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Heather Cox Richardson on How To Preserve Democracy Nov 07, 2023

Show notes

In her daily politics newsletter, “Letters from an American,” Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson offers her two million readers a historical perspective on the news along with a dose of common sense. She launched the newsletter during the 2019 impeachment crisis, and the strains on American democracy, laid bare by the January 6 insurrection, have been a constant theme of her work. In Richardson’s new book, “Democracy Awakening” she argues that today’s Republican politics have their roots in history, going back to the New Deal. We talk to her about her book and why everyone should be a student of history.

Guests:

Heather Cox Richardson, author, "Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America." Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of history at Boston College and an expert on American political and economic history. She is the author of seven books, including the award-winning "How the South Won the Civil War." Her widely read newsletter, Letters from an American, synthesizes history and modern political issues.

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Comedy Critic Jesse David Fox on the Cultural Role of Comedy Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

Jesse David Fox works as Vulture’s comedy critic and hosts the podcast “Good One,” where each episode features comedians like John Mulaney and Sasheer Zamata spending up to two hours breaking down one joke and why it makes us laugh. But his new book, “Comedy Book,” questions whether comedy has to be funny at all. It takes us from the premiere of “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” in 1989, to the new relationship between politics, journalism and humor engendered by John Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” to the — sometimes politically contentious, sometimes camp — comedy landscape of today. We’ll talk with Fox about how we use comedy to make sense of the news, social media fads, identity and both personal and collective grief.

Guests:

Jesse David Fox, senior editor and comedy critic, Vulture; creator and host, "Good One: A Podcast about Jokes"; author, "Comedy Book"

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What the APEC Summit Could Mean for S.F.…and the World Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

President Joe Biden is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this month in San Francisco. They’ll be here during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the biggest international meeting the city has hosted since 1945. Nearly 30,000 visitors are expected in the city during the conference, which officials say could bring in more than $50 million to the local economy. But some local residents are concerned about heightened security and street closures, while protesters are planning to disrupt the meeting to call attention to issues ranging from climate change to workers rights. We’ll preview APEC, which kicks off on November 11.

Guests:

London Breed, mayor, City and County of San Francisco

Vinod Aggarwal, professor of political science & director of Berkeley APEC Study Center, U.C. Berkeley

Rachael Myrow, senior editor of Silicon Valley News Desk, KQED

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FORUM IN FOCUS: Viet Thanh Nguyen + Kishi Bashi Nov 04, 2023

Show notes

Forum in Focus brings you the most compelling interviews in under 30 minutes! This week, professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen on his new memoir, "A Man of Two Faces. And a special performance by multi-instrumentalist and singer Kishi Bashi and a conversation about his new "songfilm" called "Omoiyari.

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C Pam Zhang’s Novel ‘Land of Milk and Honey’ Explores Politics of Food and Desire Amid Climate Crisis Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

Acclaimed author C Pam Zhang’s latest novel, “Land of Milk and Honey,” is set after smog blocks the sun, killing 98% of commercial crops and 12% of the human population in famine. Bland mung powder is eaten by all but the very rich, who continue to eat lavishly. As the protagonist — a chef who decides to work for the rich to again taste real food — recalls, “A world was gone. Goodbye to all that, to the person I’d been, to she who’d abandoned, half-eaten, a plate of carnitas under blaze of California sun. It wasn’t grease I missed so much as the revelation of lime. Waiting on grief, I met hunger.” We’ll talk with Zhang about portraying hope in an apocalyptic novel, the interconnections between food, class, culture and climate change, and the meal she’d want to eat if it felt like the world was ending.

Guests:

C Pam Zhang, author of the novels, “Land of Milk and Honey" and “How Much of These Hills Is Gold." Zhang was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, long-listed for the 2020 Booker Prize and named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree

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Skates, Blades and Hot Tracks: Roller Culture in the Bay Area Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

Roller culture in the bay area has lived many lives – from the roller discos of the 1970s, to the inline skate competitions of the 2000s and a quad-skating revival fueled by TikTok and the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s tangled up with other cultural movements, including the Bay Area’s underground music scene. And improvised roller parties – from Golden Gate Park to Panther Skate Plaza – are building on a legacy of Black and Latino communities originally excluded from formal skate spaces. We’ll talk with San Francisco’s “godfather of skate,” a roller dance teacher with five decades of skating experience and a former professional rollerblader.

Guests:

Azikiwee Anderson, former professional inline skater; co-founder, I Match Your Trick Association; owner, Rize Up bakery

David Miles Jr., owner, Church of 8 Wheels

Richard Humphrey, teaches roller dance classes; former Golden Roller

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2023 California 'Genius' Grantees On Art, Community, and Place Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

Manuel Muñoz is the son of immigrant farm laborers from California’s Central Valley whose four works of fiction center the lives of Mexican-American communities in the region. Patrick Makuakane is a native Hawaiian and San Francisco-based kumu hula, or master teacher, who created a unique form of hula that blends traditional movements with contemporary music. They’re among five Californians who have been awarded the MacArthur Fellowship this year. We talk to them about what the award means to them and their communities and how themes of love, class, sexuality and identity suffuse their art.

Guests:

Patrick Makuakane, A kumu hula, or master hula teacher; director of Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wakiu, a San Francisco-based dance company blending modern music and themes with traditional Hula Movements.

Manuel Munoz, fiction writer and creative writing professor, University of Arizona. He writes about California's Central Valley where he was born and raised.

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Doing Democracy: Jennifer Pahlka on How to 'Recode America' Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

During the height of the pandemic, the agency that handles California’s unemployment benefits had an epic meltdown. Not only could its computers not handle the thousands of additional claims, officials couldn’t even say for sure how big the backlog was. Jennifer Pahlka was one of the technology experts brought in to help, an experience she writes about in her new book Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing In the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. The former United States chief deputy technology officer and founder of Code for America, Pahlka reveals why systems are too often developed to meet the needs of bureaucrats instead of the public. She joins Forum as part of our “Doing Democracy” series.

Guests:

Jennifer Pahlka, author, "Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing In the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better." Pahlka is the founder of Code America and has served as the chief deputy technology officer for the United States Government. She lives in Oakland.

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Wildfire Smoke Increasingly Getting Clean Air Act Exemption, Investigation Finds Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

More than 21 million Americans are breathing air that’s dirtier than official records indicate. That’s according to a new investigation from the California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian. An obscure rule in the Clean Air Act allows regions to strike so-called “natural” and “exceptional events,” like wildfires, from their pollution data on grounds that they are beyond the control of local air regulators. Since 2016, counties in California have had 166 days of pollution forgiven. And this past summer during the Canadian wildfires, more than 20 other states invoked it. As wildfires become more frequent amid worsening climate change, air regulators are expecting to use the “exceptional events” rule more often, and some lawmakers are even trying to make filing easier. We’ll hear more about the investigation’s findings and answer your questions.

Related link(s):

Smoke, Screened — The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret: An Investigation From the California Newsroom, Muckrock and the Guardian

Guests:

Molly Peterson, editor, The California Newsroom; has covered science with a focus on climate change for KQED News; co-author, “Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret"

Emily Zentner, data journalist, The California Newsroom; co-author, “Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret"

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California’s Reparations Program for Survivors of Forced Sterilization Falls Short As Deadline Nears Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

California’s use of forced sterilizations represents a dark chapter in the state’s history. Up until the 1970s, state hospitals and institutions implemented a eugenics program as a way to decrease specific demographic groups including Latinos, Blacks and Native Americans. In more recent decades, California prisons performed procedures—without patient consent — that left hundreds of women unable to have children. Now, the clock is ticking for survivors to apply for compensation from a $4.5 million fund the state established in 2021. As the Dec. 31 deadline looms, relatively few survivors have applied and the state has rejected most of them. We’ll talk about survivors’ experiences, why they aren’t receiving compensation, and hear from advocates on what should happen next.

More information on how to apply for compensation for involuntary sterilization can be found at the California Victim Compensation Board website. Applications are available in English and Spanish.Anyone needing assistance with the application can call the compensation board’s toll-free helpline at 1-800-777-9229 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Guests:

Jennifer James, PhD, MSW, MSSP, associate professor of Institute for Health & Aging, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, and UCSF Bioethics, University of California, San Francisco; member, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners - She has assisted forced sterilization survivors with their applications for reparations

Cayla Mihalovich, student, UC Berkeley School of Journalism Investigative Reporting Program - Wrote an article about California's reparations program for forced sterilizations for KQED

Moonlight Pulido, recipient, the California Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program

Sydney Johnson, reporter, KQED News

Sharon Fennix, her application for the California Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program was rejected

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