KQED's Forum

Three out of four of the planet’s known animal species are insects, and their populations are crashing as a result of climate change, habitat loss, pesticides and pollution. And the ecosystem-wide effects of all of these losses could be deadly for humanity: globally, one-third of our food is pollinated by bees, flies, butterflies, moths and beetles. We’ll talk with Oliver Milman about his new book...

China has refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, despite requests from Western nations, and it has criticized sanctions against Russia. “China-Russia cooperation has no limits,” a Chinese government spokesman said Wednesday as Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov visited China for the first time since the Ukraine War began. What will that cooperation look like as the war continues?...

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered cities, water districts and other agencies to tighten their conservation rules, as the state comes to grips with the realities of a drier-than-needed winter rainy season. “While we have made historic investments to protect our communities, economy and ecosystems from the worsening drought across the West, it is clear we need to do more,” Gov. Newsom said. “Today...

Paso Robles is a small wine country town between the Pacific coast and the Central Valley – it’s a multicultural town, too, but many residents of color there feel invisible. That’s according to Los Angeles Times reporter Tyrone Beason who features Paso Robles in the latest installment of his ongoing “My Country” series, which explores the things that bind us and tries to make sense of the things t...

From his time with the Merry Pranksters to his influence on Steve Jobs to his utopian “Whole Earth Catalog,” Stewart Brand epitomizes the Bay Area counterculture visionary. Brand has “an eerie knack for showing up first at the onset of some social movement or technological inflection point and then moving on just when everyone else catches up,” writes technology reporter John Markoff. Forum talks...

Drivers in California paid an average of $5.93 per gallon of regular gas on Monday  — about $1.50 more than the national average. Gas prices rose nationwide following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but while they’ve leveled off in other states, California’s are still rising. To lessen the impact, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a gas rebate last week that would provide between $400 and $800 to Californi...

In the early 1970s, Dave Goelz was an industrial designer working for Hewlett-Packard by day and obsessing over the puppets on Sesame Street in his spare time. Fifty years later, Goelz still has the dream job he left Silicon Valley to pursue. He’s the Muppet performer bringing life to Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Waldolf, Zoot and others. We’ll talk about the creative alchemy of Jim Henson’s Muppet...

Reyna Grande’s new novel, “A Ballad of Love and Glory,” tells the story of the San Patricios, a battalion of Irish soldiers who fought for Mexico during the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848. The book explores the brutality and contradictions of war while bringing to life the stories of John Riley, the leader of the San Patricios, and Ximena, a woman displaced by the war who becomes an army...

In response to the mounting humanitarian crisis brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration on Thursday announced that it would allow 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the United States. Meanwhile, immigration advocates are intensifying their calls on U.S. officials to end Title 42, a Trump-era public health rule that has been used to expel tens of thousands of migrants at t...

During the pandemic, not only did children aged 8 to 18 spend more time on their screens, those under 13 who are technically barred by age limits from platforms, are increasingly gravitating to social media. The new study by Common Sense Media looked at what kids like to do on their screens – spoiler alert: watch videos – and reports that kids on average spend one and a half hours a day on social...

The 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, and event boosters hope that a cast of three female comedic hosts, including Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall, and a reworked format will reinvigorate the award show's flagging popularity. We’ll talk about the nominations – both the critical favorites and the sleepers – and hear your picks for best films and performances. Lear...

Journalist Dave Iverson says that there were a lot of things he didn’t know when he made the decision to move in with his 95-year old mother Adelaide in 2004 to take care of her. “I didn’t know that I would be tested in ways I’d never imagined,” he writes in his new memoir, “or rewarded in ways I’d never dreamed.” He also had no idea that Adelaide would live nearly 10 years more, before passing aw...

The maternal mortality rate for Black mothers is nearly three times that of white mothers nationwide. These numbers are leading many African-American families to seek the services of doulas, care which has been shown to improve birth outcomes. To mark World Doula Week, we’ll talk with Black doulas about their work, the costs of racism in American healthcare, and about why some are wary of the stat...

During her three days of Senate confirmation hearings this week, Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has fielded a range of questions about her judicial philosophy, her experience as a public defender and what some observers say are not-so-subtle racist attempts to cast her as a radical. If confirmed, Judge Jackson would be the first Black woman to sit on the high court. We’ll talk a...

Russia and Ukraine supply nearly one-quarter of the world’s wheat which feeds billions of people around the world. The war in Ukraine has not only cut off supply to wheat and other important exports like sunflower oil, barley and fertilizer, it has also raised the price of those products. Wheat prices are now 21% higher than last month. For regions like the Middle East and Africa, which rely on Uk...

Confirmation hearings begin on Monday for President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The first Black woman to be nominated to the high court, Jackson is expected to face questions about her judicial philosophy and her views on issues facing the Court including abortion, voting rights and affirmative action. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has sta...

Cow cheese. Goat cheese. Vegan cheese? From dairy farming and cheesemaking to tours and tastings, there are a world of old traditions and new family businesses making Northern California one of the most magical cheese-scapes on earth. In this recording of a recent Forum Live event at KQED's San Francisco headquarters, we talk about some of California's yummiest cheeses with the people who know the...

Sandhya Acharya has a window into the COVID-era lives of her child and his classmates through their art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From closed schools to missed moments like graduation or visiting with family, children have borne an unusually heavy burden during the pandemic. Children were among the last to get vaccinated. They were unable to go to school in person. They have lost caregivers and loved ones. On the educational front, studies report that across the country, early reading skills are at a new low. And kids of all...

The Bay Area heads to the Big Dance! The University of San Francisco men’s basketball team makes its first NCAA tournament appearance in 24 years. Saint Mary’s College men’s team is in the mix too, following up on its 2019 bid. And on the women’s side, Stanford University's team will seek to defend its title as the reigning NCAA champions. We’ll talk to former Stanford basketball star Kiana Willia...

Last week, a Texas judge temporarily blocked a directive from Governor Greg Abbott calling for child abuse investigations of parents who seek gender-affirming medical care for their transgender children. But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton plans to appeal, and more states are considering similar laws: Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender i...

Writer Azar Nafisi says totalitarian regimes pay “too much attention to poets and writers, harassing, jailing and even killing them,” but in America the problem is too little attention, silencing them through “indifference and negligence.” Nafisi’s new book, “Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times,” is written as a series of letters to her late father discussing the...

Gov. Gavin Newsom has introduced a new policy framework to provide community-based mental health and substance use disorder treatment services to Californians, many of whom are experiencing homelessness. The proposal calls for a statewide network of CARE (Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment) Courts to serve as a mental health arm of county civil courts and create court-ordered care plan...

Silicon Valley employs a lot of highly skilled Ukrainian tech workers. As Ukrainians globally pitch in to resist Russia’s advance, tech workers are banding together to use their skills for Ukrainian resistance and aid. We’ll check in with tech workers in the Bay Area and Ukraine who are fighting Russian propaganda and cyber efforts, handling logistics to marshal supplies and move refugees and carr...

According to a new Wall Street Journal report, the Russian government has threatened that it will seize assets of companies that withdraw from Russia and also arrest corporate leaders who criticize the government. Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Proctor & Gamble, IBM and Kentucky Fried Chicken are among the corporations that have been warned. This move by the government comes after a spate of Western compa...