KQED's Forum

President Trump promised that new tax provisions in his One Big Beautiful Bill would deliver a windfall to millions of Americans. No more taxes on overtime. No taxes on tips. No taxes on  Social Security payments. While many taxpayers are seeing larger tax refunds this year, the fine print behind Trump’s promises means these tax breaks have been smaller than many expected. We look at the impact of...

NPR’s “Planet Money” has spent years answering economic questions big and small on its flagship podcast and the daily show “The Indicator,” and now the team is out with a new book: “Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life.” The book tackles questions like whether you should rent or buy a home, why the stock market keeps climbing, and why products like TV and clothes get c...

Books have long transported us to other worlds and lives. But in the American publishing market only a small fraction of books are works in translation –literature from around the world that has been  translated for an English-language audience. Now, the non-profit Center for the Art of Translation is opening a bookstore and cultural center in downtown San Francisco dedicated to bringing translate...

Thirty years ago, journalist Amy Goodman premiered the daily radio show Democracy Now. Launched on nine community radio stations in 1996, the program now broadcasts on over 1,400 television and radio stations worldwide. Along the way, Goodman and Democracy Now provided groundbreaking coverage of the Standing Rock protests, Chevron’s alleged corruption in Nigeria and illnesses linked to toxins afte...

For decades, the top political issue for many U.S. Catholics has been abortion. But, a recent article in “The Atlantic” argues that the focus has shifted to opposing the Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies and enforcement. Pope Leo, the first American to head the Catholic Church, has criticized and rebuffed Trump’s policies, statements and acts of war as contrary to church teaching a...

The fight over data centers is intensifying in California and nationwide as organizers develop new strategies to take on tech companies and developers. While an Imperial Valley site is moving forward despite community backlash, Monterey Park will vote this June on whether to ban all data center development in the city — one of multiple data center referendums on ballots across the U.S. this year....

In the year 2000, four pre-teen girls in Santa Rosa — three 11-year-olds, and one 9-year-old little sister — wrote and recorded an album inspired by the Spice Girls, Destiny’s Child and Fiona Apple, and even filmed music videos for the album. Then, their band X-Cetra disbanded as the elder members entered junior high and found the entire project — to use the slang of today’s kids — cringe. Decades...

Last winter, ICE ramped up immigration enforcement in several American cities. It was a strategy that shifted focus from the US Mexico border to the streets of American cities. That led to a spike in the detention of families and children, most notably the arrest of  5-year-old Liam Ramos in Minneapolis. According to the Marshall  Project, more than 6,000 children have been held so far during Trum...

Today, Apple is a $3.5 trillion company with over 150,000 employees worldwide. Fifty years ago, it was two Steves – Jobs and Wozniak – working out of a Los Gatos garage. (All great Silicon Valley origin stories seem to include a garage.) Since its inception, Apple has not only introduced culture shifting technology like the Macintosh computer and iPhone, it has also influenced how we live here in...

President Trump backed down from his social media threat that “a whole civilization will die” after Pakistan helped broker a ceasefire deal with Iran. But the United States is likely to remain isolated from its allies as many look for economic and diplomatic solutions to the conflict that do not involve America. We talk about the latest developments in the war and the consequences of America’s gro...

High level talks between Cuba and the U.S. are ongoing as the Trump administration’s four-month oil blockade of the island nation continues. Trump has said he wants a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, but it’s unclear what the U.S. stands to gain or what kind of government could come to power if the current administration leaves. While the U.S. has had an embargo against Cuba since 1960, the recent blo...

California’s jam-packed governor’s primary may lead to a historic political shakeup this fall. Polls show the two leading Republicans, Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco and political commentator Steve Hilton, could consolidate enough support to lock Democrats out of the November general election. That leaves the crowded field of Democrats — which includes Rep. Eric Swalwell, former congresswoma...

A 2015 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that “most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences.” In her new book “The Elusive Body: Patients Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis,” journalist Alexandra Sifferlin looks into what has been done in the decade since that report to improve the a...

Los Angeles was once defined by smog that for decades choked the city with toxic haze. It obscured surrounding mountains and exposed people – especially children – to dangerous levels of lead, carbon monoxide and other pollutants. But by the early 2000s, thanks to steady public pressure and government reforms, the region’s air transformed. We talk to UCLA’s Ann Carlson about what L.A. can teach us...

It is a tough time to be a farmer. President Trump’s tariffs last year raised many of the costs of farming and shrunk food exports. Threats of immigration raids have caused major labor shortages. And now, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the price of diesel and fertilizer skyrocketing. We talk about the new pressures on an already stressed agriculture industry in California, how farmer...

Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn has spent years studying some of the psychological challenges facing men in the United States. These include feelings of loneliness, depression and anxiety, sometimes violence and often a sense that this economy isn’t for them. His book “American Men” delves into the lives of four men: a West Point grad, a Black trans man in rural Ohio, a white law student recovering...

“We go for all humanity,” remarked Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, moments before the rocket taking him and his crew to the moon launched on Wednesday. It’s the first moon mission since 1972.  But the astronauts will not land on the moon. Instead, over the next 10 days,  the crew will study the science that’s necessary to get to the ultimate goal: A moonbase that can sustain human life and act...

President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that aims to place federal restrictions on voting by mail ahead of this fall’s midterm elections. It comes as Congress considers legislation that could dramatically change voting in the U.S. and the Supreme Court appears ready to back additional vote-by-mail limits. We talk with elections experts about potential challenges to the new executive o...

After a decade of Vision Zero, the effort that aimed to end traffic fatalities and severe injuries, San Francisco saw a drastic decrease in 2025 traffic deaths. To replace the expiring initiative, the city passed the Street Safety Act. However, a spate of recent traffic fatalities in San Francisco has residents on edge, and as pedestrians made up six of the seven victims, some activists say the ci...

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said this weekend that Democrats have “failed to meet this moment” and that his party needed “generational renewal.” The comments come a year after the Democrat set a Senate record, holding the floor for 25 hours and five minutes as he offered thundering criticism of the Trump administration. Now, in his new book, ‘Stand,’ Booker urges the country to rise to this mom...

National Geographic Explorer and documentary filmmaker Ariel Waldman challenges our sense of scale in her new PBS series “Life Unearthed” which explores Earth’s ecosystems– from microscopic life in the alien terrains of Antarctica to the sweeping American Prairies. We talk with Waldman about the series and what life in the seemingly barren environments of Antarctica reveal about resilient creature...

Is emphasizing the cold, hard facts of climate change – the acres lost to sea level rise, the percentage increase of global warming – actually the right approach for getting people to act? “If we want climate progress in energy, transportation and agriculture, we need progress in pop culture, media and sports,” writes longtime energy and climate reporter Sammy Roth. Roth and climate media advocate...

Education funding for California’s public schools is one of the largest parts of the state budget. Yet districts across the state, and here in the Bay Area, are struggling to stay afloat. Santa Rosa’s school district is considering laying off hundreds of teachers and closing a quarter of its campuses in response to a severe financial crisis and Oakland schools, just a year after emerging from more...

A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark case about social media addiction. Lawyers suing the tech giants argued that features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations increased the risk of anxiety and depression in young users. We’ll look at the history of the case, and hear how it could mark a new strategy for advocates trying to reform major social media com...

As the war in Iran continues into its fifth week, the Pentagon is contemplating sending an additional 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East. This escalation would add to the roughly 5,000 Marines and at least 2,000 paratroopers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division that have already been ordered to the region. Meanwhile, President Trump has pressed pause on his threat to strike Iranian energy in...