KQED's Forum - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Oakland Recalled Its Mayor. Now What? Nov 13, 2024

Show notes

More than 60% of Oakland voters chose to recall mayor Sheng Thao last week, making her the first mayor to be recalled in the city’s history. Soon after the election is certified in December, Oakland will have four months to throw a special election for a new mayor. We’ll talk about what’s next for the city in the meantime. And we’ll check in with Oaklanders invested in the people, culture and functioning of the city about their hopes for the future of Oakland and what they’ll most be looking for from a new mayor. We want to hear from our Oakland listeners. Now that the old order has been tossed out, what do you want from a new one?

Guests:

Alex Hall, enterprise and accountability reporter, KQED

Liam O'Donoghue, host and producer, East Bay Yesterday

Nigel Jones, restaurateur, Calabash - an Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican restaurant, market and bar. Owned Kingston 11, which has now closed.

Noni Session, executive director and co-founder, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative

Dorothy Lazard, author, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World - Former Head Librarian of the Oakland History Center

Allison Brooks, executive director, Bay Area Regional Collaborative

Janet Heller, executive director, Chapter 510

Angela Glover Blackwell, founder in residence, PolicyLink, an Oakland- based non-profit dedicated to advancing economic and social equity.

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Finding Awe and Inspiration in the Natural World's ‘Vanishing Treasures’ Nov 12, 2024

Show notes

“The time to fight, with all our ingenuity and tenacity, and love and fury, is now.” That sounds like a rallying cry for democrats after their profound election defeat last week. But it’s in fact an environmental call to action from Katherine Rundell, whose new book “Vanishing Treasures” celebrates some of the earth’s most imperiled and unusual creatures. We’ll talk to Rundell about wombats that carry their young in upside-down pouches and excrete cube-shaped poop; the American wood frog that freezes itself solid to get through winter; the golden mole that’s evolved to be iridescent. What extraordinary creatures would you like to pay tribute to?

Guests:

Katherine Rundell, author, "Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures", Her previous books include "Impossible Creatures" and "Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Aren't So Old and Wise"

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The Future of Trans Rights in a Trump Presidency Nov 12, 2024

Show notes

Transgender kids and their families have become a frequent target of president-elect Donald Trump and other conservative politicians. While the Bay Area and California have some of the strongest protections for trans people, federal policies could pose major challenges here. We’ll talk about the future of trans rights, whether access to gender-affirming care will remain possible, and what could happen during a second Trump administration.

Guests:

Honey Mahogany, Director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives, City of San Francisco - former chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party and cofounder of the Transgender District in the Tenderloin

Tom Temprano, managing director of external affairs, Equality California, an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy organization

Kate Redburn, academic fellow, lecturer and co-director, The Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School

Nadine Pourier Blumenshine, vice president, PFLAG Fresno, a nonprofit organization of LGBTQ+ people, parents, families, and allies focused on creating an equitable and inclusive world

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What Trump 2.0 Means for Silicon Valley Nov 11, 2024

Show notes

Donald Trump had a rocky relationship with Silicon Valley during his 2016 presidential campaign, and he clashed with Big Tech during his first term. This time around, he had the support of some high profile tech leaders, including Elon Musk. Dramatic changes have also come to Silicon Valley, which has been shaken up by the emergence of artificial intelligence. While there is growing concern over AI’s potential impact on society, Trump is expected to take a hands-off approach to regulation. The same might be true with antitrust enforcement against tech companies, which the Biden administration has prioritized. We’ll look at how Trump’s second term is likely to impact the tech industry from AI to social media to cryptocurrency.

Guests:

Elizabeth Dwoskin, Silicon Valley correspondent, The Washington Post

Kelsey Piper, senior writer, Vox's Future Perfect newsletter

Jeremy Owens, technology editor and San Francisco bureau chief, MarketWatch

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What the Trump Administration Could Mean for Our Climate Nov 11, 2024

Show notes

Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax”, opined that sea level rise caused by melting glaciers “could create more oceanfront property,” and has said “nuclear warming” is just as concerning as a hotter planet. During his first administration, Trump made a point of dismantling Obama-era climate rules, and in his second, he has vowed to double down on production of fossil fuels. We talk to experts about what climate efforts may look like during a Trump Administration, and how California will respond.

Guests:

Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; host of the podcast, Climate Break

Lisa Friedman, reporter on the climate desk, New York Times

Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor, engineering, Princeton University

Aru Shiney-Ajay, Executive Director, Sunrise movement, a grassroots organization of students and young people focused on climate change

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How Trump Made Huge Gains Among Latino Voters Nov 08, 2024

Show notes

Political strategist Mike Madrid says that democrats are in for a “long overdue reckoning” following an election where Trump support among self-identifying Hispanic voters was up some 14 percentage points compared to 2020, according to an Edison Research exit poll. We talk to Madrid about why he says the democratic party is less ethnically diverse than it was and what it needs to do to regain working class and Latino voters.

Guests:

Mike Madrid, political strategist, his new book is "The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy" ; co-founder, The Lincoln Project

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Speaking Blue State to Red, Red to Blue: A Conversation with Florida Nov 08, 2024

Show notes

On the face of it, California and Florida – the homestates of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – are polar opposites. The divisions between the states came to symbolize the nation’s red/blue divide in the starkly different responses to the pandemic and the rivalry between their ambitious and politically powerful governors. But we also share a lot of the same concerns, including a housing affordability crisis and disasters caused by extreme weather. In this hour we team up with South Florida public radio station WLRN for a post-election conversation about where the country is headed and what unites and divides us.

Guests:

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED; co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown

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What Will a Second Trump Presidency Mean for California? Nov 07, 2024

Show notes

Donald Trump has long had it in for California. He’s threatened to withhold federal aid for wildfire recovery, tried to revoke the state’s Clean Air Act waiver and referred to Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff as examples of the “enemy from within.” Now that Trump has secured another term, California officials are preparing for what CalMatters reporter Alexei Koseff calls the “return of the resistance state.” How would you like California to respond to a second Trump Administration?

Guests:

Melanie Mason, senior political correspondent, Politico

Alexei Koseff, reporter, CalMatters

Eleni Kounalakis, lieutenant governor for the state of California, chairs the California Advisory Council for International Trade and Investment

Anita Chabria, columnist, Los Angeles Times

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Making Sense of the Election with James Fallows Nov 07, 2024

Show notes

In a recent post on Substack, writer and longtime political observer James Fallows wrote, “By the standards of any presidential race in modern times, Kamala Harris ran a very ‘good’ campaign… By those same standards, Trump ran a very bad campaign… And none of it mattered.” So, what did matter on election day? And, how does the Bay Area make sense of an election where the country voted overwhelmingly against one of our region’s most prominent politicians, Kamala Harris? Fallows joins Forum to help us understand what happened in the election and to discuss his recent Wired article, “After the Election, California (Yes, That Hellscape) Will Keep Moving the World Forward No Matter What.”

Guests:

James Fallows, journalist; former national correspondent for The Atlantic and author of the newsletter Breaking the News. His new article in Wired titled “After the Election, California (Yes, That Hellscape) Will Keep Moving the World Forward No Matter What.”

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Election 2024: How California and the Nation Voted Nov 06, 2024

Show notes

On the day after the election, we’ll bring you the latest results in the presidential race and the battle for Congress as well as key California contests and ballot measures. Politics reporters Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos of KQED and Andrew Prokop of Vox join us to analyze what we know so far, and where votes are still being tallied.

Guests:

Scott Shafer, senior editor, KQED’s California Politics and Government; co-host, Political Breakdown

Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED - co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown

Andrew Prokop, senior politics reporter, Vox

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