KQED's Forum - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Israel-Gaza Fallout Sparks Fears of Wider Middle East War Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

The U.S. expanded its bombing campaign of Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen this week, as the group continues to attack ships in the Red Sea. But Yemen is just one of the Middle East flashpoints raising concerns about a wider conflict in the region spreading from the Israel-Gaza war. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah at the Israel-Lebanon border is also ramping up. Meanwhile, violence has spilled over into Iraq, Iran and Syria. We’ll talk with two Middle East experts about the risks of a broader war in the region, the role the U.S is playing in the conflicts and prospects for peace.

Guests:

Robin Wright, joint fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; contributing writer, the New Yorker; author, "How Ten Middle East Conflicts Are Converging Into One Big War"

Firas Maksad, senior fellow, Middle East Institute; adjunct professor, the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California's US Senate Candidates Meet On Stage in Los Angeles Debate Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

The top four candidates for Dianne Feinstein’s senate seat face off in a televised debate on Monday evening. Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee and Republican Steve Garvey will take on topics such as homelessness and housing, criminal justice, immigration and U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas. How will Lee and Porter take on the front runner Schiff? Or does Garvey have a chance at flipping the seat? We’ll recap the debate and hear your reactions.

Guests:

Melanie Mason, senior political correspondent, Politico; host of Monday's debate

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

Yue Stella Yu, politics reporter, CalMatters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could Prefab Modular Housing Finally Take Off in the Bay Area? Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

Building homes in factories can save money and time – so why has prefabricated housing struggled to gain traction in the U.S.? Scandinavian countries use it for more than 40% of their housing production, whereas in the U.S. it’s less than 4%, according to a 2023 report from consulting firm McKinsey. The Bay Area has produced some big winners and losers in the prefab space. In the past decade alone, several startups launched amid fanfare only to shutter and fail to deliver housing at scale. But, other developers and manufacturers are making a dent in the housing market. Vallejo-based Factory OS has delivered close to 3,000 homes in the last five years and can now build up to 1,000 units per year. We’ll talk about why prefabricated housing remains a promising, but challenging piece of the housing production pie.

Guests:

Nick Gomez, principal; director of modular design and construction, AO Architects

Rick Holliday, co-founder, Holliday Development and Factory OS; co-founder, Eden Housing; co-founder, BRIDGE Housing

Dave Dauphinais, associate partner, McKinsey & Co.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethical Non-Monogamy Veers (Slightly) Toward the Mainstream Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

“Ethical non-monogamy isn’t new… and it isn’t exactly mainstream, but it isn’t so fringe either (or reserved for those who live in the Bay Area).” That’s according to New York Magazine, which released a cover issue on polyamory this month. Those who regularly date or love multiple people at once say it’s liberating and fosters intimacy and connection. But even its most passionate advocates say polyamory can be emotionally and logistically exhausting, requiring extensive and frequent communication among partners. And the relationship style can carry stigma — prompting complicated decisions about whether and how to talk to friends, family or coworkers about it. We’ll talk about polyamory and its increasing prevalence in popular culture and dating apps, and hear your experiences.

Guests:

Allison P. Davis, features writer, New York Magazine. Her reported story, "What Does a Polycule Actually Look Like?" anchors New York Magazine's cover story, "A Practical Guide to Modern Polyamory"

Christopher Gleason, author, “American Poly: A History”; academic director, Georgia Coalition for Higher Education in Prison; part-time Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University

Josephine Chiang, film and TV actor based in NYC

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Social Media Influencers Market Harmful Products to Youth Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

Are “Zynfluencers” the new Joe Camel? Joe was the cartoon mascot used by R.J. Reynolds to sell cigarettes in the 1990s, until the government cracked down on marketing tobacco to youth. Today, according to journalist Emily Dreyfuss, social media influencers are using their platforms to push addictive and harmful products like Zyn, a nicotine pouch, to young people. In a recent New York Times piece, Dreyfuss writes that influencer marketing to kids “falls into a legal and technical canyon so vast that the next generation is being lost in it.” We’ll talk to Dreyfuss about the power of influencers and what parents need to know.

Guests:

Emily Dreyfuss, director, Shorenstein Center News Lab; co-author, "Meme Wars: The Untold Stories of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'Chowchilla' Reexamines Harrowing 1976 School Bus Kidnapping Jan 19, 2024

Show notes

In 1976, in the Central Valley town of Chowchilla, 26 children and their school bus driver were kidnapped by three masked men and held captive for twenty-eight hours until they managed to free themselves and escape. Although no one was physically harmed, the incident took a severe emotional toll on the children and would go on to influence how we address childhood trauma. A new CNN documentary takes a fresh look at the event, getting first hand accounts from the survivors and recreating the harrowing ordeal. We’ll speak with the film’s director and one of the survivors about the impact of the kidnapping and its aftermath.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Nature Shaped the ‘Wild Girls’ Who Changed America Jan 19, 2024

Show notes

“Girls had rich lives outdoors, but history has largely overlooked them,” writes Harvard professor and National Book award winner Tiya Miles. In her latest book, “Wild Girls,” Miles sets out to unearth those stories. There’s Harriet Tubman, an “outdoorswoman” who used her knowledge of the natural world and the night skies to lead people escaping slavery to freedom. And “Little Women” author Louisa May Alcott, a runner, who thought of herself as part deer. For renegade women like these, Miles says nature was a training ground for their ambitions. We’ll talk to Miles about how the wild girls of her book reclaimed nature for themselves and we hear from you: How has the outdoors shaped your own narrative and those of generations before you?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New COVID Guidance, Variants and ‘Common Sense’: Living With the Coronavirus in 2024 Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

The California Department of Public Health issued new COVID-19 guidance last week, advising that people may return to school and work even if they test positive for the virus. We’ll talk about California’s recommendations, the new COVID variant known as JN.1 and the latest developments in treatment and prevention. And we’ll hear from you: How are you living with COVID in 2024?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doing Democracy: How Ranked-Choice Voting Has Changed Elections Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

San Francisco and Oakland were some of the first cities in the country to adopt ranked choice voting. It’s now a popular election reform that is being adopted across the country. Advocates say allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference on their ballots – instead of just picking one – gives them more say over who ends up in office and more freedom to vote for a longshot candidate without the feeling that they are wasting their vote. But the system can be complicated and confusing for many voters and has drawn ire from those unhappy with the election results. As part of Forum’s Doing Democracy series examining what democracy means and how it is practiced, we’ll talk about how experiments in ranked choice voting have changed our elections, voting behaviors and the candidates we bring into office.

Guests:

Eric Jaye, founder and president, Storefront Political Media

Miles Parks, reporter covering voting and elections, NPR's Washington Desk

Lisa Bryant, chair and associate professor, Department of Political Science, California State University Fresno

Aaron Tiedemann, Albany city councilmember

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a Post-Roe World, Who Safeguards ‘The Life of the Mother?’ Jan 17, 2024

Show notes

Central Texas resident Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick became pregnant in December 2021, three months after Texas banned virtually all abortions past six weeks of pregnancy and imposed criminal penalties on doctors carrying them out. Yeni had diabetes, severe hypertension and other medical conditions that made her pregnancy dangerous, and as the months wore on, she became sicker and sicker. In July 2022, Yeni and her 31-week-old fetus died. “Yeni’s death was preventable… a therapeutic abortion, if offered and accepted, would probably have saved her life,” writes Stephania Taladrid in her new piece for the New Yorker called “The Life of The Mother.” We talk to Taladrid about Yeni and a new abortion landscape that puts more women’s lives at risk.

Guest:

Stephania Taladrid, contributing writer, The New Yorker; author, the article "The Life of the Mother" - She was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her reporting on the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices