

The astronomical price of housing is the root source of so many of the Bay Area’s most pressing problems and bitter battles. A problem so big begs for big ideas. In this show we explore a couple of novel approaches to spur the creation of affordable housing by fundamentally changing the way we think of land and property ownership. We’ll talk about the new popularity of an old idea – taxing the val...

Explore your inner Goth with Mina's interview with co-founder of The Cure Lol Tolhurst and dive into the Hyphy movement with Pendarvis Harshaw, host of KQED's podcast series Rightnowish Presents: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, Ohio voters approved Issue 1, a ballot measure to amend the state constitution to protect abortion access. The vote was the latest in a string of state-level victories for abortion rights supporters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. But in many states, women are now living with bans and restrictions that make abortions much harder to get since the Dobbs deci...

By the late 1980s, there were more than 200 lesbian bars in the U.S. Today, only a few dozen are still operating. In San Francisco, lesbians, queer women and nonbinary people are still mourning the Lexington Club — and some can remember a time when nearly every neighborhood in the city had a lesbian bar of its own. But can the decline of these places simply be chalked up to rising rents, dating ap...

Roman emperors have long provided a template for autocrats and a warning for politicians, according to acclaimed historian Mary Beard. But not all emperors were cruel, bloodthirsty and decadent. Beard’s new book “Emperor of Rome” looks at the daily practicalities of their lives, as they managed budgets and troop deployments, headed public banquets and responded to petitions from their subjects. It...

The latest season of KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America examines how Californians are grappling with the concept of home as climate change disrupts where and how people live. Extreme weather causing wildfires and flooding has already forced thousands of people from their homes. Obtaining insurance for a home has become a herculean feat for some owners. Even seemingly simple dec...

Since the NCAA’s decision to allow student athletes to participate in name, image and likeness deals, wealthy alumni across the country have been starting donor collectives to attract players. Many of these collectives were founded as non-profit organizations, allowing donors to claim tax write-offs, while the money gets passed on to the players. But recently, the IRS has called into question the...