KQED's Forum

Plastics are everywhere, but L.A. Times environment reporter Susanne Rust thought she was doing a pretty good job avoiding them. That was until she spent a week recording her daily plastic interactions. She found plastics in her phone. Her car. Her swimming equipment. There was almost nothing that Rust encountered that didn’t have plastic in it. Not all the applications of plastic were negative –...

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...

There are only eight bear species remaining on the planet — six of which are endangered. Environmental journalist Gloria Dickie, author of the new book “Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future,” set out to profile all eight while questioning how humans’ complex relationship with bears has and continues to inform our interactions with them. “Charismatic and unloved alike, these eight bears ar...

In July, members of the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin purchased 26 acres of land, part of what was once the tribe’s territory. The fundraising effort to buy the plot, priced at $1.3 million, is just the latest successful Land Back campaign in California, a movement to return stolen land to indigenous control. The deal signaled a momentous return for a community displaced from their land over...

The deep sea is nature’s motherboard, according to author and aquatic explorer Susan Casey. It absorbs heat, buffers excess carbon, drives our climate and regulates the earth’s geochemistry. It’s also home to mountains taller than the Swiss Alps and populated by a cast of “marvelous weirdos:” creatures that have two mouths or three hearts, or transparent heads or eyes in the middle of their backs....

Antioch and Pittsburg police officers were arrested Thursday morning in a series of FBI raids, after an 18-month investigation into an alleged criminal network. 10 law enforcement personnel were named across four indictments on charges including civil rights violations, falsification of records and wire fraud. The Antioch Police department has also been the subject of a civil rights investigation...

You wouldn’t think that the month in which you’re born has much to do with your medical outcomes. In fact, kids who have summer birthdays are more likely to get the flu than kids born later in the year, and kids diagnosed with ADHD and born in August are prescribed an average of 120 more days of medication than kids born in September. These anomalies are just some of the many hidden forces that “c...

Public schools across California are rolling out new state math guidelines after years of development, revision, and controversy. State education leaders approved the guidelines this summer and say the framework focuses on instilling “big ideas” in students beyond basic math skills. The new framework aims to improve math test scores at a time when only about a third of students meet state proficie...

California has not been spared from the national teacher shortage. The state Department of Education reported more than 10,000 teacher vacancies during the 2021-2022 school year, and Los Angeles Unified School District has 450 teacher openings for this new school year. But shortages are particularly acute in rural communities: Alturas Elementary School, in northern California’s Modoc County, is mi...

Artificial intelligence is being put to work across various fields in the hopes that it can solve some of our most pressing problems. Among them: a growing demand for mental health services and a shortage of providers. Researchers say the technology has the potential to vastly improve patient access, lighten therapist workloads and combat disparities in quality of care but warn of the risks of dep...

To ease crushing urban traffic, London, Stockholm and Singapore all use congestion pricing, charging drivers to use busy roads in city centers or in certain zones at particular times of day. Congestion pricing has yet to be adopted in any U.S. city, but Los Angeles is taking a hard look at the concept. LA Metro will soon release a study examining which parts of the city could benefit most from con...

Women start roughly two out of five businesses in America, but have mostly been shut out of the venture capital ecosphere. Companies funded solely by women snapped up just 2.1 percent of venture capital funding in the United States in 2022. According to research firm Pitchbook, the percentage hasn’t budged much in the past 15 years despite women creating more startups, incubators and venture funds...

“Mourning her absence was breathtaking in a literal sense; it took the wind out of me,” writes Sara Bader about the grief she felt with the death of her best friend. She was not talking about a person; she was writing about her cat, Snowflake, a constant and faithful companion. Pets are like our family, so when one dies the loss can feel immeasurable. But often, society places little value on that...

A group of scientists is racing to sequence genes from every plant, animal, and fungus on Earth for a global database of DNA. The organizers of the global Earth BioGenome Project call it a ‘moonshot for biology’ which would provide a treasure trove of information on evolutionary biology, the development of medicines, the conservation of species and more. We talk with scientists about their race ag...

At least 53 people are dead after wildfires whipped through neighborhoods in Maui, destroying the historic town of Lahaina and prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents and visitors. As of Thursday thousands of people were without power and cell service. We talk about the situation on the ground, what it will take to rebuild and how to help those affected. Guests: Marcel Honore, staff wri...

Starting in 2020, the newsletter Blackbird Spy Plane has served readers what’s billed as “unbeatable recon” on style and culture. Journalist Jonah Weiner and design scout Erin Wylie have amassed a cult following for their takes on everything from why you should “Tuck All Tops” to what “Democratizing” fashion really means. The duo provides recommendations on apparel, housewares and even art that ce...

More than 82 million Americans listen to AM radio monthly, and most do so in their cars, according to recent Nielsen data. But many automakers have been phasing out the AM band in electric vehicles, citing interference with the cars’ batteries. That’s sparked bipartisan pushback, as AM radio is both dominated by conservative talk shows and home to non-English-language and local content that can’t...

For many of us, the internet has two faces. It can be a place where we’re bombarded by disinformation and polarized viewpoints, subjected to rage and frustration. But it can also be where people with different interests, ideas, and life experiences come together to find common ground. Share jokes. Build things together. This hopeful version of the internet is the focus of a new digital community t...

Last year, UCLA and USC announced their coming departure from the historic college sports conference of the West Coast: the Pac-12. Last week, the Pac-12 further disintegrated, with Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah all announcing that they are moving to other conferences. TV money drove this consolidation, and it has left Cal and Stanford fans, alumni and athletes wond...

Berkeley landmark coffee shop and diner Au Coquelet closed recently, joining other iconic East Bay cafe closures, including Berkeley’s iconic Caffe Mediterraneum. In a somber comic remembering coffee shops we’ve lost, graphic novelist Briana Loewinsohn reminisces that, “[w]hat I covet most are the big, spacious cafes where you could sit for hours and work or do nothing — or a little of both.” In t...

Public pools serve as community gathering spaces, havens from the heat and safe and affordable places for people to learn to swim. But public pools in the United States have become increasingly rare over the past century. That’s limited the ability of people of color and those without access to country clubs or backyard pools to learn safely. And it may also be one reason why only 56% of U.S. resi...

The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 90s had a devastating and lasting effect on black communities and the criminal justice system. But Donovan X Ramsey writes that those who survived the era will hardly ever talk about it and when they do it’s, “like a trauma long accepted in hushed voices, with thousand yard stares.” In his book, When Crack Was King, Ramsey is on a quest to understand the crack e...

“It is remarkable,” writes the Atlantic’s Jennifer Senior, “how many Americans have relations who were, at some point during the past century, sequestered from public view… warehoused, disappeared, roughly shorn from the family tree.” Senior’s aunt Adele was institutionalized as a toddler in the 1950s, and it wasn’t until 40 years later that Senior’s mother — Adele’s sister — saw her again. We tal...

A perfect recipe of summer weather, climate-warmed waters and excess nutrient pollution has brought the red tide back to the San Francisco Bay shoreline. The same algae bloom that caused a massive fish die-off in Oakland’s Lake Merritt last summer has appeared again, stretching from Emeryville to Richardson Bay. Is this our new normal? We’ll talk with experts about the algae that’s taking over the...

Democrat Barbara Lee has represented Oakland and the East Bay in Congress since 1998, and she’s now running to replace U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is not seeking another term. Well known as the sole member of Congress to vote against giving the president unlimited war powers after 9/11, Lee is co-chair of the House Policy and Steering Committee and serves on the Budget Committee and the App...