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Central Valley’s Lake Tulare is Set to Return. Farmers are Worried. Apr 05, 2023

Show notes

Once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, spanning what is now Kings, Tulare and Kern Counties before it was drained a century ago, Tulare Lake is on the verge of returning. Swelled by recent storms, it has inundated farmland, threatened cities, forced evacuations, disrupted livelihoods and reignited long-standing water wars. With record snow in the Sierra Nevada yet to run off, there’s more water coming. We’ll talk about what the re-emergence of Tulare Lake means for the region and the state.

Guests:

Karla Nemeth, director, California Department of Water Resources

Lois Henry, editor and CEO, SJV Water - an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley

Doug Verboon, district 3 supervisor, Kings County Board of Supervisors

Kayode Kadara, community leader, Allensworth - in southwest Tulare County

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Martinez Residents Seek Answers on Toxic Refinery Release Apr 05, 2023

Show notes

Residents of Martinez woke up the morning after Thanksgiving last year to find a white powder coating their neighborhoods. About a week later, county health officials announced it was a toxic release from Martinez Refining Co. and, after another several weeks, residents were told not to eat any food grown in their soil. Now, on Wednesday, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will present the Martinez City council with its report on where the two tons of “spent catalyst” landed. Forum talks with residents and officials about their quest to get answers and accountability, and the uneasy relationship between the area’s refineries and the neighbors who share their air.

Guests:

Heidi Taylor, resident of Martinez

Charles Davidson, Sunflower Alliance

Matt Kaufmann, deputy director, Contra Costa Health Services

Ori Tzvieli, health officer, Contra Costa County

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Humboldt County Yurok Tribe Grapples with California’s Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

“In Indian Country, everybody seems to know somebody who’s gone missing or been murdered,” begins LA Times reporter Hannah Wiley’s reporting on the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in California. The Sovereign Bodies Institute reports that at least 183 indigenous women and girls have disappeared or were murdered in California, a figure it says could be many times higher owing to incomplete data. Their disappearances are part of the legacy of anti-Indigenous violence, experts say, and perpetuate cycles of generational trauma. We hear how Northern California’s Yurok Tribe is addressing the crisis and trying to achieve justice for those who have disappeared in their own community and nationwide.

Guests:

Hannah Wiley, politics reporter, Los Angeles Times

Honorable Abby Abinanti, chief judge, the Yurok Tribal Court

Blythe K. George, associate professor of sociology, UC Merced; member of the Yurok Tribe

Chief Greg O'Rourke, chief of police, Yurok Tribal Police

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Poets on Why We Need Poetry Now Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

When he was named San Francisco Poet Laureate in 2021, Tongo Eisen Martin said, “I want to push even further into places where poetry has not yet permeated.” He’s taken poetry to youth in homeless shelters, group homes and psych wards. Using poetry as a means to bring power, beauty and truth to more people is a goal that unites several poets and poet laureates joining Forum to mark the beginning of National Poetry Month. Forum wants to celebrate your favorite contemporary poets and find out how poetry shows up in your life. Join us for a conversation with poets about poetry.

Guests:

Tongo Eisen-Martin , San Francisco Poet Laureate

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Artistic Director, The Lower Bottom Playaz - artist, activist and Poet Laureate of Oakland

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, poet and author of the poetry collection, "Cenzontle" and the memoir, "Children of the Land"

Leticia del Toro, poet and educator - recently released the collection of poems, “All We Are Told Not to Touch”

Lee Herrick , Poet Laureate of California

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How Lower-Income Consumers Are Subsidizing Your Credit Card Points Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

As America gradually becomes a cashless society, credit card rewards programs have become increasingly popular, offering to give consumers back a portion of what they spend in the form of points to be used on flights or hotel stays, or cash back. To pay for these rewards, credit card companies have raised the fees they charge merchants for every credit card transaction, and merchants in turn pass that increased cost onto customers by raising prices. These higher prices impact all consumers, but only those with credit cards, on average wealthier than those without, enjoy the resulting benefits. We talk about this system where those without credit cards foot the bill for the rest.

Guests:

Chenzi Xu, assistant professor of finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Aaron Klein, chair and senior fellow in economic studies, Brookings Institution; former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, the Department of Treasury (2009-2012)

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What It Will Take to Transform California’s Most Notorious Prison into a Scandinavian Style Rehabilitation Center Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

San Quentin is the oldest and most notorious prison in California. It’s home to the largest death row in the nation, housing infamous criminals including Charles Manson. But Governor Gavin Newsom has a new vision for the institution, renamed the “San Quentin Rehabilitation Center”. Under his plan the nearly 550 condemned inmates would move to other maximum security facilities in the state. With a proposed initial infusion of $20 million San Quentin would aim to increase its rehabilitation programming 10 fold and incorporate methods used in Scandinavian countries to normalize life, emphasize support over punishment and prepare inmates for their eventual return to society. Forum talks about the governor’s transformative vision and the challenges in making it happen.

Guests:

Anita Chabria, columnist, Los Angeles Times

Tinisch Hollins, executive director, Californians for Safety and Justice; co-founder, SF Black Wall Street; Vice Chair, SF African-Americans Reparations Advisory Committee

Thanh Tran, policy associate, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

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California Reacts to the Indictment of Former President Donald Trump Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

A Manhattan grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump on charges believed to be related to illegal payments his team made to porn star Stormy Daniels to stay silent about her alleged affair with the then-president. This is the first time in U.S. history a former president has been charged with a crime. We'll analyze the latest and hear your reactions.

Guests:

Josh Meyer, domestic security correspondent, USA Today

Mike Madrid, co-founder, The Lincoln Project - a group of Republicans seeking to prevent the re-election of President Donald Trump; political consultant and partner, GrassrootsLab

Congressman Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman, representing California's 28th District, in Los Angeles County; former chair, House Intelligence Committee and member of the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection; author, "Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could."

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Laurel Braitman’s ‘Epic Journey Through Loss to Love’ Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

When Laurel Braitman’s father died, after more than a decade at battle with a rare bone cancer, she was a teenager, just finishing up high school. It wasn’t until about two decades later, when she was 36, that she found herself asking if could join a grief group for kids. She ended up volunteering as one of the grief counselors, launching a wide and varied quest to understand, and heal, from the trauma of her father’s death that she chronicles in her memoir, “What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love”.

Guests:

Laurel Braitman, author, "What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love," and NYT bestseller, "Animal Madness;" director of writing and storytelling, Stanford School of Medicine's Medicine and the Muse Program

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Can Congress Ban TikTok? Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

U.S. lawmakers are debating a series of proposals that would ban the deeply popular video app TikTok or otherwise curtail its reach, a week after a House panel grilled TikTok CEO Shou Chew about the platform’s perceived threat to national security and ties to the Chinese government. An outright ban would represent “uncharted territory” for the U.S. government, according to former national security official and cybersecurity expert Timothy Edgar. We talk to Edgar and New York Times reporter Sapna Maheshwari about whether Congress can legally – or practically – outlaw TikTok and how the platform's defenders are responding.

Guests:

Sapna Maheshwari, business reporter covering TikTok and emerging media, New York Times

Timothy Edgar, senior fellow in international and public affairs and professor of the practice of computer science, Brown University. He's also a former national security official under President Obama and author of "Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance and the Struggle to Reform the NSA"

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Climate Fix: California Looks to Remove Massive Amounts of Carbon from Atmosphere to Meet Climate Goals Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

California has laid out ambitious goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2045. That means not just limiting emissions, but also removing about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. It’s not easy to extract and contain carbon once it’s emitted, but a small crop of Bay Area startups are working on technologies to do just that. Some companies use giant machines to pull carbon out of the air while others sequester it into a liquid that can be buried deep beneath the earth’s surface. There are many approaches to carbon removal, but also many questions: who will pay for it, how will the carbon be stored, how can companies scale up? For this next installment of Climate Fix, our monthly series on climate change solutions, we’ll talk about the promises – and challenges – of the burgeoning carbon removal industry.

Guests:

Josh Santos, co-founder/CEO, Noya. Noya focuses on direct air capture to pull excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Dan Ress, staff attorney, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. CRPE is a national environmental justice organization providing legal, organizing, and technical assistance to grassroots groups in low-income communities and communities of color.

Danny Cullenward, climate economist and lawyer focused on the design and implementation of scientifically grounded climate policy

Laura Klivans, news and science reporter, KQED

Noah McQueen, co-founder and head of research, Heirloom. Heirloom is a carbon capture technology company

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