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In Transit: The Joys — and Risks — of Being a Pedestrian Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

Walking instead of driving to work, school or the store is good for the environment and our physical and mental health. But being a pedestrian isn’t easy in California’s car-centric culture. Our infrastructure is built with cars in mind, and that means that walkers and wheelchair-users can confront serious safety risks in a state where an average of three pedestrians are killed every day. This hour on Forum, we’ll look at how the state is addressing pedestrian safety issues and we’ll hear from you: What do you notice when you don’t use a car?

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"

Tim Weisberg, deputy director, marketing and public affairs, California Office of Traffic Safety

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iNaturalist, A Cultivator of Community and Collector of Crucial Wildlife Data, Goes Solo Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

Have you ever seen a weird bug or plant and thought, “Oh my God. What is THAT?” Then iNaturalist, a Bay Area invention, is the social platform for you. Begun as a graduate school project at UC Berkeley, it now receives hundreds of thousands of monthly submissions from nature enthusiasts across the globe. Users post photos of what they have seen and where they found it, and fellow citizen scientists, and often actual, scientists help identify the flora, fauna and habitat. Some iNaturalist aficionados have even identified new species. Now the site is going independent with the help of a $10 million grant. We’ll survey the past and future of this remarkable Bay Area contribution to our collective understanding of the world.

Guests:

Ken-ichi Ueda, co-director, iNaturalist

Scott Loarie, co-director, iNaturalist

Jennifer Rycenga, professor emeritus in the Humanities Department, San Jose State University; former president of the Sequoia Audubon Society in San Mateo.

Prakrit Jain, student of evolutionary biology, University of California, Berkeley

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Bettina Love on How Black Students are 'Punished for Dreaming' Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

Brown v Board of Education, the landmark civil rights decision banning racial segregation in public schools, was supposed to give Black children greater educational opportunities. But instead, according to Columbia Teachers College professor Bettina Love, it marked the beginning of an anti-Black educational agenda, characterized by low academic expectations, excessive suspensions, surveillance and physical violence. Love grew up in the 1980s and 90s, a period when the Reagan and Bush administrations pushed ideas of “school accountability” and “school safety” that she says were used to justify punishment of Black children and that have harmed a generation. We talk to Love about her and her peers’ experiences in school as “eighties babies” and why she thinks reparations are essential to repair public education.

Guests:

Bettina Love, William F. Russell professor, Teachers College, Columbia University; author, "Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal"

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How the San Quentin Marathon Changes Lives, One Lap at a Time Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

It’s hard enough to train for a marathon. But what if you could only train in a crowded prison yard, with borrowed running shoes, on a small track with potholes and six 90-degree turns? That’s what the members of the San Quentin 1000-Mile Club running group face – on top of the harsh living conditions in California’s oldest prison – as they prepare for their annual marathon. A new documentary, 26.2 to Life, goes inside the prison to tell the story of the San Quentin Marathon, its participants, and why they run. We talk with the film’s director as well as the club’s running coach, and one of its former members.

Guests:

Christine Yoo, director, the new documentary "26.2 to Life" - Opens Fri (September 22) at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley and Rialto Cinemas Sebastapol

Markelle Taylor, former member, San Quentin 1000-Mile Club

Frank Ruona, coach, San Quentin 1000-Mile Club

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The Atlantic’s Jenisha Watts on Hiding — Then Sharing — Her ‘Childhood in a Crack House’ Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to belong, to show people that I’m not like ‘them,’ not a Black person living in poverty, not a Black person with an addiction.” So writes Atlantic senior editor Jenisha Watts in the magazine’s October cover story, “I Never Called Her Momma: My Childhood in a Crack House.” When Watts began her career in journalism, she hid her roots while further developing her love for words and storytelling. She’s telling her own story now for the first time. We’ll talk with Watts about her family, the transformative power of Black literature and what it means to write about — and share — the trauma we’re used to keeping private.

Guests:

Jenisha Watts, senior editor, The Atlantic

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Climate Fix: How Electrification Can Cut Your Home’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

Homes in California produce about 8 percent of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions. As the Golden State looks to significantly cut down emissions, one strategy is to electrify homes by, for example, replacing a gas stove with an electric one or installing a heat pump instead of gas-powered cooling and heating systems. Congress recently approved funding for tax rebates to encourage more people to recharge their dwellings. These electrification strategies could also have a major impact nationwide given that homes produce 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. For our next installment of Climate Fix, Forum’s monthly collaboration with KQED’s Science team, we’ll talk about electrification as a growing strategy for addressing climate change.

Guests:

Laura Klivans, climate reporter, KQED

Sam Calisch, chief scientist, Channing Street Copper - a Berkeley-based company that makes induction stoves. He is also a founding staffer and advisor to Rewiring America and is known as Mr. Heat Pump, a persona who educates people about heat pumps

Mark Hall, CEO and founder, Revalue.io - a company that helps homeowners transition to clean energy sources for their homes

Alejandra Mejia Cunningham, senior building decarbonization advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council

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Peter Baker and Susan Glasser on What to Expect from a Second Trump Term Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

In their bestselling 2022 book on the Trump presidency, “The Divider” journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser wrote that the January 6 insurrection “was the inexorable culmination of a sustained four-year war on the institutions and traditions of American democracy.” That was then. In a new afterword to the book, they write that Trump has now “shunned any remaining voices of restraint within his own party”. With the former president leading the pack for the GOP nomination, Glasser and Baker join us to talk about their book and to help us answer the question: What would a second Trump term look like?

Guests:

Susan Glasser, staff writer, The New Yorker; co-author, "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021"

Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent, The New York Times; co-author, "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021"

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CARE Court is Coming to San Francisco. Here’s What We Can Expect Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

San Francisco is one of eight counties that will be piloting California’s new CARE Courts program ahead of a statewide rollout next year. Beginning next month, people with schizophrenia or psychosis can be referred to the new court and, if they meet certain criteria, receive a court-ordered care plan that can include mental health treatment, housing and medication. Critics warn that the system could violate the civil liberties of people with disabilities and lead to harmful coercive care, but proponents say the measure will assist unhoused people living with severe, untreated mental illness by getting them the attention they need. We’ll get into the details and the debate.

Guests:

Susan Talamantes-Eggman, state Senator representing California's 5th District; co-author of SB 1338, the legislation which established CARE court in California

Rafael Mandelman, represents District 8 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors

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

Tal Klement, Deputy Public Defender in the Mental Health Unit, San Francisco Public Defender's Office

Eric Harris, director of public policy, Disability Rights California

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Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Interim Police Chief Respond to Concerns Over Crime Sep 15, 2023

Show notes

“I don’t have any hope,” said one Oakland resident attending a town hall this past weekend on the city’s rising crime rate. According to the city’s police department, violent crime is up by 17% over last year and as of August, 68 people had been murdered in Oakland. Indeed, since 2019, car break-ins are up over 40%, vehicle thefts have more than doubled, and reported robberies are up by 30%. And while East Oakland has borne the brunt of criminal activity, no part of the city is immune. We’ll talk to Mayor Sheng Thao, interim Oakland police chief Darren Allison, and chief Kentrell Killens, interim head of the city’s violence prevention program. And we’ll hear from you. What are your questions for the mayor and her team?

Guests:

Sheng Thao, mayor, Oakland

Darren Allison, interim police chief, Oakland Police Department

Kentrell Killens, interim chief of violence prevention, Department of Violence Prevention for the City of Oakland

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Jane Goodall Looks to Future of Conservation Movement With Those She's Inspired Sep 15, 2023

Show notes

It was more than 60 years ago that a 26-year old Jane Goodall entered the Gombe Stream National Forest in Tanzania with a notebook and pen and observed a chimpanzee she’d named David Graybeard use a twig to coax termites up from their nest. The discovery, along with others she made about how chimps play with toys and care for each other, erased for her the divide thought to separate humans from the animal kingdom. Her scientific work has also led her to a lifetime devoted to animal conservation, redefined to include the needs of local people and the environment. Goodall, along with two international conservation champions she’s inspired, join us to talk about the future of the movement.

Guests:

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist. She's co-founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, which is devoted to the protection of great apes and their habitats. Her books include of "In the Shadow of Man" and "The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior."

Jean-Gael "JG" Collomb, chief executive officer, Wildlife Conservation Network, which connects philanthropists with a global network of field-based conservation leaders

Jeneria Lekilelei, Samburu warrior; director of community conservation, Ewaso Lions

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