KQED's Forum

After the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020 many Americans were at a breaking point, writes journalist and author Wesley Lowery, ready for a radical re-ordering – or at least a re-imagination – of policing. But as most painfully evident after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police last month, there has been no great reckoning, and in fact in many cases b...

The humble copy machine was meant to revolutionize office work. But when the Xerox 6500 color copier was introduced in 1973, its ability to print in saturated colors on plain paper jump started an avant garde Bay Area art movement. Copy machines offered artists a chance to play with color, form and image as copies were made of copies and the piece changed form. The copier also democratized art by...

When New York Times Magazine staff writer Susan Dominus began reporting her cover story on menopause, she was surprised by the number of women she met who had resigned themselves to a life of hot flashes, poor sleep, brain fog and depression, all of which are common symptoms of menopause. There was a near universal acceptance that this was their new reality. But in fact, there are medically accept...

In the United States, descendants of immigrants often lose their heritage languages. But now many of them, especially those with roots in Latin America, are working to reclaim Spanish, according to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times. The process can be fraught since many weren’t exposed to the language as children and struggle to learn it as adults. Some have been shamed for not being fluent...

More than 7,000 people are dead and countless more injured after earthquakes devastated communities in southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday. Rescue workers are still trying to free people from the rubble as cold weather sweeps the region, which lacks electricity and adequate food, water and medical supplies. The earthquakes compound a years-long humanitarian crisis underway in Syria, wrack...

The Bay Area’s trees are starting to bloom and it’s beautiful. Magnificent magnolia, plum and even, in some areas, cherry blossoms. With global warming, some plants have been leafing and blooming earlier. We’ll talk to experts on seasonal change and the local flora about the whys, hows and whens of blooms and what it all means for pollination, insects and birds. And we’ll want to hear from you. Wh...

Have you ever been told that if you lower your voice or avoid vocal fry or stop saying “like” so much you’ll sound more authoritative? It’s that kind of advice, no matter how well-intentioned, that speech coach Samara Bay wants us to stop heeding. Generations of Americans have associated power with the slow, booming speech of male politicians and news anchors, writes Bay in her new book “Permissio...

The recent mass shootings in Half Moon Bay put a spotlight on the decades long plight of farmworkers in California who often earn low wages and live in substandard housing. The shootings are only the latest in a particularly hard year for farmworkers. Severe storms damaged crops and livelihoods up and down the state as climate change continues to worsen conditions such as wildfires, extreme heat a...

The Colorado River, which supplies water to much of the western United States, continues to diminish under historic drought conditions. And California is under pressure to reduce the amount of water it takes. The agricultural industry in California’s Imperial Valley alone gets more water than Arizona and Nevada combined – but that’s because under law, those farmers have some of the Colorado River’...

Recently elected San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is now at the helm of the largest city in the Bay Area and the 10th largest city in the United States. San Jose faces a lack of affordable housing, struggling local businesses and resident concerns over public safety. Mahan said he plans to use a results-oriented and data-driven approach focused on getting back to basics. But time is not on the mayor’s si...

In 1954, the Comics Code Authority was formed to censor newsstand comic books by banning depictions of violence, negative portrayals of law enforcement and any mention of homosexuality. The ban created the flourishing world of so-called ‘underground comix,’ which approached banned items as a checklist and inspired a generation of LGBTQ cartoonists to draw themselves and their community on the page...

The Bay Area’s outsized contribution to hip-hop has often been overlooked. But this week KQED launched a yearlong project called That’s My Word, an exploration into the history and influence of Bay Area hip-hop. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the genre that started in New York and moved west. The Bay has played a crucial role as a haven for artists including Mac Dre, Keak Da Sneak, Kamaiy...

California is set to end its Covid-19 state of emergency on February 28. But the virus is still very much a part of our lives, driving ongoing concerns about emerging variants, long covid and the vulnerabilities of the immunocompromised. That’s what KQED’s Digital News team discovered when it asked its online audiences to share what they most wanted to know about Covid in 2023. We’ll answer those...

Nothing seems to unite people more than their hate for TicketMaster. At a recent Senate Judiciary committee hearing convened in response to the ticket selling debacle around Taylor Swift’s latest stadium tour, Republicans and Democrats alike castigated the company for its practices. Fans and artists complain that Live Nation Entertainment, the conglomerate created when Ticketmaster merged with Liv...

Internet culture has spawned a new offspring: “Nepo babies”... the children of celebrities who have joined the family business whether that be movies, modeling, music, or sports. But nepotism isn’t limited to celebrities. We see it in small businesses, in college admissions, and political families like the Kennedys, Bushes, and Trumps. Nepotism has been around forever, but lately it seems to be bu...

A couple of years ago, penned in by the pandemic, writer Peggy Orenstein “felt an inexplicable, unquenchable urge to confront a large animal while wielding a razor-sharp, juddering clipper; shear off its fleece; and figure out how to make it into a sweater.” Her new memoir, “Unraveling,” tells the story of that journey – from shearing a sheep named Martha and spinning and dyeing her wool, to desig...

California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation: it bans assault-type weapons and high-capacity magazines, mandates background checks and waiting periods for firearm purchases and empowers citizens to ask a court to temporarily remove a gun from someone likely to harm themselves or others. Its firearm violence death rate is also significantly lower than the rest of the country'...

Dungeness crab season is a big deal in the bay area. Whether caught from a boat or off a pier, served with crusty bread and butter or over garlic noodles, it seems like everyone has a favorite dungeness crab dish and story. As part of our regular All You Can Eat series, featuring food cultures of the Bay Area, we’ll talk with people who catch, cook and love crabs about the grip the iconic crustace...

Los Angeles Congressmember Adam Schiff announced Thursday that he’s running to be California’s next Senator in 2024, joining Orange County Representative Katie Porter and setting up a rare battle for Dianne Feinstein’s seat. Feinstein, who has served as Senator since 1992, has yet to announce whether she’ll run for re-election. We’ll talk about what the race signals for the Democratic party, who e...

Major Bay Area employers including Salesforce, Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet and Facebook parent company Meta have all cut thousands of workers in the last few months. The headlines are startling, but economists say the job market remains in relatively good shape. Unemployment in California hovers near 4 percent down from 16 percent in April 2020, and many industries are still experiencin...

As a girl growing up in Canyon Country, California, Lauren Fleshman could run fast. Really fast. As a high school student and recruited athlete at Stanford, Fleshman won races, set records, and her talent allowed her to go pro. But throughout her career, Fleshman saw many teammates leave the sport or develop physical or mental health problems. So little was known then, and even now, about how youn...

The buoyant protagonist of San Francisco writer Kathryn Ma’s new novel, The Chinese Groove, migrates from China, where he’s part of the outcast branch of his family, to San Francisco, where he is sure his distant relatives will welcome and nurture him and shepherd him along his path. Forum talks to Ma about the comedy of errors that follow, San Francisco through a new immigrant’s eyes and her char...

Aviation is responsible for over two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and for technological reasons it’s one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. But California – an early adopter of sustainable aviation fuel and home to 12 international airports – is positioned to guide the nation toward greener air travel, according to UC Berkeley climate and energy expert Ethan Elkind. As pa...

In her first weeks in office, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has placed the police chief on administrative leave, dealt with a mass shooting and coped with the departure of the city’s homelessness czar. The problems facing Oakland, like other cities in the state, are not for the faint-hearted. Thao, the youngest person to serve as mayor of Oakland, ran on her credentials and her compelling life story as...

Described as “a love letter to Korean pop sensation BTS and an ode to fandom,” the new book "On BTS” by Atlantic senior editor Lenika Cruz compiles and expands upon Cruz’s coverage of the band for the Atlantic since 2019. “To cover BTS seriously over time is to engage with many complex issues and phenomena,” she writes, “fandom, authenticity, social media, and taste, as well as artistic ownership,...